Shavaughn Ruakere: the leap of faith from TV presenting to acting...

Interview – 2013

Shavaughn Ruakere began her screen career as a presenter on kids TV show What Now?, and later graduated to music channel C4 after a stint on UK morning show SM:TV. Since then Ruakere has made the switch to acting — including three year run on Shortland Street as nurse Roimata Ngatai.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Ruakere talks about:

Being scared about going on live TV for What Now?
How the trick on a kids show is not to be shy about being "a dick"
Witnessing two experienced actors ad-libbing on the set of River Queen
Confusion about a supposed nude scene in the film
How presenting on C4 showed a more mature side of herself
Wearing leathers and high heels for Legend of the Seeker
How her role on Shortland Street pulled her out of a slump
The similarities and differences between her and her character Roimata
Coping with the time restraints and pace of shooting on the show
Loving working with George Henare and the rest of her on-camera family
How "being someone else" on set helps her get on with the job

This video was first uploaded on 16 December 2013, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

...you have to be prepared. There's a lot of dialogue to learn . . . You're going from a happy scene to a sad crying scene, you know: boom boom boom. And then you go to lunch. So yeah, you gotta know your stuff.
– Shavaughn Ruakere on the fast pace of working on Shortland Street

Shavaughn's Full Profile