Tom Hern: from kid reporter to film producer...

Interview – 2015

Actor and producer Tom Hern began his screen career as a junior reporter on children’s television show What Now? He went on to act in The Tribe, where he met his future business partner James Napier Robertson. Hern did time on Shortland Street before producing his first feature film I’m Not Harry Jenson. Since then Hern has produced a run of features, including The Dark Horse and a remake of Goodbye Pork Pie.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Hern talks about:

How confidence as an 11-year-old got him a job on What Now?
Meeting his hero Ben Harper on the show
Failing his first audition to play the villain in kidult hit The Tribe
How the show led to meeting his long-term business partner
Playing his first adult role on Shortland Street
The changing nature of his character on the soap
Getting in the "deep end" producing I’m Not Harry Jenson
Using acting relationships to help cast the film
How Everything We Loved was the smoothest film he’s worked on
Working with director Max Currie to set the tone of the film
The long hard road making feature film The Dark Horse
Being blessed by a dream cast, from Cliff Curtis to newbie Wayne Hapi
Feeling privileged to do the work he does

This video was first uploaded on 31 March 2015, 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

Like all characters on soaps, you tend to find if you stay on there long enough your character really shifts in turns of who and what they are — to such a massive extent that he was a very different guy when I finished my time with Baxter, than when I first started.
– Tom Hern on playing Baxter Cormack in Shortland Street

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