MetroLife It’s been five years since

Australian actor Heath

Ledger was found dead in

his hotel room after an

accidental overdose

PAGE 15

January 22

Maori ona mission

Food, fashion, movies and more...

Multi-talented actor drops in to talk aboutbench pressing with Arnie and his workon acclaimed New Zealand film ‘Boy’

Unless you are from New Zealand or a realfilm buff, Cliff Curtis will most probablyhave one of those faces that is instantlyrecognisable but you’re not quite sure why.

Don’t worry, you’re not going mad - Cliff is one ofHollywood’s most successful chameleons. The44-year old New Zealand-born actor has carveda niche for himself as a go-to guy for charactersfrom different ethnic backgrounds. He has played an Indian guru, a Colombianterrorist, an Arab and - perhaps most vividly formany film fans - Mexican gangster Smiley in thecult Denzel Washington film ‘Training Day’. His lengthy CV also includes hits such as ‘ThePiano’, ‘Once Were Warriors’, ‘The Insider’ and‘Live Free and Die Hard’. All that is a far cry for the Maori from his lifegrowing up in Rotorua, New Zealand, as one ofnine siblings. But, a little like the main characterin his production ‘Boy’, who dreams of escapinghis backwater life, Cliff madethe trip to Hollywood. It wasn’tall he had expected though. “I was in my twenties,” herecalls. “One of the firstthings you experience is that Hollywood isunderwhelming. You are like,‘gosh is this it?’” he said ona recent visit to the UAE topromote ‘Boy’ with ascreening at Dubaiindependent film groupThe Scene Club. “You look up at theHollywood sign and it islike somebody has justtacked up something onthe side of a hill. It reallyis ‘Tinsel Town’, youknow if you push yourfinger through it youcould poke a holethrough the walls,”he says. “It is not theplace, it’s the peoplethat count.

“It is when you are sitting there and actuallygetting direction from Martin Scorsese or youare looking across the camera at Al Pacino andDustin Hoffman on set... that is amazing.” These days, Cliff’s trying to get more involved inthe production of films, as he explains he “likeshis own opinion too much”. However, one of his most enduring memorieswas pumping iron with Mr Universe himself. “I worked out with Arnold Schwarzenegger, hesaid; ‘Hey Puny, you want to go and work out?’”recalls Cliff, with a perfect Austrian accent. Remembering watching ‘Conan the Barbarian’as a youngster, it was a childhood dream cometrue for Cliff - he even managed to ‘out bench’ the Terminator. “He’d had a heart operation so he was doing very low weights but really high repetitions but itwas so cool to workout with Arnie, that’sdefinitely a highlight.” The realisation of another childhood dreamhowever - meeting Eddie Murphy - turned out tobe a bit of a poison chalice. ‘A Thousands Words’, the 2012 production thepair worked on was labelled ‘the worst movieever reviewed’ and got a zero per cent rating onreview aggregator website Rottentomatoes.com.

Does Cliff regret getting involved? “Absolutely not,” he says. “I grew up watching

Eddie Murphy and still believe he is a genius.When I watched it, I didn’t think it was thatbad, I think that movie in the 90s wouldhave been a smash hit.

It is just sort of out of date.”Perhaps it just goes to show

that we all make mistakes. Itdoesn’t seem to have hurthis prospects anyway as,after his Dubai stop hejetted back to Prague torejoin filming on hislatest project ‘The Last

Knights’, which stars Morgan Freeman andClive Owen.

julian.pletts@7days.ae

If you could work with a Hollywood star, who would it be and why? Letters@7days.ae

Cliff Curtis gained fame and fortune in Hollywood but in recentyears has been racking up the air miles, using his connectionsto bolster the fledgling independent cinema scene in his nativeNew Zealand. As co-owner of Whenua Film productioncompany, he has been helping to support up-and-coming Kiwifilmmakers like Taika Waititi who wrote and directed ‘Boy’. Cliff is hoping to preserve his own Maori culture in a way ithasn’t been done before. He explains: “I started off in movieslike ‘The Piano’, ‘Once Were Warriors’ and ‘Whale Rider’ andthe people that were producing the movies were not from ourculture so they were constantly telling us what to do and how

to behave and it was a little bit odd because they were reinterpreting it for us,” says Cliff.“[I decided] hang on, rather than complain about it, I should get out there and do it.”He hopes critically acclaimed film ‘Boy’ is the first of many successful Kiwi pictures adding:“There are young kids from home that will far exceed anything that I do with my career.”

COOL COLLEAGUES:Cliff has worked with bothArnold Schwarzeneggerand Eddie Murphy

PRESERVING CULTURE

‘HOLLYWOOD ISUNDERWHELMING’:Cliff Curtis gave fans aninsight into the filmindustry when hedropped in to Dubai