THE ART OF NATURALISM

Finding moments of inspiration

I had flown to London from New Zealand, a 24-hour flight. It was 2018. I was there for the rehearsals for Series Two of the British comedy THIS COUNTRY (2017 — 2020)

But the hotel I was booked into would not let me check-in until the afternoon and it was pretty early in the morning. Where could I go? I left my luggage at the hotel and typed into Maps "Art Gallery Nearby".

What a revelation. The exhibition at the Tate happened to be this one and despite the jet-lag I was able to spend my time that morning being lifted up by Rachel Whiteread's simple and profound sculptures celebrating space, negative space and the things that are unsaid. This has deeply informed my practice as an actor, a director and an acting coach ever since.

Fast forward 4 years and now, I have just returned home from TIFF, the Toronto Film Festival where I delivered a seminar to the 20 Talent Lab participants, global emerging directors; and to the 8 Rising Stars, emerging actors. As I talked about dialogue, I showed…