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Best known for his
straight roles, Sam
Neill is not cast
in nearly enough
comedies: here’s
four of his best
comic performance.
Death in Brunswick
(1990)
Cast against type, Neill was terrific
as the loveable but dim-witted
loser who gets mixed up in murder
in this wonderful black comedy
set in Melbourne. His scenes with
fellow Kiwi John Clarke (aka Fred
Dagg) were a delight.
Sirens
(1993)
Although the (often unclad) ladies
gained most of the attention – Elle
Macpherson and Portia De Rossi
made their debuts here – Neill
delivered a dry, wry and very droll
performance as the artist Norman
Lindsay.
The Simpsons
(1994)
In one of the best episodes from
season 5,
Homer The Vigilante
, the
Kiwi icon provided the suave voice
of gentleman cat burglar Molloy,
whose wave of crime provokes
panic in Springfield.
Dean Spanley
(2008)
Neill was at his
mischievous best in this
whimsical London-set
period tale from Toa
Fraser, about a vicar
who might just be the
reincarnation of the
beloved childhood pooch
of a grumpy aristocrat
(acting legend Peter
O’Toole).
stack.net.auperfectly than they did. Sam is
really the key for me because
he still has that childlike sense
of wonder about him. He was
excited about being in a Taika
film, and being in the bush in
the heart of New Zealand.
“Julian had a done a couple
of things but this was a lead
role, so he was kind of excited.
He’s just a real confident,
cheeky, funny, wonderful little
guy, who I think has a big
future.”
Given the array of comic
talent involved – the impressive
ensemble also includes
the likes of Rima Te Wiata
and Oscar Kightley – and Waititi’s love of
improvisation, you can imagine it was a very
fun shoot to be on. Darby agrees, but says
it wasn’t all fun and games. The comedian
points out that the film was shot deep in
the New Zealand bush and both the terrain
and the weather proved to be pretty rough.
“There was a lot of muck and it snowed at
one point,” he says. “It was a real adventure
for everyone.”
And it was an adventure that certainly
struck a chord with audiences. As well as rave
reviews overseas,
Hunt For The Wilderpeople
is now the highest grossing New Zealand film
of all-time, with the comedy taking over the
top spot fromWaititi’s 2010 smash
Boy
.
So what does Darby think is the Kiwi
filmmaker’s key to success? “He
has a great sense of humour and
he speaks to everyone,” he replies.
“It’s that total relatability. Also
he’s a great filmmaker. So
it’s the coming together of all
those right nuggets.”
1 2
Psycho Sam, I was
very happy.”
Based on Barry
Crump’s novel
Wild Pork and
Watercress
,
Hunt
For The Wilderpeople
tells the story of a
young city kid (Julian
Dennison) who finds
himself on the run
with his grumpy
foster uncle (Sam
Neill) in the wild
New Zealand bush. Darby is
almost unrecognisable as the
aforementioned Psycho Sam,
a crazed, conspiracy obsessed
recluse who reluctantly comes
to the aid of our heroes.
Darby says Waititi actually
offered him a choice of roles
when he first approached him
about the new movie. “Initially
he wanted me to be one of the
hunters or a policeman,” he
recalls. ”I looked at the different
things and thought, ‘I would
certainly have the most fun
playing a conspiracy nut-job’.
It’s good to play someone quite
different from what I have done
in the past. And he said, ‘let’s chuck a beard
on you so you look really different’.”
While the character of Sam was in the
original novel, for the movie version the
part was fleshed out considerably more,
according to Darby. And as with their
previous collaboration, the director was
happy for him to improvise. “It was fun,” he
says. “We experimented with saying things
here and there, and the whole thing was
fairly loose for my part of it. It wasn’t just me:
Taika also, and Julian gave us some ideas for
it – I think he came up with the idea of the
trapdoor.
“We liked to get a bit loose on it and
see what we could think of on the day.
Depending on how much fun we had
improvising, we would use that stuff instead
of the actual script. But there was always the
lines there that you could use.”
Darby is full of praise for
Wilderpeople
’s
two leads, Neill and Dennison. “You’ve got
the new guy and the old boy,” he enthuses.
“They couldn’t come together any more
continued
•
Hunt For The
Wilderpeople
is out on
Sep 29