STACK NZ September 2016 Issue 77

10 / 44

visit
DVD
&
BD
DVD&BD FEATURE
10 SEPTEMBER 2016
hys Darby and Taika Waititi go way back.
From the HBO cult favourite Flight
Of The Conchords to Darby’s scene-
stealing cameo in the latter’s What We Do
In The Shadows (“we’re werewolves not
swearwolves”), the pair are at the forefront of a
small group of New Zealand comedy performers
who have gone on to find fame overseas.
So when Darby learned that Waititi
was working on a new film, Hunt For The
Wilderpeople, the Kiwi comic needed little
persuasion to come onboard. “I love Taika to bits
and I love working with him,” Darby tells STACK
over the phone from US. “We both have the
same sense of humour and the same sort of
work ethic, so when he said you can do 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
Rhys Darby talks about going bush with his old
pal TaikaWaititi in the homegrown smash Hunt
For TheWilderpeople . Words John Ferguson