Dual drama roles for Robbie Magasiva.
Work is a family affair for Robbie Magasiva after returning to New Zealand and a role in rugby drama Head High. Kerry Harvey reports.
Robbie Magasiva jokes he shares his home with so many animals he’s Googling how to build an ark. “We’ve got two horses, two dogs and my partner (former Shortland Street actress Natalie Medlock) just bought a bunny two weeks ago,” he says of adapting to life back in New Zealand after several years in Australia filming prison drama Wentworth.
“Now, I’ve asked the neighbours whether I can take up the road so I can build an ark for the elephants and giraffe.”
Jokes aside, Magasiva loves being back home and, after a bit of rest and recreation after his two weeks in a Hamilton MIQ hotel last September, has found himself inundated with work. He plays a builder in Under The Vines, the South Island-filmed mini series starring fellow Kiwi actor Rebecca Gibney and Downton Abbey’s Charles Edwards, has a role in the upcoming movie Going, Going alongside Robyn Malcolm and Cohen Holloway, and is currently appearing in Three’s family rugby drama Head High.
“It’s been a while but it’s nice,” says the 49-year-old actor of working back in New Zealand. “I think I realised how long it had been when on my first day at Head High, they did a karakia and I thought, ‘I’m home’,” he says. “Just going to work and being able to go home – to my own bed, seeing my partner, our pets and my kids – that’s one wonderful thing about working back here.”
Head High drew him for several reasons, not least
“I have never been that keen for my kids to be in front of the camera because I know the struggle to be an actor and the stress and anxiety and everything else that comes with it.”
– Robbie Magasiva
because daughter Sophie works in the drama’s costume department and it was the first time they had had a chance to work together.
“I have never been that keen for my kids to be in front of the camera because I know the struggle to be an actor and the stress and anxiety and everything else that comes with it,”
he says. “Funnily enough, last year when Sophie knew she was going on Head High, I jokingly said it would be lovely to do a job with her. Then, I think around the beginning of December, I got a call from my agent saying, ‘They’ve got a role for you on Head High’ and I thought, ‘Yes’.”
Magasiva was also keen to work with close mate and motorcycling buddy Craig Hall who plays rugby coach dad Vince O’Kane in the drama.
The pair last worked together when they played male strippers on 2002’s The Strip, the drama that led to Magasiva’s gym-fit image being plastered all over buses in Auckland.
“I was put off chicken breast and canned tuna for life because of that show,” he says, laughing.
No culinary sacrifices were needed, however, for his Head High role as Mitch Belsham, the wealthy self-made businessman father of Southdown High’s new rugby team recruit Nico (Dylan Thuraisingham).
Mitch’s biggest dream is to see his son become an All Black and when he discovers Nico is gay he swears he’s OK with it – but he isn’t. For Mitch, homosexuality does not align with a trajectory to the All Blacks.
Magasiva is relishing the chance to play the wealthy but homophobic businessman.
“I can’t think of a Polynesian that ever played that kind of role. It’s always the white guy that plays those roles,” he says of being the rich guy.
Mitch’s homophobic tendencies didn’t deter Magasiva. “I was comfortable with that, not that I am (homophobic) but, at the end of the day, it is just a role. It’s just the character. It’s not who I am.”
“I can’t think of a Polynesian that ever played that kind of role. It’s always the white guy that plays those roles.”
– Robbie Magasiva (right) pictured with Craig Hall