I
am in awe, in admiration of the man who Gaius Julius Caesar was. I don't
actually do him as the man himself. He is maybe a distant relative. It's
hard to approach the real man because he is such an awesome icon.
I
believe in starting from scratch with each character. It starts with my
favourite part of the whole process, reading the script. You're playing
Sherlock Holmes to a certain extent. You say, "What can I deduce
about this character from what's written on this page?"
I
decided to have a regular childhood and not pursue [acting] until I left
school, although I wrote plays, directed plays, and got involved in
theatre at school. When I left school I decided that's that I was going
to pursue and gave it a crack.
I
did a little theatre work after that and the following year I got
another part in a television series. Then it was almost to the end of
the year before I got more work. That was coming to terms with the
reality of the vocation I had chosen.
I
don't see a benefit in accepting every single little morsel of work that
comes along because I think in essence what you're doing is you're
raping yourself really.
I'll
need every ounce that I have to drive it through. Film and TV require
that energy. Sometimes fight scenes can be pretty intense. When I was
shooting "Heaven" it was truly guerrilla film-making.
I've
turned down a lot of stuff. I've read several scripts and said
"That's not me, I'm not interested in doing that." It's got to
be something that inspires me and captures my imagination. I want to be
able to say "There's a challenge."
Invest
in yourself. It's like being a boxer, you've got to be in training so
that when the bell rings, you get your direction you come out of the
corner and you're *ready*. Do not let the audition be the first thing
you've done in six months.
It
was always something I knew I was capable of and from an early age my
mother was involved in the film industry. She used to work at a
production company. So I was exposed to a renaissance period of films in
New Zealand back in the early 80's.
It's
such a small industry here you inevitably end up working with the same
people over and over again. There are only so many actors to go around,
which is good for us.
It's
wonderful that people who watch and follow the shows take time to come
see us, and I really do appreciate it. I'm quite blown away.
Now
I'm this far up the ladder and I've got so much farther to go with what
I want to achieve with it.
That
is a big danger, losing your inspiration. When I work in film and
television I try to do each take a little differently. I never want to
do the same thing twice, because then you're not being spontaneous,
you're just recreating something.
That's
always an interesting concept when you try to make your dream into a
reality and you come up against the facts of exactly what it is you're
attempting to do.
There's
only so much artistic output that I can actually expel at any one given
time.
There's
only so much you can do until you get on set and see the aesthetics of
what you're dealing with. Then you see what the other players are giving
to you. It's all about the transfer of energy between different actors.
When
I work, I try to eat as much vegetarian as possible. When I do Cupid, I
eat vegetarian because I need the energy. I've got those wings on my
back.
Peter's really open to the humor in the day-to-day. One time we were referencing a line in the book 'We counted all the slain and despoiled them, then we piled the carcasses and burned them.' Of course we went on all sorts of disgusting tangents about what else these Rohan soldiers did to the poor orcs.
I
am in awe, in admiration of the man who Gaius Julius Caesar was. I don't
actually do him as the man himself. He is maybe a distant relative. It's
hard to approach the real man because he is such an awesome icon.