Coming from a very small country, it's always nice to see our own doing well.

I had a country upbringing in a predominantly Maori community, and that contrasted with a very multi-cultured arts community in the Aro Valley in Wellington: growing up around a lot of theatre and poets and writers and stuff.

Anyone who has a parent can relate to this idea of not quite understanding who your parents are or making up stories about them.

With some actors, you can tell, just from their different backgrounds and their different approaches to working, they would have just a natural conflict, just a sort of friction.

I try to do the fancy things out there by going with both hands, making crossover moves, and having a certain creativity and flair to my game.

Listening to all these different musical genres from all over the world and listening to my father's record collection, the Irish folk influences from home. Of course they're all in there somewhere hiding within the lyrics and melodies. But rap music was the biggest influence on my way of writing and my performing.

I want to be on the screen, I want to play dress up every day, I want be different people, I want to have fun, and I want to use my imagination.

It's more responsibility for star kids. Instead of having things easy, expectation is higher. They are compared to their parents, and that's unfair.