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.

Unfortunately, there aren't enough interesting acting roles in New Zealand to sustain a career.

Well my dad was a pretty good player at one stage and my two older brothers played golf as well. So there were always golf clubs flying around the house.

It's very, very important to be yourself, and that's the kind of message that I want to get across in my character as well. On TV, that's the message that I want to get across to fans of all ages, really: To get somewhere, you just have to be yourself. Don't ever change for anyone.

Women-centric films are being made, and they are doing well.

I try to make a really good spy movie, so the animation has to be good. 'Bot Seeks Bot' was one of my lighter and more playful ones, so it can survive not being visually told as well. I did have some issues with the quality of the inking on some of the animation, but a lot of that will only ever bother me.