Archived interviews (prior to 2019)

[Rachelle]

From 2017…
.
FVM interview Martin Henderson about Grey’s Anatomy, pashing Britney Spears, and Shortland Street:
.
FMV Interview
.

Listen: FVM Interview Martin Henderson:
.
Listen: FMV Interview
.
.
Radio host Megan asked about Britney Spears in that first interview.^^^^^^^ ….And she seemed to be blushing the entire time. LOL!….Vegas odds she was the last one to leave the room because she was stuck to her seat after gazing at Marty for this brief interview. She can officially call him “McCreamy.” LOL!
.
The rest of us can call him “McKiwi”:
.

.

Because we probably couldn’t handle it either. LOL! He’s hot and hilarious. That’s dangerous. LOL!

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.

[Deej]

That gorgeous smile 😍

[Rachelle]

Totally, Deej! LOL!
.
.
.
From 2010 (link now defunct)…
.
An interview with Marty while he was in NZ to promote ‘Home by Christmas.’:
.
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/media/fea…tor_feature.cfm
.
New Zealand actor: Martin Henderson
.
Hollywood leading man, Martin Henderson spends most of his time away from home but the Auckland-born New Zealander is still very much a Kiwi at heart.
.
Henderson – who started his career as a teenager in Kiwi television soap Shortland Street – now lives in LA where his credits include hit movies like Bride & Prejudice, Torque, and The Ring. He also starred in the award-winning Australian film Little Fish.
.
After first making his name in New Zealand, the young Martin Henderson to Australia where he landed roles in television series Echo Point and Home & Away. In 1997 he relocated to Hollywood to pursue a film career.
.
Home by Christmas
Henderson’s first New Zealand feature film Home by Christmas, directed by Kiwi Gaylene Preston, tells the story of a young New Zealander setting off to World War II.
.
The actor, who owes his existence to a WWII romance, said he jumped at the chance to star in a quintessential New Zealand tale of wartime love.
.
Home by Christmas is based on the wartime experiences of Preston’s parents – Ed and Tui Preston.
.
Ed Preston signed up for the war with his mates as they came home from rugby practice. He told his worried wife Tui that he’d be “home by Christmas”. Ed eventually did make it home – four years late, and having escaped from an Italian prison camp.
.
Martin Henderson talks about New Zealand
.
What do you miss most about New Zealand?
That’s a tough question to answer because there are so many things that I miss about New Zealand – family, friends, food, the sense of humour.
.
Certainly the natural beauty of NZ is very hard to substitute and although I make a real effort to get out into the most rugged and spectacular parts of California, I am often comparing it to home and left a bit wanting.
.
I don’t think that is entirely about the land though – and I must say that California has some magnificent scenery. I think it has more to do with a feeling that I only get in New Zealand. I think that has as much to do with the spirit of the people and the Kiwi culture as it does with the landscape. And has a lot to do with it being home too. It’s hard to articulate but I think all Kiwis know what I’m talking about.
.
How often do you fly home for a visit?
There were a couple of years where I didn’t make it home at all, and that was a horrible feeling – so I always come back at least once a year for an extended time over the Christmas period. On average, I probably get back about 3 or 4 times a year, depending on my commitments up here. I have nephews now – so it’s nice to be at home for their birthdays.
.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home?
Just hang out with my family really or catch up with mates.
.
Would you like to move back to New Zealand someday?
Yeah, I think about that more and more these days. I’ve spent my entire adult life living away from NZ – in Sydney, New York, Paris and Los Angeles. I’ve loved the adventure and experience, but the older I get, the more I think about living back in New Zealand. I really don’t know what life will bring but at the very least, I would love to split my time between NZ and wherever else I end up.
.
What are the top five Kiwi foods that you miss?
Vogel’s bread (toasted) YUM!! There is a Vogel’s bread here, but it sucks compared to the Kiwi variety. LOVE New Zealand butter and fortunately that’s easy enough to find at Whole Foods Markets, which are all over LA. Whole Foods also stock manuka honey, which I’m never without, as well as fresh Kiwi lamb, grass-fed beef, and green-lipped mussels.
.
Tragically, nobody’s even heard of a pavlova over here. But I did manage to convince a friend to learn how to make it. It’s not as good as Mum’s … but it does the trick at least till I get home.
.
What’s your earliest memory of a Kiwi holiday?
It was around the time when I was 3 or 4 years old. My Dad had a little trailer-sailor and my parents took my sister and I away sailing around the Hauraki Gulf for a family getaway.
.
The favourite thing for my sister and I to do was to sit in the dinghy while we were sailing and be pulled along like it was our our own speedboat. Those holidays were some of the best memories of my whole childhood.
.
How do you feel about being a New Zealander living overseas?
I love it. I am constantly praising New Zealand to anyone who will listen. I feel very proud of being a Kiwi and the way it has shaped my outlook on life.
.
Do you speak with a Kiwi accent when you’re not working?
My accent is a total mongrel these days. I don’t consciously use an American accent if I’m not working, but it’s pretty contaminated – as my family will often bemoan! I guess it’s a bit of both. A good month back home usually sorts it out though.
.
Where’s your favourite NZ place for a holiday or a recharge?
Great Barrier Island is definitely one of my favourite places to holiday. In fact, I love nothing more than sailing all around the Hauraki Gulf for a week or two and exploring the multitudes of bays and coves and harbours. It is one of the best cruising / sailing grounds in the world – with so many anchorages and unspoilt places to just totally unwind and forget about the world.
.
Great Barrier takes the cake though, for it’s rugged beauty, bountiful seafood and the feeling of truly getting away from it all. I’m pretty partial to Auckland’s West coast beaches too because of the raw energy there.
.
I’ve had many great holidays at Piha and always try to get out to Karekare or Anawhata Beach to just walk along next to the pounding surf whenever I’m home. I grew up walking all over the Waitakere ranges and that is still something I love doing to reconnect and commune with nature. There’s nothing like the smell of native New Zealand bush to balance the mind.
.
Do you have any favourite cafes or restaurants?
Dizengoff cafe in Auckland’s Ponsonby Road is pretty hard to pass up for a great breakfast. If you haven’t tried the mushrooms you’re missing out! The coffee is hard to beat too. Actually I find most places in Auckland serve some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. I heard that the way we roast our beans is somehow different and it really is noticeable in the final taste. It leaves American coffee for dead.
.
I know I’m biased, but the food in general in NZ is so much more flavour-some. I’ve often come home with friends from overseas and they invariably comment on the wonderful tasting food – whether it’s at some fancy restaurant or grungy cafe. I’m a sucker for the calamari at Prego, also on Ponsonby Road.
.
What’s the ultimate Kiwi holiday experience to recommend to friends?
If they’re up for it and have the time, I always suggest getting a campervan and having a good look around. It’s pretty hard to go anywhere in NZ and not be blown away by the beauty. For me it’s all about the adventure and exploring out-of-the-way places. With a campervan you’re free to just cruise around and the options are endless.
.
They can just design a route that encompasses whatever they’re into – rivers, lakes, mountains, vineyards, beaches, country side, coastal regions, you name it. Of course Queenstown offers a ton of cool experiences, either for partying and adrenalin sports, or as a gateway to the fiords or surrounding countryside which is stunning.
.
For me, sailing is the ultimate way to see and experience NZ. I love that you can get away to remote places that are not accessible by car. One of the best holidays I’ve ever had was with a charter company called Gamesail – operating out of the viaduct in Auckland. That really was the ultimate Kiwi experience.
.

[Rachelle]

From 2010 (link now defunct)…
.
.
FIVE FILMS I LOVE…WITH MARTIN HENDERSON
.
http://www.flicks.co.nz/features/5-films-i…rtin-henderson/
.
We asked actor Martin Henderson to recommend 5 of his favourite films.
.
Martin Henderson (Battle in Seattle, The Ring, Bride & Prejudice) stars in Gaylene Preston’s Home by Christmas – a film memoir based on her father’s World War II experiences as a NZ soldier. It’s now playing in cinemas.
.
MARTIN HENDERSON: “For me, ever since I was a kid, going to the movies has always been about going on a journey. I love to sit in the dark and to be taken to new worlds with interesting characters and to get ‘lost’ in the story telling. I love to learn something along the way too, either about the world we live in or about the human experience and my own emotions. That to me is a great film.
.
I often love to go to the cinema alone and watch something that I haven’t really heard anything about, except that it’s good. I’m not a big DVD watcher but since I love a good documentary I do appreciate being able to press pause whenever I have to rewind something I didn’t quite catch. I only recently set up a proper surround sound system at home and although it is a far cry from a cinema experience it still rocks, especially with Blu-Ray!”
.
.
Watership Down (1978)
.
“An animated ‘kid’s’ story of a group of rabbits that must leave their warren because of human development and band together to survive a perilous journey of epic proportions and find a new home.
.
I remember seeing this film when it first played at the cinema in Auckland when I was four or five years old, sitting in the dark and being at once uplifted and destroyed, knowing that I was being taught something about life. This deceptively simple tale is sweet, funny and inspiring yet so deep and at times very dark and disturbing. It is a classic hero’s tale with very apparent socio-political themes which although lost on me as a little boy make it an enduring favourite of mine, even today. Although the animation is dated by modern standards, the use of water colours for background plates helps create a gentle, emotional mood and delicate atmosphere further contradicting the film’s moody depth and at times violent action.”
.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
.
“The second of the original (and best, in my opinion) trilogy from George Lucas. This time the Rebels are split up and it seems the good guys don’t always win.
.
I just love this movie. Way darker than Star Wars IV and a way superior film on many levels. That all the actors have matured in their craft by this point, combined with more developed characters, smarter storytelling and greater effects make this one of my favourite sci-fi films ever. The lightsaber battle and subsequent revelation at the end of the film was genius. If there are any kids who missed this and only saw the recent trilogy: GO RENT IT!”
.
Withnail and I (1986)
.
“A black comedy about two struggling actors who escape their dismal 1969 London existence and head to the English countryside for some rest and relaxation.
.
Okay, I am an actor but this is probably my favourite comedy of all time. I have watched this more than any other film and can quote most of the dialogue by heart. Wonderful performance by Richard E. Grant who is both hysterical and deeply moving. Such a sad, funny film about the end of a friendship and coming of age while an age ends. Some of the best lines ever scripted. None of its brilliance is done in a very obvious way so I encourage multiple viewings which will have you in sad stitches if you listen closely.”
.
Network (1976)
.
“The satirical tale of an aging network news anchorman whose mental breakdown is used to fuel ratings.
.
Although this was made in the ’70s, I only recently had the immense pleasure of watching this eerily prescient film. I was so impressed and shocked at the astute forewarning that the screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky offered us in this gem of a movie. I think it is one of the best screenplays ever written and I just wished Chayefsky would have lived longer to enrich the world with more entertaining insight. The performances in this film are fantastic, notably Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight. The one scene that Ned Beatty has in the film is one of my all time favourite pieces of writing and he executed it brilliantly. It is amazing how this subject matter is even more topical and relevant today than it was when the film first premiered.”
.
Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002)
.
“Two teenage friends head off with an older woman on a road trip across Mexico in search of a beach but discover a whole lot more about sex, each other and life….
.
This was a film that I watched by myself in the cinema and had such a good time. I laughed out loud at the sincere, clumsy depiction of teenage sexuality and the dynamic between friends at that age. I found this film to be sensual, hysterical, heartbreaking and heartwarming as well as revealing an aspect of Mexican politics that I knew nothing about. The performances by both Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal were impressive and refreshing. A smart, energetic coming of age road movie that engages and reminds you of that awkward, scary, exciting time in one’s life when things start to get complicated and life starts getting serious. ”
.

[Rachelle]

From 2007 (link now defunct)…
.
.
Martin Henderson: I Want Lots of Wives:
.
http://www.who.com/who/magazine/article/0,…1593285,00.html
.
The actor, who played Cate Blanchett’s brother in Little Fish, talks to Who about love, missing home, almost winning the role of Spider-Man and whether or not he wants to settle down and start a family like his good mate Heath Ledger
.
BY ANNETTE DASEY
Posted Feb. 23, 2007
.
With roles in The Ring, Bride and Prejudice and current releases Flyboys and Smokin’ Aces, New Zealand actor Martin Henderson has well and truly made it in Hollywood.
.
Would you like to live in New Zealand again?
I’m trying to work out a way where I can have both. I definitely want to try to spend a bit more time in New Zealand. I’m looking at buying a place here. You know, just somewhere to come back to, to just connect. It’s really important, especially in the whole Hollywood culture, to have somewhere to come back to where you really, really belong.
.
Do you feel at home in LA?
No, I don’t really feel at home in LA. I’ve tried and I make the most of it. I’m not complaining — I have a good life. But it’s not home. I actually feel more at home in New York to be perfectly honest. That was a place where I arrived and just went, ‘Wow, cool’. I instantly felt comfortable.
.
What is odd about LA?
I think when you’re in the industry it’s really strange that your socializing is all related to your business. You go to a barbeque, you go to dinner. I went to dinner a couple of months ago, I was in LA for the night and I had to go down to do some meetings from Vancouver. And I went out to dinner with a director who was in town to a little sushi place and I walk in and there is another director I know with his girlfriend who is an actress, and we were sitting there and another guy got up to leave and I realised it was a studio director I knew with his wife who is also an actress. We were all sort of having impromptu catch ups and I just kept thinking, ‘This is weird man, nowhere else in the world you go out for dinner and you’re still interacting with your industry.’ It’s bizarre. It’s hard to put my finger on it. I don’t know what it is about LA but it just feels like an empty place. Defenders of the place tell me its because I’m empty and I say bull. Plonk me in New York and I don’t find that empty at all. Or New Zealand.
.
Do Americans just assume you’re an Aussie?
There’s more of an insight about New Zealand these days. It’s got it’s own identity because of Lord of the Rings. But often people think I’m Australian because people think New Zealand is part of Australia, which just cracks me up.
.
Have your friends ever had to bring you down to earth?
No. I think I was pretty lucky that I started so young in a place like New Zealand, which is as real as it gets. There’s not too much hyper bull here. You know I think there were moments when I was younger like on Shortland Street, which became quite popular, that the degree of success was quite intoxicating, and the media response. Being quite young and being on magazine covers and asked to do all these things, for a minute you think that’s who you are. But having the family I have and the friends that I have you can’t think that too much!
.
Do you ever feel like you could be back there struggling if it wasn’t for one thing that helped you get your lucky break?
Yes and no. There are a few events I could look to and say, ‘Wow, Thank God I got that job’ because that got me that job but there are so many factors that come into it, it’s almost like a numbers game. The amount of auditions you do and something finally happens but it doesn’t just happen. The job you finally get probably only came about because you have a good relationship with that casting director or the studio because you may have gone in six months or a year earlier and done a really good audition but they chose to put someone in with a big name. You never really know when the work you put in is going to come back to you. This play I did last year in London (Fool for Love co-starring Juliette Lewis), I think the only reason I got cast in that is because the producers asked Neil LaBute (the playwright and filmmaker) for casting ideas and he said, ‘You should cast Martin Henderson, that New Zealand actor’. And that came out of a meeting we’d had 18 months before. Just a random meeting and I didn’t even think he would remember me. It’s very strange to see what comes from where and it’s hard to pick even what contributed. It’s about perseverance and keeping a sense of humour so you don’t get driven mad by what seems to be unfair a lot of the time.
.
Are there any huge roles you should have taken that you regret?
Well I was close to getting Spider-Man, which would have been a massive break. I’m pretty zen and philosophical about a lot of the things that have happened in my life. Like the major things just seem to happen so I try to let go a lot and just try to do what I can and let the chips fall where they may.
.
Have you ever discussed that with Tobey Maguire (who plays Spider-Man)?
No, I’ve never even spoken to the guy.
.
Did it come down to between you and him?
Yeah, I think we were the two that tested in the end. I think it was a good choice in the end. I don’t think I was really right for the Peter Parker thing. He was a bit better at the whole nerdy quality. I think for me I was trying to act it. I don’t think I necessarily embodied it like he did. And that’s the thing I think he was the better man for the job.
.
What was the best thing about Flyboys?
None of it actually made the final cut but we shot a lot of footage going up in a bi-plane and they had the pilot in the front cockpit and the camera behind him in the back part filming me. Then they did all these amazing acrobatic stunts, which was pretty cool, pretty thrilling.
.
After that do you have aspirations to fly around the world and own your own jet like John Travolta?
No, I don’t. I learnt to fly the basics when I did that TV show Big Sky with Gary Sweet in Australia and we were given student licenses and it’s fun when you’re taking off and landing and doing flying sequences but the rest of it’s bloody boring. I’d much rather be watching a DVD or reading a book than sitting in the cockpit looking at numbers just trying make sure you’re in the right place in the sky. Landing and taking off is great. The rest of it is like watching paint dry. And when you’re that high up you can’t even really see anything.
.
You said a while ago you were happy being single. Do you want to find a wife?
I want lots of wives. God how many can I handle. I think one woman is enough! No, definitely, definitely!
.
How is that looking at the moment?
Easy answer, no.
.
Seeing anyone?
Actually I’m not at the moment. Single and happy.
.
Are you looking for love?
I think the key is trying not to look for love. But if I find love is looking for me tell them where I am.
.
When you see friends like Heath Ledger getting serious and having babies does it make you want to do that?
A bit of both. Sometimes I think it would be great to have that right about now, sort of move into that phase. I think that would be wonderful but to me I’m much more fatalistic. To me it’s going to happen when it’s supposed to happen with the right person. A decision I make like that I take very seriously so I would have to be sure. If I met the right woman for that sort of future that would be wonderful but I haven’t met her yet.
.
From the Mar. 05, 2007 issue of WHO Magazine
.
Copyright 2007 Time Inc. All rights reserved.
.

[Rachelle]

From 2013…NOT a Marty interview but his spoof for ‘Funny or Die.’…The links no longer work but there was still info on it (along with my comments at the time)…
.

This is a funny parody (from Funny or Die), but mind the language. LOL!:
.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/875dfe06c…_medium=twitter
.
http://www.funnyordie.com/martinhenderson
.
I’m surprised none of them (gay men/straight woman) didn’t try to run off with that sexy ass Kiwi host. Marty is so fekn HOT!!!!!! LOL!
.
.
From NZ blog “The Diary”…
.
Landing plum film role bittersweet for Robbie
By Rachel Glucina @RachelGlucinaNZ
.
The Diary NZ
.
Scroll down page for this nice Marty mention…
.
Martin’s parody video a hit
.
Making a spoof video on the Funny or Die website is a mark you’ve made it in Hollywood. Time magazine describes it as “a celebrity magnet to rival Vanity Fair’s Oscar party”. And Martin Henderson, of the Shorty St alumni, is one of those celebrities.
.
His send-up last week on the comedy video website had him playing himself as the host of The Bachelorette. It was a hilarious parody of the reality show involving politically-incorrect themes and sexual language. “Banging is good,” Henderson deadpans to the camera.
.
The 38-year-old’s Hollywood career has taken off since top-lining in Off The Map, which lasted one season on ABC in 2011. He completed filming the movie Devil’s Knot alongside Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, and this week was cast as the lead actor in The Red Road, a hard-hitting, six-episode TV drama for the Sundance Channel.
.

.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.

[Rachelle]

From 2014…This isn’t an interview either–I just didn’t wanna create a separate thread for it. LOL!
.
Marty helped uni student Kevan Ali direct this short film called ‘Due.’
.
See it here on YouTube:
.

.
From Kevan Ali’s Instagram (he also posted about it a while ago on his Twitter):
.

.

[Deej]

That funny or die video was hilarious 🤣

[Rachelle]

Right, Deej?…And now I can’t find it. LOL!
.
.
From 2011…
.
Calling a long way from home
.
By Greg Dixon
.
5:30 AM Saturday May 21, 2011
.
Rise Up
.

.
What does it feel like to be stuck on the other side of the world when your home country suffers a major tragedy? Hollywood stars Anna Paquin and Martin Henderson talk to Greg Dixon about being Kiwis overseas and why they’re lending their support to tomorrow’s Christchurch telethon.
.
The accents aren’t giving them away. On the phone from Los Angeles, their prolonged vowels, convoluted Yankee syntax and warm and positive vibes sound like pure Californian sunshine must feel. But if Anna Paquin and Martin Henderson don’t sound very much like us these days, these Shaky Isles of ours are very much in their thoughts.
.
The two New Zealand actors, talking by speaker phone in a conference room on the True Blood lot in West Hollywood, are testimony that Christchurch’s murderous February earthquake and its myriad minor and major aftershocks have been felt on the far side of the Pacific.
.
And they have shaken Paquin and Henderson into action. The pair have lent their support to the Rise Up Christchurch Te Kotahitanga telethon, which screens on Maori TV from 9am tomorrow.
.
The event, in partnership with the Rise Up Christchurch Facebook network, isn’t purely a fundraiser. It will apparently feature stories of heroism and hardship from Christchurch during and since the quake, as well as covering the ongoing fundraising efforts on behalf of the city.
.
Local supporters include usual suspects such as Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Pippa Wetzell and Mike McRobert, as well as Rachel Hunter, back in the country for the event.
.
Dairy company Fonterra has also written a cheque for $500,000 towards the broadcast’s production costs.
.
And ex-pats Paquin and Henderson have answered the call to provide a little starlight in the post-earthquake gloom.
.
I tease them by suggesting that, when things go wrong, they’re New Zealanders-on-call.
.
“We’re circling the wagons,” Paquin says, then laughs. Henderson opts for a more earnest, “If it was a mate of yours in trouble, you would … Your first question should be ‘how can I help?’ I think it’s kind of that simple really”.
.
Henderson and Paquin, along with actress Melanie Lynskey, singer-songwriter Greg Johnson and former Shortland Streeter Chris Hobbs will been seen in pre-recorded and live crosses from LA during the telethon.
.
Henderson says people in LA are “really supporting this once they know about it. And that’s just a really beautiful thing to see. I think I want to stress that to the people of Christchurch and to people in New Zealand: that people outside of New Zealand, they do care. And we’re trying to raise a bit of awareness, because when what happened in Japan went down a lot of the media focus in the world went elsewhere. It seems the people of Christchurch are feeling a little abandoned.”
.
Their phones began chirping soon after the rumbling ceased. As they are both what used to be called jet-setters, neither Paquin nor Henderson were at home in LA when the deluge of text messages began.
.
“I was at an airport,” says Paquin, “and one of my best friends texted me to make sure my family was okay. That was the first I heard [about Christchurch]. I called home immediately to make sure that everyone was accounted for and thankfully everyone I know was okay. I’ve been following it through the news since.”
.
Meanwhile Henderson, who was working in Hawaii, remembers he was in bed when he received the first of a flurry of texts from friends in the United States and around the world. “Most of them didn’t know where Christchurch was or geographically where I was from. They were just making sure my family was all right. I hadn’t seen it on the news either.” He quickly went on the internet and “realised what had happened”.
.
“All my family is in Auckland so I didn’t need to worry about them particularly. But I do have friends with family [in Christchurch], and fortunately they were all okay too.”
.
Technology connects, but the physical distance with “home” remains of course. Both Paquin, 28, and Henderson, 36, have long since, as their accents disclose, made their homes where they have had the best chance of pursuing what actors like to call “the work”.
.
“If you make some specific product, you go to the town where they make it the most if you want to get a lot of jobs,” Paquin says. “[LA] is the factory town for movies and television. I kind of gradually, then suddenly, ended up in America. I ended up spending so little time at home that eventually it made more sense to have my base out here.”
.
LA has seen the sense in the move too. Paquin has arguably become the most successful New Zealand actor in Hollywood right now – Russell Crowe (and his ambiguous New Zealandness), aside. Since winning the Oscar for best supporting actress in 1994 for her pre-teen turn in The Piano, Paquin has worked constantly, and with some extremely talented people. She’s done a blockbuster franchise – the three X-Men films – appeared in indie hits like 2000’s Almost Famous and 2005’s terrific The Squid And The Whale, and has worked for directors Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee.
.
However, being cast as Sookie Stackhouse in HBO’s hit series True Blood, the vampire drama from Alan Ball (American Beauty, Six Feet Under), has lifted Paquin to another level of celebrity altogether. She’s appeared (naked and covered in blood, no less) on the cover Rolling Stone, has done the late-night talkshows, had a couple of appearances in Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100” list and has become tabloid fodder after marrying her True Blood co-star, Englishman Stephen Moyer. And she’s had a fistful of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations too.
.
By comparison, Henderson’s career has been steady rather than stellar. After getting his start on Shortland Street in the early 1990s, he made the move to Hollywood via Australia, where he reportedly met and befriended a young Heath Ledger on the set of Home and Away. From the early 2000s, he landed roles in several big-budget US films including director John Woo’s critically panned war movie Windtalkers and a successful Hollywood remake of the cult Japanese horror movie The Ring. Perhaps his most critically applauded big-screen work during the last decade has been at this end of the world: in Australian crime drama Little Fish (with Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill), and last year’s wartime docu-drama Home By Christmas, from New Zealand director Gaylene Preston.
.
Henderson reappeared on our TV screens this year in Off The Map, an American medical drama set in the jungles of South America but filmed in Hawaii. The show won mixed reviews but reasonable ratings, though it was unknown at the time writing whether it would go to a second series.
.
The short version of all that is that Paquin and Henderson have been very busy not being New Zealanders for rather a long time – and you rather suspect that we know more of them than they do of us.
.
The ties that bind must inevitably slacken for ex-pats. It is also inevitable that a disaster like Christchurch reveals to them how connected or disconnected they are with home. “It does make you feel like you’re very far away,” Paquin says, though she, like Henderson, still has family here and returns now and then to see them.
.
“I think when you do live away, obviously you’re disconnected, your life is centred around where you live and your relationships and your work,” Henderson says. “But when something like this does happen to a place that you’re from, it does remind you of how inextricably connected you remain to your birthplace. I consider New Zealand home. Although my whole entire adult life has been away, it is so dear to my heart and I think [the telethon] was just sort of a calling for me when the producers asked me whether I would be involved and support it in some way.”
.
The question of how leaving one’s home country changes – for better or for worse – one’s view of it is an interesting one. Writer Katherine Mansfield, for example, was, at times, less than complimentary about New Zealand in her writing once she’d got the hell out. Much more recently, in 2003, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa raised ire locally when, in of all places an Australian newspaper, she criticised Maori for welfare dependency.
.
This is, of course, poor form. New Zealanders may no longer ask – defensively and 30 seconds after they’ve landed – what visitors think of the place, but we’re still notoriously sensitive to criticism. So if Paquin and Henderson have any views on the lousy weather or the (alleged) great Kiwi knocking machine, they’re polite enough not to say.
.
Still, you do wonder what the country means to them – family aside – now that they’ve got green cards and all.
.
“It’s a big question,” Henderson says, “and I don’t even know if I have all the answers because, to be honest, my family is there. It’s where I grew up, it’s where I developed deep connections with the land and culturally it influenced the way I look at myself and the world. I think those things are so deeply ingrained. So my personality and my outlook has been so shaped by that and that is kind of constant. Frankly, it’s a lovely thing to carry with you out to wherever else your work or life takes you.”
.
They both believe their New Zealand upbringing – with all that is supposed to imply about being easygoing and unpretentious – has helped them enormously. “It’s a huge advantage,” Paquin says. “It’s hard to take a lot of this stuff [celebrity] seriously.”
.
It is always interesting to ask ex-pats what it is that makes them homesick – not for what does, but for what doesn’t. Both, say they miss family and friends, with Henderson adding “rugby, the nature, the beaches … pineapple lumps”.
.
But if we, the people, don’t make the list, we are, they say, incredibly nice to them when they’re home – whether or not they’re being on-call New Zealanders for a good cause.
.
“Sometimes I’m a little bit surprised that people recognise me as quickly as they do,” Paquin says.
.
“I think it’s quite funny to contemplate ‘well, how distinctive do I really look? You took a three-second glance at me’.” She issues an embarrassed giggle. “But everyone’s always really nice and it’s always ‘welcome home’ when I go through Customs as opposed to here. I have a green card but they always give me the third degree every time I come back into the city limits.”
.
“Ditto,” says Henderson. “I’m quite delighted by how supportive Kiwis are. It’s nice to feel you are supported.”
.
I’m sure Christchurch feels the same.
.
* The Rise Up Christchurch Te Kotahitanga telethon will be broadcast live from Auckland’s Trust Stadium in Henderson, Te Papa in Wellington and the CBS Arena in Christchurch for 12 hours from 9am tomorrow, and will screen on Maori TV.
.
By Greg Dixon
.
.From the cover of Canvas Mag:
.

.
Other images (see gallery for more):
.

.

.

.

[Rachelle]

Screentalk interview from 2010…
.
Martin Henderson: From Kiwi child star to Hollywood:
.
https://www.nzonscreen.com/interviews/screentalk/martin-henderson-home-from-hollywood
.
On YouTube:
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOeoTvILwos&ab_channel=ScreenTalk
.

.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.

[Rachelle]

From 2007…’Battle in Seattle’ Q&A…
.

[Deej]

💙

[Rachelle]

That time Marty helped build a school in San Salvador:
.

.
.
.

Surfing for El Salvador…Playa El Cuco, 2014:
.

.

.

,

.
From Facebook:
.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/sundekusa/photos/?tab=album&album_id=448758485156040
.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by Rachelle.

[Rachelle]

From 2012/2013…TropFest NZ…
.

.
.
Link defunct…
.
.
Francesca’s Blog
.
Interview with Martin Henderson for Tropfest NZ:
.
Thursday May 30, 2013
.
http://www.rialtochannel.co.nz/blog/articl…for-tropfest-nz
.
Hollywood leading man Martin Henderson may spend more time in the United States than New Zealand these days, but he’s still very interested in supporting local talent. Star of films The Ring and Battle in Seattle, and the television series Off The Map, Henderson is thrilled to be an ambassador for the annual short film festival Tropfest.
.
In June Rialto Channel is playing a short film, including all 16 finalists from this year’s Tropfest, every night before the 8.30pm New Zealand film.
.
Martin kindly took time out of his busy schedule to have a chat about Tropfest, and the importance of short films.
.
Thanks so much for having a chat to us about the Tropfest New Zealand Short Film Festival. First, why did you come on board as an ambassador for Tropfest NZ?
.
MH: I lived in Sydney for a few years and during my time there I had always loved the Tropfest, both as an audience member and as an industry member, and I wanted to help promote such a thing in New Zealand as a way to discover and develop the creative talent we have here. I think we have a lot of talented people who can benefit from a festival like this.
.
How much is a film career about luck and getting a chance, and how important are short films in offering that chance?
.
MH: Certainly it is important to get noticed and have as many people as possible see your work so that opportunities can come from it, and short films can be a great way of offering exposure to film makers who want to get noticed and start their careers. Film festivals like Tropfest can provide filmmakers with that exposure and also connect them with other people from the industry like actors, writers and producers. As horrible as it sounds, it often is about who you know, and Tropfest brings industry professionals together, and often relationships are forged that spawn creative partnerships down the road. A good short film can often have a long life on the festival circuit and grab attention the world over.
.
What’s the best thing about short films from an actor’s perspective?
.
MH: Short films often provide actors with the chance to play roles that they wouldn’t necessarily be offered in television or in a feature film and so allow actors an opportunity to take some risks and have a lot of fun doing so. The creative freedom of short film allows writers and directors to create characters and styles that you wouldn’t really get within the commercial limits of TV and film and so more experimental or zany ideas provide actors with the potential for really stretching themselves and exploring.
.
What are the three things that making a short film is going to teach any aspiring feature filmmaker?
.
MH: That there is never enough money!!! Or time!!!…Seriously though, certainly learning to work with a crew is a very big part of film making and working on short films teaches a director the art of leading an entire crew of people and how important they all are in helping you realise your vision.
Obviously working with actors is also a big part of getting your story on screen. Getting experience with how different actors work is vital to getting good performances and bringing the script to life.
So definitely learning to collaborate is a big lesson that short films will teach you.
Thirdly, because short films are, well … short, it is a great way to learn how to keep track of the bigger picture without it being too overwhelming. A huge part of directing well is to do with keeping in mind how each little scene or moment within a scene fits into the bigger overarching story line and this is made much easier by getting experience with short film making first. Also working with a schedule and learning to get your shots each day is a great discipline that if not mastered on a short film will be disastrous on a bigger more ambitious project so that too is a vital lesson that making shorts can provide.
.
Best short film you’ve ever seen?
.
MH: That’s a hard one to answer as there are so many great short films for many different reasons but I do really love Taika Waititi’s “Two Cars One Night”. I think serves as a great example of what a short film can do for someone’s career. Taika probably had no idea that it would take him to the Oscars. It was clear from that one short that he had a great deal of talent and he is now one of our top feature film directors.
.
When might we next get the chance to see you on screen again here in New Zealand?
.
MH: When Taika offers me a job!
.
.
Tropfest will be back in 2014 on 16th February at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands. Entry deadline is 6th January 2014. For more information go to http://www.tropfest.co.nz.
.

[Rachelle]

This old gem is from 2006…And his eyes are green–not blue. LOL!…
.
.
In a taxi with- Martin Henderson; The one-time Darcy, now a lasso-wielding cowboy, reveals his tender side.
.
The Mail on Sunday (London, England); 8/13/2006
.
Byline: MAUREEN PATON
.
There’s a handsome, bearded vision in a porkpie hat heading for my cab, and it looks remarkably like a Bee Gee. Hang on, it can’t be, because Martin Henderson insists he’s the world’s worst singer – despite having starred in the Bollywood musical movie Bride & Prejudice as a deliciously eligible William Darcy. But with so much else going for him, who cares if this 31-year-old, blue-eyed New Zealander can’t hit the high notes? Especially when he’s just grown whiskers that make him look like something epic out of The Lord of the Rings.
.
‘Oh, you mean my Neanderthal look,’ mocks Martin, who is playing a hairy cowboy for his latest stage role. A former child actor in Australia, he used to share an apartment in Sydney with his friend Heath Ledger when they were both starring as Olympic athletes in the Oz TV drama series Sweat. But while Heath went on to win his Oscar nomination as a closet gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, Martin is playing the straight, woman-hungry kind in the West End revival of Sam Shepard’s white-trash classic Fool for Love. ‘I’m a little more comfortable with my cowboy,’ says Martin teasingly. ‘I joke around with Heath and say that no wonder he started a family with [his girlfriend and co-star] Michelle [Williams] when he was stuck filming on a mountain in Canada, playing a gay character. I would probably want to start a family with a beautiful woman too in those circumstances-‘ Meanwhile, Anglophile Martin is having too much fun in London, with Natural Born Killers star Juliette Lewis as the object of his passion night after night. Every night he lassos a bedpost on stage, and practises in the wings on two stagehands. ‘They’re both 20-something girls and they protest that they don’t like it, but I know that they love it really,’ grins Martin.
.
It certainly helps to warm him up for such a ‘physical’ play, especially opposite Juliette, who also plays in a rock band, Juliette and the Licks.
.
‘She’s unbelievable, man – that girl has more energy than any man or woman I’ve ever met,’ says Martin.
.
But he’s no slouch himself: his dancing-in-the-fountain dream sequence in Bride & Prejudice pays homage to Colin Firth’s Darcy’s wet shirt look. And as for the erotic German TV film The Summer of my Deflowering that Martin made six years ago when he was broke in LA, he groans and says, ‘I always wonder whether people will bring that up. I was in the Four Seasons hotel bar to meet a friend and this woman came up and said I would be perfect for the project. It was just a sweet love story about two virgins, she said, nothing too risque-‘ Talking of tasteful deflowering, cabbie Tom from South Norwood drives us past the London Eye, where scenes from Bride & Prejudice were shot.
.
‘Darcy wasn’t the most interesting role because I didn’t have a lot to do apart from being the love object, but I’m amazed how much the ladies liked that movie. I was just the warm prop – that’s what we call actors,’ he explains.
.
A starring role as Cate Blanchett’s drug-taking, amputee brother in the new film Little Fish should also help raise his big-screen profile, as should the forthcoming Smokin’ Aces with Ben Affleck and Flyboys with James Franco.
.
‘There’s a certain nuttiness to actors, a crazy quality that is fun,’ he says.
.
‘Everyone says, “Don’t date an actress,” but invariably they seem to be the ones I end up with,’ says Martin, who is currently single. ‘But what happens on tour stays on tour, as we used to say in my rugby days at high school.’ Meanwhile he has just become an uncle for the first time and can’t wait to fly back to New Zealand to see his older sister Jane’s baby boy. ‘I would definitely like a family – that to me is what life is all about. But at the moment, as a single guy it’s great – I can go wherever I want,’ he says as we drop him off at the theatre.
.
So try lassoing that one, ladies.
.
Fool for Love continues at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1, until 9 September.
.
Little Fish is on general release
.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Solo Syndication Limited
.
Magazine image:
.

.

[Author]

Posts