Television This article is more than 8 years oldInterviewHow actor Cliff Curtis avoids playing 'repetitive stereotypes'
This article is more than 8 years oldAlexander BisleyThe Māori actor relishes a starring role in Walking Dead spinoff after a career filled with highs that include Scorsese and lows – The Piano
In 1999, Cliff Curtis hit a kind of American cinematic jackpot: in a single year, he had roles in Michael Mann’s The Insider, David O Russell’s Three Kings and Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead.
“Scorsese talks tens to the dozen. He’s amazing. Like a machine gun,” the actor reminisces about the experience, making gun noises, during interviews in Wellington and his hometown, Rotorua, New Zealand. “Rattling off. Like ADD.”
“Those three directors believe in artistry. A lot of the work I do is not really art,” Curtis went on to say. “I spent most of my career as a tradesman: fixing doors, digging holes. But those guys are true artists, they love and respect the artists. I learned working with those guys that at the core of it you have to keep that alive inside of yourself.”
Curtis is an engaged, beguiling interlocutor. His cheekbones are chiselled, his brown eyes sharp, his style of dress elegant. He shares qualities with former co-stars: the 47-year-old Kiwi has Clooney-esque intellect and Depp-style cool.
Fear the Walking Dead is decidedly a “genre” show, but in moments it also reminds us of Bringing Out the Dead’s creeping sense of dread. “Our director [Adam Davidson] is a real artist,” Curtis says. “He really has treated it in a way where he built anticipation and tension through scenes rather than giving it all away with cheap shots.”
Curtis plays Travis Manawa, whose blended family must reinvent themselves because of the zombie apocalypse in the spinoff of the AMC hit series the Walking Dead. His son Nick is battling addiction. “I think most families can relate to having a black sheep in their family who’s gone off the rails, but that we all still love and care for.”
Gone Girl’s Kim Dickens plays counsellor Madison Clark, his wife. “Kim has this really deep warmth that you really empathise with her as a person through her characters.”
Fear the Walking Dead’s second episode raises the issue of police brutality, so I ask Curtis about it. “Brutality in general is a good question. My son is caught up in this idea of police brutality, and I’ve taught him to question authority, question things in society, and do something about it … LA is a volatile place.”
As on screen, Curtis is empathetic in person. “I’ve really tried to stay away from repetitive stereotypes of people of colour. I try to imbue roles with humanity.” He has portrayed a very diverse range of ethnic groups. “What connects us is the specifics of who we are, and then that relates universally on many levels.”
The father of three was less enthusiastic about his previous TV role in Gang Related, where he played murderous Chicano boss Javier Acosta. “Bread and butter, brother. It helps feed the kids.”
Curtis’s commitment to artistry came to the fore in his devastating performance on the big screen in 2014 as The Dark Horse’s Genisi Potini, a bipolar chess coach who inspires disadvantaged kids. Curtis went all-in with De Niro-style method acting, packing on 30 kilos. “Even my sister didn’t believe it was real. I had to do the ol’ pull-up-the-top and show everybody my midsection.”
Curtis drew on his own youthful struggles with marginalisation and depression. “When I was 13, I was a ward of the state. I’d been in and out of dramas … Sometimes you just don’t wanna get up, you wanna stay there and let it wash over you or go in a dark room. I suffered from depression quite a lot in my teens going into my early 20s. If I couldn’t feel good about life, I’d go watch as many movies as I could to get through. I would read books, too.”
Ultimately, in Curtis’s view, The Dark Horse is about aroha, or love, as Genesis fights to save his nephew Mana (the equally superb James Rolleston) from gang life. “The movie’s about celebrating unsung heroes. Every day, every week, in mental health, in supporting kids that need support.”
Curtis’s work back home also includes defining New Zealand films The Piano, Once Were Warriors, River Queen and Whale Rider. The Piano, Curtis’ first film, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993 and won an Oscar for its screenplay and white leads, but has been criticised for its portrayal of indigenous New Zealanders.
“I spent a lot of time sitting around on set, not doing very much, and then what role I did have, a lot of the time was spent carrying the piano. My big scene with Harvey Keitel got cut out – that’s sitting under the Sydney Harbour Bridge,” Curtis recalls.
“The central drama was around Harvey Keitel, who had a moko [Māori facial tattoo], and spoke Māori, Sam Neill and Holly Hunter. So the central characters were the Europeans in our world, and we were the ‘blackdrop’, the exotic blackdrop to this European love story. I learned a lot … It did strike me we were the exotic setting for someone else’s story in our land.”
Today, Curtis is at film and TV’s forefront, both as a producer (working with the likes of Jemaine Clement) and actor. “For many years in Hollywood, many actors have lamented over casting limitations because of colour. And it’s been great to be invited into a massive franchise, this hugely popular American show, and for my ethnicity and my colour to be a non issue.”
Like Fear the Walking Dead’s Travis Manawa, Curtis is a committed family man. For balance, he play chess and hangs out by Lake Rotorua. “We sit as a family and we look at the lake.”
The icy Kiwi winter provides another way for the man playing Jesus in January’s Risen to relax. “I love getting up early in the morning. I love getting the firewood ready to light the fire: chopping the wood, getting the kindling. Those kind of tasks make me feel calm. Especially early in the morning, the birds and the sky changing and all that.”
- Fear the Walking Dead premieres 23 August in the US, 24 August in Australia, and 31 August in the UK. The Dark Horse gets its US cinematic release on 11 December. It came out on DVD in the UK last week.
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