New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

56 LISTENER OCTOBER 13 2018

by SARAH CATHERALL

H

is performance may have won

him a major acting prize, but

Kieran Charnock hasn’t watched

himself in Stray, the independ-

ent New Zealand movie that has

been a career breakthrough.

It seems the 26-year-old Welsh-born

Wellington-based actor just doesn’t want

to watch himself act.

“I believe in becoming the person and

letting that person inhabit the space rather

than manufacturing the character and

having a technical approach,” he tells the

Listener.

Doesn’t he want to see himself? He

shakes his head. And his Masterton-based

family, although supportive, don’t quite

understand why either.

“It’s difficult for me because it makes

me feel isolated, or like I’m in the wrong.

There are some other actors out there who

don’t watch their work and that gives me

courage.”

Charnock, who describes himself as

a “heavy, heavy introvert”, flew to the

Moscow International Film Festival in

April for the world premiere of Stray. He

later won its best-actor prize. However, he

left before the screening of director Dustin

Feneley’s crowd-funded debut feature,

though he did go on stage to collect his

lavish Silver St George best-actor trophy.

In the measured, minimalist drama,

he’s the softly-spoken Jack, who, freshly

paroled from a stint inside for attempted

murder, heads for the wide and chilly hori-

zons of Central Otago. He connects with

Grace (Arta Dobroshi), a recent immigrant

who has her own troubled past.

Jack doesn’t say much in the movie, but

still, Charnock says, he couldn’t shake the

character afterwards.

“I have an extreme calling to

become these people, but it’s a

struggle because I have a personal

life. The journey I went through

in Stray took a huge toll on me

• my body and my mind, my
  psyche. It took an extreme toll ...
  It was made two years ago but it
  still affects me to this day.’’
  His mindset for Jack leaked into
  Cleaver, a short film he did soon

afterwards in which he plays a suburban

loner who’s a witness to domestic abuse.

“The reason Cleaver works is because I

was in that place. I was in a very, very

dark place in my full-time life for quite a

while. I had made it an occupation to put

myself in [Jack’s] headspace and that’s an

unhealthy thing. I became my version of

that character.’’

A

lthough acting is his first love,

Charnock is also writing his own

scripts. Stranger, a short film he

co-wrote and co-directed, is premiering

at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival,

alongside Cleaver. It’s earned him a

nomination for best director at the festival.

Stranger is about a young boy and

his father, a firefighter, who is severely

disfigured in an accident. Charnock was

inspired by an account of an American

police officer, who survived severe burns,

and his relationship with his children.

“It was a really beautiful story about their

connection.’’

The Stray award has opened doors. He

has another role in an upcoming New Zea-

land feature, which he can’t talk about yet,

and it’s shown him that his approach, his

non-self-viewing rule and all, is working.

“It has reaffirmed what I am doing ... I

don’t need anything else. They should give

awards to someone else now.’’ l

Stray is in cinemas now; Show Me Shorts is

in Auckland from October 6, Wellington from

October 12, and throughout the country in

October and November.

Method

man

Award-winning actor

Kieran Charnock

likes to inhabit his

characters, but

sometimes they stick

around afterwards.

GETTY IMAGES

Kieran Charnock receives the best

actor Silver St George from Nastassja

Kinski for his performance in Stray

(above).

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