The Actors - Skin & Bone

*The Actors & Crew*			“Every male I ran into offered his services as a rugby coach - offered to take me to the park and show me how to throw a ball around. New Zealand’s full of experts so I expect a pretty tough audience.” FILM CREDITS: 2003: Skin And Bone 2002: Mount Extreme (US feature) TV CREDITS: 2001.2003: Mercy Peak (Todd Van Der Velter) 2002: Hard Out (Stevo) 2002: Street Legal (Guest Lead: Darren) 2000.2002: Shortland Street (Stratford Wilson) 1996: Xena: Warrior Princess
Antony STARR
Antony STARR plays ‘Seymour’ STARR read Greg McGEE.s original play late in 2002 with no idea he would end up playing it.s lead character. He reckons the play is pretty different to the film: “Rugby’s changed. People have changed. Skin And Bone is much more in keeping with today. And everything that’s been done to update it has been justifiable”. The training for the film proved to be a painful experience for STARR. His injuries began five weeks before the shoot. He damaged both hamstrings, his achilles tendon, twisted his ankle, & tweaked his shoulder. The dishwashing scenes however were a breeze. “I snowboarded in Norway for 18 months and couldn’t speak the language so I washed dishes to keep the money coming in.” STARR says it was great to work around more experienced actors such as Charles MESURE who were always happy to lend a helping hand. “In fact the guys who played the rugby team stopped being a bunch of actors and became a team both on and off camera.” One of the highlights of the shooting for him was the time spent in Patea. “Beautiful! The scenery and the location were stunning. We’d been following a really tough shooting schedule and Patea was a welcome relief.” As for life after Skin and Bone, STARR has parts in an American feature and the English / NZ co-production My Father’s Den.
*Roy BILLING* Roy BILLING plays ‘Tupper’ BILLING has something of a reputation as a scenestealer. With Tupper he's had plenty of practice. This is the fifth time (the first four were on stage) he's played the rugby-obsessed coach and he doesn't mind that at all. “I like Tupper as a person. He actually reminds me of my father who was obsessed with the volunteer fire brigade – didn’t get on with him too well though, there was never any time” He was the only person in the film who didn't go into training for his role. “The puffing you see on screen is real!” Yet he still managed to sustain injury. .It was a freezing cold night. Usually when I played Tupper on stage, I’d warm my voice up but I didn’t do that and I lost my voice completely”. Upon viewing the film for the first time, BILLING got so caught up in the story that he forgot it was him on the screen. “Best performance I’ve ever done. “ There’s so much heart in the movie - it just builds and builds.” BILLING believes the Skin And Bone story will have universal appeal. “What sport it’s about doesn’t matter. It’s professional sport – could be Ice Hockey, Water Polo, whatever. It isn’t the game that’s important. It’s the comradeship and the mate-ship that matters. Those who know Rugby though might get a little more out of it”. BILLING divides his time between projects in New Zealand and Australia. He's currently working on a Paul Hogan film with Pete Postlethwaite and Michael Caton called Strange Bedfellows and a comedy titled Thunderstruck.
			“The reason New Zealand is one of the best rugby playing nations in the world is probably thanks to people like Tupper. Tupper pushes people beyond their limits. He thinks the end justifies the means. Every young man would know a Tupper in their lives. ”AWARDS: 1992 New Zealand Film Awards . Best Supporting Actor . OLD SCORES 1985 New Zealand Best Actor Award for lead in TV Drama Series . INSIDE STRAIGHT FILM HIGHLIGHTS: Skin and Bone, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Dish, Old Scores, Other Halves, Came A Hot Friday, and Beyond Reasonable Doubt TV HIGHLIGHTS: Mortimer’s Patch, Under The Mountain, Inside Straight, Children of the Dog Star, Gliding On, Cover Story, A Country Practice, Water Rats, Blue Heelers, Always Greener, and The Strip.
*Charles MESURE* Charles MESURE plays ‘Clean’ MESURE was offered the role of Clean on the strength of his looks he just looked like the sort of single-minded sportsman the maker were looking for. “In June 98 I was walking along Ponsonby Rd and there were 3 guys staring at me from inside a bar (Peter Elliott, Writer Greg McGEE, and Producer Chris HAMPSON). I was invited inside and asked if I’d ever played rugby. I said yeah – flanker. And sometimes No. 8. And right there and then they asked to be in their film.” The film had a number of false starts but five years later MESURE finally got to play the role immortalised on stage by the likes of John Bach, Jim Moriarty, and Nat Lees. Director Chris BAILEY recalls MESUREs audition. “I pushed him and pushed him and he discovered that he could go somewhere really scary. I got the feeling that by the end of the audition he just wanted to go home and have a shower – to wipe the stain of the character away.” Bringing Clean to life on film was not easy. He spent most of the shoot in pain and extremely fatigued. Often the actors would be doing sequences til 2am freezing their butts off. “They’d say CUT and we’d run indoors, grab the blankets and huddle around the heater. I tore muscles in my foot, neck, middle back, lower back, and right buttock. I’d be lying around with my pants down between takes getting my bum kneaded by the physio and everyone would be looking on”.			“I loved playing ‘Clean’. I didn’t want the shoot to end – I just loved playing the character. It didn’t occur to me that I was the bad guy – I was seeing the world from his point of view. And when I saw him on screen, I didn’t recognize him … it was like … he’s a complete b@#$%^rd” AWARDS: 2003 New Zealand Film and Television Awards Best Supporting Actor STREET LEGAL FILM CREDITS: 2003: Skin and Bone 2002: The Water Giant, The Bogey Man, and Absolutely Positively TV CREDITS: Street Legal, Super Fire (US mini-series), Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess, Tiger Country, and City Life. SCREENWRITING: Street Legal
Charmaine GUEST Charmaine GUEST plays ‘Moira’ For GUEST, one of the highlights of working on Skin and Bone was the people. “I absolutely adored all the cast and crew - they were a really fantastic bunch of people and I felt privileged to be working with actors whom I really respect and admire, like Roy BILLING, Liddy HOLLOWAY and Charles MESURE. I loved the rugby boys as well. We all had a lot of fun and a whole bunch of us got together two weekends in a row to watch the rugby test matches. I was often the only female cast member on set, amongst all these hordes of boys but I think I pretty much just became one of them!” Another highlight was filming in Patea. “It was definitely an experience for a city girl! But it gave me a much better sense of the kinds of issues we were dealing with in the film. It was really important for me to get that sense of where Moira was coming from - that feeling of being out of your comfort zone, in an environment that is completely new and different and feeling like you don’t quite belong or know what to expect. Filming at the freezing works, which has been closed now for years, was very eerie but there’s a lot of beauty down that way too.” When not acting, GUEST works as Editor of Headway ,an in-industry hair fashion and beauty magazine. “I am lucky that I have a job which does allow me the time off to work on projects like Skin And Bone and its great to be able to do both, although acting is definitely my passion”.			“I really enjoyed playing a strong female character because I’ve been in a few roles where the women were a bit weak and ‘victim- like’. In many ways, Moira is not totally dissimilar from me and I did identify with her quite a lot, but I’d like to think I’m a bit more world-wary and less naive. I liked her lust for life, her determination and the devotion and love she has for Seymour.”
			FILM CREDITS: Skin And Bone, Atomic Twister TV CREDITS: Street Legal, Mercy Peak, Jacksons Wharf, Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules, Shortland Street, and Riding High. DREAM ROLE: “I’ve always thought it would be fantastic to work on a period drama, something like Sense and Sensibility or Portrait of a Lady. I love that old-fashioned sense of romance and the formality with which people interacted”.
Cast List
Seymour Clean Larry Ken Mean Crafty Wank Bam Bam Davey Boy Shakka Reserve #17 Ray de LaSalle Searle Maitre D DJ Jeanie Referee Zambuck Rugby Double Jan Alex	Antony STARR Charles MESURE Jon BRAZIER Robbie Magasiva Samuel A. WALSH Adam PARKER William WALLACE Scotty MORRISON Dave NOFOA Steve VAOTU’UA Rhan WESTBROOK Greg JOHNSON John CLARKE Stephen BUTTERWORTH Charlotte DAWSON Tracey BRABET John LANDRETH Timothy James ADAM Nick EVANS Kate Louise ELLIOTT Max Schutt SPELLING	Tupper Moira Sylvie Tank Sunny Glyn Justin Duck Donk Vilemu Doc Simmons Tim Vercoe Sous Chef Barman Cath Tyson Red Captain Bike double Moira double Megan Orton team Finao ALOI Andrew ASI Eddie REMUERA Mal SUASAGI Toby LAWRY	Roy BILLING Charmaine GUEST Liddy HOLLOWAY Gavin RUTHERFORD Joe FOLAU Rupert COX Darren YOUNG Bull ALLEN Richard HILL Ricky UPUTAUA Doug MUIR Derek PAYNE Gary ELLIOTT Damon WILLS Sarah McLeod Jacob RUTENE Patrick KAKE John ROBERTSON Amy WESTON Chrystal MARSTERS Chris NEWTON Api TAVITA Jason SILIMIKA Malcolm HOLM Jonathon HUTCHINS Troy ROLFEVYSON