8 • July 26, 2009 • View

Cover story

DANIELLE CORMACK isgoing mental. At least that’swhat she says on the phonewhen she calls to againpostpone our interview– not that you can hold it

against her.On the day we finally meet, the award-win-

ning TV/film/theatre actor is dashing betweenthree jobs — as wardrobe mistress for shortfilm Redemption, and filming two TV shows:new local, Lost-esque drama The Cult (onscreenin September) and Walt Disney fantasy seriesLegend of the Seeker.

She’s also just seen off 13-year-old son Ethanon his first day back at school, but is somehowsqueezing in a soda and a chat in the lead-up tothe release of homegrown ‘dramedy’ SeparationCity on August 6.

After a stint criscrossing the Tasman for thea-tre gigs, Cormack was ready to sink her teethinto the relatively rare meat of a New Zealandfeature film (penned by cartoonist Tom Scott).In her signature naturalistic style, she plays uber-organised, overtired, libido-less mum-of-twoPam, whose relationship with husband Simon— played by on-the-up Aussie actor Joel Edger-ton — has become about as familiar and excitingas an old sock. This has left him with a wander-ing eye that settles on mutual friend Kati, playedby heavyweight English actress Rhona Mitra(Boston Legal, Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans).Cormack, who admits everyone knows everyonein the New Zealand acting fishpond, relished theinjection of internationals into a film that “didn’tnecessarily feel completely Kiwi”.

Because she’s flying from Auckland to theWellington premiere on Wednesday, Cormackhasn’t watched the film (on DVD) until justbefore we met. “I thought I better take a look atit before I start talking about it.” She agrees it’sa little depressing about the prognosis for long-term relationships. “But I don’t necessarily aspireto that conventional relationship anyway — theones I’ve had haven’t particularly conformed.”She can relate only vicariously, not personally,she says, to the film’s “successful, white, middle-class family with two kids” and their smug-mar-ried friends.

Cormack hopes the film will inspire debateabout the nature of romantic relationships. “Arewe supposed to be monogamous for the restof our lives? How do you keep that element ofsurprise going in your relationship because, youknow, the biology of humans is such that wedon’t have chemistry pumping through our veinsfor our entire relationship with someone.”

The 38-year-old is notoriously private abouther private life. Partly because other people’sfeelings are involved; partly because her work isthe raison d’interview; and partly because she justdoesn’t think it’s that interesting. “I wish I couldsay I’m dating Judy Bailey right now,” she jokes,“but I don’t know what Judy would think of that!

“But hold on, let me think about this becausemaybe I don’t feel so guarded about it now— it’s a cliche isn’t it, the actor or the person inthe spotlight wanting to keep their personal life

personal. I’m a walking cliche!” She pondersbut decides it’s still not for public consumption.“Maybe I never kiss and tell. If I do, I’ll give youa call.”

Cormack, who pulls off a funky rock-chickoutfit, could certainly pull a newsreader. We firstglimpsed her lean limbs and well-documentedcurls on shoulder-padded late-80s soap Gloss.Fast forward 20 years and Cormack doesn’t lookmuch older, but her CV has certainly plumpedup. As well as a dozen feature films (includingThe Price of Milk, Topless Women Talk About TheirLives, Channelling Baby, Via Satellite, A Song ofGood) and several short films, she’s also notchedup 20 plays here, across the Tasman, and oc-casionally further afield.

But it’s the small screen where much of thework is. TV credits include Maddigan’s Quest,Rude Awakenings, The Strip, Marlin Bay, CityHomicide, and Shortland Street. Just don’t go sum-ming her up as “ex-Shortland Streeter DanielleCormack”, a description she read recently, de-spite the fact that her core-cast-member role asnurse Alison Raynor was back in 1992-93 — andit’s not as though she has been a one-trick ponysince. “Acting kept on finding me.”

Playing everything from a headstrong hippieto a poncy Ponsonby professional, Cormack hasavoided being typecast by mixing it up workwise.Sometimes saying yes comes down to needingthe money (“I just bought a $500 car off theside of the road”), but usually it’s because there’ssomething about a project, perhaps the role,theme, director or cast, that really attracts her.

The Vagina Monologues, Spare Prick, A Streetcar

Named Desire, Topless Women and now Separa-tion City — you’ll notice Cormack’s never beenshy of projects where sex, whether explicit orimplicit, is central. Pointing out sex was oftenthe selling-point but not the essence of theseprojects, Cormack says getting intimate can beawkward, but necessary to the story. “I’ve neverreally had that much of a problem with it [sexscenes], which might be quite telling actually. Ifthere’s no nudity in this project, I don’t want totake part!” she laughs.

So as a late-30s, as opposed to a 20-somethingactress, is it ever a feast-or-famine situation?Whether her youthful looks have anything to dowith it, and while she doesn’t want to jinx it, thesimple answer is “no”. The offers keep coming.

While she gets enough work from her baseout “Westside” in Henderson suburbia, yes, she’shad the urge to do the whole uproot-to-Holly-wood thing “in fits and starts. But I’m a realist.”Getting snapped up at your first LA audition canhappen, she says, but many wannabe starlets havelaboured under an illusion of easy success. Still,she reckons it’s easier to get US work nowadaysin the age of strong agent contacts.

That’s how she picked up work in US com-pany Pacific Renaissance Pictures’ fantasy showsincluding Hercules, Cleopatra, Amazon High andXena, the latter of which earned her a flurry offan letters, a spot on the convention circuit anda 2003 berth aboard a cruise-ship of groupies.Fantasy shows are “an opportunity to really dress

The busy world of

DanielleActress Danielle Cormack has never been one to shyfrom multiple projects. We’re about to see a lot moreof her soon in the film Separation City and in TV’smuch-buzzed about The Cult, writes Sarah Lang.

WEDDED BLISS?:With co-star Joel Edgerton in

Separation City.

JANNA DIXON

View • July 26, 2009 • 9

On TV

THE WORD “hero” may havebeen devalued in recent times byassociation with lucky survivorsand overpaid sportsmen, but for

some historical figures it’s a title easily worn.Like the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mis-

sion in 1969 who flew to the moon, landedand flew back again — three pioneers whorisked their lives in every moment of what wastruly a journey into the unknown.

“They were some of the last heroes,” saysBritish actor Andrew Lincoln, who playsastronaut Michael Collins in tonight’s Primetelevision docu-drama Moonshot: The Flight ofApollo 11. “They went up strapped to a rocketthey used to launch nuclear warheads on.They sat on that and went to the moon. Theyare heroes those guys, they’re unreal.”

The youthful looking 36-year-old Lincoln,best known for his role as Egg in the 1990s hitBBC series This Life, and for his appearance inthe hit film Love Actually, spent six weeks film-ing Moonshot on location in Lithuania.

The feature-length drama was made tomark the 40th anniversary of the moon land-ing on July 20, 1969. Collins was one of thethree men on that mission, although his fatewas to stay in the command module alone inspace while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrindescended to the lunar surface to make thefirst life-changing moon walk.

Lincoln (whose real name is Clutterbuck)says he and fellow actors Australian DanielLapaine and American James Marsters (bestknown to New Zealand audiences as Spike inBuffy the Vampire Slayer), were acutely awareof the responsibility of playing historicalfigures who carried out possibly the mostfamous act of all time.

The first week of shooting includedextensive lectures in physics so the actorswould understand the complex tasks they wererequired to portray.

“This moment was like the Kennedy assas-sination,” says Lincoln of the moon landing.“It had a profound effect on the whole world.A lot of people are very, very well informedabout it. It’s difficult dramatising somethingthe whole world knows about. That’s whywhen you do something like this you want itto be absolutely authentic. There was no pointin doing it half-heartedly. It’s an extraordinarystory on every level.”

However, one thing that was not authen-tic was the location. The producers decidedto shoot in Lithuania because, in Lincoln’swords, it was “cheap as chips”. Lincoln says itdid get surreal at times. “I couldn’t believe thelocations. We used Gorbachev’s old home tofill in for the Space Centre and we had peoplelike the Cadillac club of Lithuania turning upwith all these rockabilly guys. I thought ‘whaton earth are we doing here?’ The producersmade $2 million look like $7 million.”

The production, by Dangerous Films, thecompany behind 9/11: The Twin Towers and

Human Body: Pushing the Limits, employs amixture of conventional drama, CGI effectsand archive footage to perfectly recreate theera of the space race and demonstrate howthe push for the moon was accomplished overmany years.

It still seems scarcely believable that theycould have succeeded with such comparativelycrude equipment and untested technology.Lincoln is in awe of the men who accom-plished their extraordinary mission four dec-ades ago. “Their computer had the processingpower of a digital watch. Collins had to press93 buttons to programme the setting for thecomputer in the command module. Theseguys were f***ing machines. They were thetop guns.”

The film reveals that President Nixon hadtwo speeches written — one to mark thesuccess of the mission and another to mournthe three astronauts if they had perished.

At one point the lunar module broke downas Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to leave themoon. The entire fate of the mission restedon one of the astronauts being able to jam thenib of a pen into a circuit breaker switch to getthe vehicle started.

But, while Moonshot vividly portrays thetechnological challenges and sense of history,the heart of the drama lies in the complex,even competitive, relationship between thethree astronauts who Collins later described as“amiable strangers”.

Lincoln says Collins and Armstrong havealways been “notoriously shy” since the mis-sion, but Aldrin had some contact with thecrew during the making of Moonshot. Lincolnsays the clash of egos could not be ignored inthe telling of the wider story.

“It was a very important part of that mis-sion. These were the most famous people onthe planet.”

It is partly as a result of the almost mythicalnature of the moon landing that an industryof conspiracy theories has dogged the eventsince the 1960s, with some maintaining thatthe “landing” was filmed in a secret studio as aCold War propaganda tool.

Lincoln has no time for doubters. “If it wasa conspiracy theory why would they continueto send people to the moon? It’s bizarre. Themore I read, the more I think there can be nodoubt. We would have heard. We live in sucha cynical age. I think it’s deeply insulting tothe bravery and extraordinary efforts of thosemen.”

Moonshot plays on Prime tonight at 8.30pm.

up and have a bit of fun, running around withimaginary friends and oversized weapons,” shesays with a laugh, plus it’s nice to do something alittle lighter occasionally, and something her sonwants to watch.

Since her pregnancy was incorporated into theplotline of 1997’s Topless Women, juggling mother-hood with multiple projects (in various stagesfrom conception to completion) has required atake-it-day-by-day approach. “Actually, secondby second.” But it beats working 9 to 5. “I don’tknow what would happen to me if I had a 9-to-5job. I don’t know what would happen to thatjob!”

The flexibility of the acting industry — wherejust about everyone (apart from Shortland Street-ers perhaps) are perennial freelancers — frees uptime for other pursuits. TV-host work includespresenting Alt TV music show Fire It Up! andfronting an Intrepid Journeys trip to Syria (whereshe was propositioned by a sheik in return forcamels). Radio, in which she’s dabbled as a BFMand Kiwi FM DJ, is her back-up career — shealso wouldn’t mind being an architect, a designeror working in fashion — but for now she’s mesh-ing her love of music and writing as one halfof band Bob Geldof with Jonny Brugh whoseexperimental music is set to her “tongue-in-cheek poetry and stories”. She’s also dabbling inplay and short-story writing, collaborating withwriter Karyn Hay on a poetry book and fittingin the occasional gig as MC, event presenter andspeaker. But acting is still her bread-and-butter.

Although she enjoys the fast-turnaroundchallenge of TV, and seeing the “magic” end-result of a film, her favourite medium is theatrebecause of its immediacy, character breadth,flexibility and “forgiveness. I can play a 90-year-

old woman. I can play a 13-year-old boy.”Critically-acclaimed 2007 solo show The

Case of Katherine Mansfield, for whichshe adopted a severe bob, has been hermost challenging role to date, partlybecause Mansfield’s verbatim quotesdidn’t translateeasily to the stage.One of Mansfield’s quotes was:

“Risk, risk everything. Care not for whatpeople say, for fear breeds failure”. And

that’s how Cormack does things.“I don’t think you can find

out things about theworld or about your-

self if you don’t takea step with a certainamount of risk. . . You never knowwhat’s around thecorner.”

Separation City

is out in cinemas

August 6.

The Cult debuts

on TV2 in

September.

The historic 1969 lunar landing is dramatised intonight’s Prime TV drama Moonshot. Cliff Taylorchats to star Andrew Lincoln about his role.

“I’ve never reallyhad that muchof a problemwith it [sexscenes], whichmight be quitetellingactually.”

“These guys were f***ingmachines. They were thetop guns.”

ANDREW LINCOLN

Fly me to the moon

THE CULT: As mad scientist

sidekick Cynthia.