We’re a straightforward race, says Maori actress Rena Owen of her hard-hitting role in Once Were Warriors. She took time off to sip wine beneath Table Mountain with William Pretorius
CAPE TOWN isn’t an ideal place for an interview. One would rather sip wine, look at Table Mountain and chat, especially as it’s Maori actress Rena Owen’s last interview and it’s been a long day. She plays the abused wife, Beth, in Once Were Warriors, a tough New Zealand film about family violence among Maoris.
Owen’s hectic promotional schedule indicates just how much of an international hit the film has become: she leaves almost immediately for Italy, then the Sundance festival in America — “Robert Redford’s festival!”
But Owen is still bubbly and enthusiastic, a far cry from the emotionally tormented Beth. She’s in love with Cape Town, has always wanted to come to Africa ever since she saw Born Free, a favourite movie. “Johannesburg was just a city. Durban’s better — greenery and a sea front. But Cape Town’s phenomenal. I flew over in a helicopter from the airport. When I came over Table Mountain I had butterflies in my stomach. It’s special — I could live here.”
Owen was born and raised one of nine children in Moerewa, a tough little town. The inhabitants once set fire to a police car — with the police inside. But Owen “grew up on drama. My first stage role was Bloody Mary in South Pacific at 14.” She did a lot of plays for the church and community: “It’s always been in my blood.”
Then she became a nurse. “It was the 1970s, and acting wasn’t considered a career. A woman’s lot, if you weren’t a housewife, was to become a secretary, a nurse or a teacher. We also had no role models, no brown faces on our TV screens. So I did what made my parents very proud.”
Nursing was a detour. “I love my nursing years. The more life experience you have, the more you can bring to your roles.” Owen immerses herself in a character. “I’m very tedious. I write little novels for my characters. They don’t begin at the beginning of a film, but the day they were born.” The abused Beth, who loves her husband too much to leave him, was “a gift, a powerful role a million actresses around the world would kill for”.
So far, on the international round of press and premieres, only some German reporters have responded in a negative way. “How could you play a role like that?” they asked Owen. But, she counters, “they live in a state of denial. They still want Hollywood fantasy, not confrontational films.”
Owen, in fact, has been involved in a Hollywood fantasy — Rapa Nui, an Easter Island drama directed by Kevin Reynolds, which opens here on February 3. It was “incredible working on a film with thousands of people, six months to shoot and a $50-million budget”. The film is awful — it was never finished. “It’s not always money that makes the best films. The Americans have been bloody spoiled. They waste money. We couldn’t finish — anyone who shoots a totally exterior film in the rainy season has got to be a bit bloody crazy! I think they forgot they can’t buy the elements.”
Once Were Warriors cost $1,6-million. Director Lee Tamahori and the cast knew they had a local success, in spite of heavy criticism from the politically correct about negative Maori images. The international success was unexpected, but very welcome. If the film is outspoken and tough, it’s because it’s full of “Kiwi brashness. We’re a direct, straightforward race — it’s just part of our way of being.”
Right now, though, Owen would probably like to get back to her routine. She is Cancerian — “emotional, that makes me good at dramatic scenes”. She meditates and is a vegetarian, although “not a monk. I have my wild nights and lose my way, but I keep it to small doses.”
She’s about to play Coco, a transsexual cabaret star in another New Zealand film, You’re my Venus, a futuristic fantasy set in Casino City. “It’s fabulous, with outrageous costumes, wigs, lots of make-up!” It’s camp, different to Beth, a juicy role. And it makes one very curious about the history she’ll write for this character. But she’s not telling. Right now it’s more pleasant to sip wine, look at the mountain and chat about this and that.
Once Were Warriors opens on circuit on January 27