Forget six degrees of Kevin Bacon – to connect up everyone in the New Zealand entertainment industry, all you really need is two degrees of Naked Samoan.
Oscar Kightley, Dave Fane, Shimpal Lelisi, Mario Gaoa, Robbie Magasiva, Iaheto Ah Hi – there can’t be many Kiwi actors around today who haven’t either worked directly with one of these veterans of stage and screen, or know someone who has.
That even rings true for some of the young cast members in the 1980s-set Sione’s Wedding prequel series Duckrockers – despite the fact that none of them had even been born when the Naked Samoans performance group started up in 1998.
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Rocky Manusaute as Bolo in Duckrockers.
Take for example Rocky Manusaute, who plays the younger version of Bolo, the enigmatic Sione’s character originated by Dave Fane.
With only a handful of small parts to his name before Duckrockers, the 20-year-old AUT student got what he describes as his first “real start” as an actor in the Victor Rodger play Club Paradiso, which also starred one Robbie Magasiva in the lead role.
Nineteen-year-old Duane Wichman Evans Jr on the other hand is already something of a veteran himself – just a month or so away from hitting the big screen as Rotxo in Avatar: The Way Of Water. Evans is probably best known for his three-year Shortland Street stint as the son of party-boy nurse Vinnie Kruse, who was played by the late Pua Magasiva, Robbie’s brother.
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Evans’ Duckrockers connection goes back even further than that however – right back to his very first gig as a crying three year old in a cervical cancer screening ad directed by Sima Urale, who now happens to be sharing directing duties on Duckrockers with Oscar Kightley.
So it’s not surprising really to hear that for Evans, who plays the younger version of Robbie Magasiva’s Sione’s Wedding character Michael, working on the Duckrockers set “feels like home”.
The New Zealand Māori/Cook Islands Māori actor says it was “a blessing” to be able to work with so many other Polynesians both in front of and behind the camera – and especially so with Robbie Magasiva, who he describes as “kind of like a dad, kind of like a brother – he’s just family, in a way”.
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Duane Wichman-Evans Jr as Michael in Duckrockers.
Having started a job painting houses with his older brother last year, Evans reveals that he had actually decided to take a break from acting for a while – until Duckrockers came along.
“When this popped up, I just knew I was going to go for it,” he says, explaining that the decision to throw his hat back into the acting ring for Duckrockers was strongly influenced by his close connection to Pua Magasiva, whose original Sione character is the linchpin around which much of the Sione’s Wedding franchise revolves.
“We were real close,” remembers Evans. “There was actually a time when we were filming for Duckrockers down at Grey Lynn Park on his anniversary, and a white dove flew over everyone and then landed on Levi’s head, who plays Sefa. We were all kind of amazed – it was like, Pua’s just come down to hang out for a bit.
“Another thing about Pua was that he always used to do Nacho Libre quotes. And when we were filming Duckrockers, Robbie started doing them and it was giving me flashbacks – he sounded just the same.”
Thinking back to when he first found out he had won the role of young Michael on Duckrockers, Evans says he went through “a lot of different emotions”.
“My first initial thing that I did actually was that I just yelled out, ‘We got it, Pua’. And then I called my dad up and he was like, ‘Aw, good on you’.”
Manusaute says the phone call letting him know he had landed the Duckrockers job was “an emotional moment” for him as well.
“You’re talking to a person who is used to losing time and time again, so every time I walk into an audition room I’m always like, ‘Well, I’m not gunna get it, so I may as well just give it my all anyway’ – and this is the first time they’ve come back with, ‘Oh, you know what? You got it’.
“So I just sat for a bit and I was like, ‘Wow, I actually did it’. Then I had a bit of a moment with my mum and dad. And my nana – she said she’d been praying for me since the first audition.
“Now they call me Bolo at uni. It’s not even Rocky any more.”
Duckrockers, TVNZ 2 Wednesday
