When I started in films, it never really occurred to me that I could make a career out of acting.

When I left university I was working for a documentary film company for six or seven years to the great relief of my father whose greatest waking fear was that I would become an actor.

Because I was familiar with Taika's Watiti work and there's a very subversive, funny streak amongst all of them. I don't think he turned [Hunt for the Wilderpeople] into a sort of drama, there's too much dark material underneath it for it to be a comedy; it wasn't designed to be a comedy. I think it's a comedy... I think it's a drama that's funny; which is different.

You don't necessarily have to go a long way in New Zealand to be in some pretty dense and scary bush.

I hate to say it, but there seems to have been some sort of dumbing down as far as movies go.

Magic realism - somebody used that phrase the other day that is familiar with South American literature. That rang a bell. It resonates with me.

People turn into fools when they see a movie star and do weird things.