Source: Radio New Zealand
After a few big years of work in UK television, Rose Matafeo flew home to film a show created by her friend Paul Williams last summer.
The New Zealand Spy writer, director and star is someone she loves and trusts, she says, and also an “incredible writer”.
“I’m very particular and quite harsh on what I find good and funny. So the things I do, hopefully I’m lending a confidence to them that I’m like, ‘this is a great thing’,” she tells RNZ’s Culture 101.
Listen to the full interview with Rose Matafeo on RNZ’s Culture 101, Sunday from noon.
As a “huge believer in terrestrial television”, Matafeo recommends people watch New Zealand Spy as it drops week to week, but says the 70s-inspired show’s six episodes could also work as a binge.
“You could watch this from the first episode to the sixth episode and it would just be like watching a really funny, great film.”
In New Zealand Spy, which features “little nods” to classic movies like North by Northwest, Charade, and the vintage Bond films she and Williams are both big fans of, the comedian plays rookie spy Sue Nightingale in 70s outfits that were a “total dream”.
The cast of New Zealand Spy – clockwise left to right Rose Matafeo, Joe Thomas, Paul Williams and Bret McKenzie.
Nick White
A bob haircut acquired while Williams was staying with Matafeo in London also makes its screen debut.
“I opened the door, and he was like, ‘Cool hair’. I’m like, ‘It’ll be good for New Zealand Spy, right? It’ll work for the 70s, right? Or do you have budget for a wig?”
After moving to London ten years ago on a Youth Mobility visa, Matafeo says scoring the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award for her show Horndog was like “winning the lottery” for an aspiring comedian and writer.
The award helped get her HBO Max show Starstruck and film Baby Done off the ground, and since then, she’s appeared on Celebrity Great British Bake Off, hosted Junior Taskmaster and guest-hosted the “very good nerdy” quiz show Pointless.
While chance has played a role in Matafeo’s career and she feels “very, very lucky” to now be able to take only jobs she wants, the comedian says she’s also put in ten years of hard work along the way.
Rose Matafeo with English actor Nikesh Patel in Starstruck (2020).
Supplied
When you write your own material, as she did for Starstuck, the stakes – and nerves – are extremely high, the comedian says.
“I’m like, I poured my heart and soul into this thing. So much work goes into making stuff [so positive feedback] is a real compliment.”
The years between 24 and 34 are a “wild time of your life” when people and their priorities change, Matafeo says.
Although she’s changed a lot in the last five years, the comedian still feels like “a very normal person with very normal day-to-day difficulties”.
“Coming up with new ideas and coming up with what I want to do next is definitely what I struggle with the most. [And] I need to eat more fibre. Those are my two difficulties – fibre and the future.”
Rose Matafeo grew up in Auckland and moved to London in 2016.
Kanielditson
In the years to come, when the US settles down, Matafeo predicts she will do some TV work there, but for now, London is the “perfect, perfect place” for the Kiwi star.
In recent years, to her delight, a bunch of friends from her “weirdly, very talented generation” of NZ comedians, including Nic Sampson, Starstruck co-writers Alice Snedden, Joseph Moore and Eli Matheson have turned up.
“I can’t leave when they’re all there. I’m like, ‘This is amazing.’ For the next wee while I’ll definitely be in London.”
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand