Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

190
was also emotionally tough, and towards the end of the shoot Fiona became so tired she
was often close to tears”. 631 As a director he was “tougher on her than […] on any
professional actor or actress. If I didn’t like what she had done I would tell her it was
junk. And if she was upset about anything, she kicked me in the shins”. 632 Despite this,
Elizabeth McRae, who worked as a voice tutor for the film, and was on the set for part
of the shoot, believes that one of Ward’s strengths is that he works very well with
children and “was wonderful with Fiona Kay”, following up the relationship he had
developed with her on the film by keeping in touch with her by phone even after the
shoot had finished. 633 .
McRae was asked to tutor Bill Kerr, an Australian television actor who played the part
of Birdie, since Birdie was supposed to be of Irish descent yet had spent time working
with Maori. Frank Whitten also needed to work with Elizabeth in order to regain his
New Zealand accent since he had spent much of his professional life in England.
McRae’s summary of Ward as a director was that: “Vincent demanded perfection”. He
expected Penelope Stewart, the young woman cast as Liz, to practise ballet for a
sequence in the film, and was disappointed when she did not seem to be focusing
sufficiently on her role. Frank Whitten, on the other hand, responded well to this kind
of approach, practising running downhill carrying a dead sheep over and over, and
attending a training workshop to learn shearing. McRae recalls that Ward talked “most
intimately” with the actors about what he wanted, and her impression was that “he had
every single frame in his head before he started shooting”. 634
For Whitten, the role of Ethan in Vigil was his first role back in New Zealand after
almost twenty years in England. When he was given the script, he responded to it partly
because he came from a farming background himself and partly because “it was like a
fairy-tale. Although it was deeply embedded in the realities of living in this country, it
also had a kind of mythic quality about it”. 635 For the role, Whitten was required to put
on quite a lot of weight and muscle, which he did by going to the gym for three months
before shooting began. He also learned falconry and how to ride and shear a sheep.
631
Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 75.
632
Ward quoted in Brent Lewis, "Kiwi Fruit Springs from a Hard Terrain," The Guardian 24 January
1985.
633
Lynette Read, interview with Elizabeth McRae, 20 November 2001.
634
Lynette Read, interview with Elizabeth McRae, 20 November 2001.
635
Lynette Read, interview with Frank Whitten, 13 April 2002.