The Star: December 08, 2016

28 Thursday December 8 2016
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Actor’s super-fan stardom
•From page 27
What has being short
taught you?
I survived childhood by
being the cheeky bugger that
avoids conflict. I had a complex
about my strawberry blonde
hair as well, but then I started
going bald at 20. I didn’t suit
a lot of roles because I looked
either too old or too young.
Do you often find yourself
typecast as the funny guy?
Luckily no. The last three
TV shows I’ve done were dead
serious. I was a conscientious
objector in Field Punishment
No 1, an engineer on Bombshell
– The Sinking of the Rainbow
Warrior and a petro-chemical
mogul in Jean, the story of Jean
Batten. I love character roles
because I enjoy exploring the
flaws in people.
You appeared naked
and covered in paint to
play a penguin in the play
Heat. Why didn’t you
at least wear some
underpants?
I questioned that as well
but the director said: “You’re
playing an animal and when
you see a horse or a dog or
whatever, you see the bits.” I
went: “Okay that scares me,
JOKING: Byron Coll appeared naked but body-painted
as a penguin in Heat at the Dunedin Fringe Festival in
2010. PHOTO: ODT
but I’ll see it as a challenge.”
We performed it to a couple of
schools, just drama students,
and there were sniggers at
first but a lot of people told me
that within 10 minutes they
completely forgot I was naked.
They saw me as a penguin,
which was awesome because
it’s hard to play an animal
convincingly.
Did it take long to apply all
that body paint?
I got it down to 1.5 hours.
The stage manager did my
back and I did the rest. I had to
crouch over a hair dryer to dry
my genital area because what
would happen as I warmed
up was the sweat would wipe
the paint off so when I turned
around the audience would
see this big white line between
my cheeks. Getting it all off
again took half an hour. It gets
into every nook and cranny,
inside your ears, under your
fingernails. My girlfriend Kate
Prior, who was in the play too,
helped me remove the paint in
the shower sometimes because
I literally couldn’t get to some
bits.
Did you have a moment of
thinking – “What the hell am
I doing?”
There were many times.
It was the most physically
demanding role I’ve played.
I had to move like a penguin
so I spent the entire time
waddling on my knees. The
only thing I wore were knee
pads and socks to stop the tops
of my feet getting callused.
There was a lot of falling down
but penguins can’t put their
hands out to stop a fall so I was
covered in bruises. By the end
of the seven-month tour I was
down to 64kg and absolutely
stuffed.
You’re about to appear in
NZ Opera’s The Mikado. Have
you done opera before?
No, this will be my first. I
can hold a note, but I probably
can’t sing real opera. Luckily,
it’s a Gilbert and Sullivan
operetta which is a lot easier.
I’ve done a couple of musicals
lately. A Little Shop of Horrors
was a heck of a lot of fun. We
had the old 1960s film up on
screen, muted, while four of us
played an original score live on
stage and did the dialogue at
the same time. My girlfriend
and I both got best actor
nominations for our roles in
Midsummer: A Play with Songs
in Wellington, but I won which
was a bit sad for her.
– NZ Herald