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Michael Hurst

The Press

April 14 2000 Issue

The Press is the main newspaper in the South Island of New Zealand.

SECTION: FEATURES; ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. 21; EG MOVIES NEW RELEASE

LENGTH: 718 words

HEADLINE: Michael Hurst: driven to direct

BYLINE:  PETROVIC Hans  HURST Michael

 BODY:
   New Zealand actor Michael Hurst says directing the feature film Jubilee was
the logical next step in his career. He talks to HANS PETROVIC about the film.

   Directing episodes of the television costume series  Xena  and Hercules is
proving invaluable experience for a new wave of New Zealand feature-film
directors whose movies are beginning to appear on the big screen.

   Mark Beesley directed episodes of both series before he began work on his
Westies comedy Savage Honeymoon, and so did Michael Hurst, the director of
another New Zealand comedy, Jubilee, now showing at Hoyts 8 and Northlands.

   "A new generation of directors is coming from  Xena  and Hercules," says
Hurst.

   "They learn every aspect of production there, from camerawork down to the
basic practicalities, including scheduling. I couldn't have shot Jubilee in 30
days without that experience."

   Hurst, 42, also has lengthy acting association with Hercules, in which he
played the role of Ioalus.

   "I'd been playing Ioalus for six years, and I guess I knew that was coming to
an end. I've acted and directed since I was 18 -- it's the only business I know
-- and I must have played some 80 roles in theatre, television, and film.

   "I've directed screeds of theatre, an award- winning short film, and episodes
of Hercules and  Xena,  including a big-budget two-hour pilot. So I was ready
for something the size of a feature film."

   In fact, Hurst's acting experience goes all the way back to Christchurch.

   After leaving Papanui High School, his formative years were spent with the
Canterbury Repertory Society and the Children's Theatre, before being spotted by
the Court Theatre in 1976.

   "The Court Theatre was still relatively new then," Hurst says. "I was taken
on for two years as an apprentice. Besides acting, I did the lighting, designed
sets, even did the publicity. It was really a broad-based training that gave me
a total understanding of the functions of theatre."

   From there, he moved on to Auckland's Theatre Corporate. "I've been very
blessed in my career. Curiously, while in Christchurch, I saw endless versions
of Ben-Hur at the Cinerama cinema, and then found myself running around in
similar costumes in Hercules."

   To Hurst, directing the feature film Jubilee seems a logical extension of all
the experience he has picked up over the years.

   Based on the novel by Nepi Solomon, Jubilee is set in the small town of
Waimatua, the sweet-potato capital of the world, in the heartland of New
Zealand.

   When one of the local lads, Billy Williams (played by Cliff Curtis), is put
in charge of organising the school's 75th anniversary, he vows to organise the
mother of all jubilees, but it proves to be not as easy as he thought.

   "(Producer) John Barnett approached me with the Jubilee script and I laughed
and laughed. I could relate instantly. (Screenwriter) Michael Bennett had
created very real situations, very real characters, and humour, but also real
depth with drama which allows actors to fly," Hurst says.

   "Jubilee is firstly Billy's story. He's hopeless, but not a loser -- the type
of guy who's likeable and always volunteering to help out, but actually never
finishes a thing. Then he gets the job of organising the school jubilee.
"Along the way, he realises that people never really expected him to organise
this thing, and this comes as a bit of a shock to Billy.

   "It galvanises him into absolutely trying to do it, but fate intercedes and
he gets obstruction after obstruction." Eventually, he pulls it together.

   "At the same time, his wife Pauline (Theresa Healey) is going through a bit
of a mid-life crisis. She's not only sick of Billy being useless, she's also
scared of people coming back to town for the jubilee and seeing that she's never
done anything with her life.

   "So, the story is essentially Billy's marriage versus Billy's struggle to get
the jubilee off the ground.

   "I think Jubilee is a love story, and it's unashamedly warm ... It's a comedy
of situation, predicament, and character. Its predominantly Kiwi humour and more
particularly, Maori humour."

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