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hellomyfriendProbing Planet Bret- Posts : 17017
Join date : 2008-04-29
How to become a cult American television fixture
Sat Sep 06, 2008 3:03 pm
How to become a cult American television fixture
Forget TVNZ and Shortland Street, real stars are made in America. And forget acting school, says Rhys Darby: unshakeable – almost masochistic – self-belief can get you far.
Darby, on the back of his role as the cheerful idiotic band manager Murray on HBO’s Flight of the Conchords, has jumped straight into gigging with Jim Carey on the big screen in the upcoming Yes Men.
“I’ve literally made no short films, nothing, just jumped in the deep end. So you can imagine my first week on the film set in Hollywood – all my scenes were with Jim, all these cameras, 150 extras, the director and producers sitting in their special chairs – and me, thinking, ‘Oh my God, should I really be here?’”
Darby says cast-iron confidence is essential, especially when you face the inevitable knock. Nominated for a Billy T Award, the young Darby lost.
“In the second year I was nominated again. And lost again. At that point I felt angry, bought my air ticket to Britain and thought, ‘Blow this, I’m going straight to the big time.’”
And even back at university in New Zealand, Darby knew his route to the top: “For me, I’ve always had a passion for acting.” Through gigging as a comic in the United Kingdom and at international festivals, Darby says, he figured out acting as he went along: “I learnt on the road.”
But making the transition from dime-a-dozen stage comic to bona fide cult television star required more than self-belief. “I did some auditioning and some sketch shows to try to break into TV over there,” he says of pre-Conchords days in England. “And I got onto children’s television. Which wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.”
The key ingredient, says Darby, is being in the right place at the right time – and having the right people working as friendly lackies. While the Conchords were winning over the critics at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Darby says his own show across town was existing in a parallel universe.
“I was putting on a solo show in a venue the size of a large toilet, and three or four people would come. But Brett [McKenzie, the elfish member of the Conchords] was doing the sound and lighting. He was my technician.”
The BBC asked the Conchords to record a radio play, and based on their prior connections Darby was asked to voice the character of their manager.
Always be flexible, says Darby. “I dropped everything and did it. And the rest is history.”
source:
Forget TVNZ and Shortland Street, real stars are made in America. And forget acting school, says Rhys Darby: unshakeable – almost masochistic – self-belief can get you far.
Darby, on the back of his role as the cheerful idiotic band manager Murray on HBO’s Flight of the Conchords, has jumped straight into gigging with Jim Carey on the big screen in the upcoming Yes Men.
“I’ve literally made no short films, nothing, just jumped in the deep end. So you can imagine my first week on the film set in Hollywood – all my scenes were with Jim, all these cameras, 150 extras, the director and producers sitting in their special chairs – and me, thinking, ‘Oh my God, should I really be here?’”
Darby says cast-iron confidence is essential, especially when you face the inevitable knock. Nominated for a Billy T Award, the young Darby lost.
“In the second year I was nominated again. And lost again. At that point I felt angry, bought my air ticket to Britain and thought, ‘Blow this, I’m going straight to the big time.’”
And even back at university in New Zealand, Darby knew his route to the top: “For me, I’ve always had a passion for acting.” Through gigging as a comic in the United Kingdom and at international festivals, Darby says, he figured out acting as he went along: “I learnt on the road.”
But making the transition from dime-a-dozen stage comic to bona fide cult television star required more than self-belief. “I did some auditioning and some sketch shows to try to break into TV over there,” he says of pre-Conchords days in England. “And I got onto children’s television. Which wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.”
The key ingredient, says Darby, is being in the right place at the right time – and having the right people working as friendly lackies. While the Conchords were winning over the critics at the 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Darby says his own show across town was existing in a parallel universe.
“I was putting on a solo show in a venue the size of a large toilet, and three or four people would come. But Brett [McKenzie, the elfish member of the Conchords] was doing the sound and lighting. He was my technician.”
The BBC asked the Conchords to record a radio play, and based on their prior connections Darby was asked to voice the character of their manager.
Always be flexible, says Darby. “I dropped everything and did it. And the rest is history.”
source:
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