Russell Baillie

The Kiwi director of M3GAN tells Russell Baillie how pulling off a few unusual moves helped make the film a surprise box-office hit. Gerard Johnstone laughs ruefully about the art-imitating-life aspects to his film M3GAN. No, the Kiwi director behind…

NZ Listener With a new purposefully unfunny album out, Bret McKenzie reflects on why life isn't always a happy song. As it says on the tin, Songs without Jokes is a non-comedy album by Bret McKenzie, a man whose songs with jokes have done quite well,…

As he farewells the Jurassic period of his career with the final film in the blockbuster franchise, Sam Neill talks about the series, writing his memoir, and why he's not going the way of the dinosaur. NZ Listener Among his many achievements on…

The pandemic cloud above Tami Neilson's career has had a silver lining – a duet with Willie Nelson on her forthcoming album and the chance to sing it with him on stage in Texas. NZ Listener It's early afternoon on a spring day in the Hill Country…

Midnight Oil is calling it a day with one last-blast album and tour. Peter Garrett and Jim Moginie talk about the Australian group's enduring trans-Tasman relations and the loss of Kiwi bassist Bones Hillman. By RUSSELL BALLIE Midnight Oil first took…

One of Melanie Lynskey’s latest roles harks back to Heavenly Creatures while another has her married to Leonardo DiCaprio. by RUSSELL BAILLIE Melanie Lynskey doesn’t mind her past catching up with her. It has helped her role in Yellowjackets, the…

NZ Listener November 20 2020 issue. Dame Jane Campion sits in a Los Angeles hotel suite talking to the world. A team of Netflix publicists are mustering journalists from various time zones from one virtual waiting room to another, to await their…

Rosamund Pike's crisp voice is on the line from somewhere in the Czech Republic. There, the actor is making fantasy epic tele­vision series The Wheel of Time, based on the 14-book series by Robert Jordan. She plays Moiraine Damodred, who, she says,…

The actor remembered for killing his girlfriend in The Sopranos gets a benign lead role and laments the gangsterisation of US politics. By Russell Baillie.What's a guy like Joe Pantoliano doing in a nice movie like From the Vine? His characters'…

New Zealander Jessica Hobbs talks about her directing duties on The Crown and the anxiety that comes with depicting increasingly recent royal history. By Russell Baillie.The Crown isn't Jessica Hobbs' first period drama by a long shot. No, the…

As Maja in new film The Secrets We Keep, Noomi Rapace reprises some of her Lisbeth Salander edge. By Russell Baillie.It's a little over a decade since Noomi Rapace's international breakthrough as Lisbeth Salander, the computer-hacker cyber-goth…

Thirty years after An Angel at My Table brought Janet Frame's autobiographies to the cinema in Jane Campion's acclaimed adaptation, Russell Baillie reveals the creation of a Kiwi classic.Thirty years ago, Janet Frame went to the movies. At the time,…

Hold on, Thomas Oliver. There’s something we need to clear up. The final song on your new album is called The Time In Tokyo. The new single from it is called Coffee. But it’s the video for Coffee which has the Kiwi musician playing his Gretsch White…

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea tells Russell Baillie about his intoxicating autobiography and why the story stops just as the band hit the big time. Michael Peter Balzary isn’t the first rock star to write about his childhood. He’s not even the…

Veteran British director Ken Loach’s latest tackles the ramifications of the gig economy on the working poor in a companion piece to his Cannes-winning I, Daniel Blake. When the Listener calls Ken Loach for a short conversation about his very long…

Acclaimed screenwriter Anthony McCarten moves from Queen to bishop in a project pondering the relationship between Pope Francis and predecessor Pope Benedict. At the end of The Two Popes – that’s the book he wrote, not his same-named film or play…

As he heads to New Zealand for his first tour, Randy Newman looks back at his double career — as a movie composer and a sardonic singer-songwriter — while Martin Phillipps of the Chills sings his praises. He’s scored dozens of movies and released…

A new Hollywood film about a legendary car race won by a couple of New Zealand greats barely features them. Russell Baillie asks its director why, and how accurate his movie is. When New Zealand drivers Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon won and Denny…

In Bellbird, Cohen Holloway departs the Waititi-verse for a dramatic role in a bittersweet film about fathers and sons and life down on the farm. When Cohen Holloway turned up to be in Thor: Ragnarok, the first blockbuster of his career, he was a…

In-demand Kiwi conductor Holly Mathieson, home to steer NZ Opera's The Turn of the Screw, is setting a fast tempo. On this spring Thursday, as NZ Opera rehearse The Turn of the Screw, conductor Holly Mathieson is on double duties. The kids playing…