I tried my best [on audition for X-Files], and it worked out. I got the part. So I was flabbergasted.
When I did The X-Files, there was certainly less of that because the script was as it was and it was such a wonderful script and it was quite complex and there wasn't a hell of a lot of improvising I could do to bring to the table, but I guess what I did bring was a sense of self and that the reason I was cast was because I did come across as someone who possibly was only human for a short time.
Back in the day, Barry Crump not only had these stories that talked about that kind of rustic personality, but also, he spoke volumes, I guess, of the relationships in the stories that he told in these books.
He [Taika Watiti] worked on this screenplay for a couple of years and just getting it right and the result is there. He's made really close to a perfect film [Hunt for the Wilderpeople]... Perfect as you can be.
This particular one was very, very heartwarming and is the relationship of an older man and a young boy that are essentially on the run. And so yeah, as I say, Barry Crump wrote a lot of books and this one got into the hands of Taika Watiti who then writing the screenplay decided to really vamp up if that's the word, or ramp up and modernize certain phrases - getting in the humor. So he added a lot of a real comedy perspective onto it which is what I think the story needed anyway, especially for it to turn into a film. And it worked.
I am very much into the paranormal.
That's the first time I've been involved in such a big way as a voice actor and this script [Voltron] is very matter of factly.
I know as far as things like the Thunderbirds, there's a New Zealand connection. X-Files, my connection there... I mean, it could be zeitgeist. I mean, I'm into the paranormal. I have a podcast about cryptozoology. So it's out there that I'm into weird stuff.
I have a 10 year old boy and a 6 year old boy and the stuff that they watch, it's always... I mean, it could be because we're a funny family, but they love the humor and combining humor with space action, I mean, you know, there's a winner right there.
I do want to come across something, I do want to feel something and see something.
I guess, on my list, going back to some old American stuff and British stuff that I used to love in the '80s, would be a British show called Dad's Army, which recently just turned into a movie.
That's one of the best things about characters like Indiana Jones. I mean, he's funny. He's done really wicked things.
My optimistic outlook on life is to sort of be positive and take everyone at face value.
I've seen UFOs, and Loch Ness - I've been to Loch Ness a few times looking for Nessie, and that's also a beautiful place to be.
I'd love to be [one of MacGyver's buddies]. I'd watch that one and just think, wow, what a life. Living in Hawaii, driving around in someone's Ferrari, and solving mysteries.
When I do the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I always go across to Loch Ness and stay there.
For anyone who's a fan of the X-files show - I mean, I have the ultimate role. I got to deal with Mulder, I got to talk to him, I had a fight sequence with him. Really for anyone who is a fan of the show, I think I fulfilled a lot of young boys' dreams.
You've got to have a likeability factor, I think, in your comedy characters. If the guy's really, really funny but you just don't like him or her, then you're never going to root for them.
I think when I'm cast in things, people take that as part of the package that I would like to have some sort of creative control and they know what I'm capable of, so they let me come on the day with my own ammunition.
One time we stayed at a B&B, and there were a couple of hippies who had this nice little area and they let us sleep in their beds that they had in the back.Then the woman suggested we go out and lie on some cushions and look up at the stars and look for UFOs and she said, "You know, I do this all the time," and I was like, "Okay..." So there we are, lying there next to this amazing loch, and we're looking up in the stars and I don't really know what I was expecting, but to see some sort of metallic object.
I'm probably a monster-of-the-week guy, and that comes back down to my old favorite show, which as a kid was always Scooby-Doo.
I think I can relate to this guy [Psycho Sam] that ended up... This desire to go off the grid and live on his own and didn't trust anyone or anything and I guess the thing that saved him in my head was that he had a great sense of humor.
I'm not really a conspiracy nut, but I think if I went down a slightly different route in my life instead of meeting and marrying the person I met, I may have gone down this other direction and got myself stuck in my head with my ideas and my thoughts and I'm into UFOs and paranormal subject matter.
What Taika [Watiti] still bring to it [Hunt for the Wilderpeople], it really sums up what life is like in New Zealand, or what our sensibilities, our sense of humor, how we come together, how easy it would be, feels like. You know, we have a small population and so you know the bizarreness of the police getting involved in this manhunt, how the men... And then eventually, the army all get intwines.
I was in the New Zealand army for like four years, the exact period of when it was on the air, so I never saw it.