Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison

Temuera Derek Morrison MNZM (born 26 December, 1960) is a New Zealand actor who first gained recognition in his home country for playing Dr. Hone Ropata on the soap opera Shortland Street. He garnered critical acclaim for starring as Jake "The Muss" Heke in the 1994 film Once Were Warriors and its 1999 sequel What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?. Outside of New Zealand, Morrison is best known for his roles in the Star Wars multimedia franchise as the Mandalorian bounty hunters Jango Fett and Boba Fett.

Quotes

Once Were Warriors presskit (1994)

Once Were Warriors presskit, 1994

• This film will have universal appeal. It's about real people - they love, they hurt, they cry.
• Jake's a hard man and his horizons are limited. He had a violent upbringing and as a consequence, he has a chip on his shoulder. He's the kingpin of the public bar and anyone that upsets him, he'll smash.
• It's a hard film but the thing is, it's Beth's story. My role in it was to provide the misery.

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? presskit (1999)

What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? press kit, beyond.com

• I want this film to linger with the audience for a while, ... I want all the Jake Hekes out there to take a while and think about their lives.
• Basically we find Jake where we left him at the end of 'Warriors', back in his bar, brawling. But then things happen, his son dies, his girlfriend, Rita, leaves him when he does wrong by her again and he reaches his lowest point, the pits. From there we pick him up and take him on a journey and open his mind up. He discovers that he has to take on some responsibility in his life and start changing his ways.
• I think Jake's learning, I think he's matured, ... He was never taught how to express his feelings, so the only way he knows how to express himself is with his fists. This film is about getting him to stop hitting first and start thinking first.
• I thought, well he doesn’t have a wife to cook for him anymore, he has to cook his own eggs now. He's on the dole so his diet isn't that lavish, plus it's winter in this film, so we weren't go to show as much as skin as we did in the previous film.
• I use Robert's past history, his information, to make the character work. We've developed a certain fighting style in the way Jake rolls his punches, for example and he has a Tyson about him, a viciousness about him.

Temuera Morrison haunted by Jake the Muss (2009)

Tony Wall, Temuera Morrison haunted by Jake the Muss, stuff.co.nz, September 27, 2009

• I had to work hardest on Jake's anger, and now I think it's probably with me for life ... There's a lot of torment left in there. When you go to these dark places inside you, for some reason things linger on. Maybe I need to go through some spiritual cleansing process to get rid of that guy.
• I created that character, it comes from me really. I created this demon of this character, all that kind of stuff I had to draw on.
• I just got back from Rarotonga. Over there it was 'Jake the Muss, Jake, Jake, Jake' everywhere I went. ... It was the one thing I stood out in, I guess; there's always that one movie. It was one hell of a role wasn't it?

Once were Warriors star: 'Jake a millstone' (2010)

Neil Reid, Once were Warriors star: 'Jake a millstone', stuff.co.nz, February 27, 2010

• It was a lot of hard work and emotional mayhem. People go nutty doing movies like that. It was full-on and [we] never knew how it was going to turn out ... I was still curly-haired Doctor Ropata [off Shortland Street] until Friday night and we rolled on Warriors on the Monday. So there was no time to get ready.
• Over the last few years I have kept going to Hollywood and trying my luck. I am still chasing that golden dream – every now and then I get lucky.
• In the old days, about 10 years ago, they actually didn't mind hiring people from New Zealand and Australia. We had that kind of exotic look, I guess.
  These days, with the budgets, the recession and the paperwork involved they are not that fussy. They would rather employ someone from LA.
• I have been doing interviews for a long time now and they keep asking, 'How old are you now Tem?'. And I keep saying, 'Twenty-six'.

The Warrior Way: The Temuera Morrisnon Interview (2014)

The Warrior Way: The Temuera Morrisnon Interview, screen-space.squarespace.com, May 6, 2014

• ... word had started to get around about the Warriors script. After the first round of auditions, I got a little role in the film as a policeman, then I got the Uncle Bully role. About a month out from shooting, my agent got a call and he told me they wanted me to read for Jake. When I got that news, a light went off in my head. The first thing I thought was, ‘Here’s my chance’. I’d grown up in Rotorua, where the book is set, and I’d read it. So between my scenes as a doctor on Shortland Street, I got the make-up team to put some tattoos on my arms, found some rough shirts and went into the audition. And I just fired into one of the scenes, just thought to myself, ‘Right, I’m going to give this a nudge.’
• My agent was a lovely guy, Robert Bruce, who has passed away now. He was a bit of a scrapper, a fighter; he was wrestler, as a younger man. So he relished the news that they wanted to cast me. When the director rang Robert, he said, ‘We are going to go with Tem, but you have to get him ready.’ So he would get me revved up, got me into physical shape. We’d start training at 6am, do lots of boxing and fighting.
  And a lot of the kids hadn’t acted before, so I was able to work with them and work through getting the dynamics of the family right. Especially Grace (actress Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell), who I had to get revved up for all her scenes. They weren’t always nice times for me, for us, because it was a bit raw. You have to put those moments aside, convince yourself you are doing it for the character, for the film.
• ... we based a lot of the film on A Streetcar Named Desire, so I watched that a lot. The domestic situation was similar, Brando’s wild animal performance; Lee told me to watch that a lot.
• Rena had concerns about me, just as the producers had their concerns about me, which I could feel. They were waiting for me to drop the ball. It was a painful lesson, learning to believe in myself. I wasn’t getting the support I wanted going into this film. They were nervous and I could feel that nervousness.
• We didn’t realise what we had made. We never anticipated anything. We had a cast and crew screening early on and it was a very solemn, very quiet experience. We all went back to one of the cafes that was nearby and everyone was silent. I knew then that if this film was affecting us like this, all the people who were there making it, then I knew it was going to affect a whole lot of people.

Once Were Warriors star Temuera Morrison fronts Women’s Refuge campaign to highlight family violence (2016)

Once Were Warriors star Temuera Morrison fronts Women’s Refuge campaign to highlight family violence, news.com.au, July 14, 2016

• I played that guy Jack the Muss, I wanted people to feel on edge.
• When it came time to finish the day’s filming we were able to rub all the tattoos off, take our leathers off, and put our clothes on and go home to our normal life ... but for a lot of our people they can’t rub their tattoos off, the can’t take their leather jackets off. That is their life, they’re stuck, they’re stuck in that movie.
• Here we are now in the year 2016, 20 years since Once Were Warriors but the problem’s got worse, we speak of whanau, we speak of aroha, we say all these words but I think we’re just saying these words.