Tribe Podcasts during Quarantine

Cast & Crew
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I am slowly working my way through tribe podcasts. Ray is brilliant for organizing those and taking an hour to chat to each cast member! Love that.

But also, since they are pretty lengthy, I am going to try and recap some more interesting details from those podcasts, please add what caught your attention too.

Vanessa Stacey

• Vanessa worked as dialogue coach for “A New Tomorrow”

• Vanessa was a voice actor in “Lord of the Rings”.

• Robyn Malcolm was one of Vanessa’s mentors during drama school.

• Vanessa had to decide between completing her masters degree at drama school or joining “The Tribe” as core cast.

• Vanessa’s family was heavily impacted by Christchurch earthquake, as her father’s house got destroyed.

• She continues to sing almost weekly and does gigs in Wellington, so if you’re ever around, find the venue.

• She is active in theatre/musical productions as well as teaching acting classes.

QUOTES:

“It was extraordinary and I learned so much. At the time, as you know, Cloud9 was the fastest television production in the world… it was an extraordinary experience.
As a young up and coming practicioner, that was invaluable to me, Ray.”

“Each of us can be a hero by just looking after people who are closest to us, that we love; just staying home and just being safe. And also darling, this too shall pass.”

“People need to be lifted up, so take this time to write, to reflect, to breathe, really.”

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Raymond Thompson

• Ray grew up in the UK during sixties, John Lennon and the flower power days were a big inspiration for “The Tribe”.

• Ray’s dream was to become a writer.

• A lot of distributors rejected the idea of “The Tribe” but Ray had so much faith that he never even filmed a pilot, but went on to film the whole season one.

• Was anyone meant to be an autistic character in The Tribe? Ray says Jack.
Ray’s youngest son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.
Ray himself was 50 years old when he found out he had Asperger’s too.

• Bob the dog spent his last years on the vineyard and Ray got so attached to him he swore he’d not get another dog until he saw two puppies at a local pound.

• The New Tomorrow was meant to be a sequel, but in Australia they had different rules that prevented Ray from telling the story he had envisioned, so it just became trapped in remnants of development and was a stand-alone series but not what Ray would perceive as a sequel he wanted to carry out.

• Ray would now only imagine a movie version if he could develop a sequel with the original cast.

• On follow-up books: This is the actual way Ray intended the story to go and he’s happy that on pages he didn’t have to compromise and could afford exploring all the storylines he wanted to do.

• Ray has a passion for wine. In 1992 he came to NZ to film a series for 6 months, but fell in love with Martinborough and visited the building that later became Tirohana (his wine estate).
The pays homage to his late mother who was part Scottish, part roman gypsy - Tirohana translates to “Earth family”.

• Ray’s holiday home in Australia is located in the suburb of Hope Island :wink:
“A glass of Pinot Noir with the cornflakes.”


QUOTES:

“It’s wrongly reported that I stopped The Tribe because the characters were getting older… the context of that…that’s a bit out of context. Television is an interesting medium and scheldulers like to scheldule, they tend to brand something as either childrens programme or young adults or you know, drama or sci-fi or whatever. And “The Tribe” was an unusual one really, as I never perceived it as solely being “children’s program”. And we were proved to be correct, because people who watched “The Tribe” were all ages, probably ex-hippies like myself who would look back and warm to the themes that would be… it’s about human interaction, human interplay. And that’s the best drama. I often used to call it “Mad Max meets Neighbours” or “Home and Away meets The Terminator” or “Beverly Hills 90210” - or whatever the equivalent human drama series are - against a dystopian backdrop.
But I always thought of “The Tribe” as not necessarily post-apocalyptic in a very negative way, but I always wanted it to be “blue sky dystopia” - positive and with hope, you know. And so we could get to dark themes, as we did with many of the tribes, Zoot and zootists but the Mall Rats represented hope and positivity for all within the tribe. It was descention and disagreements…
But coming back to your original question, what had happened, was that…”

"When the characters started to age and the actors became older, a lot of the broadcasters would say “well you know there’s no children…this isn’t children’s programming.”

“So that’s the context, when I - in consultation with Channel 5 - because we’d have to move out of Channel 5’s childrens programming and go into adults. You see, it became a bit of a high-bred and…”

“When you think that we did, whatever it is - almost 300 episodes - I mean, normally that’s like 30 seasons, if you’re doing ten episodes a year and creatively, you know, it’s exhausting, it took five, six, seven years solidly to put these together, it’s a lot of work, a lot of time… and I wanted to rest it, with the intention of doing a sequel or coming at it a different way to relaunch it so that it could go into the mainstream, rather than just childrens programming.”

“I’m a big fan of Star Trek and I loved what they did, with that franchise where they had movie versions and different sequels.”

“And so, I then went to Hollywood to develop a motion picture and that’s a long complicated story.”


“Stay strong, keep your peckers up as I say and we’ll get through this together.”

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@Amber with the save so we don’t have to listen to the whole thing. Thanks for this. I like the cliff notes versions.

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I love you SO much for this, ma’am! :heart:

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I was aware of these but only started listening the other day when Sabine posted a link to the Vanessa Stacey one. I was only going to listen for a few minutes and instead sat through the whole thing. Will have to try and catch the rest now!

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Nick Miller

Editor’s note: This guy definitely has a great sense of humor by the way, this interview is proof.

• currently lives in Auckland

• is a television editor for national tv broadcasters so he gets to continue working during covid19

• still loves acting

• Back in “The Tribe” period he loved rock climbing and he practiced it daily, but now he loves spending time on the beach with a tent, off-grid

• Nick had a role in “Avatar” and shot a few scenes, but got cut out from the final version sadface

• His dreadlocks were a wig and it was a bit of a surprise about his character - and it was heavy! So that’s why they got a trim on it.

• Nick had to rearrange his university studies (political science) to move down to Wellington and for season three, he was on set for about two weeks at a time

• Ray wanted to explore spirituality and indigenous cultures by introducing the Gaians

• During covid, would Nick prefer belonging to #MallRats or #Ecos ? - Definitely Ecos, since they were already in self isolation and off-grid, self-sufficient




“This is not advice by the way, for anyone, but…I think, going to an abandoned Mall and stocking up and then gettng out to the bush would be the way to go. Raid all the camping equipment, maybe.”

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Victoria Spence

• Lives in Auckland with her husband and two little boys Matthew (3) and Jack (almost 1 year old)

• She is a primary school teacher and was inspired to choose that career because one of the teachers on The Tribe’s set, Jill.

• Back in 2009, worked in Peru’s orphanage for a while.

• Tori says she has a lot of similarities with Salene in that sense, both of them love children.

• Victoria originally auditioned for the role of Trudy.

• She loved tribe tours and hearing the fans’ insights on the show.

• Victoria thinks in season 6 Salene would become more opinionated, more of a leader and she would also be looking for someone to spend her life with. Her newfound independence and strength would be paramount in her storyline.

• Most challenging storyline to play was the bulimia because it felt like a long storyline, all of those scenes were difficult to shoot, because it was difficult to snap out of.

The fun scenes were with the whole cast getting together because there were a lot of giggles.
She loved riding the horse as well.

• She believes all the struggles that Salene went through, made her a very approachable and sympathetic character.

• Red hair: the bleach would burn your scalp and both the pillowcases and collars always had red stains.

• Victoria’s favourite costume was her wedding outfit (and she still has it) and her season 5 outfit.

• She stopped acting partly because with the demands of university it was hard to keep up but she’d be open to continue that path as well.

• Victoria’s main passion is dancing.

• Victoria’s favourite book is actually Dr. Seuss “All the places you’ll go”

• She would love to travel more in her future and teach herself how to play guitar.

• Her favourite food is lasagna.

• Tori checks tribe insta




“Being able to talk and ask for help, is I think a real sign of strength more than anything, because it’s the hardest to say when you’re vulnerable.”

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Danny James

2020-03-27T11:00:00Z

• Danny’s family is currently living in a 1885 Blacksmith’s cottage outside Auckland.

• He has a 6 year old son and a 3 year old daughter.

• Ray first met Danny when he auditioned for Enyd Blyton Adventure series back in 1994. He didn’t get the role, but Ray remembered him and wrote him into Enyd Blyton Secret series.

• Danny James has actually read the follow-up tribe novels.

• Danny said that the people who were the biggest Zoot or Loco fans, loved the idea of rebellion or the sense of freedom, some felt it nailed down how the teenagers in general felt about social norm, but he himself never quite was able to work out why it resonated with them.

• Any memento/costume from set? He was given a red singlet under other clothing pieces.

• From Zoot perspective: now is the time for survival, there will be plenty of time to roaring gangs.

• After finishing his role as Zoot, Danny continued as an office runner, an assistant for Ray and Geoff Husson and learned how Cloud9 business was run. Then he continued his work at the Art dept and saw a lot of set creations. Then he moved on to be 3rd Assistant Director and learned some of his valuable life lessons in management. 7

• Danny James’s mother passed away from cancer while they were filming The Tribe, she was diagnosed during season 1 and passed away just before Danny’s 21st birthday during filming season 5 and while it was a very tough experience, he still feels he got a lot of support from the cast and crew.

• “Love transcends death.”

• Danny James runs a building company in Auckland, but during lockdown the building stopped.

• “All of us as cast members were really young and it was like going to the fun house every day.”

• The contact lenses for Zoot and trying to get used to have these were the biggest challenge. Ray’s intention was to make Zoot’s eyes appear as ‘snake eyes’.

• Would being a father have changed Zoot? Danny thinks fatherhood changes people profoundly, but different people change differently. Zoot as a character was too far down the rabbit hole, product of a chaotic environment, whether or not he would have embraced fatherhood, Danny leaves up to Ray to decide. Ray believes Zoot was fed up with the previous generation, but the moment he was holding his baby, there was a sign of humanity in him.

• Danny thinks Lex would have been a very interesting multi-dimensional character to play, a very polarizing and colorful character, fun and challenging from a creative point of view.

• Danny used to like opera, he was involved in some opera productions as a kid as well.

• Danny plays golf in his free time.


“It’s really disheartening when you see lines of people at a gun shop - this is not the time for that. This is the time for looking out for each other and looking after each other and making sure that we’re all okay, because it’s that that’ll get us through it. People who feel the need to arm themselves in a situation like this… this is not a zombie apocalypse, there shouldn’t be people banging down your door. This is a virus that a gun will not fix. And I think the only advice is to stay positive and to support each other whatever way you can.”

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Meryl Cassie

2020-03-30T11:00:00Z

• Meryl lives in Auckland.
• She loves to spend her time at a bach in Freewater.
• Meryl has a son and two daughters, she was 23 when she had her son Rylon (now 13), then Breeze (6) and Diaz (5).

• Meryl was born in Cape Town, South Africa and moved to NZ with her family when she was three years old.
• Family is key and Meryl’s mother who raised the (4) kids on her own, always made sure there was love and kindness and stability for the kids.
• In April 2016 Meryl was touring with a circus production and fell ill with pulmonary embolism, she went into cardiac arrest and spent time in ICU.

  • (Editor’s note: I still remember these times, how we were biting nails and sending love over the oceans for her to pull through, not sure who shared the news, maybe one of her sisters on social media? but we found out while she was still in ICU, scary times indeed)

• Meryl is back to songwriting and music
• Megan Alatini won NZ Got Talent with her band Truebliss and Meryl’s brother Sebastian plays piano very well.
• Meryl’s mother lives both in NZ and South Afrcia these days, Meryl’s father currently lives in Australia

• Meryl wasn’t actually auditioning for the role of Salene (although her audition tape makes it seem that way) according to Raymond Thompson, but since Ebony’s role was meant to be a small one and it wasn’t written out yet, then Meryl did read Salene’s part for the screen test, but Meryl had such charisma that Ray extended her role.

• The Cloud9 family ‘adopted’ the whole cast and Meryl feels very grateful for the whole experience.
• Meryl still gets fan mail, with ‘thank you’ messages about the impact of the show
• The first tour Meryl did was after filming season 1 with Caleb and Dwayne.

• What character traits does Meryl share with Ebony: stubborness (according to her family). Meryl also thinks that Ebony was very strong and independent, but at the same time there was a lot of sensitivity and vulnerability and Meryl thinks she shares that too deep down.

• The hardest scene to film for her was not a scene, but generally coming out of her shell and believeing in herself.
• A highlight for her was sharing screentime with her sisters, but fight scenes were fun to do as well.

• “Don’t feed your fears, fear makes the wolf bigger.” - Raymond Thompson

• Meryl loved working with Caleb Ross, Dwayne Cameron, Victoria Spence (the girls are still close even this day)

• Meryl’s hair - the braiding took 3-4 hours, then it could stay in for 2 months. The makeup took an hour every morning.

• Meryl might have liked to play Salene or Amber as well.

• Meryl loved the leather and buckles in the outfits, she loved them all, but especially the red jacket with silver holes in them (she was able to keep one of those).

• A storyline she wishes could have gone in different direction?
She loved the bond between Ebony and Alice and she would have hoped for something more played out between Ebony and Bray, because she always wonders where this could have ended up.

• Meryl would love to create some more tribe music, as would Raymond Thompson (who was recently in contact with John Williams)

• Meryl loves Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Jessie J, Lionel Richie, Jackson Five, Celin Dion

• Meryl’s kids are watching ‘The Tribe’ from the beginning :star_struck:

• Meryl thanking the fans for the past 20 years and continued love at the end of the interview.

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Beth Allen

2020-04-03T11:00:00Z

• Beth Allen lives in Auckland

• She has a 4-year old son (Sidney) and 2-year old daughter (Nell) and in April 2020 she was 7 months pregnant with baby number three.
• Beth’s kids love spotting teddy bears on windows.
• Lots of TP jokes (and Ray has a laugh about being a germophobe… Ram anyone?)
• Beth left NZ six years ago, they were heading for New York, but did a year in Edinburgh and London (with Zombie Apocalypse theatre show) and then they had barely arrived there when Beth got pregnant with their son and decided to return to NZ because NY didn’t seem like the best place to bring up a baby.

• The first project Beth and Ray did together, was her playing Princess Vara. Katrina Brown who played Aruna was like a big sister to her, they still keep in touch. Beth loved her time on set and it was a great experience for a 12-13 year old to have.

• She can still walk onto a set and knows eyes closed what she needs to do there.
• Beth played Dwayne Cameron’s girlfriend in Power Rangers as well.

• Her first acting experience came at the age of 10-11.
• She was 19 when they finished filming ‘The Tribe’
• Beth was the only one really considered for the role of Amber, because Ray always casts people for their talent as well as their personality.
• Eagle was written more stiffly than Amber, she was more guarded and not quite where she wanted to be with the Eco tribe.
What Beth remembers the most was not being able to fit her season 1 costume for the flashback scene (filming at the age of 14 vs at the age of 16) and couldn’t get the fly up on the leather pants (so getting your roots bleached in a fiery explosion is a small issue :sweat_smile:)
• They were shooting quite fast and had to get through it, get the lines right and move on, but also had a lot of laughs on the set.
• When Beth returned for season 3 until season 5, she was able to only shoot during school holidays, so she did her regular school work, then returned to Wellington for two weeks during school holdiays (and did all the scenes).
• Beth feels Amber was a very confident person and she would probably be better at getting through apocalypse, but Beth agrees she is good at organizing herself as well.

• She would actually be happy to do a sort of tribe reunion acting-wise.

• “We were a small independent company, in reality. We did the best we could with our budgets and were punching way above our weight.” - Raymond Thompson

• “Amber was a very easy access for me, I could see her very clearly, as soon as I started playing her I could feel her and knew where she was coming from.”

• If Beth could be a superhero, she’d pick Wolverine.

• Best memory from the show: the afternoons when they were taking a break from shooting and had a laugh with Tori, Antonia and Michael.

• She also loved doing tribe tours.

• While Beth loved interacting with fans on tours, she’s glad The Tribe was not big locally in NZ, because as teenagers they got to live their normal lives (unlike with Shortland Street which is a famous local tv soap and people recognized her on streets)

• Beth has a tattoo (she didn’t reveal what kind)

• Her role model as an adult is Jacinda Arden (NZ Prime Minister). You can lead very well, displaying typically ‘female’ traits.

• Ray had wanted to do a 20-year-tribe-reunion on Tirohana Wineyard but then the covid came and ruined that.

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OMG BLESS THIS THREAD!!! :heart: :heart:
This is exactly what I needed, as I find it hard to find the time and relax long enough to listen to the podcasts fully.

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That was my issue as well, so I figured I might as well type out some details while listening. Plus then I will remember what these interviews were about a few years later, too. :wink:

Michael Wesley-Smith

2020-04-05T12:00:00Z

• Michael is back where he grew up, Wellington NZ.

• He is now a father of a little girl Evelyn and married to Lucy.

• When Mike met his wife, she did joke about The Tribe.

• The very first scene “Code One. Isolation now in effect” was also the first scene Ray wrote for The Tribe.

• Mike studied criminal law when he first went to law school. He moved to London in 2009 and ended up there until 2012, he worked in employment law.

• After he moved back to NZ, he went to broadcasting school and for 4-5 years worked as a journalist for tv3, focusing on social justice issues.

• Mike’s parents were worried about him becoming an actor and thought he could rather become a lawyer or a doctor (so he ended up getting a law degree but later changed careers)

• Ray and Mike first met when he participated in “Legend of William Tell” but Mike’s first role was at the age of six years in a theatre.

• Mike was 14, studying at an all-boys-school and he remembers getting the part for ‘The Tribe’, they were at home, his sister picked up the phone with the call and old him. The whole experience was fantastic and he still keeps in touch with a few people from crew/cast.
During the time Mike spent living in Auckland, years after filming had ended, he met up with Antonia Prebble, Victoria Spence, Beth Allen. The whole cast got on very well.

• He always felt the people stayed very grounded and it was a very family-like experience.

• A german woman came all the way to NZ to meet Michael while he was actually living in London and ended up having coffee with Michael’s mom. (Way to go, being a great host there, mom. What an experience.)

• The Tribe tours were quite mind-blowing and it was quite an adrenaline rush and great energy present at these gatherings overseas, there was so much enthusiasm and passion for the show. Mike remembers thinking he is never going to forget it.

• Ideal day at work is the kind where he is able to help somebody. Life is a lot more ordinary now than it was when he was an actor working on The Tribe, but he has a family and couple of dogs, so he is only missing a white picket fence :wink:

• He currently loves watching documentaries and West Wing, True Crime series, Making a Murderer.

• Which of Jack’s inventions would he want in an apocalyptic world? Jack is a very DIY person (Mike is not), Mike would like a functioning water filter and generator.

• Mike think Jack had a big ego which prevented him getting advice at first, but he softened as he matured.

• Ashwath Sundaresan had a very good sense of humor, he now has a family of his own. He is now working in scientic field. Mike sometimes catches up with him on social media these days.

• “Atlantis High” was a challenge because the character there was very different from Jack at first, but he really loved the quirky humor in it. Atlantis High was great in conception and delivery and sheer audacity, fun escapism and that lightness was a real tonic.
Ray adds that “Atlantis High” was something from another planet for sure (wacky cult spoof comedy melodrama).

• His closest cast members were Ryan, Antonia, Victoria, Beth, Ash, Dwayne, Danny, Caleb - and for Mike, those were closest to his age and found themselves all in an unusual situation and he thinks those friendships last a lifetime.

• Mike had to dye his hair a lot, in initial series the fully orange hair was redone every few weeks.

• Most important thing learned from ‘The Tribe’ was the importance of friendship (in uncertain times) and the support you can draw from those.



“Explore your relationships with people you’re in isolation with. It offers an unique opportunity to revigorate some relationships and rethink how we live our lives today. Pick up the phone, don’t be self conscious about asking for help or giving help. It’s often assumption that prevents us from making the most basic human ouverture, ask people how they are.”

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:joy::rofl::joy: ilysm

Also, yes we’ve talked about my attention span on these @elkah but of course I watched MWS :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: so I echo you: Bless this thread, thanks @Amber

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Yeah, MWS!!!
If it’s one of the podcasts I made time for it was DEFINITELY that one! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: :hearts:

@Amber Yes! You are totally onto something here.
Having it written down is a godsend, truly!

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I love this too! My hearing is affected badly due to my long treatment with Tobramycin I. V. 's… It’s great to be able to read what the actors said in their interviews! Thanks for the work :kissing_heart:

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Awwww. Thank you all, you are certainly giving me motivation to continue with these. Now Toni is one of the people I love following on a regular day :blush:

Antonia Prebble

2020-04-08T12:00:00Z

• Antonia moved from Wellington to Auckland about 15 years ago.

• She is currently focused on baby Freddie and they go about their daily domestic routine without many changes.
• They were currently halfway through shooting season 6 of Westside when NZ announced lockdown level 3 which meant they had to stop shooting the series for a while, so they went on a 4-week hiatus.

• Prior to having a baby, Antonia thought her perfception of the world and identity might change a lot after becoming a parent, but in reality she feels like the same person, just with an extra dimension added and she’s quite happy about it.

• Trudy giving birth was actually one of the very first scenes she had to shoot, so she talked about her mom (and make-up artist) a lot about their experiences, on the day she just went for it.

• Antonia’s first tv role was “Mandy” in Mirror, Mirror in 1997 and first worked with Cloud9 at the end of 1997 in William Shatner’s “A crack in Time”
• Antonia is one of the people who knew she wanted to be an actress ever since she remembers herself and always loved performing.

• Antonia finds the most interesting about Trudy’s character development, her being brainwashed by the Chosen and becoming the semi-religious figure that people worshipped.

• Antonia isn’t religious, but she has some ideas about spirituality, she has a more dualistic approach to life and believes in the power of energy.

• It feels like life will become a lot more focused on local
• One of her very favourite scenes to shoot was the ending scene of The Tribe and it felt really significant for both the characters and the cast.
• Her favourite tribe was definitely the “Mall Rats” and their hopeful vision of the world.

• Toni still gets the most fan communication from “The Tribe” fans, it seems to have connected with the people on a deeper level than most other shows, it’s been pretty unparalleled to anything else (despite really popular shows like Outrageous Fortune and Westside she has done since ) and fans have often communicated that The Tribe has helped them through the difficult times and given them hope and Antonia continues to feel proud of that.

• Antonia thinks that ‘The Tribe’ plays with an interesting paradox of a young person’s deepest fear but also wildest fantasy, which is to be ‘alone’.

• Tribe Tours were amazing, so many had tribal outfits and costumes on and it was great to see how much impact this show had on the other side of the world, the effort people went through was great.

• A male friend of Antonia’s said he was growing to grow out a beard for the entire durability of the lockdown and then added he thinks they should all dye their hair crazy colours. This was a recently aquired friend of Antonia’s so he didn’t know about ‘The Tribe’ or that Toni had been in it :laughing:

• Antonia always thought Jack was pretty hilarious and sweet, so she might have loved to play Jack as well.

• Did she ever dislike Trudy as a character? A lot of circumstances for Trudy were challenging, but Antonia never disliked her character and she thinks you can’t or maybe even shouldn’t look at a character (that you’re portraying) objectively, but instead try and find reasons and jusifications for their behaviour.

• @MallRatMatt’s question - Did playing Trudy somehow help prepare for motherhood?
On practical level it made it easier for Antonia to deal with babies , she was very comfortable around babies and it got her more familiar with what it would be like.
After ‘giving birth’ to Brady, Antonia gave birth on screen five more times :upside_down_face: before having her own baby Freddie.
• It was definitely difficult to do the storyline of postnatal depression because she wanted to do her best with it and give it proper significance, but she always felt privileged to be able to show what it’s like.

• How did ‘The Tribe’ impact your career? One of the things that really helped, was discipline on set and they were working in an adult environment and they had to be professional and they got a lot of training on how to be professional actors on the set and they also got many technical skills, because they shot a lot of screentime and it was often a logistical miracle.

• Antonia has actually started to develop a couple of new tv show ideas with her partner Dan, so she is also drawn to the creation of shows (and maybe writing them, too), but right now she could see herself more as a producer than a director of the show.

• Antonia thanks the fans for the continued support and loyalty. and she loves hearing from her fans, so you all can continue sending her fanmail and letters.


“As a teenager, your parents are horrifically annoying and you want to rebel and you want to be independent and you wish they’d leave you alone, but at the same time you’re also really scared, you don’t know who you are and you need to be part of a safe loving family unit and that’s really what is an anchor and a compass for your life at that time. ‘The Tribe’ absolutely sits on that midpoint of the deepest fear of being alone and wildest fantasy of being free and I think that just tunes into a really interesting part of our identity and particularly of young people’s identity.”

“On a day to day level, it’s just important to do the practical things that we can to look after our mental and physical health. It’s the simple things, like make sure you getting enough physical activity and exercise, make sure you’re eating a good diet.
For me, I find a daily practice of meditation an excellent game changer. It’s scientifically proven to relax your mind and have you change your attitude about things you do.”


“As humanity, people are so adaptable and more than we give ourselves credit for, because you don’t know how you’re going to react to something until it happens.”

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Antonia definitely is one I would like to meet and have a nice cup of coffee with :coffee::blush:

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Tom Hern

2020-04-11T12:00:00Z

Editor’s note: Dude has got a really nice laugh and the most soothing deep voice.

• Tom was staying in West Auckland with his partner (sp Jackie?). He lives in a native forest actually, amongst the
and close to Piha (black sand) beach where Jane Campion’s “Piano” was filmed.

• Tom is still friends with Ray and he’s currently working as a producer.

• He finds moderating media information intake helps a lot not to feel overwhelmed. Taking care of yourself is also a very much needed, kind and generous thinf to do.

• If the listeners out there are lucky enough to be somewhere safe and have a meal on their plate, this can also be an opportunity for a reset and an opprortunity totake a breath, pause and nourish ourselves.

• They mention a good friend Pua Magasiva who recently passed away. Tom mentions he himself has gone through periods where his depression has been difficult to manage and a struggle for him, but over the years he’s tried to build a toolbox to better manage it.
For a while, Tom stayed in Japan to learn different form of meditation. Inititally he started meditating on a phone and he found them really calming and then a few years ago he took the leap and joined a 10-day
Vipassana meditation retreat which is quite intense, with no speaking or eye contact during that time and it’s a very intensive retreat. One of the friend who also went, was James Napier Robertson.

• Ray considers Tom Hern his kindred spirit.

• A few years ago, Tom decided to quit drinking, since for him a lot of those practices are about simplifying his life. He says he finds it difficult enough to navigate his emotions, things from his past and future that he was worrying about, so when he also had a big night out, the anxiety combined with being hungover was too intense and he likes his life

• Tom still has kept his sweet tooth though and he also loves cooking :yum: and his big brother, Jeffrey taught him to cook. He loves to make a good curry or pasta.

• @Ram asks: a lot of viewers figure Ram may have been bisexual. Thoughts on this theory? Tom says he wasn’t necessarily playing Ram as bisexual, but a lot of his relationships came from the power position and Ram kind of got off from that. So it wasn’t intentional, but if there were any bisexual undertones, he loves that added layer.
When Ray was briefing A.J. Penn, they actually alluded to this in the tribe books he says (so keep an eye on Ram’s sexuality there, huh).

• Ray also wrote Ram as a germophobe. Ray is definitely sick and tired of washing his hands and wiping down groceries. He would be having a hard time with covid19 and stockpiling toilet paper.

• Tom’s favourite kind of creative outlet shifts from acting to screenwriting/creative writing to making music (he plays guitar).

• Tom grew up in Christchurch, South Island and loved drama class and arts even as a kid, while the rest of his family liked motosport.

• At the age of 13, a family friend contacted him and said “What now” was looking for child reporters and he met Tony Palmer and asked for the job, so Tom started off as a reporter and presenter, he loved reviewing video games and such.

• Tom left school before turning 15.

• His first acting role was on “The Tribe”.

• Tom is still happy he had a chance to be there and he now sees it even more, reflecting back now. The cast were really like an extra family.

• ‘Revelatiions’ came to be because of Tom Hern, because Ray wrote this role with him in mind. He wanted to explore spirituality in this series and each episode focused on different time era.

• Was it hard to portray Ram’s ruthlessness and helplesness at the same time? Tom thinks it’s often the case with ‘evil’ characters who have a vulnerable side or human aspect to them.

• Tom definitely thinks he had the coolest role to play.

• When Tom first got into producing, he wanted to work for himself as an actor, so he wanted to learn production and financing and put films together. The first movie he made was “I’m not Harry Jensen” with James Robertson and they ended up with a pretty cool film and learned a lot.
They also worked together on the “The Dark Horse” and this is the film he is most proud of. Raymond Thompson’s grandson Dylan says it’s one of his top ten movies. It can be viewed on amazon prime or itunes.

• In 2019 Tom made a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe (Guns Akimbo)

• Technology is an incredible gift at our fingertips, with everything you can learn and access but he thinks it’s also important to balance this with human to human interactions and other experiences as well.

• We should never become so dependant on technology that we can’t connect to another human being without it.

• Slow down to the speed of life.

• Tom doesn’t consider himself religious, but he has a lot of respect and love for different prophets.

• Thank you for listening and Tom sends you all his love. Be kind to yourself, take the time you need to replenish your own spirit and we will get through this, we will come back stronger.

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Wait, what? I’m sure I didn’t submit a question!

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:smiley: That’s weird. Maybe somebody used the same nick.

Thank you so much for doing this, Amber! I’ve been meaning to get round to listening all of these, but there are so many of them and they are so long. I did listen to all of Beth’s and Michelle’s and most of Jennyfer’s, Jaimee’s, Meryl’s and Nick’s. Ray did a great job as an interviewer and I’m pleasantly surprised by how many TT cast members grew into thoughtful people. I mean, sometimes when actors open their mouths, incoherent nonsense comes out and almost ruins your impression of the characters they play, but that’s definitely not the case here.

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