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Rena Owen
29 quotes
“I don't think I'm being unjust saying this, but Beth will be one of the best roles of my life because female dramatic leads are so rare. I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity.”
“When I got the script, I knew it was going to be a very demanding and challenging role. Beth doesn't get many light-hearted scenes but at the same time, she was a gift of a role because I was able to explore a wide range of colours like hate, fear, submissiveness and love. For an actor to get to show so much of yourself is a very good opportunity.”
“Beth is an intelligent woman and she's got a good spirit which pulls her through at the end of the day. She's quite a strong-willed woman and she starts off with a lot of dreams and stars in her eyes. But the reality is nothing like that. Violence sets in very early on in the marriage.”
“Beth's story is one many women will relate to. Even though at the end she looks strong and she leaves her man, she's going to be suffering. She's going to go through a grieving process but she knows she has to do it in order to survive - not just to survive but to thrive - particularly for her children. It's a very relevant story. People will identify with the film and will see themselves. If it changes one person's life, it's served its purpose.”
“Beth is a fighter and I'm certainly a fighter but I would never have got myself in that situation. I can relate to the spirit in her, that wants something better for not just herself and her children, but also her people.”
“A lot of people do not think that Maoris should be portrayed in this way. But until you can acknowledge the ugliness in your race, you can't move on. We are all good and bad, we are human and can't pretend we are perfect.”
“There was one week where I had one big scene after another and at the end of it, I could not do any more and I knew that if I didn't have a rest, I'd fall apart. As an actor, one of the most demanding things is big emotions, they're not small, subtle emotions. They've all been big and raw.”
“My land was once called Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud ... But that name disappeared with the arrival of the English. And our language disappeared as well. In my father’s day, students were whipped by their schoolmasters if they were heard speaking it. The best way to destroy a people is to eliminate its language. Sometimes I wonder how [the British] would react if colored people turned around and did the same thing to them.”
“I belong to a lost generation, a generation of people who basically do not know who they are or where they came from ... We grew up with an innate inferiority complex, because we knew that we weren’t nearly as good as our white counterparts. It was my generation that created gangs, that ended up in prison, that slipped deeper and deeper into alcohol and drug abuse. This is the generation you see in the film.”
“This is certainly a film about the Maori ... But it’s all too easy to say that these are Maori problems. Sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, and domestic violence are not restricted to the Maori, or even to the poor. This film could be about black or yellow or white.”
“This role was a gift for me ... I know millions of actresses across the world who would kill for a part like that. There is a huge range of emotions. When we finished shooting, I thought to myself, "Oh my, what can possibly come next?”
“[Lee Tamahori] told me it was always my role even if I hadn’t auditioned. I did audition, and like 500 other women in New Zealand I sweated, bit my nails, and said my prayers every night and hoped I’d get the part. But he said it was always my role because, well basically, there’s a lot of Maori talent in New Zealand, but a lot of it’s not refined, and I’ve been at it for 12 years, so I know my craft. So he knew I was technically brilliant, and he knew I had the strength to carry it emotionally.”
“I’m an artist and I’ve always strived to be a good actor. All I care about is doing the work. Fame is very superficial. It’s a byproduct of our business, but I never set out to be famous. I don’t like to always be in the center of the limelight. I can play the star, but it’s not my full way of being. I love to be normal. I don’t consider myself any better than a milkman. A milkman is good at delivering milk, I’m good at acting, but we’re all people at the end of the day.”
“I’ve had the sort of break every actor wants. To be in a film that has done so well at the box office, but has also picked up 18 awards around the world, two of those I picked up, you couldn’t ask for more. Every film after this will be a bit of a downer.”
“I could have been a Beth – I know lots of Beths. I could’ve quite easily been a Beth if my first love hadn’t messed around on me, because when I was 16 I would have been happy to live in Moerewa for the rest of my life and have lots of babies.”
“One day I’m doing a death scene, the next day I’m doing the beating up, next day the tangi scene. She was heavy to carry, Beth. How I got through it was I basically worked morning, noon and night. So it was just work, sleep, work.”
“Ultimately what the film is about is that Beth makes a choice. Hopefully there will be men who see the film, see Jake and recognize themselves and think, “God, is this what I look like when I do that?” For me, if it saves one person’s life, then we’ve done our job.”
“I'd heard about the project not long after 'Warriors' and I was very keen, but there had to be the right ingredients, even if my role was fairly minor. As soon as I heard Ian was going to direct, I became really excited. He's a fantastic director and being an actor he's very much an actor's director, so it was really great to work with him.”
“Beth has done well for herself and gone much more up-market since we last saw her, which is great ... Her lifestyle has moved from a below working class existence to a middle class existence. She's living with a Social Welfare officer now; her clothes are much smarter. It was great – I actually got to wear make-up and a decent wardrobe this time!”
“Beth is definitely one of the best characters I've played in my fourteen years as an actress ... It was great to re-create her and see everyone again.”
“Beth's done well for herself and gone much more up-market since we last saw her, which is great ... Her lifestyle has moved from a below working class existence to a middle class existence. She's living with a Social Welfare officer now; her clothes are much nicer, and she gets a bit of make-up and a better wardrobe which was a nice change for me!”
“I don't think that magic or that chemistry between Jake and Beth will ever die, you can still sense it ... And it was such a joy and a treat to work with Tem again, he's a consummate professional and a really nice guy.”
“Everything personally, and professionally, shaped me for that role ... But I couldn't have done it had I not had all those years in theatre. That's what gave me the strength to do it.”
“I remember when we went to see it eight months later in post production ... I knew what we'd done and what we'd made and the potential it had – but seeing it for the first time, I was shell shocked. I thought, 'oh my God, what have we done?' It's that kind of movie. It's a real kick in the guts.”
“Once Were Warriors went into the intimate places of sexual abuse and you saw up close and personal what domestic violence looked like.”
“I went into this role thinking, 'if I can help one woman walk away from a violent relationship, or if I can stop one child from growing up in a home full of violence ... that's what I set out to do ... And it didn't just help one woman, or one child, it helped many children, women and men. ... She was not my pleasure, but she was my absolute privilege.”
“This film helped to open the door, and anger management groups, women's groups were inundated with callers saying I've got a warriors problem.”
“I literally had a woman come up to my table and burst into tears and go, 'Your performance helped me to walk away from a violent relationship.'”
“I didn't grow up with brown faces on our screens ... I didn't see it as a career option for me. So, 15 years later, the thing that pleases me most about the success of Once Were Warriors is that this film told every little brown child that they could be an actor, that they could be writers, that they could be filmmakers.”