ScreenTalk: Miranda Harcourt

Miranda Harcourt got her screen break playing the bitchy Gemma on iconic 80s soap Gloss. Since then the versatile Harcourt has hardly taken a break - directing, teaching, plus acting in prisons, tele-movie Clare, and feature film For Good, among many other titles.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Miranda Harcourt talks about:

• The joys of playing Gemma on Gloss, as the character journeyed from being a “really nice girl from Hamilton” to a “bitch from hell”

• The over-the-top reactions of some Gloss viewers when they met Harcourt in person

• Reinvention in London

• Interviewing prisoners about violent crime and murder for Verbatim. Harcourt performed the play in prisons across New Zealand, as seen in Shirley Horrocks documentary Act of Murder

• The genesis of award-winning feature film For Good - directed by Harcourt’s husband Stuart McKenzie - the tale of a woman’s fascination with a teenager’s abduction and murder

• Playing Phillida Bunkle in tele-movie Clare, based on the disastrous gynaecological study at Auckland National Women’s Hospital

• Her time as a “terrible” student at New Zealand Drama School, and her return to spend seven years at the school as head of acting

• Embracing variety in her career, including her recent work as acting coach on Yvonne Mackay’s series Kaitangata Twitch

NZ On Screen: Direction and Interview - Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing - Alex Backhouse