ScreenTalk: Tony Barry

Despite starring in Kiwi classic Goodbye Pork Pie, playing “a good true blue basic Kiwi joker” in new film Home by Christmas, and playing a former All Black, Tony Barry marks a rare Australian entry in the ScreenTalk canon.

The veteran actor cemented his relationship with the Kiwi screen as early as 1971, when he appeared in landmark TV series Pukemanu. Barry went on to tour New Zealand (and his homeland) in Bruno Lawrence’s genre-bending musical group Blerta, then drove a yellow mini to Invercargill in the iconic Goodbye Pork Pie.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Barry talks about:

• starring as Ed Preston, a man with a healthy disrespect for authority in Home by Christmas, Gaylene Preston’s tale of love and war

• “pushing the boundaries”, as part of iconic touring group Blerta – short for the Bruno Lawrence Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition

• the time Kiwi screen legend Bruno Lawrence first popped by to say hi

• trying not to get electrocuted during a hair-raising scene for Blerta movie Wild Man

• the unforgettable experience of making Goodbye Pork Pie, and how people’s sense of freedom and rebellion is often overtaken by a desire to appear successful

• playing a former All Black who gets to relive former glories – and captain the team – in 1991’s Old Scores

• old acting mates who are no longer with us, including Blerta/Old Scores actor Martyn Sanderson

This video is available on YouTube and Vimeo to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

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