Rachel House Quotes

Having worked with so many directors, I liked the look of what they were doing. It seemed to be a lot more creatively satisfying, putting all the parts together, joining the puzzle together, creating the tone of a piece.

With theatre, we are always trying to engage in a conversation with people and to bring people into that conversation, but I was disappointed the audiences were not as mixed as I hoped they would become.

Taika grabbed me and went, ‘Come and meet these guys’. He knocked on this really massive campervan and then the door opened and there’s Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo peering down, then giving me high-fives and hugs. I was like, ‘Oh my god.’

Aotearoa is one of the most beautiful places in the world and we have to protect that.

When I went on to the team on ‘Korero Mai,’ I realized how much I didn’t know and how much I wanted to know in terms of sound, lighting and editing which is a process you don’t go through in fast turnaround TV.

I’ve never not felt Maori, ever. And because of the era I grew up in, I was never not seen as that. I would walk down the street with Mum and Dad and people would say, ‘Look, there’s a little Maori girl.’

It’s so nice to be nominated for something by your culture, it’s always very cool.

It still surprises me when I get cast in something. I’m not your, you know, I’m… I remember thinking really early on that you have to look a particular way and I’m quite aware of my look, so I always thought I wouldn’t get a lot of screen work.

I didn’t want to direct any more theatre because I wanted to try something different, to move into another realm.

With ‘Soul’ I was just here in Aotearoa, New Zealand the whole time so I never got to go to the studios.

I was around when there was only one channel and when that second channel arrived, it came with the wonderful world of Disney on a Sunday night. We would drop our bicycles and run home to see it, it was just pure escapism.

Actors wrestle with it all the time; they want to be liked. They do. They want to play something that people are going to like.

It’s so unfortunate that people have this need to join gangs.

It feels like there’s a lot of Maori artists who are doing very well in the world which is nice.

With all the stories that we have, it’s still rare that we get to see what goes on in the minds of our children when they’re in their own world.

Mum got a QSM (Queen’s Service Medal) for her community work in mental health. She was a psychiatric social worker, so she’d travel all around the north visiting people back in the day.

I think we are progressing with race relations but assumptions hold us back.

Diversity is where it’s at for me. I think we need more and that could be all kinds of different cultures, big conversations.