Vincent Gallo. Photo by Wikimedia Commons.
The selection of an American actor to front a television
ad for New Zealand beer Steinlager Pure has brewed up a storm.
Controversial actor-director Vincent Gallo is shooting a
commercial for Steinlager Pure in Queenstown this week. It is
the third ad in a series that has previously featured
Americans Willem Dafoe and Harvey Keitel.
The NZ Actors Equity group fought Lion Nathan's application
for Gallo's work visa, saying he lacked the "international
distinction and merit" required to bypass Kiwi actors,
The Dominion Post newspaper reported.
But Associate Immigration Minister Kate Wilkinson, who would
not comment on the decision, granted the visa. A spokesman
for her office said the decision was final.
Film critic Roger Ebert once described Gallo's 2003 film
The Brown Bunny, which contains an unsimulated sex
act with Chloe Sevigny, as the worst in the history of
Cannes.
Lion Nathan spokesman Neil Hinton said Gallo was chosen
because he represented the "unique and uncompromising" values
it wanted.
Graham Dunster, director of Auckland Actors and founding
member of the Agents Association, said the decision not to
cast a Kiwi actor was symptomatic of a wider problem in Kiwi
acting circles.
"It doesn't seem to extend to directors, writers, producers.
There's just seems to be a lack of belief in the worth of New
Zealand actors."
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