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."
