There’s a lot goes on in Vanessa Stacey’s life, so if there’s the odd slip-up in recall, it can probably be forgiven.
But when she insists her character in the new film Bookworm is charming, you know something else is going on.
The woman she plays, Angelina, is a rotter.
"She’s a delight," Stacey offers at first. "She’s an absolute delight, loves children ...
"Shall we just say she’s captivating?"
There will be no plot spoilers here — or at least no more than the above — but that’s getting closer to the truth.
Stacey, together with Irish actor Michael Smiley (Kill List, The Lobster), bring the grit to the family-friendly movie that otherwise stars Elijah Wood and precocious young Kiwi talent Nell Fisher.
Bookworm follows the latter pair as they search the Mackenzie Country for the Canterbury panther of local lore, while attempting to repair a long-broken father-daughter relationship.
Stacey (Ngāti Kuia), who was born in Invercargill and spent her early life in Alexandra, flew south for the shoot from her Wellington base, having found a short window in an otherwise cluttered arts diary.
Her day jobs are director of the New Zealand Fringe Festival and kaitiaki and programmer for Māori and indigenous arts for CubaDupa, the capital’s huge street festival. In between, she moonlights as Amy Winehouse in a popular touring tribute show, Back to Black, which has sold out Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre, and both acts in and makes her own films. Among other things.
But she’s more than a little pleased to have found time for Bookworm.
"It was amazing actually. It was a beautiful space to be in," she says of the back-country setting.
"You couldn’t ask for a better backdrop — it was stunning."
For Stacey, the filming was indeed squeezed in between these various other projects.
"I did it in my down time," she says with a laugh. "I think last year when we filmed, CubaDupa had finished. No, that’s not true. We have two weeks between fringe and CubaDupa, I went down and I shot my first few days between festivals. Rushed back, delivered CubaDupa and then was down in the Mackenzie Country for, I think, about 10 or 12 days after that. So yeah, that again was my holiday."
It’s obviously how she rolls, as next on the schedule was a dash across the Tasman.
"Tomorrow I’m heading off to Melbourne to work with The National Drama School, which is the oldest drama school in Australia, which is really exciting. I’m devising and directing a short film for them."
Director Ant Timpson compares Stacey’s part in Bookworm to a quaint English villain in an Enid Blyton book.
But in combination with Smiley, Stacey agrees they’re maybe closer to Roald Dahl creations.
Stacey has plenty of form herself, featuring in sci-fi series The Tribe and appearing in Lord of the Rings films, Outrageous Fortune and Out of the Blue.
And indeed was back in Lord of the Rings country for Bookworm, as was Wood.
"Yeah, I’m sure he’s trod those hills many a time and for months on end. So by comparison, this shoot was probably quite easy for Elijah."
If that’s not enough trainspotting for one film, Bookworm also strays into country used for the The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Wood is a delight, Stacey says, and the shoot also provided the opportunity to meet the actor’s wife and their two children.
"I actually met Elijah many, many years ago when Peter Jackson got The Tribe cast and the Lord of the Rings cast to do an amazing screening of The Grinch for underprivileged children. We got to hang out with the cast — it was fantastic. They made us come in costume and the Lord of the Rings cast were all in black tie."
For all the skill and experience of Bookworm’s adult cast, the film is completely stolen by young talent Nell Fisher.
"It was a pleasure to share the screen with her, but also just to hang out between scenes," Stacey says.
"It’s a coming-of-age story and it’s not just Nell’s coming-of-age story, it’s her father’s as well. I think that’s really beautiful. I love the fact that it’s a very small cast, for a feature film, and it is very much Nell’s story and I love it being told from their perspective. I would have loved this if I were her age. I would have loved seeing, firstly, a young female lead who is so smart — not just Nell, but the character is so smart. And cheeky, which goes along with being smart."
The combination of Fisher being a particularly smart young thing and Wood’s career stretching back to when he was Nell’s age made for a particular camaraderie between them.
"I think he understood, because it’s a huge responsibility, Nell’s character is not only the through-line, it’s their story.
"So I think there was a lot of empathy ... It was really beautiful to see it. Of course, Elijah is a parent now, so you can feel that particular bond with her, which is really lovely. So to be honest, probably towards the beginning of the film, he has to pull that back because they really are spending this film to get to know each other."
There’s age-old advice about the wisdom of acting with children, but Stacey is having none of it. Indeed, working with children has been a feature of her career, which has also included creating children’s content in the UK with her own production company.
"It just changes the kaupapa on the set, which is actually a really positive thing because you are just a little bit more aware that you have a young person on set. I think it keeps things upbeat. And it really keeps people quite present."
Fisher, a straight shooter, helped with that, Stacey says.
"You always knew what was going on. That’s the beautiful thing of working with a young actor who hasn’t learned to have an internal monologue."
Ultimately, Bookworm is a reimagining of the family film, drawing inspiration from earlier eras.
Stacey is pleased to see it.
A lot of cinema has become about spectacle and a lot of youth content is particularly visual-effects heavy.
"So this is a really beautiful, simple story about relationships, which I think is something that’s a little bit lacking in a lot of film, so I think it’s a really beautiful film for young viewers."
