Aotearoa’s Cliff Curtis has regularly starred in some big blockbusters over a lengthy career, but he’s still sometimes taken aback by the audition process in Hollywood. In his new Variety AU/NZ interview, Curtis revealed the unusual way he got his role in “Avatar 2.”
“His people call me to say he [director James Cameron] wants to have a Zoom call with me, I have a Zoom call and he offers me four movies on a single call,” he said. “There’s no audition, there’s no jumping through hoops, he’s just calling and offering me the role for like four movies.”
Curtis portrayed Tonowari in 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water,” a role he’s set to reprise in 2025’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” “Yes, it’s a functional role, but it’s an essential role in the storytelling and very much a supporting role, but that’s pretty great, right?” Curtis said about playing the character.
As Curtis pointed out, he’s really seen it all as an auditioning actor in Hollywood. “[Sometimes] they’ll send me dummy pages which are not actually in the movie, which are not actually the role I’m reading for the movie, or they’ll offer me a movie and they won’t let me read the script… it’s kinda odd,” he revealed.
Elsewhere in his Variety AU/NZ interview, Curtis discussed his memorable role in “Training Day,” the Denzel Washington-starring 2001 crime thriller. Although Curtis’ role as Smiley didn’t have a lot of screen time, his character’s existence was still crucial to the overall narrative.
“I pretty much just had two scenes – it’s one kind of one scene that goes on a bit and it goes from one room to another – but essentially it’s one scene divided by two rooms. There’s a beginning and a middle and an end as an arc, and without that character, the protagonist’s arc wouldn’t be complete,” Curtis explained,
Read Curtis’ full Variety AU/NZ interview here.