Her latest role is another nail–biter, the Australian indie horror feature Leviticus. It premiered to strong reviews at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and looks set to signal to the industry that she’s one to watch.
She might be the youngest member of New Zealand’s acting royal family – but she doesn’t want to deny her place in it.
“I’m just proud of where I come from – there’s no point trying to hide it,” she explains.
Sisters Thomasin and Davida McKenzie in London in 2025.
She’s aware there might be comparisons – she looks strikingly similar to her sister, and even more so to her grandmother when she was her age – but they don’t faze her any more.
“I’ve come to terms with it. I’m proud of my family, really proud. My mum and dad have worked so hard to get where they are, and they’re such smart people,” she says.
“I think I have my own path as my own actress. There are always so many roles out there and I’m never going to get the same role as my sister.”
McKenzie is disarmingly polite, strikingly beautiful, and almost painfully sweet – so much so that during our interview I find myself rewording a question about her being a “nepo baby”, finding a way to dance around it.
So, take two: does she feel this is truly her path, or simply the one she’s grown into believing is hers?
“Obviously, for me, there have always been moments of thinking, ‘do I really want to do this? Am I just doing this because my family does this?’.”
But McKenzie says the more she puts herself out there and bolsters her experience, the more she realises it is her calling.
Leviticus stars Jeremy Blewitt, Joe Bird and Davida McKenzie.
“I’ve been acting pretty much my whole life. My mum put my sister, my brother and I into auditions for pocket money, which is funny.
“So, we didn’t really say, ‘Hey, we want to do this’. We’ve just always been doing it,” she explains.
“Sure, I did get into acting in a pretty unique way, but I really do enjoy it and love it with my whole being.”
Was there ever a contingency, or a consideration of a career in STEM? What might her life have looked like if she hadn’t embraced it? Would she, like a reluctant royal, have had her inheritance cut and shipped off to Montecito?
“No, my family were always so supportive of whatever I decided to do,” she says, laughing.
She doesn’t deny she’s been handed something of an acting golden ticket – the chance to learn from her mother, Harcourt, widely regarded as one of Aotearoa’s finest actors, and who also serves as her acting coach.
“My mum helps me with every single audition and self–tape that I do. She’s always my reader.
“She’s always helping me with pretty much every role I do.”
Harcourt also served as an acting coach on the set of Leviticus, which has been described as a queer supernatural horror set in a conservative Australian town, helping some of the younger cast members.
“I wasn’t on set when she was doing the coaching – I was overseas,” McKenzie says.
“But [co–stars] Joe [Bird], Stacy [Clausen] and Jeremy [Blewitt] got to work with her, and they all loved her, so it felt a bit like a family affair.”
If there’s one thing we know mums are good at, it’s imparting life advice. And McKenzie’s has been there to do just that when she’s experienced the industry’s lows.
“I lost out on two roles last year – there’s always a kind of hope that you build up and then when I didn’t get the roles, I was just distraught,” she says.
“My mum explained it’s kind of like a heartbreak: you lose that person, you can’t reach out to them in the same way again. And that kind of really shifted my mindset about it.”
Dame Miranda Harcourt. Photo / Supplied
McKenzie says she’s growing accustomed to those “nos”, but it’s the thrill of the “yes” that keeps her going.
Thankfully, she got a life–changing “yes” when she was cast, while still in high school, in the yet–to–be–released Klara and the Sun, directed by Waititi. The cast also features Hollywood stars Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne and Steve Buscemi.
The film was shot at the beginning of 2024 – McKenzie’s final year at high school, where she was proudly a house captain.
“It was amazing,” she says.
“I’d be in Auckland on Klara and the Sun and then fly back down to Wellington to go to the swimming sports and lead my house and then back. So it was a pretty intense time, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”
The teen says the scale of production on that set was something she’d not experienced before, and working with the Oscar–winning director was hugely influential.
“Everyone was so great. Taika was just so fun and lovely, and we all just had the best time.”
While Klara in the Sun was filmed on a studio set, she says Leviticus was much smaller and shot on location, giving her a taste of both levels of production.
Keen to strike while the iron’s hot, she has recently moved to Sydney to chase the next acting gig.
McKenzie is growing accustomed to those “nos”, but the thrill of the “yes” keeps her going.
So, what is that role? Where to next for the actor on the rise?
“Sean Baker (Anora) is definitely up there for me,” McKenzie says of directors she’d love to work with and Greta Gerwig (Barbie) is amazing as well. I love Greta.”
Despite just naming two of the biggest award–winning directors in Hollywood right now, McKenzie says she’s not really interested in “the big Hollywood break”.
“That’s kind of scary to me. I don’t have any hopes or aspirations of being in the spotlight in that way,” she says.
“I just love acting. The feeling I get when I step on set, or you’re in the hair and makeup and the costume, and you can transform into this new character.
“It’s such a unique and special feeling, and I haven’t been able to find that anywhere else.”
Leviticus is out in New Zealand theatres on June 18.