The New Year came around, and once again Holloway rang his bell.
“[My partner] Kelly came in and said, ‘What’s up?’ And I said, ‘How long has it been since I was basically told how long I had left?’ She goes, ‘Oh, it’s been six months.’”
Six months. That was how long doctors had told Holloway he had to live after his diagnosis in August 2023, not long after he started experiencing excruciating headaches after filming his serial killer drama Dark City: The Cleaner in Christchurch.
Six months, and he was still here.
“I remember getting a tingle in my legs and just this big burst of energy and life, and I never gave up.”
Cohen Holloway is still keeping up with his classic brand of Kiwi humour and heart. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Energy, fun and good-hearted humour still fizz in Holloway’s every word as the cancer shrinks, now more than two years on from his diagnosis.
While he still has to take medication for seizures and suffers fatigue and nausea, it’s clear that slowing down or giving up isn’t on the cards right now.
He is very much still alive, still doing the best Temuera Morrison and John Campbell impressions around, and still taking to the stage and screen with fire in his belly and warmth in his heart.
From his early political skits on Facelift and Pulp Comedy (he does a great Winston Peters) to his quotable roles in films Hunt For The Wilderpeople and What We Do In The Shadows, his diverse and consistent career places him as one of our hardest-working actors.
“I still get people calling me ‘pervert’ at the supermarket,” he says, in reference to his interaction with Sir Sam Neill in Wilderpeople.
“When my sons were young, I was trying to explain it to them. ‘Dad, what’s a pervert?’ they’d say, and I was just trying to get through the supermarket.”
Now 53 and fresh off his latest project – reforming his long-standing comedy group The Māori Side Steps in Wellington – the father of two (a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old) admits the road ahead is still rocky.
Jamie McCaskill (right) Rob Mokaraka (left), Jerome Leota, Erroll Anderson and Cohen Holloway as The Māori Side Steps.
He likened his chemical chemotherapy tablets to “using a water pistol to put a big bush fire out,” but he’s back on the cricket pitch (a passion of his) and has starred in multiple films and series since his diagnosis, with no signs of stopping.
“I look forward to things way more now. Like this week, my ‘look forward to’ is my cricket, selfishly. Then l’ll watch the rugby on Sunday morning with breakfast with my family. So, that’s cool.
“And my 13-year-old plays a lot of football. He’s very blessed that he’s really good at it. I go and watch him play that and chat to all the soccer mums and dads.”
Holloway (Ngāti Toa) is also starkly honest about the challenges he’s experienced since finding out he has cancer, particularly the financial burden.
While Cohen’s tumour is shrinking, his infectious positivity is soaring. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“I’ve been doing bits and pieces to keep going, but IRD didn’t care,” he says.
“They wanted all my tax earnings for four years. Because I thought I was going to die, I was behind [in my tax] for two years, and then I said, ‘No, bugger it all. I’m not going to deal with that’. And then they do their own assessments of how much you owe.
“I was staring down the barrel of not only having a brain tumour, dying, but they wanted 38 grand as well.”
Having worked at a bank prior to his acting career, he knew the lay of the land and how difficult it was to manage these sorts of situations. He spent a good month of his precious time trying to calculate and sort things out.
“I was told I had to pay the penalty interest and then write a sob story about why I needed the money back. So, I paid the 13 grand, wrote a sob letter, and I got a little bit of it back.
“When the government says the IRD is chasing people hard, it doesn’t matter if you got a brain tumour.”
Holloway says his life insurance has been a saving grace and has helped him survive in-between jobs.
“I‘ve been living off my life insurance, which wasn’t a very big pay out, because you never think you are going to be sick or die. My advice to everyone is to get life insurance, even if it is just a little bit.”
Money worries to one side, Holloway has treasured getting back onstage and back to the tightknit New Zealand acting community, especially now he can walk on his own again.
“I had to go from a wheelchair to one of those old people walkers, and then I had a medical alarm bracelet when I was finally allowed to be at home by myself.”
Long-standing collaborators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement visited him when he was struggling, offering him both a laugh – and a job.
Cohen Holloway and good mate and collaborator Taika Waititi star together in the latest season of Educators. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
”I kind of wheelchaired into the lounge, and they sat there and we chatted away,” Holloway says. He has since worked on Waititi’s latest film, Klara and the Sun, and the pair reunited in the latest season of the hit TVNZ+ comedy series Educators, in which Waititi guest-starred.
“They really looked after me on set and helped me around. I felt like an old person, but I managed to do it. And in that time, I started getting more confidence.”
Amid the struggles and pain also comes a defying sense of hope. Holloway says he’s learning and appreciating more about life as the days go by, and that the stage and screen remain his “happy place”.
Cancer, or any health challenge for that matter, is often a dark, hovering cloud. Holloway realises this, but chooses to see the positives in the world around him. He hopes others can too.
“Just enjoy the little things, whether it be your new Netflix series that’s coming out or something else you’re looking forward to,” he says.
“And let everything go and just forgive. Forgive people because you carry that burden around, and it can be quite weighty.”
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.