The New Year came around, and once again Holloway rang his bell. <\/p>\n
\u201c[My partner] Kelly came in and said, \u2018What\u2019s up?\u2019 And I said, \u2018How long has it been since I was basically told how long I had left?\u2019 She goes, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s been six months.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Six months, and he was still here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember getting a tingle in my legs and just this big burst of energy and life, and I never gave up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cohen Holloway is still keeping up with his classic brand of Kiwi humour and heart. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Energy, fun and good-hearted humour still fizz in Holloway\u2019s every word as the cancer shrinks, now more than two years on from his diagnosis. <\/p>\n
While he still has to take medication for seizures and suffers fatigue and nausea, it\u2019s clear that slowing down or giving up isn\u2019t on the cards right now.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still get people calling me \u2018pervert\u2019 at the supermarket,\u201d he says, in reference to his interaction with Sir Sam Neill in Wilderpeople.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen my sons were young, I was trying to explain it to them. \u2018Dad, what\u2019s a pervert?\u2019 they\u2019d say, and I was just trying to get through the supermarket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now 53 and fresh off his latest project \u2013 reforming his long-standing comedy group The M\u0101ori Side Steps in Wellington \u2013 the father of two (a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old) admits the road ahead is still rocky.<\/p>\n
Jamie McCaskill (right) Rob Mokaraka (left), Jerome Leota, Erroll Anderson and Cohen Holloway as The M\u0101ori Side Steps.<\/p>\n
He likened his chemical chemotherapy tablets to \u201cusing a water pistol to put a big bush fire out,\u201d but he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to things way more now. Like this week, my \u2018look forward to\u2019 is my cricket, selfishly. Then l\u2019ll watch the rugby on Sunday morning with breakfast with my family. So, that\u2019s cool. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd my 13-year-old plays a lot of football. He\u2019s very blessed that he\u2019s really good at it. I go and watch him play that and chat to all the soccer mums and dads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holloway (Ng\u0101ti Toa) is also starkly honest about the challenges he\u2019s experienced since finding out he has cancer, particularly the financial burden.<\/p>\n
While Cohen’s tumour is shrinking, his infectious positivity is soaring. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing bits and pieces to keep going, but IRD didn\u2019t care,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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, \u2018No, bugger it all. I\u2019m not going to deal with that\u2019. And then they do their own assessments of how much you owe. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was staring down the barrel of not only having a brain tumour, dying, but they wanted 38 grand as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the government says the IRD is chasing people hard, it doesn\u2019t matter if you got a brain tumour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holloway says his life insurance has been a saving grace and has helped him survive in-between jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2018ve been living off my life insurance, which wasn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-standing collaborators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement visited him when he was struggling, offering him both a laugh \u2013 and a job.<\/p>\n
Cohen Holloway and good mate and collaborator Taika Waititi star together in the latest season of Educators. Photo \/ South Pacific Pictures<\/p>\n
\u201dI kind of wheelchaired into the lounge, and they sat there and we chatted away,” Holloway says. He has since worked on Waititi\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amid the struggles and pain also comes a defying sense of hope. Holloway says he\u2019s learning and appreciating more about life as the days go by, and that the stage and screen remain his \u201chappy place\u201d.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust enjoy the little things, whether it be your new Netflix series that\u2019s coming out or something else you\u2019re looking forward to,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd let everything go and just forgive. Forgive people because you carry that burden around, and it can be quite weighty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Year came around, and once again Holloway rang his bell. \u201c[My partner] Kelly came in and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3376,74,95,5837,2534,32530,6932,66037,18215,8608,59796,24392,156,86336,86334,5431,33488,13640,302,4960,5430,2061,111,139,86335,69,6644,90,6653,1886,9640,29715,6642,69198,1316,102,29387],"class_list":["post-123577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-actor","tag-after","tag-and","tag-battle","tag-cancer","tag-caring","tag-cash","tag-chat","tag-cohen","tag-comes","tag-defying","tag-each","tag-entertainment","tag-fullest","tag-gratitude","tag-hageman","tag-holloway","tag-important","tag-its","tag-live","tag-mitchell","tag-nature","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nothings","tag-nz","tag-odds","tag-on","tag-reflects","tag-support","tag-table","tag-taika","tag-tells","tag-waititis","tag-when","tag-with","tag-woes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}