\u201cGood question. It depends on how busy I\u2019ve been,\u201d the 52-year-old laughs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019ve been really busy, I can do nothing for a long time. But generally, it takes me about two weeks before I\u2019m texting my mates going, what about that idea we talked about?\u201d<\/p>\n
And there are so many ideas and so many projects to get on with. <\/p>\n
Clement currently has six films that have either just been released or are in the box office pipeline. He recently starred in a slightly controversial United Kingdom TV series, Alice and Steve (he plays a middle-aged man who starts dating his best friend\u2019s daughter). And he\u2019s writing two films, both set to be directed by long-time collaborator Taika Waititi.<\/p>\n
Jemaine Clement has become the Kiwi king of kids’ films, Photo \/ Frederic Murarotto<\/p>\n
So, while he finally has time to indulge in one of his lesser undertaken pastimes (reading books, fiction ones for a change), there\u2019s no shortage of projects to promote. Most of them, maybe surprisingly, are for kids \u2013 and almost none of them feature Clement\u2019s face.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a creativity in kids\u2019 films … maybe because they\u2019re less checked [heavily controlled] than other films, and can be more creative perhaps,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In Kiri and Lou, the prequel to the hit Kiwi animated kids TV series, Clement plays Lou, a purple palorchecie, which is essentially a mix between an elephant and dinosaur. <\/p>\n
In I, Object, shot in Wellington, he plays a can of fizzy drink.<\/p>\n
In Wildwood he plays a royal owl and in the new live action version of Moana he plays one of the only characters still animated, the giant crab Tamatoa. <\/p>\n
So creative is certainly one word for it. But working in animation isn\u2019t new for Clement.<\/p>\n
Kiri and Lou is a Kiwi-made kids show which aims to help children tackle their emotions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started working on the Kiri and Lou series when my son was quite young. He\u2019s a teenager now, but he was of that age when we recorded the very first episode years and years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
He doubts his 17-year-old son, Sophocles Iraia, will be heading to the cinemas to see Kiri and Lou. But he reckons children\u2019s films can hold sway over older audiences as well as the younger ones. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we watched it in Annecy [at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France], that audience was almost completely grown-up. And it actually played well with a grown-up audience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just remembering, from being a kid myself, it can be pretty magical, watching a story play out that big in front of you. There\u2019s a social aspect of enjoying something with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jemaine Clement plays Tamatoa, a conceited crab, in Moana.<\/p>\n
He enjoyed working at home in Wellington on I, Object, also set to release this month. <\/p>\n
The film follows a 10-year-old boy who loses his dad and takes comfort in everyday objects around him who sort of come to life. <\/p>\n
It co-stars fellow Kiwi Karl Urban and was directed by fellow Kiwi and Oscar-nominee Andrew Niccol. .<\/p>\n
\u201cI like Andrew, and I really enjoyed working with him. A lot of people don\u2019t know that a New Zealander wrote The Truman Show and Gattaca, two fantastic movies,\u201d Clement says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him in LA when we played with [Flight of the] Conchords, and he came to our show. It is a cute film, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film, like many of his other kids\u2019 projects, also deals with morals and problems that kids deal with daily. Even Kiri and Lou depicts the characters navigating friendships and family relationships throughout their adventure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a way, it\u2019s kind of realistic, even though they\u2019re prehistoric animals that are completely made up,\u201d Clement says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re dealing with morals, like work through your problems rather than just beat someone up.\u201d<\/p>\n
All good lessons. But the actor has some advice for parents thinking about taking their kids to the cinema, at least when they are very young: maybe don\u2019t. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to bring kids to the movies too early, I think, in general, because it can be overwhelming. [But] Kiri and Lou, it\u2019s safe and it\u2019s fun and I think the parents will enjoy it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement.<\/p>\n
Of course parents are probably more familiar with Clement\u2019s other work.<\/p>\n
On our Zoom call, a guitar sits next to him and a Flight of the Conchords poster is also in the peripheral. He and Bret McKenzie recently reunited the folk comedy act for a handful of shows, delighting fans.<\/p>\n
Their Wellington warm-up shows at Meow Nui in April sold out within 30 minutes, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
Clement admits the most challenging part of the reunion was simply remembering songs the duo hadn\u2019t played in eight, and in some cases, 18 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemembering them and committing them to memory again felt impossible in our first few days of rehearsal, but we eventually got there, and it was really fun,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The audience reception was heart-warming, and a little surprising. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of New Zealanders in America actually thank us for making their accent understandable to Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Americans, and Kiwis in the US, also thank him for bringing the bloody vampiric series What We Do In The Shadows to their shores. Clement produced, wrote, and had a cameo in the US TV version of Taika Waititi\u2019s Moa-award-winning Kiwi film, which had its final season in 2024.<\/p>\n
But things weren\u2019t always so certain, and Clement had his doubters in the early stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew the audience would be into it, but the network wasn\u2019t always on board,\u201d Clement says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to convince them that it should be a mockumentary, for instance, because there were [already] lots of other mockumentary shows at the time like The Office and Parks and Recreation.”<\/p>\n
The network needn\u2019t have worried. The show became a ginormous hit, spanning six seasons and racking up 35 Emmy Award nominations.<\/p>\n
Hollywood is fun, but for now, Clement is happy settling down in Wellington for a bit. Just don\u2019t expect to see him partying on Cuba Street like the old days \u2013 a nice comfy chair and a good book will do just fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hardly ever go to bars these days. It used to be every night, but now it\u2019s barely ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kiri and Lou Go Raaa! hits Kiwi cinemas August 8.<\/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":"\u201cGood question. It depends on how busy I\u2019ve been,\u201d the 52-year-old laughs. \u201cIf I\u2019ve been really busy, I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,95,1061,8669,258452,4731,6097,156,434,70,5431,293,258451,1899,13840,5430,409,111,139,69,1118,90,3766,110075,3271,44439,4758,6642,223,24359,5662,17251,19135],"class_list":["post-521540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-and","tag-children","tag-clement","tag-conchords","tag-days","tag-down","tag-entertainment","tag-films","tag-flight","tag-hageman","tag-his","tag-jemaine","tag-kids","tag-like","tag-mitchell","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-on","tag-parents","tag-reckons","tag-should","tag-slowing","tag-taking","tag-tells","tag-the","tag-these","tag-think","tag-twice","tag-working"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521540","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=521540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}