She’s just 27 years old, but Ana Scotney is already one of New Zealand’s top actors. She has starred in two of the nation’s biggest films of recent years, The Breaker Upperers and Cousins, as well as the country’s favourite soap opera. She’s even in a show with America’s queen of comedy, Melissa McCarthy.
But when the pandemic hit in 2020 and her livelihood suddenly slipped away, she knew she had no choice but to create her own path forward.
“It felt like ultimatum hour where I could either sit in my room and feel overwhelmed by the situation, or adapt and find other things to give me energy and keep working,” tells Ana during a brief visit home to Wellington in between jobs. “I just can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I really want to take a break and study te reo Māori, but I’ll always come back to storytelling. It brings me a lot of joy and a sense of purpose.”
So, she adapted. In the past two years, Ana has got her production company Kōtiro Publishing Giant up and running, which produces everything from music and visual art to literature, and created a new solo show, Scattergun, which won the Outstanding Solo Performance award when she debuted it at the New Zealand Fringe Festival earlier this year.
A keen adventurer – Ana spent seven weeks walking the length of Israel when she was 20 and only has a few hundred kilometres left to complete the Te Araroa Trail, which spans the length of Aotearoa – she has also dived into new hobbies like learning how to ride a motorcycle and mastering the basics of mountaineering.
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In the hot seat: Ana chills with mountaineering and riding a motorbike!
Although the Covid nightmare seemed never-ending at first, in hindsight Ana says time to work on herself was exactly what
she needed.
“I’m grateful now to have had that time to open some different doors for myself.”
Those doors included spending three months in Australia working alongside Hollywood star Melissa McCarthy on her Netflix comedy God’s Favorite Idiot.
Looking back on her first day on set, Ana says it was impossible to not feel starstruck by Melissa, 52, and her husband Ben Falcone, 49, who plays the titular idiot.
In God’s Favorite Idiot with comedy queen Melissa.
“I definitely fanboy when I meet people who have done stuff that I love. I said to her, ‘You’re so freakin’ awesome – I’m a huge fan.’ And she just cracked up laughing and said, ‘Don’t be silly,'” recalls Ana with a grin. “I think it’s good to have that moment. Then I feel like it’s taken care of and I can get back to work.
“Melissa is amazing and really inspiring to work with. I feel really lucky to have learned from her.”
And this week, Ana finally premieres Millie Lies Low, her first leading role in a feature film. It’s a moment that has been four years in the making because of delays due to the pandemic.
In Millie Lies Low.
“We started shooting the movie in 2020,” tells Ana. “Four days in, we went into lockdown and we went on hold for six months.”
She plays an anxious young artist who, after missing her flight to New York to begin an internship at a prestigious architecture firm, goes into hiding in Wellington and uses social media to trick loved ones into thinking she’s living it up in the Big Apple.
When she first read the script in 2018, Ana knew the role was meant for her as she deeply understood Millie’s fears. “I’ve definitely had my experiences of feeling imposter syndrome,” she shares. “Not to the extent it manifests in Millie, but I understand the feeling of wanting to surpass people’s expectations and not being able to.”
While she relishes her ever-growing career, Ana admits there is one aspect she’d happily change.
“I’m quite a shy person in a lot of respects,” she says. “So being visible in my job has pushed me out of my comfort zone. I find it really challenging at times.”
In 2019, she quit social media after she received intense hate from some Shortland Street viewerswho took a dislike to her character Angel Schmidt.
As Angel in Shorty with Kura Forrester.
It was a blessing in disguise as Ana realised how much happier she was without spending endless hours scrolling and the anonymity it has given her in the world.
“When people recognise me, it’s quite sweet because they’ll think we went to school together or I’m friends with their cousin,” she jokes. “Sometimes I’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m an actor.’ But they’re sure it’s because we’ve met before!”
Millie Lies Low is in cinemas now.
