As she was busy making new comedy series Duckrockers, actress and writer Teuila Blakely had to deal with two deeply emotional family tragedies. First, she lost her dear aunt Lana and then, just weeks later, her beloved mother Auali’itia Su’a Levaopolo Martha Schwalger-Blakely passed away too.
“Nothing could prepare me for it and, of course, I wish we could’ve had more time, especially as my mum and I couldn’t have been closer these past few decades,” Teuila tells Woman’s Day, her eyes brimming with tears. “But when she passed, I knew there was nothing but unconditional love and understanding between us.”
Working hard through her grief and pain carried Teuila through Duckrockers because, due to the strict shooting timetable, she couldn’t take any time off. “Schedules are schedules and I was able to channel that into work while I was grieving,” says the 47-year-old, who compares this difficult time to when she became a single mother at age 16.
With beloved mum Auali’itia.
“There’s nothing I’ve gone through that hasn’t in some way come to help me. I learnt long ago that the only way anything was going to happen for me or my son was through hard work. There was a time when Jared and I were on our own, and things were really tough. I had to learn to look after both of us. As difficult as that time was, raising him without family support was an invaluable lesson.”
Duckrockers is the prequel TV series to the hilarious Pasifika movies Sione’s Wedding and Sione’s 2: Unfinished Business.
In the films, released in 2006 and 2012, Teuila starred as beautiful Leilani, the long-suffering girlfriend of Sefa, played by Shimpal Lelisi. In Duckrockers, she is Leilani’s mother, Mrs Lana Brown, named after Teuila’s late aunt, who was her mum’s youngest sister.
On Sione’s Wedding in 2006 with Shimpal (left) and Robbie.
“My Aunty Lana had a lot to do with raising me,” explains Teuila, who also worked on the TVNZ 2 show as a writer and associate producer. “She passed away when we had just the concept of her character, which came from my mum and her six sisters. Mum had several half-sisters as well, so I grew up with all these women in my life.
“When Samoan women have sister relationships, they treat all of the children as if they are the mothers and we treated all of them like our mothers. So Lana is the sum of all of those women I was raised around.”
Teuila has shaped Lana into a particular kind of Samoan woman we haven’t seen on stage or screen before. She points out, “There is a tendency to have a token stereotypical Samoan mama, which does exist, of course, but the women I was raised around were university-educated and they were Mormon.
“There was no smoking, drinking or gambling. They were very strict, very moral and very successful. I’ve never seen the kind of women I come from reflected. It’s a real honour to have the opportunity to bring them to the screen.”
As well as Teuila, her Sione’s co-stars Shimpal, Oscar Kightley, Robbie Magasiva, Dave Fane and Iaheto Ah Hi all make cameo appearances as their original characters’ parents in the coming-of-age comedy, which sees the tight group of Samoan friends growing up on Auckland’s breakdancing scene in 1984.
But the core cast is made up of new teenage stars, who Teuila feels naturally protective of.
“Most of them are novice actors,” she says fondly. “They have a lot of lines and they’re acting in a period they didn’t live in. We worked really closely with them in terms of giving them the context and explaining things about the world.
With young Duckrockers stars Tiare Savea (left) and Lilo Vaigafa, who are like her daughters.
“We tried to help them through the process of filming and also prepare them as best we could for public life. I have a natural duty of care as a mother. I care about them like I care about my own son and I hope this is a positive experience for them.”
Teuila’s 2003 play Island Girls – which she wrote, starred in and produced – won her enormous acclaim, and she went on to forge a career on TV shows such as Shortland Street, bro’Town, Outrageous Fortune and Westside.
Duckrockers gave her the perfect opportunity to extend her writing skills, she says. “Writing has always been a part of what I want to do, but then acting has dominated my life for so many years. As an artist and as a woman, diversifying really suits me.”
It was also a great opportunity to once again work closely with her former fiancé Oscar, who directed and wrote for Duckrockers.
Teuila smiles, “We have a very long and complex history, but what it has become is that we are each other’s confidant and support. We made both of the Sione’s movies together and there was a lot of change in our personal history along that journey, but the thing that has never wavered is our respect and love for each other.”
Duckrockers premieres 8.30pm Wednesday on TVNZ 2.
