He portrayed Ferndale’s murdering pastor so chillingly that Shortland Street fans rarely brave approaching him. But behind the baddie, Jaxin Hall’s a big softie – especially when it comes to his kids! Take the moment he saw 10-year-old daughter Ruby portraying Haley Mockingbird in Sweet Tooth.
“I cried seeing Ruby on screen the first time,” Jaxin, 36, tells Woman’s Day. “When you’re watching on set, it’s cool, but nothing beats the first time seeing it as a production.”
Ruby chimes in with, “It wasn’t the first time you’ve seen me on screen!”
“But it was the first time I saw you on Sweet Tooth,” replies Jaxin, who also has a six-year-old son Nikau with American wife Natalie Hall, 34. “I also cried when I saw you in a Spark commercial. I’m
a dad – it’s what I do!”
While Jaxin was 15 when he nabbed his first role – as an extra on Shorty, 20 years before returning as Pastor Scott – Ruby’s an international pre-teen star.
It’s no surprise given she was only three when she borrowed Jaxin’s phone to record a video about the Great Wall of China, using Play-Doh.
“I was trying to make a YouTube video because I was obsessed with YouTube,” she recalls.
Adds Jaxin, “It was crazy how confident and good she was!”
So when Jaxin signed with an agent after the family relocated from the States to New Zealand in 2019, he signed Ruby up too. She promptly landed a US commercial.
“It was a long, freezing day on the beach, but she was a trooper,” he recalls. “I was like, ‘Man, she’s better than I am’. Then she nailed her second audition, for Spark, and I went, ‘Wait, you’re two for two?!’
“So when Sweet Tooth, which we loved, came through, I was like, ‘This is a big one’. There was a range of emotions she had to show in the audition, but she worked hard on understanding the character and nailed it.”
Jaxin as Pastor Scott on Shortland Street.
Jaxin believes Ruby’s diverse childhood, between California and New Zealand, plus her love of reading, has enhanced her ability to understand and portray various characters.
And while her first day on Sweet Tooth was “nerve-racking”, she quickly made friends with Zoey Javierto (who plays Junior) and Elin Minchin (Jojo). Fitted with feathery costuming and animatronic wings, Ruby’s child/mockingbird hybrid Haley also has bird legs, thanks to motion capture.
Playing Haley Mockingbird in Sweet Tooth.
“It didn’t feel real,” she admits about seeing herself on screen.
The doting dad’s also thrilled to have worked with Ruby in After Endor, a Star Wars short film he wrote and directed, releasing in instalments via YouTube.
“Ruby did her thing and everyone went, ‘Wow! How old is she?'” says Jaxin. “Nobody asks me why I’m so good, but every time Ruby steps on stage, someone says, ‘She’s amazing!'”
Ruby stars with her dad in After Endor.
At that, Ruby adorably pats Jaxin on the arm to reassure him he’s talented.
The pair also play father and daughter in an upcoming short film by Kiwi director Logan Marshall. “There are really emotional scenes and when it’s your child you’re opposite, that emotion’s elevated,” tells Jaxin. “It can turn into ugly crying.”
Meanwhile, Ruby continues to audition, is writing a novel inspired by book series Warrior Cats and has met with casting directors in LA.
Some might have reservations about their children entering showbiz, but Jaxin thinks it’s great she can explore acting young. “It’s been such a fulfilling journey for me, and the hard times taught me how to face situations or handle self-doubt and anxiety. I’ve watched Ruby’s confidence just grow.
“By the time she’s an adult, she’ll know how acting works, what to expect on set and what she won’t tolerate. And there’s no pressure. If she said, ‘I don’t want to do this any more’, I’d say, ‘That’s totally fine’.”
But since she’s enjoying it, Jaxin’s stoked to help her explore her craft further, especially since he faced a more challenging road into the industry while growing up poor and dropping out of school.
“You always want to help your kids avoid the traumas you’ve had, but maybe they shouldn’t because that’s how you’re shaped as a person,” he reflects. “The things I went through made me who I am and I hope I can help Ruby with her heartaches.
“Going through those stages knowing you’re good at something is great. Having confidence, feeling loved and knowing you’ve got friends is all a kid needs, and Ruby has it all. But it’s beneficial having the confidence booster of acting in the background.”
Ruby recently wrote that she hopes to be famous like her dad when she’s older. But she’s already outshining him, having appeared on billboards and bus stops with her Spark ad, and now finding global fame on Sweet Tooth.
“She’s 100% more famous,” laughs Jaxin, who’s also busy writing scripts and running his global clothing brand Key Street. “Although I just got recognised for Shortland Street. While I was on the show, people wouldn’t talk to me because they thought I was a creep. I’d walk past and hear, ‘That’s the pastor who killed that kid’. But after my character died, people started saying, ‘You were awesome. I hated you so much’. I could just be me in public!”
