Stephen A’Court
While many Kiwi kids have grown up playing with Barbies, few have partied with living doll Margot Robbie like rising local musician and model Jaxson Cook did.
Now 19, the talented Wellingtonian met the Barbie star when she was in New Zealand filming the sci-fi film Z For Zachariah in 2014. Aged just nine, he was soon firm friends with the Aussie actress thanks to his parents – his mum Hil, an Oscar-winning makeup artist, hair stylist and prosthetics maker, was the movie’s makeup designer, while his dad Rodney was the stunt coordinator and leading man Chris Pine’s stunt double.
Laughing at the memory, Hil recalls “awesome” Margot babysitting Jaxson, at one point accompanying him to a pirate-themed party, both of them dressed as swashbuckling buccaneers.
“She’s a real salt-of-the-earth chickadee who would buy the crew drinks on a Friday night,” tells Hil. “We had a bathtub out in the paddock, which she would fill up with ice, then spend her per diems [daily allowance] on buying everyone beers. She was very sweet.”
Jaxson – who also played tennis with Chris and co-star Chiwetel Ejiofor – admits he didn’t know how famous they were until he was older.
“But I don’t tend to get starstruck that easily, unless it’s someone I am really obsessed with.”
After all, Hil had already worked on the Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit movies, impressing actress Evangeline Lilly so much, she was hired as her personal hair and makeup artist, and flown to film sets and events all over the world. Evangeline even had tea at the Cook clan’s Lower Hutt home!
So, who would leave Jaxson starstruck? Our own Lorde, who, one day, he would very much like to sing with.
At the moment, neither Jaxson nor Hil have had a chance to see Margot’s blockbuster Barbie. Now studying fashion at Massey University, Jaxson is busy with assignments and recently modelled at New Zealand Fashion Week.
Jaxson modelling in WOW 2022 – now he’s a headline musical act.
He’s also preparing to appear in the World Of Wearable Art show in Wellington, where artists turn their gallery-worthy works into wild and wondrous pieces of costumery and couture, modelled in a three-week long theatrical extravaganza.
Jaxson is one of five headline acts, performing his debut single Murky Lights, which is a blend of ethereal, classically influenced pop. He modelled in WOW last year and made it his ambition to be a headline musical act one day.
WOW show director Malia Johnston, who offered Jaxson the gig, describes him as “an absolute force”, while music director Eden Mulholland says he has a “compelling presence and remarkable x-factor”.
Meanwhile, Hil is heavily involved too, designing the hair and makeup for WOW’s headline acts, as well as styling the event’s promotional photos, which involved “three sleepless nights” of devising a way to get waist-length hair into a bald cap.
Mates Hil and Margot.
It’s the first time Hil has worked on WOW, having been asked when Jaxson was two. “But he was just a little nipper and I wanted to spend a bit more time with him, so I declined. I always thought it would be an amazing thing to be part of.”
Given he was raised amid film and TV sets, Hil isn’t surprised Jaxson has ended up as a performance artist. “We bought a house with a back section, a trampoline and trees because we thought Jaxson might be like a little stunt boy, but he was so not that – he wanted to do glitter, paint, drawing, blood and guts.”
Jaxson was five when he appeared as a young boy running to escape an earthquake in the 2008 TV movie Aftershock. He remembers being happy because Hil gave him a scar and fake blood on his forehead.
“I used to ask for prosthetic scars on the daily,” he says. “I loved school discos, so I’d ask Mum if she’d do my makeup so I could go as some creature, like a zombie or a sea ghost.” Although one time, Jaxson’s Halloween makeup – a dislocated jaw with exposed teeth – was so realistic, it made a classmate faint. “I was always into the more gnarly stuff rather than pretty!”
With Rima Te Wiata in Billy Elliot The Musical.
While WOW is the next step in Jaxson’s career, it’s not the first time he’s headlined a major show. After appearing in a production of The Sound Of Music, he was one of three young actors who played the title role in Billy Elliot The Musical in 2016.
“I don’t know that my parents have given me any particular advice, but I have realised the work ethic needed from quite a young age. And they have always been extremely supportive of any endeavour that I have pursued – and my insane brain when it comes to creative things.”
World Of Wearable Art is on at Wellington’s TSB Arena from 20 September to 8 October. For tickets, visit worldofwearableart.com.
