When Rena Owen sees herself on the viewing screen, dressed as Beth Heke in the opening minutes of Once Were Warriors, she lets out a hearty cackle, exclaiming: “My god, (director) Lee Tamahori knew what he was doing when he put that bloody tattoo and leather vest on me, I tell ya.”
She said she initially thought Beth would be in sweat pants, “he (Lee) just looked at me and said ‘Rena, it’s not that kind of movie'”.
It wasn’t a movie any of us had seen before. Once Were Warriors took us into a world we liked to pretend didn’t exist in New Zealand — an often hard-to-watch depiction of domestic violence and gang life amongst urban Māori, based on a book by Alan Duff.
Owen played the family matriarch, Beth, with Temuera Morrison opposite her as the brutal Jake the Muss. The film, released in 1994, immediately had an impact.
“This film helped to open the door, and anger management groups, women’s groups were inundated with callers saying I’ve got a warriors problem.”
Even today, Owen said, people still come up to her to tell their story.
“I literally had a woman come up to my table and burst into tears and go, ‘Your performance helped me to walk away from a violent relationship.'”
The movie could be heavy to shoot, Owen remembers crew members having to leave the set because they were breaking down, but thinks it was cathartic for many.
The actor’s pride in the movie is clear, but as a young girl in the Far North, it wasn’t what she imagined.
“I didn’t grow up with brown faces on our screens,” she said.
“I didn’t see it as a career option for me. So, 15 years later, the thing that pleases me most about the success of Once Were Warriors is that this film told every little brown child that they could be an actor, that they could be writers, that they could be filmmakers.”
She also wasn’t prepared for the attention that came with the breakout role, calling it “intense”.
“I self-destructed, and I couldn’t handle it that first year.”
She retreated and battled with alcohol, but gradually learnt to take better care of herself.
That’s paying off now. Hollywood did come calling, and she’s had roles in Star Wars and next year will star in the live-action movie Moana as Gramma Tala.
But she says it all started with Once Were Warriors, and she still carries Beth with her.
“Beth was my privilege because I knew her and her story,” she said.
“I’m not a mother, and I’ve never had children. I knew, though, that her story belonged to a lot of women around the world,
“Grace’s story, Jake’s story, all of those character stories resonated with people.”
