‘We're the same people': How a Kiwi legend and Hollywood superstar bonded over history

The Age

6 days ago

Eight years have passed, but the emotion still rises in Temuera Morrison's voice when he recalls the defining compliment his fellow actor Jason Momoa paid him. In 2017, the two stars were on the vast Gold Coast set of Hollywood superhero blockbuster Aquaman. Momoa, the rising Hollywood success story, had the title role of the heroic undersea warrior, while Morrison, the New Zealand veteran with an eclectic CV, was playing his human father.
Aquaman 's script may have crafted a father-and-son bond for the duo onscreen, but one day Morrison learnt just how deep their connection ran in real life. Momoa, an indigenous Hawaiian, had his then two young children, daughter Lola and son Nakoa-Wolf, visit him on set. What Momoa chose to share with them was how important Morrison, a fellow Polynesian actor via his Māori heritage, had been to him long before they met.
'I heard him tell his kids, 'See that guy there' – and he's pointing at me – 'I saw his movie Once Were Warriors and that's what excited me to become an actor and get into this business',' Morrison says, referring to his breakthrough role in the 1994 New Zealand classic. 'Just quietly, that made me very proud.'
Fast forward to today and Morrison is again working with Momoa, but the stakes are very different. An epic nine-episode historic drama set on the Hawaiian Islands in the late 18th century, Apple TV+'s Chief of War is a bloody, impassioned epic about the unification of rival Indigenous kingdoms into a single nation.
Deeply versed in the island chain's history and with Olelo Hawai'i as the principal language spoken, it's Momoa's long-held passion project. It's where the chips he accumulated for Aquaman and Fast X, Dune and The Minecraft Movie get pushed all in. Momoa co-created the series, has a starring role, directed the finale, and according to an admiring Morrison, did plenty more.
'He's a 100-miles-an-hour and a hundred things going on. Not many people can do that,' Morrison says. 'When Jason directed his episode, he had multiple cameras going. He had actors and stunties and muskets firing, all on top of a real volcano erupting. That's a whole lot of energy. He's been preparing himself for this project. He's learnt everything technical, and he's learnt quickly. But he doesn't give himself credit.'
It's late summer in Hawaii, the day before the red-carpet launch of Chief of War, and while he's fighting a chest infection, Morrison is full of enthusiasm for Momoa, the show, and what it will mean for Hawaiian culture. Morrison, one of the most commanding 64-year-olds you can encounter, knows what he wants to do after his interview schedule – it involves 'a couple of schooners' – but right now, he's got praise to share.
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'This was totally different to Aquaman,' Morrison says. 'There was a sense of pride in being Polynesian. A sense of connection. Here we are: Hawaiian and Māori together, speaking your language. This was something culturally significant. This was something Jason had always wanted to make. Something about his people.'
As with Shogun, the hit Disney+ series set in 17th century feudal Japan, Chief of War is immersed in a deeply traditional culture just starting to have contact with the outside world. But here there is no European character to serve as the audience's proxy. You're thrown – quite literally, in the first scene – into the deep end, with the stunning landscapes and historically accurate production design setting up a paradise beset by conflict.
Momoa stars as Ka'iana, a Maui chief living in exile, with his wife, Kupuohi (Te Ao o Hinepehinga), and brothers, who is recalled to his home island by Morrison's ambitious king, Kahekili. The dynamic between the two is fraught, setting in motion events that speak not only to personal power but also to spiritual conviction and national survival – the destructive colonial powers, bearing gunpowder, silver and disease, are edging closer to the Hawaiian Islands.
Morrison comes from a family of performers and singers, appearing on New Zealand screens since the late 1980s and taking up Hollywood roles after Once Were Warriors ′ international acclaim. He's played bounty hunter Jango Fett and his son Boba in various Star Wars releases, from the movie prequels to the 2021 series The Book of Boba Fett, but he demurred when Momoa first came calling, worried he would let his friend down.
'You need Cliff Curtis,' Morrison told Momoa, citing his New Zealand friend and Once Were Warriors co-star, who had just featured in Avatar: The Way of Water. But Momoa already had another role in mind for Curtis, rival chief Keoua, so he kept pressing Morrison, who then replied that he was worried he was taking a role from a Hawaiian actor.
'Jason's words to me were, 'Bro, we're the same people'. That did it. He was right. We have 'aroha' for love, they say 'aloha',' Morrison says. 'I could tell from the excitement in his voice that he wanted me onboard his waka [canoe]. He's got this ability to sell you anything. I heard he pitched Chief of War over the phone to Apple TV+ and they took it on.'
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Once he said yes, Morrison was at ease playing Kahekili. He knew how to carry himself like an absolute leader, and understood the warrior ethic through his own Māori lineage. The challenge was learning Olelo Hawai'i. Chief of War was too important, to Momoa and every other native Hawaiian, for outside actors to simply recite the lines phonetically. The cast had to be able to talk to each other. This gig came with historic responsibility.
'I still remember my first day on set where the boom operator, who holds a big microphone above us actors, looks at me and she says, 'You're playing my ancestor',' Morrison says. 'I didn't know how to respond, but I knew that if I didn't get it right she would probably bang me on the head with her microphone.'
Starting with the scripts co-written by Momoa and fellow creator Thomas Pa'aa Sibbett, Chief of War has a comprehensive level of anthropological detail. The costume department was in pre-production for eight months, re-creating the feathers of extinct birds for the individual Ahu'ula (cape) and Mahiole (helmet) worn by each chief. Historically accurate weapons, for male and female warriors, were duplicated. Morrison himself started the day at 3am, having Kahekili's extensive facial tattoos drawn on.
'We had all of Polynesia involved: we had Samoan actors, we had Tongan actors, Tahitian actors, a few Māori actors, and, of course many Hawaiian actors. The whole cast came together with a responsibility to do the best we could,' Morrison says. 'That reconnected us as Polynesians. It brought us together in a very close-knit way. A lot of love shared. It was quite wonderful.'
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Some challenges for Morrison required a veteran actor's cunning. Momoa is almost two metres tall, and Morrison, who's quick to joke about his lack of height, is not. When the two shared a scene walking along a path, Morrison stood on the track's edge, to add a few centimetres. Whenever a scene took place on volcanic rocks, Morrison would check with the cinematographer if his 'soft feet' were in the shot. If not, he could wear padding.
But these cheeky workarounds never got in the way of the show's mission. From Momoa on down, everyone involved with Chief of War was committed to showing audiences the Hawaii that existed for 1000 years before its annexation by the United States in 1898.
'Hopefully, Hawaiians will feel a sense of pride and a sense of reclaiming their identity, in having their culture reflected back to them,' Morrison says. 'We've been doing that for a little while in New Zealand, but we've all got a lot to learn about Hawaii.'