Articles

Joel Tobeck.

Joel. Honestly one of the most funny...funniest people I think I've ever known in my life. And also one of the most brilliant actors. I think...not that he's underrated in New Zealand but I would say that he's definitely one of our finest actors. His eyes are amazing. He blows me away every time. I mean I loved doing things with him and Kevin because I know I'd just be laughing the whole time. I just saw Joel in a performance of The Rocky Horror Show and he plays the lead character, Frank N. Furter. My God, he minced like a gay man. He so had the walk down. He had these heels, honestly I kid you not, I wouldn't even attempt to walk in them myself. And he was running and dancing and kind of [laughs] squiggling around on stage. Yeah, I can't say enough about how much I rate his acting.

Kevin Smith.

Kevin Smith. Ohhh. It's like you can't say his name without having a slight pang of sadness. He honestly was one of the most genuine nice...again it sounds like a cliché but I never in my whole time working with him ever saw him lose it on set. I never saw him in a bad mood or be anything but polite and gracious and...and fantastically funny. Him and Joel together, my God! [laughs] I was always like 'I'm so lucky to be hanging out with you guys!' We always had such a good time together, because that was like a walking sideshow. But what happened to Kevin was such a bizarre tragedy. And because it happened away from home, we heard all these kinds of rumors drifting back. He was fine. He was in a coma but then he was fine. And then all of a sudden he had died. It was very surreal. Especially when you don't see somebody everyday but then you hear about it, it feels like it didn't really happen in a way. Like I still half expect to see him sometimes. It was a great tragedy and I think it was at his memorial service that we all realized just how much one person had impacted so many other people. He was...it was a loss.

I know you have to be going on stage soon, so I wanted to thank you for taking the time for this interview.

Thank you. To be honest with you, when I first saw the website [The Official Meighan Desmond Fan Site] I was blown away that you'd gone to so much trouble, you know what I mean? Which is why I had to write you and thank you, because I was completely overwhelmed by how much work had gone into the whole thing. It was amazing. Of course, it's also a little bit of stroke to the old ego [laughs] when you see something designed all about you.

Well, I'm very happy that it's now your official website.

Thank you. It's fantastic.

END