Actor Kerry Fox Looks Back at Life in Lower Hutt

New Zealander Kerry Fox, the star of Shallow Grave and Intimacy looks back at her Lower Hutt childhood, driving at 15, her parents disco dancing and an Abba fan club in her shed.

“The highlight of my teenage years was when I got my driver’s licence on the day I turned 15,” Fox remembers. “My older brother had built a beach buggy – like you’d imagine from the 80s – out of orange fibreglass, with big wheels and roll bars to go over the dunes. When he was at work, I used to steal it and pick up my friends. We’d hang out at Petone beach or at Eastbourne, where all the posh people lived – I always fancied myself as a bit of an artist.

“Through university, I worked at the Dowse Art Museum. New Zealand is quite culturally advanced in that it recognises and embraces its multicultural Māori and Samoan past. All sorts of people buy art. Farmers buy great New Zealand art.

“I worked in security – a bizarre job for a teenager – just standing around, making sure that nobody nicked anything or touched the art or knocked it over, because it was really expensive.”

Fox, 54, next stars in The Colour Room, a drama based on the life of ceramicist, Clarice Cliff.

Original article by Rich Pelley, The Guardian, May 13, 2021.