Ian Mune
Knight companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film, television and theatre.
Asked how it feels to be made a knight companion of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2024 New Year Honours list, Ian Mune bursts into a booming laugh.
“If it’s used on formal occasions, that’ll be fine - I just don’t want my kids calling me Sir Dad,” he jokes.
At 82, the acting great has countless accolades to his name, from an OBE to multiple awards and Television Legend status, but he doesn’t want to get “too carried away with the formalities”.
At the time of writing, Mune hadn’t yet told his family the news but knew exactly what their reaction would be.
“Some of them will have to work out what it all means,” he tells the Herald. “But the kids will be thinking what I’m thinking - which is that I wish my wife was here.”
He has a chuckle as he realises “she would be Lady Jo”.
Mune, who lost his beloved wife Josie eight years ago, reveals he “gave up making movies” after her death and found solace in art.
“So I picked up the paint brushes and I’ve been painting pretty much full time ever since,” he says, adding that what he loves about painting is that “nobody can tell me I’m doing it wrong”.
“They can say they don’t like it, but it’s something you do on your own. All the other work I’ve done - acting, writing, directing - everything’s a team effort.”
He’s hesitant to say he’s proud of his acting work, preferring to “think about it in terms of what I enjoy most”.
“For theatre, I’d say what I enjoyed most was doing the big Shakespeare parts - King Lear and the others. And for movies, Came a Hot Friday, Sleeping Dogs, and I did a lot of work on Goodbye Pork Pie on the script, but I wasn’t there for the shoot.”
When it comes to his most recent acting projects, he notes with a laugh “I play people who die”.
“I think the three things I’ve done in the last eight years where I haven’t died have been two commercials - people don’t tend to die in commercials - and one TV series,” he says, referring to 2021 mini-series The Pact.
“It was very heavy stuff. I was with Irene Wood and she had oncoming dementia and chose to die and I chose to die with her, and then at the last minute I chickened out. So I managed to get through to the end of that series still alive,” he says with another laugh.
“Apart from that, I’m either dead by the end or I die in the last season.”
And though times have changed since Mune first took to the stage, his advice to aspiring young Kiwi actors is to learn their craft at drama school.
“I’ve been teaching actors lately, and I’ve found a lot of them don’t do any stage work, which in my world is really weird - because as a young actor, everybody worked stage, and then it was something special to get a TV job or a movie job,” he says.
“Now, kids can find themselves going to auditions and getting parts in TV series before they’ve even learned how to read a sonnet. It’s a different world.”
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM)
For services to Christian music production
CNZM
For services to Christian music production
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM)
For services to performing arts education
ONZM
For services to dance
ONZM
For services to the arts
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM)
For services to Pacific arts
MNZM
For services to the arts and local government
MNZM
For services to arts and the community
MNZM
For services to the arts
MNZM
For services to art and education
MNZM
For services to Pacific arts
MNZM
For services to Māori music
The Queen’s Service Medal (QSM)
For services to theatre
QSM
For services to the community and the arts
QSM
For services to music
QSM
For services to seniors and dance
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