A young actress tipped as our next brightest star says it's nerve-wracking having her new movie screened for her nearest and dearest.
"It's stressful, because I really hope they like it," Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie said.
Speaking to the Herald on Sunday at the premiere of Leave No Trace at the Civic in Auckland tonight, McKenzie said returning to New Zealand from the Czech Republic had felt great.
"It was kind of like, 'ah, I'm home again'."
Dressed for the occasion in a star-printed wrap dress, white sneakers and a mustard jacket, the 18-year-old was enthusiastic talking about the new film, and even more enthusiastic when she spotted friends wandering into the Civic for the premiere.
"We're taking over the world, a little bit," she said.
It wasn't McKenzie's first big red carpet experience - Leave No Trace premiered at Sundance festival in Utah earlier this month.
Directed by Debra Granik, the film was about a girl named Tom who was contently living off the grid with her father Will (Ben Foster) in a Portland park.
She foraged for mushrooms and found joy in reading an old encyclopedia.
But after she and Will are discovered, she begins to re-evaluate her upbringing — and understand the PTSD from which her father is suffering.
While McKenzie had previously featured in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and the Margaret Mahy adaptation The Changeover, Granik's Leave No Trace was her first American film.
The Changeover, her most recent film, was directed by McKenzie's mother, actress Miranda Harcourt, and her father Stuart McKenzie.
Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie at the Civic Theatre in Auckland. Photo / Chris Loufte
The pair had raised McKenzie in Wellington.
The young actress' whirlwind trip back home wraps up on Monday, when she would jet over the ditch to begin filming a movie about Ned Kelly.
She was joining a star-studded cast with Russell Crowe, George MacKay, and "a bunch of other really cool people" for the Australia-based film.
