Key to happiness – knowing when you’ve got it

The key to happiness is knowing when you've got it," says Will Hall, quoting his favourite line from TV's offbeat drama series, The Insiders Guide to Happiness.

"I'm always looking back on the old times, thinking, 'Oh, wasn't that good' without knowing when it's right in front of me."

With a Best Actor Screen Award under his belt for his role as affable but naive banker James, here's hoping he's heeding his own advice. Hall was also the only core cast member asked back for the prequel, The Insiders Guide to Love, written by Paula Boock, David Brechin-Smith and Peter Cox. He's just not sure why they brought him back and no one else.

"It could have almost been a NZ Idol situation where they got people to text in and vote," he laughs. "And yeah, I did feel stink."

In Love, we meet James well before he gets trapped in the carwash, before the monks show up convinced he's some kind of messiah.

James has just flown the coop from Wanganui to Wellington, and, keen to assert his independence, he's not exactly stoked when mum (Geraldine Brophy) and dad (Russell Smith) turn up on his doorstep with a bunch of marital issues.

Ask Hall how he got his head around the idea of doing a prequel and he quips, "Star Wars".

But he had already figured out much of James' back-story for the first series, tapping into his naivety by casting his mind to when he moved from Christchurch to Sydney to pursue acting.

"I didn't really know what to expect and thought things would all fall into place but learned pretty quickly that life isn't that easy."

Still, most actors would baulk at the ease with which Hall slipped into acting, after abandoning his university studies in valuation and property management to go to acting school in Australia.

While living across the ditch he got parts in a number of short films and a small part in a feature film. During a holiday back home he waltzed into an acting agency and signed up to audition for the role of James the next day.

Hall recalls being instantly taken by the script.

"The Insiders Guide created its own world," says Hall. "It's almost like everyday life, the world we live in, but not quite. There's something else going on there."

While the first series looked at the ways humans search for happiness, find it, lose it or sabotage it, the prequel explores love in its various guises, asking if it really does conquer all.

Among the various characters whose lives collide are Nicole, (Kate Elliott) who enjoys an ongoing love affair with dangerous men and fast cars, Marty, (Louis Sutherland), a travel writer in love with two women at once, and Luc, (Gareth Reeves) a talented baker who will put his life in danger for his love of the job.

"Love transforms," says Maxine, one of Marty's love interests.

"It is simple and pure and it changes everything forever. Like paint."

As for James, he is dealing with the love of his parents, and the love of his friends. In one of the series' most memorable moments, we learn how James meets his future flatmate, Barry, and the unwritten rules of Kiwi male mates.

"Unfortunately, James doesn't get a lot of romantic love," says Hall. "It comes out that he could possibly have never had any female love in his life. I was waiting for this big climax at the end of the series, where James finally finds a girl but it didn't happen."

Hall isn't much like James. He's a little more world-weary, and that unruly mop of blond hair, is, disappointingly, a fake.

But in true Insiders fashion, the real characters in Hall's life have come together in unusual ways. While living in Sydney, he fell in love with an Irish girl, last year followed her to her home country and convinced her to come back to New Zealand with him.

"When we couldn't go to the [Screen] Awards, she put on a mock awards night round at our flat and invited all her Irish friends around. We had a few Guinnesses. She made me an award just in case I didn't win."

After the filming of Love wrapped, Hall and his co-star Ryan O'Kane, keen to work on a play together, eventually settled on a script by Hall's on-screen mum, Geraldine Brophy, who will also direct it.

"It's going to be a bit of a reunion," says Hall. "We hadn't planned it that way at all."

As for that Screen Award, in which he was up against his good friend Ben Barrington, also from the series, Hall isn't quite sure why he won. "I dunno, maybe Barrington was a bit too ugly. He doesn't have enough hair."

Ironically, the only bad thing he's heard about the show came from Wanganui. "Something about punching that blond guy in the face."