Teuila Blakely makes the leap to the silver screen

Teuila Blakely

Teuila Blakely cries a lot in Sione's Wedding. "Sometimes I'd be exhausted," she says of the experience. "I'd be crying for like, four hours."

But don't mistake her character Leilani for a victim. As Sefa's live-in girlfriend, she's the first to have a go when her man stumbles home from yet another boozy bender with his mates.

Their relationship has the most at stake in the film because they've been together for years, yet find themselves in a rut because Sefa is about as grown-up as a character from bro'Town.
"They're a bit more realistic," says Blakely. "I think lot of people out there will relate to the man who can be in committed relationships and still be blase about it."

Aside from the buckets of tears required for the role, as her co-stars lolled around all pissy-eyed, Blakely was the serious one rolling her eyes.

"A lot of the other characters had a lot of upbeat stuff and comedy and a lot of mine just wasn't. So they're all joking around on set, pulling their pants down and I'm just off in the corner crying."

And she does it well.

Those who recognise Blakely for her stints fronting C4's Freestyle music show, or her radio jobs on Flava and Niu FM, may be surprised to find the girl can really act.

Blakely is so natural, you can't help but wonder if the tears are real.

"Personally, yes, there were a few things Leilani goes through where I went 'Been there, done that'. But there's a big difference between Leilani and Teuila. How much she loves him - that's what I related to."

It was about the only thing she could relate to. Other than small TV roles that include Outrageous Fortune, Shortland Street and voicing a bro'Town character, Sione's Wedding is her first leading role - and this time it's on the silver screen.

"Everything was scary. I had no idea what it was going to be like. This was a trip. I can't tell you how challenging it was."

One of the hardest things was blocking out the crew, particularly during the bedroom scenes. Kissing her mate Shimpal Lelisi was "weird but we trust each other".

It also helped that she used to go out with co-writer and co-star Oscar Kightley. They were together from their early to mid-20s, and she can still remember Kightley plugging away at the script, telling her which bits of her personality he had incorporated into various characters.

So it came as a bit of a shock that a year after their split, she was approached independently of Kightley and asked to audition for Sione's Wedding.

Blakely originally read for the role of Princess, the sultry Samoan babe who shows up from the islands and procedes to seduce all in her hormonal path, including Oscar's character, Albert.

"I rang up Oscar and said, 'How can I get cast opposite you? That would be really bad.' It kind of puts another twist on our relationship because how many people get to make a movie with their ex-boyfriend?"

After watching her audition tape, the casting director decided Blakely would be better suited to a dramatic, emotional role. And there was plenty of drama and emotion in her private life when she accepted the part.

"I had to leave Flava to do the film but this was such a big thing, in terms of being a Pacific Island actor ... I really felt it was a good choice for me to make. And it was a big choice because I'm a single mum. I had C4, which is my part-time job, and I had Flava. So I had no full-time job to go to after we finished filming."

Relief came just two weeks before filming wrapped when she was offered a position hosting the breakfast show on Niu FM.

Now she's looking forward to taking the film to Samoa where her retired parents live.

"What I loved about growing up - my mum being Samoan - was all that sort of celebration. I learned to dance from a really young age. I'd never been able to turn on a TV programme or a film or even read a book that really reflected my personal experience and I think that's the really good thing about this film."

There's another reason she can't wait to show her parents.

"My mother is a very traditional woman. We came to New Zealand so we could have a better education and better opportunities. One of those opportunities was to go to school and become a doctor or a lawyer because that's what everyone was going to grow up and be. So she really had her heart set on me being a lawyer my entire life and I wanted to be an actress but she was dead-set against it.

"And I'd say to her, 'Mum, I promise it's going to work out'. So I can't wait to go, 'See. I'm in a movie now.' "