Latest / Kyle Meredith With... / Luciane Buchanan on Chief of War, Polynesian Identity, and Her Spiritual Journey

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Luciane Buchanan on Chief of War, Polynesian Identity, and Her Spiritual Journey · Kyle Meredith With...

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[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.
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[SPEAKER_03]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK, a WFPK.org consequence and the consequence podcast network.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for making your way here for checking out the episode.
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[SPEAKER_03]: review and give the show a rating while you're at it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Those always help out.
0:58
[SPEAKER_03]: We've had some great guests on lately.
1:00
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, we just talked to the crew that plays Happy Gilmore's sons on the new Happy Gilmore, too.
1:05
[SPEAKER_03]: We also talked with Kyle Newechek, the director of Happy Gilmore, too.
1:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Michael Clifford of five seconds of summer was here.
1:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Caroline Pullachek, Allison Goldfrapp, Ben Folds, the cast of zombies four, wet leg, Renee Lee Skullsberry, Lucy Dacus,
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[SPEAKER_03]: Seth McFarland, Shirley Manson, Mark Hamill, Finn Wolfar, just an example of what you get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast.
1:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's me, Kyle Meredith, today in my guest, Lucy Annie Buchanan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She's got one of those faces that instantly makes you think, wait, I know her from something, which is fair, you probably do.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The New Zealandborn actress got her starts as a teen on filthy rich and power Rangers, then pivoted hard into prestige with Netflix's The New Legends of Monkey and the Night Agents, which she's got a lot of a claim for on the Night Agents.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She's got that rare combo of classic screen presence and the modern grits.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And in twenty twenty five, she steps into epic mode, co-starring in Chief of War, the Apple TV plus historical drama created by Jason Mamoah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: shot on location Hawaii, told from an indigenous perspective.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The series casser as this queen who helped unify everything in Hawaii, a high ranking cheapest, you know, the kind of role where your costume includes actual volcanic ash.
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[SPEAKER_03]: and your dialogue occasionally involves throwing shade and ancient Hawaiian.
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[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, we got to talk about all of that, discovering her character's legacy, making a spiritual pilgrimage to the Queen's birthplace, and learning that endangered Hawaiian language for the role.
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[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, Lucy and I also were flexed on how the project connects to her short film, Mother Tung,
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[SPEAKER_03]: And we talk about her experience on set with Jason Momoa that involved a lot of Apple boxes to make their height difference a little less noticeable.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And the importance of telling these stories from an indigenous perspective.
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[SPEAKER_03]: All that and more, let's jump into it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We're talking chief of war on Apple TV+.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's Kyle Meredith with Lucy Annie Buchanan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I'm well, how about yourself?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Good, it's a beautiful day, can't complain.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also, it's my birthday.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Happy birthday.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You got to do like what an eight-hour junkie for your birthday?
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's a way to spend it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then a premier afterwards.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Three thousand people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Turn it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there's worse ways.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, well, let me be one of those thousands of people to go ahead and congratulate you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because chief of war, I mean, this is beautiful, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: What a beautiful shot.
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[SPEAKER_03]: What a beautifully acted.
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[SPEAKER_03]: What a beautiful story.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, thank you so much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's a, so let's hear a bit about it because these, it's based on true events, the unification of the islands, what we know called it, why in islands, but from the indigenous perspective, like how much did you know this story going into it?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh, I was saying yesterday I had no idea about Hawaiian history at all.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, had visited on holiday or vacation as you guys say.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I had heard of King Kamehameha because there's school's named after him and I've seen statues, but I didn't know about his legacy and how he's one of the greats.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so when the audition came up, this character was there, and I was like, I have to be a part of this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Apple TV's making it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Jason's making it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is this a real thing?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe they're, you know, funding a Polynesian historical drama like this feels surreal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I got the audition and just deep dive into this character and then I just became obsessed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I've never read something like her before and, you know, fiction, nonfiction.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I spent about the whole weekend, you know, decoding this audition side because I had no idea what they were talking about.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And once I got the role, I ended up coming to Hawaii and kind of island hopping, researching, and the more you know, the more amazing it is.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think our show only scratches the surface of that history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's awesome that the show exists because I hope that people out there will look into it by being introduced to the history from our show.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And we'll be right back right after this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's Kyle and Meredith with Lucy Annie Buchanan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's interesting the way you talk about like, like, finding out about her and how it just keeps building and everything.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like, what is it?
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[SPEAKER_03]: What is it about her?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because again, you do have this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: She's a real person, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: You're portraying it, but it's not like, it's not like you can jump on the YouTube.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And like, you still have to create some of this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like, how did you find your way into her then?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh gosh, well, I, it was exactly that, you know, Google can only give you so much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I went to student local libraries on the big island here in Oahu and I would find these books sitting this time, but I would find maybe two or three pages on this character and I'm like, seriously, like, I choose it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty iconic, and very, very well-known.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because most of the history books focus on Canca-Mehr-Mehr, and all I could find was, you know, she was the favorite wife, and some of the explorers, journals, George Vancouver, just spoke about how beautiful she was.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, there's gotta be more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I need to find out more.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I managed to find historical sites on the island where her birthplace in Maui,
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[SPEAKER_03]: Is the cave, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, the cave where she was born, which is a crazy story in itself.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I heard you just say something like it, but you took like three hours of trying to find it and then just accidentally ended up there anyway.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I Googled it, found a website that had a picture of the cave and I was like, I have to go there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I never found that page again and I went through my Google history and I was like, did I make that up?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is I swear there's like the specific photo that I saw
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[SPEAKER_00]: And she's from Hannah and Maui, which is on the east side.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And there's this famous road to Hannah.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you've ever been to Maui, but it's a three hour drive of like twists and turns.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So you're just the whole time like stressed out because it's just a cliff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, eventually made it out there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Talk to locals and I was like, hey, do you know of this cave?
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[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone gave me different answers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, maybe they're in the room, like over here.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And like when they say maybe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.
7:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I've driven down this road five times.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The locals are now looking at me really strange.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also I stuck out because I rented a Jeep Wrangler that was bright red, which screams tourists.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, I was walking around and I just said, you know, I drove all this way.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably not going to happen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go for a swim.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so I kind of walked past this couple and I was like, can't swim there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's a bit creepy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They have in a little private moment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so I continued to walk from another ten minutes, and I found it strangely enough.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I couldn't believe my eyes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was just, there was no like beaten pass, pass, pass, pass, and no.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I would say a pair.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You'd say pair.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Pass for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm changing Kyle, no.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's happening.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the queue, yeah, the queue.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah and I just kind of took off my hair, took off my shoes and like set my intentions for playing this role and just kind of let her spirit know that like I might not be the right person to do so and maybe not the last person to do so but I wanted to honor her in the best way that I could and I had this really spiritual moment where the other trees started to shake and
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[SPEAKER_00]: The wind like picked up and I was like, no, this is a bad sign.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the wrong person.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I just went quiet and it was just like a really beautiful moment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that happened very early on before I had it, met anyone on the production before I had met Jason and person, before I had read a script.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I kind of used that as an anchor point whenever I kind of got tired on Seattle or frustrated with the schedule changing or story lines changing, I just kind of go back to that moment of being very grateful to be the one to tell her story.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, and you define it so well.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, again, I don't have a lot to base it on, but which sounds me silly saying that, but like, but that's it.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like you're hurt.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's, that's the look and the looks that you give throughout the entire series.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Like it's, yeah, that's what they call good acting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm too critical to know on my own.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And we'll be right back right after this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's Kyle and Meredith with Lucy Annie Buchanan.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Now, you've got to learn the language on top of it, right?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Is that just creating that?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you gotta learn to ride the horse without knowing how to ride the horse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, which I would definitely lie about to get a job for sure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I remember they were saying, you know, the first two episodes is predominantly a little Hawaii, which is the native language here, which is an endangered language.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And only in the past two generations have they revitalized that and have full immersion schools teaching the next generation how to speak the language.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So there was a lot of pressure to make sure I
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[SPEAKER_00]: did my biggest, not get it right because there's so many ways of speaking the language, but that was daunting because when I got the job, I was like, okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I actually have to do the job.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is quite scary.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it was my favorite part of the job because it was so challenging.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When you forget align, you can't add live in another language.
11:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't just make up words or get the gist of it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, once I honed there and worked really hard with my amazing coach, Hina,
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[SPEAKER_00]: I felt so much more like the character.
11:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like you get deeper into that world because we're not speaking English, which they wouldn't have spoken at the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it was another gift from the show.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm capable of acting in another language.
11:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, take that one.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But what, you know, you coming off of your own autobiographical short film with Mother Tongue.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It feels like there's a lot about identity.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, was that obvious?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Is that correct?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, totally.
11:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote that actually years and years ago when I was at university.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I was studying psychology and there was a class specifically for speech and language therapy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like,
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if this acting thing doesn't work out, I could be a speech language therapist.
11:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's with the voice and you know, and they were looking for people of Polynesian descent who could speak their mother tongues because a lot of patients they can't speak to.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, yeah, I'll do that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But first problem I can't speak.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Any other language other than English.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And so I kind of created the story from there and I used the study that was, yeah, the whole premise of the short film.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I literally wrote a short film about how I can't speak tongue in a book a job where they require me to speak a little Hawaii.
12:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's quite funny how life works out.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
12:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Just a mind trip.
12:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that would be on to kind of go from, yeah, I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
12:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Well, beautifully done and completely believable.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Again, it's, and, and, and, you know, Jason Memoa is an acting partner I'm guessing that's its own.
12:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh.
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So fun, although there, I've required a lot of Apple boxes because of our height difference, which might be obvious in some scenes and maybe not in others, but he's six foot four and I'm five foot two.
13:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was an interesting.
13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But everyone's so tall in the show, so.
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[SPEAKER_03]: such a beautiful work.
13:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, I'm baited too.
13:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I need to see what happens next.
13:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what do you want to?
13:18
[SPEAKER_00]: What if the sod?
13:19
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I watch nine.
13:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I've watched all nine.
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
13:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
13:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
13:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, no.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Next season.
13:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully.
13:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
13:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
13:25
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what I need.
13:26
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what I need.
13:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Congratulations on this.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Seriously.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And it's so great to talk to you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much for taking that time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So nice to meet you.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And my thanks to Lucy Annie Buchanan, chief of war out now on Apple TV+.
13:40
[SPEAKER_03]: And thanks to you for checking out the episode.
13:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Hit that subscribe button before you get out of here so you can keep up with all the interviews that I put out every single week.
13:48
[SPEAKER_03]: You can find us Spotify, Apple podcast, NPR, WFPK dot org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast.
13:58
[SPEAKER_03]: You can subscribe to Kyle Meredith with and please do give this series a rating and leave a review while you're at it.
14:05
[SPEAKER_03]: After that, you're going to head over to WFPK.org, right to show Monday through Friday, starting six PM Eastern, four hours of classics from the eighties and nineties, the best in new music, bonus interviews, lots of music news as well.
14:18
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, one of my recent shows featured some classics and favorites from David Bowie, nine inch nails, SG Goodman,
14:24
[SPEAKER_03]: YouTube, Morrissey, the B-Fifty-Tos, Jim Blossom, D-Angelo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, American Football, Arcade Fire, Felice Brothers, and my interview is Swedish Popstar Zero Larson.
14:35
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14:37
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14:42
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14:44
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14:47
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14:50
[SPEAKER_03]: That does it for another edition.
14:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Kyle Meredith.
14:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll see you next time.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: consequence podcast network.
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are.
15:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.