Award-winning singer and actor Annie Whittle has tried most things in the entertainment business and has been successful at all of them.

She has appeared in a range of home-grown TV shows including A Week of It, The Makutu on Mrs Jones, The Billy T James Show, Heartland, Shortland Street, and Outrageous Fortune. She has also graced the silver screen in the feature films Trial Run and The World’s Fastest Indian.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Whittle discusses:

• Having fun playing ‘token bag ladies and tarts’ on A Week of It

• How a skit caused Air New Zealand to change its in-flight safety demonstration

• Training with runner Allison Roe to take on the lead role in Trial Run

• Loving her character Barb Heywood in Shortland Street

• How the audience confused her with Barb

• Being on her best behaviour with Anthony Hopkins on the set of The World’s Fastest Indian

• Not having the courage to tell the star he had a ‘wind’ problem

• Feeling superfluous as a guest character on Outrageous Fortune

• Having to reign in her personality for her role in Piece of My Heart

• Struggling with a lack of self-confidence and learning from it

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Interview, Camera & Editing - Andrew Whiteside