Actor Phillip Gordon began his television acting career playing bad boy Hugh Clifford on the long-running soap Close to Home. He then played small roles in many New Zealand films, before winning the lead role in the TV series Inside Straight.

Actor Phillip Gordon began his television acting career playing bad boy Hugh Clifford on the long-running soap Close to Home. He then played small roles in many New Zealand films, before winning the lead role in the TV series Inside Straight. He played a conman in the hit film Came a Hot Friday, then returned to television in the kidult show Terry and the Gunrunners. More recently he has appeared on television in Shortland Street and Street Legal, and on film in The Returning. In this ScreenTalk interview, Gordon talks about:

• Not really knowing what he was doing on the set of Close to Home
• How his own life experiences helped create the role of Hugh in the soap
• Enjoying the enthusiasm of director Ian Mune on the set of Came a Hot Friday
• Learning from his fellow actors in the film
• Thinking his performance in Shortland Street was ‘over-blown’
• Finally feeling good about his acting when he joined Street Legal
• Getting an apology from the director for the hard job of acting in Bridge to Nowhere

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

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