Rima Te Wiata brings quiet authority to warm supporting parts and finds room for compassion inside the comedy. We rate that unforced kindness, particularly in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, even when the film fusses over its quirks.
Fi1m perspective
In Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Rima Te Wiata’s Bella is a foster aunt whose warmth comes with quiet authority. She can be kind without seeming vague, and the comedy benefits from having someone we can take seriously. We rate Te Wiata for that balance of humour and compassion. It gives a supporting character some weight in a film led by Julian Dennison and Sam Neill, without requiring her to compete with them for attention.
Her route to those parts took in soap, sketch comedy and a sustained return to theatre. After Sons and Daughters (1986–87), she worked across New Zealand television and the stage, with more emphasis on theatre after 1999. Housebound (2014) brought her greater film recognition as Miriam Bucknell, the mother in a haunted-house comedy. As Miriam, she balances comedy with empathy, an approach that also serves Bella well.
Taika Waititi gets good use from that warmth in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, although his fondness for quirks sometimes needs checking. Te Wiata’s contribution sits within a film whose strongest asset is the friendship between Dennison and Neill’s characters. We were moved more than we expected because the pair make that friendship persuasive enough to earn the sweetness. The reservation is with Waititi’s fussing, not with the film’s willingness to be affectionate; Bella is one reason we would not want it made colder.
Supporting work can also keep an actor too neatly assigned to one task. Warm, reassuring figures may suit Te Wiata, but we would be wary of treating those parts as the full measure of an actor whose work also includes impersonation and musical performance. Later roles include Shona in The Breaker Upperers (2018) and Sheriam Bayanar in The Wheel of Time in 2023. Start with Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and allow for a director who occasionally works too hard at being endearing.
Biography
Rima Te Wiata is a New Zealand actress, singer and comedian. Born in London, England, she is the daughter of opera singer Inia Te Wiata and actress Beryl Te Wiata, and of Ngāti Raukawa descent. She made an early stage debut in Auckland and trained at the New Zealand Drama School, graduating in 1983.
Te Wiata is known for film roles including Miriam Bucknell in Housebound (2014), Bella Faulkner in Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Shona in The Breaker Upperers (2018) and Mrs D in Pork Pie (2017). Her television credits include Spencer in My Life Is Murder (2019), Sheriam Bayanar in The Wheel of Time (2021) and appearances in Westside and Golden Boy. She has a long stage career and earlier worked in Australian television, including a recurring role in the soap Sons and Daughters.
In 2017 Te Wiata was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film and television. She won the New Zealand Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
