Method Man

Award-winning actor Kieran Charnock likes to inhabit his characters, but sometimes they stick around afterwards.

- Sarah Catherall

His performance may have won him a major acting prize, but Kieran Charnock hasn’t watched himself in Stray, the independent New Zealand movie that has been a career breakthrough.

It seems the 26-year-old Welsh-born Wellington-based actor just doesn’t want to watch himself act.

“I believe in becoming the person and letting that person inhabit the space rather than manufacturing the character and having a technical approach,” he tells the Listener.

Doesn’t he want to see himself? He shakes his head. And his Masterton-based family, although supportive, don’t quite understand why either.

“It’s difficult for me because it makes me feel isolated, or like I’m in the wrong.

There are some other actors out there who don’t watch their work and that gives me courage.”