Pippi Miller - Actress

While living a busy student life at the University of Otago, Pippi Miller balances her life of academia with some more artistic things. We met with this budding actress for a picnic on an autumnal day in some of Dunedin’s best-loved woodland acres. After suffering some style-envy and devouring a few too many hot cross buns, we got to know her thoughts...

Describe what you “do”:

I don’t quite know what I do, but I know what I want: to make what I do lead somewhere. I was trying to pick University subjects that are creative so whatever I do - be it art or writing or drama or things like that - is all about trying to express some sort of creative image. It’s all about trying to keep [what I do] connected to my imagination because that can get lost as things go on.

So drama is the main focus – that’s about creating and imagining other people and expressing them somehow. I like trying to figure out how to get into their head and live in their world, which is basically when you live in your own imagination because you’re not being you, which is quite interesting.

How did you get into Drama?

There was this play that I did called Mrs. Klein. Mrs. Klein was a bit like Freud - she was a psychoanalyst and analysed her kids. It’s quite an intellectual play about her relationship with her son who possibly killed himself and the question is whether or not she was the reason for his death. In one scene there was a big fight with her daughter (I was Mrs. Klein) and it was really cool because I got to throw a lot of fizzy grape juice in someone’s face. I was converted!

Is there a particular space that you find is a good place to be inspired and feel creative?

I have a place where I go to sing, which is up near Signal Hill. You go up the road and turn left at the top where you come to a farm track which opens up to a view of the harbour. You can see Quarantine Island and the sea, you can just sit there and no one ever turns up... it’s so silent and misty.

The other place is a mental space rather than a physical space - it’s that stage where you’re not thinking about what you’re doing, things just happen. For example, if you’re doing a painting, suddenly it’s not you that’s doing it, it’s someone else entering that space in your mind.

Where would you say the inspiration comes from?

Creative stuff percolates from a sort of pool and then things just surface. If you switch off all the blah blah blah in the front of your brain, you get into the zone. You don’t think, you just do.

What’s currently fuelling/inspiring you in your performances?

The anger I feel when I see people who have abandoned their dreams to work in offices and seeing people who are so conservative. You feel like saying “Can’t you just notice how interesting everything is and keep being interested?” I really don’t want to be in that state. I keep seeing examples of people I don’t want to be like.

I was reading online about how Leonardo DiCaprio’s father asking him not to successful when he grow up, simply “just have an interesting life.” David Bowie also said, "I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring." That’s the kind of attitude I like.

Was there any particular performance that felt like a real milestone for you?

Probably MacBeth, which was last year. We did this 5 minute self-directed piece for Shakespeare Festival. I was grumpy because in the past I had played Cordelia who was the ideal daughter and Desdemona, who was the ideal wife and they are powerful characters in a certain way. But in another way, they’re both victims and I was angry about that so we decided to do a female version of MacBeth and I played MacBeth! We did a fight scene, and I’m a fencer, so I got to be onstage with a knife attacking people and be war-like. It was the best experience of my life because I love Shakespeare’s male characters! Unfortunately it seems like you can’t play them because you’re a girl so with MacBeth it was incredible. I was reading an interview with Helen Mirren who had been trying to convince script writers for years not to “...write for women, write for people. Give it an asexual name and then decide whether you're going to cast a woman".

If you could have a dinner party and invite any five people - living or dead - who would you invite and why?

What if all the really cool interesting famous people who did good things or made good artwork were actually dicks? Would you actually want to invite them to your dinner party? I’d have to think very hard…

That’s a good answer in itself!

I could say Shakespeare, but then what if he’s really sexist because of the time period he’s from? I might invite him, but I probably wouldn’t get anything he was saying. Actually thinking of who to invite to a party is so hard. I think it would be quite interesting talking to Margaret Thatcher, because what was she up to… honestly?! I’d invite Audrey Hepburn (because she’s cool). I’d also like to invite someone nobody knows - like a Cornish fishwife or something - because you have all these famous people. Someone ordinary… ordinary people have interesting stories too.

If you had the chance, what advice would you pass on to your younger self? Or anybody starting out with acting?

Lots of people are going to tell you lots of different things and probably tell you to go in a certain direction. Don’t stress or feel you have to go one way, there a lots of directions you can take. If you suddenly change your mind and decide you don’t want to be an actor and you’d rather be an illustrator – do it!

Also, whether it be with music, art or anything creative, if you just stop worrying about it, and just goof around, honestly the best stuff comes out. It’s really annoying because you’d expect if you try really hard that things will happen but it sometimes that’s not how it works.

 

Favourite item hanging in your wardrobe right now...

This is such a tough question! I have quite a lot of things hanging my wardrobe that I like. Probably that grey dress we found at the opshop the other day... it’s different. I really like the soft dove grey and the way it looked like blended watercolours. I haven’t figured out how to wear it and I actually think it’s very ugly… but I also kind of like it.

What song is stuck in your head right now? (No judgement!)

My brain goes ‘The Wheels on the bus go round and round’... yep.

Favourite smells:

There’s lots of smells… I really like warm pine. When it’s just been raining and the sun comes out and the asphalt steams and you can smell it. Whatever the smell is of the laundry powder we have at home. I also quite like rosemary… it’s in our garden and I often walk past and pick some.

 

Favourite place to find a beverage:

I like Dog with Two Tails because it’s got a good vibe.

Favourite place to chill:

The quarry in North East Valley, it’s an old abandoned place - it’s getting pretty overgrown but it didn’t used to be. If you go up all the levels to the very top and then up some stairs and then turn off to the middle of nowhere, you can get to the highest level just beside a farm fence. I used to go there with my best friend when I was a kid and we thought no one else knew where it was, but I’m sure people do. You can look at the view, you can chat and count the yellow cars as they drive past, like we did.

If you were a drink, what would you be and why?

I would be water, because I would be pure. I’m going to go with that - (but I know I’m being up myself there, so please state that in the interview!)

If you were a colour, what would you be and why?

Something changing and flashy... like the colour of oil in water.

Pet peeves?

People walking slowly in front of me - it just really gets to me – and couples where you can see really clearly defined gender roles... the really gooey ones where the boy is being very male and the girl is being very female.

What’s your favourite aspect about living in Dunedin?

I like that you can walk for 15 minutes and you find somewhere that is nowhere. Bing, you’ve escaped. If you go to Auckland you just drive and there are motorways and stuff, but in Dunedin, there are beautiful hills. I also like the core soul of Dunedin. The grunge vibe, the friendly grungy people.

Thoughts for the future?

I want to take myself off my own pedestal because I’m sometimes like “Oh I must only do fancy drama!” – I just need to stop being up myself and actually do things and not think “I’m not going to do that because it’s below me”.... because if you keep doing that you never do anything and that’s self destructive. Some people in the drama world are really sharp and judgemental, and say stuff like “Oh that person was rubbish” and yes, maybe sometimes that’s true, but in terms of where they are at, it doesn’t matter. They’re out there and doing it. Everyone needs to get experience.

In another sense I want to go have adventures, have life experience, have heartbreaks and just become more worldly.