The star of Secrets at Red Rocks takes us through his life in television, including being duped by the Goodnight Kiwi and botching a song on Shortland Street.
Whether he’s musing over a murder mystery as a cop in One Lane Bridge or in the midst of a surprise tandem pregnancy in Double Parked, Dominic Ona-Ariki has been very busy on local television screens over the last few years. “Sometimes it actually feels a little bit much,” he laughs. “But then I remember working in an office and daydreaming about what I would give to just be to be able to pay my rent by being an actor.”
His latest onscreen role is in the mystical kidult drama Secrets at Red Rocks where he plays Robert, the father of an adventurous young lad Jake (Korban Knock). Busy writing a big feature from his coastal rental, Robert lets Jake run wild around the jagged coast, which leads to a discovery that may or may not unlock a secret spell. “It’s a delightful series filled with warmth and energy,” we wrote in our review last week, “that also has a bewitching sense of otherworldliness to it.”
For Ona-Ariki, the “big and buzzy adventure” rocking a small community evoked one of his own childhood TV memories: the Paul Jennings-inspired series Round the Twist, where babies were born in cabbage patches and dunnies haunted by ghosts. “I remember seeing it in primary school, when it was close to school holidays and they’d just roll out the TV for you to look after yourself,” he laughs. “And I remember watching Round the Twist and being like ‘wow, this is really crazy’.”
With Secrets at Red Rocks feeling like a hark back to the good old days of television, we asked Ona-Ariki to walk us through some more of his TV memories, including a botched musical number on Shortland Street, getting starstruck by a Love Island contestant, and the Netflix show he’s always watching on the treadmill.
My earliest TV memory is… I remember the Goodnight Kiwi. I remember being up really late at night at my grandparents’ house, and they used to have one of these really old TVs with two big buttons and those little switches and knobs. I remember watching that and seeing The Goodnight Kiwi and thinking “nice, it’s a cartoon” and then it just cut out on me. I felt a little bit robbed.
The show I would rush home from school to watch is… Power Rangers. I remember one time watching the Power Rangers while I was helping my mum and my brother make dinner, and I didn’t want to miss any of it. So, for the first ad break, I tried to count how long the break was. When it got to the next ad break and I had to go back to the kitchen, I was counting the whole time to make sure I could get back in time and didn’t miss anything. That’s when I realised that not every ad break is the same length.
My earliest television crush was… Minnie on Shortland Street.
My favourite NZ TV ad is… I think this is probably a common one, but it is the Mitre 10 one with the two kids talking about building a retaining wall. “Go on mate, do it yourself.” It’s so funny, and those kids are so good without even trying.
My TV guilty pleasure is… Love Island. It’s always same routine where my partner’s watching it, and then I’m like “f- this show” and then I’ll come back into the lounge and be like, “wait, so who’s dating who?” And then all of a sudden I’m sitting down, I’m going “that guy is a dog” and I’m invested. I was actually just on the Gold Coast and saw one of the guys who was on Love Island Australia at the gym and had this weird fanboy moment. I had the conversation in my head for like a good two minutes – “do I talk to him, what do I say to him” – and then I decided to leave him alone.
A TV moment that haunts me is… It was mine and Scott Cotter’s first week on Shortland Street. We rocked up to set and they were like “you guys know the song, right?” We had no idea that our characters were singing, so we had to learn this song in 10 minutes before we started filming. It was the worst. I remember feeling so shit about it and then, when it aired, they played everything up to the song and then it cut away just as we were about to sing. They clearly knew it was so bad.
My favourite TV character of all time is… Omar from The Wire. I love him because he’s a Robin Hood character, and everyone’s super scared of them. I also think, for the time, to have this really gangster dude who’s also gay was so great. I loved it.
My favourite TV project I’ve ever worked on is… Double Parked. Having a front row seat to watch Kura Forrester, Madeleine Sami, Antonia Prebble and Chris Parker at work was just a masterclass. I learned so much about not just comedy, but also drama as well. In order to be able to play heavy, you have to be able to play around in the light too, otherwise you just have nowhere to go. Watching them all at work, I was just eating it all up.
A TV project I would always love to be involved in is… Yellowstone. I’ve only seen one episode, but I’d love to be on that kind of show, like family dramas out riding a horse.
My most controversial TV opinion is… Nothing to do with TV, but the only controversial thing I am thinking about is the fact that Beyonce won Best Country album at the Grammys. Is it really a country album?
The show I will never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… Probably Game of Thrones. I don’t think I’m ever going to get there, mentally I watched the first season and then the guy we were all rooting for just… died. I don’t know if I’ve got time for that, or if my heart can take it.
The last thing I watched on TV was… Narcos, season three. They just caught one of the godfathers of the Cali cartel. It was riveting, it’s what I watch when I’m on the treadmill.
