Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: Suzy Cato & Jp Foliaki The Stars Of New Zealand's Feel Good Film Of The Year!

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

We caught up with the stars of the brand new RED WHITE & BRASS film out in cinemas now!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hits, the Jono and Ben podcast. Brand new Kiwi film in cinemas over the weekend, Red, White and Brass it's called. It's a true story of a Tongan rugby superfan who does whatever it takes to go see Tonga play at the Rugby World Cup. There's only six weeks till Tonga take on France at the Rugby World Cup. Maka, what have you done to my house? Surprise my man! Yes, even starting a brass band and none of them could play any instruments. It's based on a true story.

It is, yeah. And the wonderful Susie Cato stars in the movie and John Paul Foliaki as well as the lead actor. And they join us in the studio now. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. Oh, yeah, nice to have you. And the movie looks awesome.

Now, for people that don't know, the true story that the movie was inspired by, can you explain it to us? Yeah, so Noah Fiannau, he's a co-writer and he's a producer for this. He's a co-writer with the name of Fepule'ai. Yeah, he wrote the story based on his own church and their own experience of trying to get tickets

to get to the Rugby World Cup 2011. They created a fictitious brass band, didn't they? So the city council, I think it was a time when Rugby World Cup was on. They wanted Wellington to look like the coolest little capital in the world. So they were going out to the community like, okay, who can perform? Who can do this? And then his church was like, yeah, yeah, we can go for free tickets. Our brass band can perform there.

There was no brass band. So how long? It was like four weeks, right? Four weeks to turn around a brass band to perform in front of a whole lot of people. Yeah, so I think they only had someone that was over from Tonga, and he was the only person who could play a brass instrument, and he taught the whole church. In four weeks?

Yeah. But in the movie. It was funny because in the movie we had about six weeks, seven weeks of filming, but we had to actually learn how to play. I was walking at the front with the drum major learn how to play i was walking at the front with the drum major so i had like the stick walking at the front but everyone actually by the end of it could kind of play like a few songs as well which is probably really annoying for damon because everyone was jamming every time the camera said you get back to the whole lot of instruments

and then try and film scenes and you're playing it on noise it seems like such a feel-good movie you know from what i've seen it's kind of what we need right now is movies like this. Yeah, I think so too, especially, you know, with everything that's been happening in the last few years, even as recent weeks and months with the Cyclone. So I think it's good for us to have, you know, a feel-good movie that everyone can come to. It's very Tongan, but it's also very Kiwi.

You know, you can't have a feel-good movie without Suzy Kato. I was going to say, this is your debut into cinema. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Hitting the big screen, oh my goodness, and in such a wonderful movie with so many talented people. This is my first time, but it's been the first time for so many of the actors.

Well, I saw that you were saying you were quite nervous. Oh, yeah. You were quite nervous about even auditioning for this. Oh, definitely. I've never done anything like this before. So any time that you push your boundaries and give yourself a new opportunity, you know, you get the butterflies.

Oh, am I going to be any good at this? It's about giving yourself a go. One of my favourite times in New Zealand is when Tonga take on Samoa in anything. And flag madness. Like the flags hanging off trucks. Big flags, four metre flags hanging off tracks on the motorway.

Yeah, people trying to hold them and going 100, you know, down the motorway. There hasn't been an accident yet? No. Yeah.

Now, it really is a pride thing and it's beautiful to see and I think it comes across in this film but I know that a lot of New Zealanders will be able to relate to it.

Not because their windscreens have been blocked by a flag. Now, Susie, you've seen the film? Yes, we did. Do you know, because Damon, the director, we used to work with Damon for many years. He phoned us up one day. He's like, I need you to pretend to be good radio announcers. Because we can't do it in real life.

So we recorded a little bit. And we're like, it's going to be a big day in Wellington today. Do you know if it made the cut? Yeah, do we make the cut? This is our debut as well. Yes, it does. It does. Oh, you're saying that.

So we go along, we pay to go see it. Then we'll be like, oh, it didn't come up. Maybe it's like one of those scenes after the credit, you know, they do those post-credit scenes. Yeah, because we were talking to Damon and I was like, what have you been doing? He's like, I've been making a movie. And it felt to me like he felt there was an obligation to include us in the film.

He was like, I'll record this little bit for us. You guys do radio, so we're like the radio announcers. If we made the cut, I will find out. An integral part of the movie. Those iconic voices. Pivotal, pivotal moment. Without that, the movie's done. Hey, congratulations on being part of such a fantastic project.

I'm sure it's going to go down in New Zealand's cinematic history and can't wait to see it. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, thank you so much.