Chief of War is a historical drama series co-created by Thomas Pa’a Sibbett and Jason Momoa. Set at the turn of the 19th century, it tells the story of how the warring Hawaiian Islands were unified, in the midst of the threat of colonization.
The show has a predominantly Polynesian cast, with New Zealand actor, Temuera Morrison, being one of them. Known for a large body of work ranging from Once Were Warriors to The Book of Boba Fett, he takes on the role of Chief Kahekili; the ruthless leader of the island of Maui.
In a brief interview with The Nerds of Color, Morrison talked at length about learning how to say his lines in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, and also what it means to him to be part of a production by, about, and starring Polynesians.
The Nerds of Color: Congratulations on Chief of War. I think it’s an incredible show that I can’t wait for it to come out for everyone to see. I want to start by asking, why was it important for you to be a part of this project?
Temuera Morrison: Well, look at first, I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to learn the language and make a good job of doing it as well, and saying it like a fluent Hawaiian speaker. I did have my concerns. Funny, I was telling Jason when he called me, to ring Cliff Curtis. He’s the other great Māori actor we have here. And we live in the same town, actually, in Rotorua, New Zealand. I was telling Jason to ring him. “Ring Cliff, he’s your man. He’s your man. You want a bad guy to play Kahekili.” And then he said, “No, no, no, I want you. I want you. I’ve got Cliff in mind for something else.” And then I said, “Whoa, geez, it’s going to be wrong. Get some Hawaiian actors. You need some Hawaiian actors in there.” He said, “I’ve got some, I need you in there too.” So he really cast a lot of actors from Polynesia.
And it was Jason said to me, “Look, we’re the same people, bro. We’re the same people.” And so, taking into account, I decided to warm to the idea. And I thought, well, he needs some experienced Polynesian actors around him. I’m talking about Jason. So I decided to get stuck in. And fortunately, for me, I have a nephew who’s married to a fluent Hawaiian speaker, so I immediately went to go see her, did some homework. And then I really got stuck in then, we were all assigned language coaches at the end of the day. And I had some great people around me. I really worked hard. It was a matter of breaking it all down.
And, yeah, rehearsing, rehearsing. I got a number of different voices saying all my dialogue. And I had to listen to the tape all day, all night. When I wasn’t working on Hawaiian, I would feel guilty. If I wasn’t in the gym getting ready for this role, I’d feel guilty. Like everybody, the whole cast really, we took the responsibility on our shoulders and we all worked hard at getting it right. We couldn’t be just trying to cheat it or do it over by voiceover, or something else like that. We really worked out. And even Jason. I saw Jason working hard with his dialogue coach, and I’m working hard with my dialogue coach. And then it comes to action, and there we are. I’m getting a bit of a buzz now because it’s not Aquaman, it’s not like Frontier, it’s not like something else we’ve done before.
This is indigenous. This is about his ancestors now, his Hawaiian culture. This is about all of this stuff now coming to the fore. This is about the Hawaiian narrative now. His co-creator, Thomas Pa’a [Sibbett]. And Jason’s also a very good writer. A very, very good storyteller, and he can pitch you a very good yarn. He has great ability too. It starts with the script, and I think with a good cast in there too. We all worked hard. I feel now we’re all part of the waka. I was just one of the paddlers. And that’s what it feels like, that our waka is finally landing and we’re all about to disembark and put the sails up for the people to watch this Polynesian extravaganza.
I think that’s a great analogy of comparing it to being a part of a waka. And as you’re well aware, the story told in the show is based on historical events. Your character, Kahekili, was a real person. How much research did you do on him prior to portraying him? And what was something about him that you found surprising?
Well, it’s very, very scary if you dwell into some of these people. We have chiefs and things that I could compare him to back here in New Zealand. This fellow drew a lot of his power from the elements. He was a chief that praised the Lord of Thunder. So lightning and thunder in the sky was what he’s all about. And he’s like the personification of that here on earth.
But again, they’re very, very powerful chiefs back in those days. They had special qualities. They had special powers as well, I believe. This one ends up going off the rails a little bit, and he’s very ruthless. But at the same time, I had to draw a lot of experience with my language people and my historian people, and they were feeding me a lot of information as we were going through preparing for this role. I was just keeping my ears open. I knew, at the end of the day, I’ll be in makeup early with all the makeup I needed. And you just get out there on set and you do the best you can.
I remember my very first day on set, the sound recording lady holding the boom. Holding the sound to capture our sound. She said something weird. She just came up to me and she said, “Oh, you’re playing my ancestor.” So she’s a direct descendant of this person that I’m playing. But there in front of me, on my first day it came to light. Oh, holy sh–! The responsibility of it all just woke up to me. I think she was challenging me. So I spent most of the day looking up at the microphone hoping like hell she wasn’t going to bang me on the head with her big microphone.
Fortunately, she never got to that, so I must’ve been doing okay. So yes, everyday was just an amazing experience on this show. What I like about it too, is it’s quite intimate with the family dynamics, and yet quite epic when you see it on the larger scale. How it goes to quite an epic narrative as well. Just the visuals, the costume. Yeah, I just really, really feeling proud that I dug my feet in, because they were a bit soft at the beginning of this movie. And I had to run around on volcanic rock, so even that was a bit of a hard work, being our feet aren’t quite as strong as our warrior ancestors used to be. How are your feet doing? Huh? We wear shoes too much. Do you walk around in bare feet?
Not that often.
I didn’t walk around in bare feet until I started filming. Man, that was very painful. Even culturally at different levels, the carving, the waka, the sharing of information, the learning of the language, it made me realize we are one people. It made me realize that we all came from Tahiti. The northern Hawaiians went north, the Southerners went south, and that was us, the Māori down in New Zealand. We went all the way to Easter Island, and that’s our Polynesian Triangle. I’m very proud that this is Polynesian. They spread the net wide to Polynesia to come and to work on this [show]. What an amazing experience. And now I just feel proud that our canoe is now landing and we’re about to embark on a wonderful journey. I’m looking forward to see what the Hawaiians have to say. That’s what I’ll be looking out for.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The two-episode premiere of Chief of War is now available to stream on Apple TV+, with new episodes out on Fridays.
