The Night Agent. Luciane Buchanan as Rose Larkin in episode 103 of The Night Agent. Cr. Dan Power/Netflix © 2023 Photo: © 2023 Netflix, Inc.
Thanks to her starring role in the hit Netflix series The Night Agent, Kiwi-Tongan actress Luciane Buchanan's face is now known by millions around the world.
She chats to Saturday Morning's Mihi Forbes about overcoming internalised cultural expectations as a teen actor and why she finds it refreshing that her Night Agent character's ethnicity isn't relevant in the show
In the three months after The Night Agent's 2023 premiere, season one of the political thriller was viewed by 98 million people.
As a result, Buchanan was, for a time, at the top of IMDb's list of most searched actresses in the world.
"I was like 'What is going on?' Because I felt so removed from what was happening all the noise around the show.
"With Netflix being so global, work like this is seen by so many people. I think a lot of people were like 'Who's this random girl? Where is she from? We've never seen her'."
While Buchanan's The Night Agent co-star Gabriel Basso (who plays Peter Sutherland) does most of his own stunts in the show and even meets up with stunt choreographers on his days off, she feels lucky that her tech entrepreneur character Rose Larkin is not expected to be an action woman.
"A couple of times I would tell my stunt doubles 'okay, don't land like a superhero. Don't look cool. Be a little bit gumby because that's how I am and that's how I've decided the character would be. It's kind of unbelievable if [Rose] was suddenly like this ninja."
When Buchanan, now based in the United States, found out she had topped IMDb's "most searched actress" list, she was back home in Aotearoa shooting Jason Momoa's upcoming Apple TV+ series Chief of War.
She was stunned to hear her New Zealand acting agent Gail Cowan - whose then-client Anna Paquin won Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Piano - say it was the highlight of her career.
Buchanan has been represented by Cowan since she was 17, after trying out acting for screen classes at the Auckland performing school TAPAC three years earlier.
"I begged my parents because [the classes] were quite expensive. My parents were like 'Oh my gosh, just stick to netball and soccer like everyone else'."
Although Buchanan always knew she wanted to be an actor, she was also very shy and says part of this was cultural expectation.
"Being Polynesian, we've been taught to, you know, sit still and listen to your elders and don't be so loud, even though naturally we are."
She says TAPAC teacher Fiona Edgar - who, without her knowledge, sent her performance tapes to Cowan - is probably the person most responsible for the exciting career that has followed.
"If [Edgar] hadn't made that first move I wouldn't be with Gail who I'm still with to this day. Then I guess everything was a flow-on effect. So shout out to Fiona, she's a real one."
Because acting is "such a seasonal thing" and she hadn't been very focused on education while at high school, Buchanan had a Plan B of getting into social work.
She spent four years studying drama and psychology at the University of Auckland, graduating in 2017.
"Shout out to the University of Auckland. It was the best years of my life. It was so inspiring," she said.
For season two of The Night Agent, Buchanan enjoyed exploring her character's PTSD experience with some trauma psychologists who happened to have supported people affected by the Christchurch earthquakes and mosque shootings.
"It felt like I was back at university again because we were going over things that I had learned all these years ago. I love when I can merge parts of my life into what I do."
Buchanan says it was partly her passion for cultural psychology that informed her autobiographical short film Lea Tupu'anga / Mother Tongue which came out last year.
The film's script - about a young NZ-Tongan speech therapist "dealing with her insecurities of not being Tongan enough" - went through many rewrites, she says.
Because it was her first ever script, Buchanan also struggled with impostor syndrome before meeting Auckland scriptwriter Shuchi Kothari through the script development organisation Script to Screen.
Kothari, who is also co-founder of the Pan Asian Screen Collective, told her the story not only needed to be told but with some tweaks, the eventual film would be something really special.
"That was just everything I needed and all the confidence I needed."
Sharing Lea Tupu'anga / Mother Tongue with Tongan communities around the world last year was a beautiful experience, Buchanan says.
At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in Utah - a Mormon state with a big Polynesian community - a special community screening of the film sold out in two hours but she was still nervous ahead of it.
"I was like 'They're American Tongans. There might be a different kind of understanding of what we're talking about. They might miss all the little references'."
When the lights came on afterwards, Buchanan discovered the cinema was full of hugs, tears, aroha and people sharing their own stories.
Many audience members hadn't ever heard the Tongan language on screen before, she says, so for them it was very special.
"I was just like 'wow, the power of film is pretty crazy'."
At last year's NZ International Film Festival, Buchanan's own family watched Lea Tupu'anga / Mother Tongue - which was filmed at her grandmother's house - for the very first time.
"I was sitting there trying to see their reactions and none of them clapped. I was like, what was going on? Do they hate it? Have I done something bad?"
At the end of the film, after an 'in memory of my grandma' message came on screen, Buchanan says her family were so emotional they didn't know how to respond.
Following on from "all the Tems, the Renas and the Cliffs Buchanan is "super passionate" about being a Polynesian actor working in Hollywood and wants to help others make the leap.
"I know it's not going to happen for everyone but I know the pride that I have when I see our people on screen and when we hear our language on screen.
"I want our people to look at ourselves and be proud and kind of flip the script on all the stereotypes that we're used to seeing in the media."
"We've got the gift of the gab, we love to tell a story and we're musically gifted. We're natural-born storytellers, essentially. It just takes one person to give you that confidence."
Lea Tupu'anga Mother Tongue, directed by Vea Mafile'o (far right) is a short film that delves into cultural identity and language trauma told through the film's main character portrayed by Luciane Buchanan (standing second from left). Photo: Vea Mafile'o
While ethnicity is central to Lea Tupu'anga / Mother Tongue and many other stories, Buchanan believes it does nothave to always be a key element.
She finds it "kind of refreshing", for example, that Rose Larkin's ethnic background isn't being discussed as it is not relevant to The Night Agent's narrative.
"It's definitely case by case. If it's needed for the story let's go there. If it's not I'm just a woman, you know."
Although now living in the States - where she badly misses Tongan food - Buchanan says that thanks to FaceTime she still feels connected to friends and family back home in Aotearoa.
US-based Kiwi actor Keisha Castle-Hughes is a supportive friend and she has also made a lot of great connections through The Night Agent.
"What I love about being here is that I'm exposed to so many different cultures that we don't get back home. I'm just loving learning about all the cultures out here.
"I just want to keep working with good people, you know, people I admire, good humans that love to tell stories."
Season two of The Night Agent is now streaming on Netflix.
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