Rachel House is an icon of the entertainment industry. She’s been an actor in a long list of hits (including Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople , and Heartbreak High ), an acting coach for the young actors on films like Jojo Rabbit and Boy , and now she’s making her mark as a director. House’s directorial debut, The Mountain , is a New Zealand-made heartwarming family film full of comedy and adventure, making it a perfect culmination of her many talents over the years.
With The Mountain now officially in Australian cinemas, we spoke to House about what other films inspired her directorial debut, what advice from directors she has received and why you’ll see a real mountain with top billing in the credits. Having starred in hundreds of other people’s projects, what was it about The Mountain that made Rachel House want to direct her own film? “I didn’t know until I read Tom Furniss’ initial script that I wanted to make a family film. I didn’t know what I wanted necessarily to make, but none of the scripts were kind of giving me the heart burst,” House said.
The script at the time was focused on three young boys, all Caucasian (aka Pākehā) New Zealanders, one of whom had cancer and was seeking to conquer a mountain to see if it would heal him. While the core of that story remains the same in The Mountain, when House came on board, she provided a new perspective, shifting up the lead characters with more cultural specificity and, more importantly, n.