The boy from Boy is now a 27-year-old man and he’s competing on the newest season of Celebrity Treasure Island to try to raise money for a charity that holds a personal connection.
Actor James Rolleston (Te Whakatōhea, Te Arawa) is best known for starring in Taika Waititi’s 2010 film Boy, a comedy-drama which became one of New Zealand’s highest grossing local films of all time.
He’s now one of 18 contestants competing in the newest season of Celebrity Treasure Island (CTI) where he is trying to win the grand prize money of $100,000 for Brake, a charity that works to prevent road deaths and supports injured in crashes across New Zealand.
It’s a charity close to his heart as in 2016, a car accident left Rolleston with a large brain injury and the actor had to learn how to walk and talk again during a long recovery process.
Re: News journalist Janhavi Gosavi spoke to Rolleston about recovering from his brain injury and what it’s like being back on screen again.
For those of us who know you from Boy, catch us up on what you’ve been up to since.
I started my career down here in Ōpōtiki, in the Eastern Bay.
After that, throughout primary [school] and college, I was given opportunities to do a few other films.
So I went away and I did The Deadlands, Pork Pie. There’s The Dark Horse, The Rehearsal.
After school, I made the decision to make the move up to Auckland. That was end of 2015.
I spent eight years up in Auckland and I just recently moved back to Ōpōtiki this year after CTI.
I’m just loving life down here in Ōpōtiki … There’s always blue skies here.
We got the ocean at our front doorstep, and then we’ve got the bush at our back doorstep.
There’s a lot of hunting and fishing being done back home here … It’s a tight, tight community. Everyone’s lovely.
It’s cool to see the sports teams back here in the Eastern Bay … There’s a lot of good young athletes that come out of this town and Whakatane, Eastern Bay. I always go and watch, support the boys’ rugby and things like that.
Why did you choose Brake as the charity you wanted to support on CTI?
I chose Brake because it’s a road safety charity.
In 2016 I was involved in a car accident … where I almost lost my life.
I sustained a traumatic brain injury and was on life support for a few weeks. And, yeah, it was quite touch and go there.
The road accidents here in New Zealand is quite, quite massive … Some roads can be quite tricky to drive.
I just wanted to show my support towards the medics for their equipment they use … just for the recovery of people that go through similar experiences that I did.
We’d hold challenges throughout the show, maybe the odd challenge here and there, where we can earn money for our chosen charity. But along the way, you know, there’s a big prize at the end of the show … So we were playing for that.
Can you explain what it’s like to have a brain injury, to someone who’s never had one?
It can be challenging at times … sometimes your brain just doesn’t tick over.
Obviously, I’ve come a long way from where I was at, and I’m doing great now. But I still live with this … I still have times where now I can’t remember what I was just trying to note down, maybe half an hour ago.
It’s just a lot of cognitive things that, you know, it’s frustrating.
I might have three or four alarms during the day for just simple, simple tasks.
[I] still try keep physically active, but just no more contact sports. But that’s alright.
I’m very grateful, and I’m very lucky that I can still move like, I’ve still got all my limbs from my car accident … But no, I’m still sweet, still move around OK.
What’s your relationship to cars and driving like now?
My memory was knocked quite badly. I don’t remember. I don’t recall anything from the car accident.
When I’m in a car, I’ve got nothing to be scared of, because I don’t remember nothing.
When I first hopped into the car after my accident, I was a little bit nervous … Just knowing that I had been in an accident, but not knowing what this other driver was going to do, the ones I’m going past, the oncoming traffic.
You spent a while away from acting and being on screen, what’s it been like to return to it?
I was probably away for about two and a bit years.
It did feel long … I was just in a pretty strange place where my brain was recovering and I was trying to learn how to do, like, the basic things that I did when I was five years old.
[Returning to screen] was a bit nerve wracking. It was a bit tricky. Because, like I said, just some cognitive difficulties that I have now.
But when I first got back into acting, you know, was amplified by quite a bit.
I was often sleeping on set every day. I just have a quick half an hour nap, because of my fatigue levels.
There were a few adjustments when I first got back into it, like I was taking naps and all of that. I was rehearsing a lot, a lot more than I would normally, and I was going back to my lines, learning them a lot more than I would normally.
It was a bit difficult, but no, it was cool. It was always OK, because I enjoyed doing this stuff.
Do you think you had any advantages over the other contestants in CTI?
I don’t think a lot of them fished much, fished around rocks … or eeling, or anything like that.
Having some knowledge of fishing and diving and whatever, gathering some food. I definitely feel like I had that on a few people on the show.
Do you think you had any disadvantages compared to the other contestants?
My head injury also affected my balance and coordination quite a bit.
Like, I can run OK and all of that. But … it feels uncoordinated, it doesn’t feel right.
I couldn’t assist in my team in some areas because of those things.
Other than that, it was pretty good … We all had challenging games against each other, you know. Was all good fun.
Is being on screen where you see your future?
I think so, yeah. Well, I know that.
I enjoy this too much, you know … Going to places or wherever, meeting a whole lot of another crew and stuff like that.
I made some pretty cool connections with my friendships with these people, you know, all of them. It’s not going to go anywhere anytime soon.
I’m back in Ōpōtiki now. I’m wanting to do a trade back here, something in between acting jobs.
I was building for a little bit in Auckland in between my jobs when I was up there. So I’d like to go back to that and maybe try to get my tickets.
Yeah, maybe plumbing. I’m not too sure because, you know, I’d rather be carrying around PVC pipes than four-by-two. But we’ll see.
It’s also a life skill … I would love to build my own house one day, maybe get some land down here.
I’m just going to be hoping more opportunities come our way after [CTI] comes out. So, yeah, fingers crossed.
* This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You can watch Celebrity Treasure Island on TVNZ+
