In our new regular series The Last Time, we ask well-known and interesting people about the specifics of their daily lives.
It's sort of like a one-sided round of speed dating: in each column our interviewees will divulge everything from the last delicious thing they put in their bellies to the last time they cried. This week: acclaimed director Roseanne Liang.
Named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch in 2021 after the success of her action horror feature Shadow In The Clouds, Roseanne Liang is determined not to get swept into the Hollywood system.
Indeed, even as it was announced her next feature will be directing Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry (who also both produce) in upcoming spy thriller Maude V Maude, Roseanne remained firmly at home in Aotearoa working on the second season of her dystopian web series Creamerie.
Ensemble first spoke with Roseanne in the beginning of 2021, several months after Shadow in the Clouds premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award in the Midnight Madness section. Back then it was very much the same vibe: more comfortable talking about her low budget projects, Flat 3 and Creamerie, made with long-term collaborators and BFFs JJ Fong, Perlina Lau and Ally Xue.
Creamerie season 2, “set in a post-apocalyptic future where a viral plague has wiped out 99 percent of men, and Earth has become a planet run by and for women”, is out now on TVNZ+.
And while no doubt the director is in email chains, slack channels and group chats with Angelina, Halle et al, she tells us the last text she sent was to Perlina Lau, “about plotting Season 3 of Creamerie”.
When was the last time you cried?
During Barbie. I’d done the Barbenheimer double feature with my family and I was over-stimulated and too full of popcorn, quantum physics and candy. The two-punch of America Ferrera’s incisive monologue, followed by a wickedly timed parents-and-daughters montage, just hit me in my poor soggy heart.
What was the last really delicious thing you ate?
The steamed abalone snack at [Auckland restaurant) Mr Morris. Absolute banger.
The last song you listened to on Spotify?
I was going to say Cornflake Girl by Tori Amos to seem cool, but I just checked and it was Thames Soup by The Phoenix Foundation, which is also acceptable.
The last book you finished?
David Sedaris’ Diaries from 2003-2020, called a Carnival of Snackery. And I haven’t finished it yet because I don’t really want it to end.
The last TV show you watched?
The Bear season 2. The hype is real. I went to The Food Show this weekend and imagined myself working in Carmy’s kitchen and staging at Noma in Copenhagen. I feel like I could be good at it, with time, but I would definitely cry when no one was looking.
The last DM/text you sent? Who was it to?
To Perlina Lau just now, about plotting season 3 of Creamerie.
The last time you laughed so much your tummy hurt?
Last week, at a cafe, during a meeting with my stunt friend. He had accidentally split his pants in the front, during the drive to our meeting. He had to sit there in the cafe with his undies in view for anyone who cared to look. The dude knows kung fu and all manner of weapons, but none of that can save you from a wardrobe malfunction. I laugh-cried at him until tears ran down my face and I have the feeling he will get me back one day when I don’t have my wits about me.
When’s the last time you were home?
Right now. Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa. That’s home.
