Two a penny

.

Fifteen years after bringing to life one of the most memorable characters of New Zealand film, Temuera Morrison says he is still haunted by the “demon” of Jake the Muss – and worries Jake’s anger and torment will be with him for life.

In a memoir to be published tomorrow, Morrison, who lost his entertainer uncle Sir Howard on Thursday, touches on how the wife-beating Jake character from 1994′s Once Were Warriors took him to a dark place from which he has not fully emerged.

“There’s a lot of torment left in there.

“I had to work hardest on Jake’s anger, and now I think it’s probably with me for life,” says Morrison in From Haka to Hollywood, ghost- ritten by journalist Paul Little. Maybe I need to go through some spiritual cleansing process to get rid of that guy. When you go to these dark places inside you, for some reason things linger on. “Uncle Howard gave us so much, we’re going to miss him very much.”

Morrison told the Sunday Star-Times a dark cloud had come over his family with the death of Sir Howard.

In 1999, Morrison chased a group of teenagers who had set fire to a real estate sign outside his house on Auckland’s North Shore.”

He said the anger he unleashed to create Jake may have been responsible for two high-profile incidents, including his bashing of a teenager and an argument with his former partner, to which police were called. It turned out the boy was not even involved in the arson.

He grabbed a 17-year-old boy by the shirt, punched him twice in the face, dragged him by the hair down a drive and bashed his head against a fencepost. Morrison said of the incident: “I think he [Jake] might have popped out there for a brief moment.

Morrison was not convicted for the assault, instead being dealt with under the police diversion scheme.”

In December 2007, concerned neighbours called police to a domestic dispute between Morrison and then partner Peata Melbourne. Poor kid, it’s a regret.

Morrison said of that incident: “Jake had to quickly run out of the house and disappear and hide in the trees and cool down a bit. She later told a women’s magazine how frightened she felt as the argument spiralled out of control. “Show me the man who’s very calm in those situations.”

He had only just returned from making a film in Bulgaria and was going through a stressful separation from Melbourne. “I created that character, it comes from me really.”

Morrison said filming Warriors was an emotional rollercoaster. . I created this demon of this character, all that kind of stuff I had to draw on. Sometimes I can twitch into an aggressive mode, just like that. Sometimes I can twitch into an aggressive mode, just like that. It’s not there every day, just every now and again.”