14
TheStarstruckcreator, writer, and star knows what its like to crush on a celebrity.
The year is 2006 in Auckland, New Zealand.
Hell even attend her 30th birthday party, which happened days before we speak.
even as it quietly subverts them by exploring what happens after the happily ever after.
It was not bad for a 15-year-old, Matafeo laughs.
More than a decade later, shes stuffed her TV show with plenty of great ones.
Take me back to 2006, when you were 14.
Where were you living, and how were you feeling about your life?
I was in Auckland, New Zealand, which is where I was born and raised.
I think I got braces that year; I got them off when I was 17.
I was attending Auckland Girls Grammar School.
Fourteen was the year that I was massively into Franz Ferdinand.
I think I was 11 when their first album came out and I was a massive fan.
It was the first band I felt like I had discovered in real time.
I was rinsing myself.
I bought all the merch I could find of them, went on the forums.
I had a massive crush, at the time, on Alex Kapranos, who is the lead singer.
I was going to say, I wanted to look to see if the bit fromHorndogwas real!
It sounds like it was.
That bit is completely real.
It was so shameful at the time.
And I lived with that shame so long.
Did you tell anyone at the time that you got kicked off?
No, I didn’t.
It was just a horrible thing.
I was like, “Oh my God, I’m a terrible person.”
He was at my 30th [birthday party] the other day, which is so lovely.
Starstruckpays homage to classic rom-coms.
Were you watching rom-coms at 14?
I was watching way more pretentious stuff.
At 14, I really wanted to be a director.
I’d go to the director’s section of the Video Ezy, which was the video rental shop.
I honestly saw more independent film as a teenager than I do as an adult.
I was very uncool and I was not a partier.
I had nerds as friends they were total film nerds, total book nerds.
And that helped facilitate an obsession and interest in all of those things as an adult.
Taika [Waititi] had just madeEagle vs Sharkaround that time I was obsessed with him as well.
Your character Jessie inStarstruckends up dating a famous actor.
At 14, did you have any celebrity crushes, aside from Alex Kapranos?
Oh my God, there must have been a few.
Which was psychopathic behavior, looking back on it.
I mean, Colin Firth, probably that vibe of British dudes.
Everyone goes through a phase of that!
Michel Gondry was honestly one of my biggest crushes when I was 14.
Brandon Lee, who was dead by then.
I had a very eclectic taste in crushes Dick Van Dyke.
I didn’t have many crushes on contemporary people.
[They were] often dead or way too old for me.
Its continued now; most of my crushes are dead now.
I’ve got a picture of Paul Newman up on my bedroom [wall], actually.
this year ofStarstruckexplores what happens after the happily ever after moment when a story usually ends.
What did happily ever after mean to you at 14?
Fourteen-year-old Rose had braces, had the same hair as I have here now.
I didn’t have any experiences really with boys as a teenager, yet I wanted them.
In retrospect, I feel like I really pined for it.
I never dated anyone when I was a teenager I did not have any sexual experience whatsoever.
I think my concept of romantic relationships was possibly very much influenced by things I’ve watched.
They still are for so many people, myself included.
Has your concept of what constitutes happily ever after changed since then?
I honestly think I feel similar.
I feel like I’m still a space cadet when it comes to love and romance.
I think the fantasy of what it is in my mind is always usually better than reality.
I think it’s sometimes foolish to look for all of the fulfillment of your life in one relationship.
It’s actually good to hedge your bets!
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket spread those eggs out!
What do you think your 14-year-old self would think of you now?
I think she’d be bloody impressed, to be honest.
I think she’d be so happy.
I think I’ve done 14-year-old Rose very proud.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
