Do we like Cliff Curtis?
Our score: 5 out of 10. Nothing harmful in what he's said or done, and real advocacy for Māori and women, but a fresh guilty plea over a serious drink-driving crash holds the score mid-table.
Cliff Curtis is the Rotorua-born Māori actor you know from Once Were Warriors, Whale Rider, Training Day and the Avatar films. He's one of the few Kiwis to have carved out a long Hollywood career without losing his home base. That's about as much backstory as the sources I could properly open would support, so I'll keep it short.
The big story is the crash. On 23 September Curtis's Tesla and a taxi collided at the Jellicoe and Halsey Streets intersection in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter. Two people went to hospital, and the taxi driver was seriously injured. Curtis's statement says he helped give first aid at the scene until emergency services arrived.
Charging documents seen by 1News alleged a blood alcohol reading of 122mg per 100ml, well over the 80mg limit that triggers criminal prosecution. On 29 October he admitted reckless driving and driving with excess blood alcohol causing injury, with his lawyer entering the pleas by video link. He asked for restorative justice and for the case to move to Rotorua. Sentencing is still to come.
What did he say? Not a dodge. He said: “I made a devastating mistake, and I'll have to live with the consequences.” He also said he was deeply sorry and that his thoughts were with the injured driver and his family. Fair enough, but an apology is the start of owning it, not the end, so what happens at sentencing and in the restorative process matters.
On the harm check, the search turned up nothing nasty. No campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no conspiracy rabbit holes, no dodgy company I could find. I'll be straight: there's also not much on the record about where he stands on a lot of these issues, so it's a pass on absence of harm rather than a loud endorsement.
The good stuff is real. In 2018 he told an industry audience not to just give women and Māori jobs but to put them in charge and make them full partners. He's long been a voice for Māori storytelling in an industry that used to cast him as every ethnicity but his own.