Jackie van Beek on Anarchic Comedy and Creating the First Female David Brent
“To be honest, I’ve spent my career trying to avoid the commercial space in order to stay focused on drama,” admits Jackie van Beek, speaking to LBB’s Ben Conway.
However, now repped in the US by Lauren Greenfield and Frank Evers’ auteur-driven production company, Institute, the Kiwi director is now eager to explore commercial storytelling on a larger scale. After all, everything's bigger in America - and that includes the concepts and budgets for ads. “This excites me! And working with new teams on bold ideas feels endlessly inspiring,” she says, recounting how ‘fun and satisfying’ her quick turnaround debut campaign for SkyTV was.
Most known for her contributions to the comedy worlds of TV and film, Jackie’s impressive list of credits include directorial work for fellow Kiwis Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement on ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ and ‘Wellington Paranormal’, as well as directing and acting credits on her self-penned projects like Netflix’s ‘The Breaker Upperers’ and ‘Nude Tuesday’, which have received critical and public acclaim.
From an early age, this trio of skills has been a part of her life, from insisting on putting on overly long plays with multiple costume changes at dinner parties as a child to seeing countless shows, musicals, ballets, operas and more with her family. She says, “I never questioned whether performing arts would be a part of my life - it just was.”
But TV is what truly catalysed her love for humour. British classics like Monty Python, ‘Blackadder’, ‘The Young Ones’, ‘Absolutely Fabulous’… and American shows like ‘M*A*S*H’, ‘Taxi’, ‘Cheers’, and ‘Seinfeld’ all played their part. And after finishing high school, Jackie then set about devising “mad theatre shows” with her friends. “We’d often get 2-star reviews but there was something very raw, mischievous and anarchic about what we were making, which I became increasingly addicted to.”
Still very much in the clutches of comedic content, she says the uniqueness of an idea is what attracts her to a project today – especially if it has absurdity at its core. And despite experiencing “incredibly joyous” moments with non-actors – finding the rawness and spontaneity of non-actors, children and even animals ‘really beautiful’ – she says her true passion lies within performance-driven work with talented, comedic actors.
“As a New Zealander, I’m especially tuned into characters that are a little awkward or tirelessly deadpan,” she says. “Juxtaposing the ordinary with the extraordinary makes me laugh. Like deadpan cops interviewing werewolves. Someone sulking over a personal insult whilst trying to find a portal to another dimension. Someone getting the hiccups as they bravely ask for a divorce.”
Bringing this sense of humour to adland, she adds that she finds the shorter formats fortunately don’t restrict her sensibilities and creativity. “Even in long form, we’re often setting up an environment within a matter of seconds and we’re constantly creating crystallised moments between characters,” she explains. “Sometimes a question followed by an unexpected look or line of dialogue is all you need to tell a story.”
Recently, Jackie co-wrote, directed and starred in a Tourism New Zealand spot alongside Taika Waititi who, in the rather meta ad, sends his ‘Our Flag Means Death’ stunt double to shoot his scenes for him. Tickled by the hilarious premise, Jackie joined the project early on while the script was being developed – her personal preference so she can ‘inject her own flavour onto the page’.
“After chatting with Taika, I adapted the script around a few of his ideas and mine – and somehow ended up writing myself a role! Over and above the silliness of the project, it felt nice to be working on a piece that shares the beauty of Aotearoa, New Zealand.”
Back in the world of television, Jackie also reveals that she’s a writer and the set up director on Amazon’s upcoming series ‘The Office Australia’ - the 16th adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ hit show and the first version with a female lead.
“It seemed completely mad to make another,” she says. “But realising this would be the first version with a female lead made it impossible for me to say no to the challenge.”
Working with Australian writer, Julie De Fina, Jackie jumped in and developed the series, which is set to release in 2024 with comedian Felicity Ward as the newest hapless leader of a down-under office. “We gathered together a great cast, production was a blast, and now we’re in post,” she says. “The edits are still making me laugh, which is a good sign!”
She continues, “We’ve stayed fairly true to the format but injected our own Australasian flavour to a post-pandemic workplace - plus we’ve had fun switching characters into different roles. I’m excited to see how audiences respond to the first female ‘David Brent’.”
