Three Great Things is Talkhouse’s series in which artists tell us about three things they absolutely love. To mark the current release in theaters of Paul Greengrass’ new historical drama, The Uprising, starring Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Thomasin McKenzie and Cosmo Jarvis, hugely talented New Zealand actress McKenzie shared some of the things she cares about most in her life. — N.D.
Crosswords
As my grandma has gotten older – she's 99 now – it has gotten more and more difficult to communicate with her. She's not as mentally present as she used to be, but I’ve found that doing crosswords with her has been a really nice way to connect, where we don't need to be having a full conversation. She’s always liked crosswords and when we’re doing one together, I can just be prompting memories in her and exercising her brain. And it's fun for me, too, which is why I started getting into them. She can't remember what she's been doing that day, but she'll be able to recall obscure words, so it's brought a lot of joy.
I've recently started doing crosswords even when I'm not with my grandma, because I find it to be one of the only ways I can really zone out of the world. Over the past month or so, doing a crossword has become part of my daily routine, and I've really been feeling the positive impacts of it: I've not been scrolling on my phone and I've been exercising my brain. I've got a really bad memory, which is something I've been trying hard to improve on, and I feel like doing crosswords has been helping. I do them on paper, which to me is so much more satisfying than doing them online. If I'm without my crossword book, I'll do one on the New York Times app, but their crosswords are very hard. The crossword book I've been working through is by two Americans, a mother and son, and so there are certain references that I don't necessarily understand as a New Zealander, that an average American would. Different crosswords have different colloquialisms, in a way. Sometimes you have to know who's creating the crossword in order to be able to figure out a particular clue.
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence
I'm currently reading Babel, or The Necessity of Violence by R.F. Kuang, which is one of the best books I've ever read. (Kuang also wrote Yellowface, which is also a fantastic book.) It's a historical fantasy novel about four young international students attending the Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford, and it's all about the history of language. It's a thriller in a way, too. In the world of the novel, the characters are able to use language to create magic. It's really cool, and there's also a lot of historical details and references that make the narrative feel very real. It's incredibly engrossing because it's so detailed, and it really is a genius piece of work.
I love books that are immersive and feel like they have a history to them, for example, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. That book was so detailed, and by the end of it, I felt as if the character's memories were my own memories. It's really hard to pull off something like that. I would hesitate to read A Little Life again because it is so gut-wrenching. It's like, Oh my God, how another horrendous event has occurred. How much more can we take? I've definitely not got used to reading that kind of story, but I do think that people have a strange desire to read or hear about horrific things. There's something in human nature that seeks out those horror stories. It makes you go, Oh, well, I guess it's what I'm going through isn't that bad.
Dogs
I love dogs. And cats, too, but dogs are just one of the absolute joys of life. I've set myself a goal of memorizing in alphabetical order every single dog breed listed by the American Kennel Club. I got pretty far through, but then I realized that I'd accidentally missed out a lot of breeds, so now I've had to start again. But I’ve already learned about 70-something breeds in alphabetical order, which is not too bad.
I also play quizzes online where you have to identify the dog breed, and there are some breeds that look very similar. There are a lot of poodles or retrievers where there’s a big overlap, but then there are certain dogs that I've been able to identify out in the world. The other day I saw a Cirneco dell'Etna, which I was excited about, and before that, I saw a Chinese Crested Dog. I'm pretty deep in; if I see a dog on the street, I can't help but react.
I really love dogs and knowing all the dog breeds is something that appeals to me, so using it as a memory exercise is also convenient. I also feel pretty good if I see a dog walking past and I know what breed it is. I'm also not an expert in anything and would love to be an expert in something, so maybe that can be dog breeds.
Being an actor makes it difficult to have a dog, but I do have a family dog. She's called Totoro, she's a little Cavalier, Shih Tzu and Biscione mix and she's 15. She's pretty cute. She's your classic “crusty white dog” … which wasn't really a thing when we got her, but then became a thing later. She and I are very close when I'm with her, but then I spend months, if not years, away from home, so I always feel really bad when I go, because it must be so confusing for her. And I feel equally bad when I return, because she's gotten used to me not being there, so me being back must also be confusing. And then I'm just going to leave again! So, I feel guilty about my relationship with her and I wish I could spend more time with her, especially since she's so old now.
Some people FaceTime with their dogs when they’re away from them, but there's no way in hell Totoro would recognize me, as she's deaf now and she's also not a particularly smart dog. She's very much motivated by food. She’s also my family's first dog, which basically means she was not very well trained. She behaves more like a human than she does a dog, honestly. I wish I had trained her to recognize me on FaceTime, but no, it's not to be. When I'm in New Zealand, though, I am her primary caregiver.
Featured image, showing Thomasin McKenzie, Jamie Bell and Andrew Garfield in The Uprising, is courtesy Focus Features.
