Photos: Emily Chalk
Popular Kiwi actor Angela Bloomfield is many things. Real estate agent, actor, teacher, writer and director, but perhaps her most useful talent is the fact that she is up for anything.
She launched herself into the physically daunting Dancing With the Stars in 2006 while she was breastfeeding her daughter Maya, and she threw herself into the challenging and at times unsettling Celebrity Treasure Island in 2021.
Even at the Weekly photo shoot, the 51-year-old happily leaps onto the back of make-up artist Chay Roberts for a piggyback across wet grass so she doesn’t damage the black velvet high heels she is wearing.
“It’s a very Angela thing to do,” she says. “I’m always launching myself into something – usually at the worst possible time – but that’s what you do when you’re ageing, isn’t it?” she laughs. “As you get older, there’s nothing to worry about – there’s only experience in life.”
Her latest exploit has been a game-changer for the star. Angela has a role in the 10th series of The Brokenwood Mysteries as a murder victim who is very well dressed and a bit of an agitated grump.
“It was life-changing because it came at a time when I was doing a pretty dramatic review of my life. Getting that role became the impetus for change,” she says.
Angela explains that she was in a full-time job, which meant she would need to take time off to do the Brokenwood role.
“That meant I would have to take leave without pay and I had put myself in a position where I was just focused on earning money to pay the mortgage. So I asked myself, ‘What are you doing? Why are you pushing?’ Paying the mortgage had become everything. I was a single woman struggling with interest rates like everybody.”
Angela knew that she wanted to make some space to get back into selling real estate because she had stepped away for a while.
“I also realised that I wanted to create space to act, and the potential to write and direct, because those things mean so much to me and my life.”
Angela had been texting Brokenwood producer and writer Tim Balme to create a character for her on the series.
“His first text back to me was, ‘I didn’t know you were still acting.’ I realised that I had not been putting myself out there.”
Tim wrote her a role and spending 10 days on the set of the show changed her life.
“I signed up for the show, resigned from my job and sold my house,” she says.
Putting a hand to her chest, she says, “I’m actually getting emotional about this. I needed to make space for myself because I can’t have someone say, ‘You can’t do your thing’ because it’s my thing.”
As tears well up in her eyes, she adds, “There’s actually been quite a bit of joy and relief at not having a mortgage. And I don’t know why I’m crying because it’s actually been really good.”
Angela says it’s a very New Zealand thing to want to own your own home. She will own a home again one day, but for now it’s about creating space for her.
“But I’m not going to own a home in lieu of working in a job that’s not nourishing and I’m not where I’m meant to be, because I’m only 51 and there’s more to come,” she says. “Now is not the time to go, ‘Your best years are gone, it’s time to hang up your skills.’”
One thing Angela does struggle with in the current acting roles she is given is that she is cast as “the agitated woman”.
“I feel like my Shortland Street character Rachel has put me in quite an ‘intense woman box’. I don’t see her as an agitated woman, but she was definitely intense and didn’t suffer fools. One of the reasons I had to leave was because one T-shirt stylists dressed her in says “My Office, Now!” I just couldn’t keep doing that agitated woman any more.”
While Angela had a specific Brokenwood character in mind for herself, writer Tim wrote a part he said was specifically written for her. She had a gumboot-wearing lady farmer in mind.
“Well, my character is looking at buying a house, so I guess there’s a real estate thing in there, but when I read the part, I thought, ‘Oh, she’s awful.’”
But that didn’t stop Angela from taking the role and enjoying it.
“My role allowed me to throw a glass of water on someone’s face. I get to yell at people. I think I was able to be compassionate for a couple of moments with the daughter, Kara, and commit to the pretence that it’s hard to figure out who would want to kill her because everyone wanted to kill her!”
Being back on a set for 10 days was the best part of Angela’s 2023.
“There was not a person in the room that I haven’t come into contact with. Well, maybe apart from some new younger actors who I loved meeting and working with,” she enthuses.
“I had the most fun being on set again. Whether I’m playing a witch, or an uptight woman or whatever the part needs, it’s the best time for me. Acting and pretending with my friends in that environment feels very safe. You get to do everything on Brokenwood because they’re long TV features.”
Angela was also able to work with one of her best friends, Amelia Reid-Meredith, who played receptionist Bella Cooper on Shorty.
“Our characters were friends of sorts on Brokenwood and we hadn’t acted together since Shorty,” says Angela. “It was surreal. We were sitting there, cosy on a couch with prop wine, forgetting we’re on set and having a good natter.
“Then we’d have to do a scene. Our characters aren’t super-connected, so we had to remind ourselves to act the characters properly! It was just too reminiscent of our lives together off screen.”
Brokenwood has been a huge success internationally, screening in 150 countries and attracting millions of viewers. Angela thinks the success is down to the fact that even though each episode features a new murder to be solved, it’s not too violent and is quite cosy.
“They’re quirky, they’re interesting and weird, but they’re never gory, which is refreshing,” she says. “It’s never really like hard-hitting crime.”
Now that the role is over, Angela is leaving herself open to more acting jobs, while selling houses as her main income.
“My real estate job is on a bit of a roll at the moment, so that’s nice. Spring and Summer are also approaching, when more people will list their houses,” she tells. “I’m also teaching acting. My main aim is to get into some writing. Particularly, writing a character for myself who isn’t agitated!”
Her two children Max, 20, and Maya, 18, are both studying at university, and she says they’re not at all aware of the fact that their mother is a huge star.
“They know I’m famous, but they don’t really get it,” she shares. “Even when we’re overseas, people come up to me. They say, ‘Where do I know you from?’ It happened last week when I was in Samoa with Maya. I asked the guy where he was from and he said Fiji, where Shortland Street had a huge audience. So I was able to join the dots for him.”
Recently, Angela had the chance to view the first Shorty episodes she appeared in. South Pacific Pictures, who make the show, put all the episodes from 1993 on YouTube.
“It was funny because I feel like I remember all my years on Shortland Street. Then I started watching it and realised that that was not me any more. I’ve evolved – it’s been 30-plus years!
“I haven’t seen any more. I want to save it to watch with the kids, so they know what happened before they were born.”
The Shortland Street years from 1992 and 1993 are now all on YouTube.
Angela says that while her real estate job is seven days a week and pays the bills, working on Brokenwood has reminded her to leave room for acting and to put herself out there more.
“It means that if an acting job came up tomorrow, I could shift things around and do it.
“It’s actually been really awesome for me. Now I believe in letting my life follow the way the wheels of life turn and, for me, they turned. I’m so happy with that nudge that those wheels gave me,” she says.
“I can be here today talking to the Weekly and not have to ask someone’s permission. My life is pretty sweet.”
Watch the 10th season of The Brokenwood Mysteries, which streams on TVNZ +.
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