Kiwi actress Luciana Buchanan began her acting career as a teenager in Auckland - before going on to star in one of Netflix's top streaming shows.
She turned heads in local series Filthy Rich before going on to appear in the likes of The New Legends of Monkey, Mr Corman and Sweet Tooth.
In 2023, Luciane made a global name for herself in her breakout role as Rose Larkin, one of the lead roles in The Night Agent, which is one of Netflix’s most watched shows of all time.
She says it was a 'crazy' experience arriving in Vancouver for filming - and receiving accolades from Netflix was a surreal moment.
"I don't think it really hit til I was in Vancouver and I was meeting everyone... and I was getting flowers from Netflix and all this stuff. I was like - oh my gosh, we're doing this."
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Can we talk an actress? Lucianni Buchanan began her acting career as a teenager in Auckland. She was in the local show Filthy Rich, before going on to appear in the likes of the New Legends of Monkey, Mister Corman and Sweet Tooth. In twenty twenty three, Luciani made a global name for herself in the breakout role as Rose Lakan, one of the lead roles in The Night Agent, which is one of Netflix's most watched shows of all time. It also led Luciani to become one of imbd's top Stars of twenty twenty three, and to highlight the scale of this show, it held the number one viewed show for six months after release, with a whopping eight hundred and twelve million hours yewed. Season two of The Night Agent dropped this week and Lucianie Buchanan is with me. Good morning, Luciani, Thank you so much for being with us.
Thank you for having me. Good morning.
I hope you don't mind that I was just wondering if we could go back to the beginning of The Night Agent and how you got cast in this show? How did it all come about? Because we were in a lobby.
Yeah, so it was twenty twenty one, end of twenty twenty one, and yeah, it was a very strict lockdown, and I get the audition via email with my US manager, and I was kind of at this point of my career where I was like, ah, I'm not booking things over there, Like I think it's time to have that conversation. I'm ready to maybe step away from acting and do things. I was working more behind the scenes, so I was kind of like ready to go that way. And of course the minute you look the other way, opportunities arise. And I snuck actually I snuck a friend into my house who wasn't in my bubble. He's like my favorite reader, Jared Blakeston, and we did the tape, we sent it off and then they came back and they're like, we really like you, and I was like, okay, whatever, I've heard this before. You get close to so many roles all the time, and then it just kind of kept happening. More callbacks and then my last audition was reading doing chemistry reads with Peter who's the main character? And then I booked the job and I kind of came out to my flatmates at the time back in Mount Ros School, and I was like, I think I need to move out. I think I booked this job, and yeah, it all just kind of happened really quickly.
Isn't it fantastic? Though, on this day and age, you can film an audition tape in Auckland and get yourself a role in the States.
Oh my gosh. Like back in the day that you said this thing called pilot season and you'd have to fly out to LA and do like five auditions in a day.
But yeah, now you can.
Do it for the comfort of your own home.
What was it? What was that like the reality when you sort of landed and you realized that this is happening.
Oh gosh. I don't think it really hit till Yeah. I was in Vancouver and I meeting everyone, the our showrunner, you know, I was getting flowers from Netflix and all the stuff, and I was like, oh my gosh, we're doing this and I had no idea it would go on to be as big as this. It's crazy.
What is the key to getting noticed as a key with actress. What does it take. Is it about having obviously the talent, but is it about having those connections in the United States to get you the auditions and things?
But yeah, I guess like you have representations, you've got managers and agents who kind of, you know, they get the briefs of all the upcoming shows and films and then they send them out to you. But I don't know what. Yeah, I guess it is your talent, and I guess understanding the culture over here, and it's one thing to kind of imagine what it is to play a character over here. But I definitely feel living here and seeing how different it is, I can kind of bring that to those characters, and it also helps with your as well being around it all the time.
Has the success blown your way?
Look, I try not to think about it too much. It's only in these situations people like this is how many hours people watched it for or you know there's many views or breaking all these records. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. I definitely found it overwhelming it first when because again I thought it was going to fly under the radar. I didn't think it would go on to be this thing. So yeah, I found it quite overwhelming, and then you just kind of move on, and I'm just ultimately more grateful than anything.
Because it is one thing, as you say, it's one thing to be cast in a Netflix show, but it's a whole other thing to become one of the platform's most watched shows.
It's crazy and like the different types of people that have watched the show's mind blowing.
When I'm not surprised, it's a huge. I've absolutely loved it. I cannot wait for the second season. In the six months after it launched, it was the most huge on Netflix. Here we go. I'll give you the figures. Is just to you know, as you said, everyone always does eight hundred and twelve million hours watched. I mean that is so I suppose the question is what has this show done for you and your career?
Oh? Like so much. This was my first US production, and it's opened so many doors for me in terms of, you know, all the people that I now work with and just getting my profile out there so that the next things I go for, they've got a body of work to look at in terms of getting me the next role. But I don't know, I feel like this is just the start. For me, I don't feel like, oh, I've made it. I'm like, oh, this was a good test round of what to expect for the next time. And I think the coolest thing about QWIS is we all share our knowledge. So I'm really close with Kisha Castle Hughes who lives out here as well, and she's been through this tenfold and from a young age, so she's shared her knowledge with me. I hope I can do that for the next person that's coming up over here.
Because how long have you been living in the US now?
Oh gosh, on and off for maybe the last five years, but this time around one year. So oh no, no, that's not true. I think it's a year and a half.
Sorry, time, Just what is it? What does it matter?
Yeah?
Do you get home much these days?
Last time, my time is always in August from New York. It's a seventeen hour flight, which is a bit daunting, and you know, you have like three naps. But you know, my last job, which was at Apple Show Chief of War was shooting back home, so that was amazing but also kind of like crazy schedule, but also trying to see family and friends on the weekend. It was a lot, but it's always such a treat when I get to work at home.
It's lovely to hear you talk about and I hear a lot of actors talk about the closeness of the key we expect community, especially within the industry that you're in. I love the fact that you know they sort of they asked you who would be great to play your aunt in the first season, and you couldn't come up with anyone, and then they found the perfect person. A fellow kiwisone cassel.
And the thing about her is that she is a beast with stunts, like so much so at the stunt rehearsal, she kind of like took off her coat because we were shooting in freezing Vancouver, and then they saw her guns and they were like, let's let's keep her in a tank top. She is like a beast, and I was just like, that's my aunt right there.
Do you enjoy the action aspect of the show.
Look, Francisca, I never thought in my life that I would be in like an action show. Like when I wanted to be an actress when I was younger, I was like, I can see myself on a family drama where we sit on the couch and discuss dynamics, and then I keep finding myself and shows where I'm running a lot and being thrown around by different people and dodging bullets. So no, I didn't expect to be a part of this, but I've learned that it's quite fun because I guess when you were a kid, you play cops and robbers and you know, play with toy guns, and now I'm a grown adult doing that for a job. It's funny.
I know that you are very firmly connected to your tongue and heritage. Is that hard being in New York so far away?
Oh my gosh, for sure. Like I was just saying earlier, I missed tongue and food so much. And when I was calling my family on Christmas Day, They're just showing me the plate and I like what I would do for that right now. But there is a community out here, which is crazy. It's being so far away, so I do get little moments and as soon as I hear like the cackling laughs from miles away, I'm like, oh, I'm home.
I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit about the short film that you worked on, because I know you've got your multi talented and I know you're doing a lot of work behind the scenes as well, and you recently filmed a short film. Can you tell me a little bit about that.
Yeah, it's called lett Buanga mother Tongue, so that's the direct translation. And I wrote it a really long time ago. I was living in Los Angeles, not booking any work and was not creatively fulfilled because I just I was working at a restaurant, you know, nine to five, and a friend of mine was like, well, you should write, just do it for fun, and I was like, okay. So I kind of took inspiration from lots of parts of my life, but specifically my insecurities of not being able to speak tongue in and so you know, all good stories start from a place of truth and something that means a lot to us, and wrote it. I got funding from the New Zealand Film Commission, not a lot. It was a labor of love, and then via Muffy Lao, who's an amazing documentary director who's also half toung in, willingly said should join me. And last year we actually premiered at Sundance Film Festival and the International Competition and that was crazy. It was literally a year ago yesterday, I think it was, And that was just amazing to see like our little film that we made, you know, at the Egyptian Theater, which has you know, screened so many iconic films and have our language up there for like the first time. It was so amazing. And yeah, we thought it was like, oh, it's a bit niche, but it was. We realized that these themes were actually more universal and it's connected us with so many wonderful people. So I feel really lucky to make that.
Because how important is specific a storytelling to you. I know that you were also an associate producer on the show The Panthers and have been involved. It's very much growing. I saw Mickey Mega Sivers Tina recently. It's wonderful to see some more specific stories.
Oh my gosh. And it's only growing. Like Vere and I were on the jury for the Hawaiian International Film Festival and we were like, there's so many Hawaiian films. This is incredible and it wasn't like that a couple of years ago. So we feel like we're just at you know, the beginning, and it's so like such an honor to be a small part of that. And if anything that I'm interested in, any story that you know, I feel compelled to tell, I'm on the phone and I'm like, how can I be a part of this in a small way or a big way? Yeah.
So obviously at the moment, you know you're on fire when it comes to being in front of the camera. But are you very keen to keep pursuing things behind the camera. Do you sort of have a preference for what you love the most.
Well, I know, acting better than any other department. So like I feel, as I said, I'm still at the beginning of that. So I want to keep doing that for a long long time. But on my to do list for twenty twenty five was to get back into writing. And I want to direct my next thing rather than just write it because I've learned from that experience. I didn't really enjoy acting the stuff that I wrote because I was like, this is too much, too much to think about it.
But that's what we end That's what a lot of filmmakers end up doing because they have to. They're producing it, they're writing it, they're directing in it, and often starring in it.
You know, to get at you know, yeah, it's not much money. So you're like, you know what, I'll do this for free.
I'll be the character, I'll do it all. So finally, what can we expect from season two of The Night Agent? As I said, I'm a huge fan, I'm going to binge it. What can we expect?
Are LEI just what you said? If you loved season one, you're going to love season two. I binched it, and it's weird because I know the story and I cringe it myself. I cannot sit in a room and watch myself, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's so intriguing and yeah, you're just gonna fly through the episodes because it's it's really really good.
Do you really not ever watch yourself?
Oh?
It's discussed like I mean, of course at premieres and things. You kind of just like sit there and you're like, oh, I know what's coming and why did they pick that shot? And oh god, I'm you know what's funny. When I watched this season, I was like, nobody's faces move and then they cut to me and I'm like so expressive. I was like, oh god, see this is what these are the thoughts that go through my head when I'm watching.
No, we love a face that moveste Yeah, that moves. Oh, it's such a delight to talk to you. Congratulations on your success. It's so exciting, so deserved. Cannot wait for the second season.
Oh, thank you, Frenchie Skin and enjoy.
I absolutely will. That was Kumi actress Luciani Buchanan. She plays the lead character Rose Larkin and smash hit Netflix show The Night Agent. Season two is out now on Netflix. I highly recommend it.
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.