Keisha Castle-Hughes TGIF

Being a Friday and TGIF for all. Some say it's 5 O'Clock Somewhere!! But Keisha says It's a "Cotton Candy Friday" to all!!!

Keisha Castle-Hughes: Things you may not have known 3

{In 2004, at 13, Keisha became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.}

{Keisha is a fan of Johnny Depp; was able to meet him at the 76th Academy Awards when they were both nominees.}

Keisha Castle-Hughes from a New Zealand Photographer's Art Book for charity 1

Keisha Castle-Hughes: Things you may not have known 2

{Did you know that besides the movie the Whale Rider being Keisha's 1st movie that she starred in. Also, she confirmed that she did not even know how to swim before starring in that movie.}

Keisha Castle-Hughes - End of The Golden Weather

Keisha Castle-Hughes - a working mom and past Oscars nominee. What’s Keisha up to? Like Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, Keisha is currently treading Theater’s boards in a play, End of The Golden Weather. According to, an NZ.Govt website: “Young Geoff is a daydreamer with a burning ambition to be a famous writer. Through his eyes we see the wonder of life on a perfect beach, in a perfect 1930s New Zealand, during a perfect summer. It’s a world of magic and transformation, where anything can happen and miracles seem possible. Keisha stars with actor Nic Samson - from the comedy band Guns N Moses. Firpo is a social outcast who dreams of winning an Olympic medal. When Geoff sets out to help Firpo make his dream a reality, ignoring his father’s rebukes and community ridicule, a battle rages between the eternal optimism of the child and the harsh pragmatism of adulthood. Gliding effortlessly between flights of poetic fancy and blunt everyday speech, The End of the Golden Weather is iconic New Zealand storytelling at its very best, a poignant theatrical gem that everyone can relate to.” I just might go to this. To see a Hollywood-Maori living legend perform live doesn’t get much better in theater than that in NZ, that’s for sure. Go Auckland Theatre Company! :)

About Keisha Castle-Hughes' film Vampire

Keisha Castle-Hughes' movie Vampire where she plays Jellyfish. So 'Vampire' follows a story which actually happened in Japan: a man convinces young women in suicide chat-rooms to die together with him, eventually tricking them so that he may consume their blood. The focus isn't so much on why he wants to do this (apart from ambivalent references to the quest for immortality), but rather why these women want to die - and this is where I see a continuity with Iwai's other work. It's not so much about the story itself, which takes somewhat unfathomable turns and ends up in a confusing mêlée, but rather the visuals, which create a mystified, surreal and at times even humorous perspective on death. The proverbial 'vampire' is actually seen as a perversion of this theme, which becomes obvious in a rather gory parody of the 'serial killer' image, complete with fangs and cape. This is not a vampire flick.

Keisha Castle-Hughes in The Vintner's Luck photo collage

Keisha Castle-Hughes at Toronto Marlies games

Keisha checking out one of my favorite sports hockey. Here are 2 photos of her at the Toronto Marlies game. Looks like she was having a good time.

Keisha Castle-Hughes: Things you may not have known

(She was a fortunate discovery for "Whale Rider". The casting director and casting assistant went to her primary school in Mt Wellington, New Zealand and went through a few hundred children to choose their Paikea. They found her, only because she was playing up and being smart to them: she stood out.)

(Keisha was Discovered by the same agent who discovered Anna Paquin.)

Keisha Castle-Hughes in The Vintner's Luck

Prince Cinnamon girl featuring Keisha Castle-Hughes

It’s a chilling social statement from a musician better known for talking sexy: Prince’s video for the song “Cinnamon Girl” depicts an Arab-American girl detonating herself in a crowded airport terminal on what looks like U.S. soil. Featuring Keisha Castle-Hughes from the movie “Whale Rider,” the four-minute clip opens in a stylized urban schoolyard, rendered in pen-and-ink and stylized gray watercolors drawn by artist Greg Ruth. A group of teen girls react with horror to the whining roar of jet engines that fades into the opening notes of the song. When it becomes clear who’s responsible for what we presume is a Sept. 11-style terrorist attack, classmates of Castle-Hughes’ character torment her for her ethnicity, and she flees for home, only to find her parents covering over the Arabic script on the sign outside the family store. Someone has scrawled “terrorist scum” on one of the store’s windows. “Cinnamon girl mixed heritage/Never knew the meaning of color lines,” Prince sings. “9/11 turned that all around/When she got accused of this crime.” Intercut with straightforward scenes of the singer and his band playing on a blasted, war-torn landscape, the video shows Castle-Hughes donning traditional dress and head scarf and videotaping what appears to be a statement of martyrdom. In the next scene, she’s back in Western garb and arriving at the airport. Perhaps for emphasis, the camera lingers on the U.S. passport she shows to airport officials. Then she’s standing in the terminal with a detonator in her hand. She closes her eyes and presses down on the red button with both hands. The perspective shifts outdoors as flames rip through the glass-paneled front wall. It’s only for a moment, though, and then the scene reverses itself to the moment just before Castle-Hughes hits the button. Is it a fantasy?

Voices from the Pacific | Keisha Castle-Hughes

About Keisha Castle-Hughes film Red Dog

Keisha Castle-Hughes plays Rose in the film Red Dog. Based on the legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master. The movie conveys very well what it was like to live in Dampier in the '70s. The movie has some very sad and moving episodes, but also some real 'laugh out loud' moments. In the end, rather than feeling sad, I felt it was a celebration of a very special animal.