Click here to read his previous interview

I’ve continued life as a jobbing actor and writer, but in October last year I opened Rogues Gallery in Budapest VIII: an art gallery, reading library, social salon, and creative studio all in one. When I bought it, it looked like a bomb site with a ceiling. Now it’s an elegant little portal to another world. Drop by and see Ela Daple’s latest dystopian oil works. 

2. What is your biggest professional achievement since moving to Hungary?

Playing both Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in different productions was fun, but the most exciting project right now is my travel writing younger self, the Jet-Set Hobo, coming to life as an AI avatar in collaboration with PublicFiguresAI.com. Stay tuned for the full reveal.

3. If you could change one thing about Hungary, what would it be?

That it would regain all the territory lost after Trianon? You see, I aim to please my gracious hosts.

4. What advice would you give to a new expat in Budapest?

Be nice. The bureaucratic red tape as a New Zealander moving here was at times quite challenging. But the people behind those perspex windows will generally try to be helpful. Just don’t turn into a raving Karen and you’ll be fine.

5. Which superpower would you choose?

Tax avoidance.

6. Who inspires your life most these days?

The Contessa, my beautiful Felicia, light of my life… though she will be embarrassed if I continue in this vein.

7. What is your most treasured possession?

My marbles.

8. What are some of your biggest challenges these days?

Finding my reading glasses. I’m not as young as I used to be 21 years ago, when I did the first of these questionnaires.

9. What’s your favourite restaurant, bar, or music venue in Hungary?

Scottie’s Place. That's the cocktail bar I’d like to open if Rogues Gallery takes off like a rocket. A place to grow old disgracefully. Unsurprisingly, the Contessa is not quite so keen on this idea.

10. If you were a type of animal, which one would you want to be?

I am a type of animal.

11. What is (would be) your favourite karaoke song?

“The Girl from Ipanema,” as sung by the Swedish Chef. I actually recorded this for an Auckland radio station back when the world was young.

12. If your next expat assignment was on a desert island, and you could only take three things, what would you bring?

A personal chef, a valet, and a chauffeur. If there wasn’t much for them to do, they might still come in handy if cannibalism ever became a thing.

13. Unicum, pálinka, or …?

Több Tokayt, kérlek.

14. What would you have done differently here if you knew then what you know now?

Learned more Hungarian. After all these years, I still trot out maybe twenty phrases. On the bright side, I continue to experience the city as a tourist.

15. How are your local language skills these days / what’s your favourite Hungarian phrase?

See above.

16. What’s the funniest thing that’s happened to you in Hungary?

Staying young and gorgeous while everyone else around me has gotten older. I jest, but you’ll see it for real in my avatar: permanently 38, like James Bond in the books.

17. After a good few years here, what is your favourite thing about living in Budapest?

The cost of living. I wish! Really, it's the city itself. Still a knockout, still takes my breath away. 

18. Which question would you ask if you interviewed yourself?

Where did you put my reading glasses?!