The Junior Taskmaster host takes us through her life in television, from bingeing school holiday sitcoms to making Starstruck.
In many ways, Rose Matafeo has been preparing for her role on Junior Taskmaster all her life. Not just because she is the daughter of a teacher, but because she has long been obsessed with Gene Wilder’s legendary performance as cranky kook Willy Wonka. “I’ve been inspired by him forever, and Taskmaster is a place where it actually works,” she tells The Spinoff. “I love how he is kind but he’s also strict, and the kids are just obsessed with him.”
Taking the Taskmaster throne for the kids’ version of the series, one which sees contestants compete in a range of perplexing tasks for points, Matafeo was also handed her fair share of challenges in the studio. “I’ve got the earpiece in and people telling me, ‘OK, wrap this up and move on now’ and there’s this kid in the middle of a three-minute rant about something. So I’m doing mental arithmetic: ‘how do I stop this child talking without it seeming so horrible?’”
Because even though the contestants are kids, there still has to be some classic Taskmaster roasting. “This is what it’s all about,” she sternly tells 11-year-old Reuben at one point. “Having fun and being judged by an adult woman.” And Matafeo says the jibes went both ways. “Some people would call me out on it, saying I was quite mean,” she laughs. “And I’d just be like ‘you don’t know what they’re saying to me, you don’t know how much got cut out’.”
Jokes aside, Matafeo says it was a joy to return to the Taskmaster universe, six years after she competed herself as a contestant. “It really is as fun as you’d imagine it would be. I know you always read interviews with people who’ve done Taskmaster who say that, and it’s like ‘surely not’. But for me, it was just the best.” And with that, we gave Matafeo a task of her own: to take us through her life in TV, from school holiday sitcoms to making Starstruck.
My earliest TV memory is… I don’t really remember cartoons as much as I remember the adult American sitcoms that I would watch as a kid. We’re talking Spin City – Michael J Fox era. We’re talking Third Rock from the Sun. We’re talking Veronica’s Closet. Dharma and Greg. Just Shoot Me. Jesse. Becker. Really deep cut afternoon American sitcoms on TV3.
The TV show that I would rush home from school to watch is… I remember during the school holidays, I got up to watch Moonlighting every morning at 11am. I’d make a banana smoothie and cheese toastie. It was the year that grated mozzarella came to New Zealand and I was like, “what is this cheese?” So every morning of the school holidays I’d get up, make that, and watch Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd.
My earliest TV crush… I feel sick saying this, but I think it was David Spade in Just Shoot Me. My crushes were all these funny guys, like Martin Short in the film Merlin. And obviously Mike Myers. I was completely obsessed with him and I would write “help me, I’m in love with Mike Myers” in all my diaries. I even taped this promo show Austin Powers: A Preview From Cannes off the TV.
My favourite NZ TV ad of all time is… The other day I was reminiscing with Alice [Snedden] about that great Telecom ad where she prints out the whole Pohutakawa tree from a fax machine and sticks it on her wall in London. Telecom also did that really sad one set to that Cat Stevens song ‘Father and Son’ and it’s about a dad who dies. I still can’t watch that ad, because it made me so sad as a kid. I also loved staying up late enough to see the Peaches and Cream ads start, and the party line ads.
My TV guilty pleasure is… Because I’ve lived here [the UK] for so long now, I watch a lot of those shows like Escape to the Country or Place in the Sun, where it’s these British couples who want to move to the countryside or want to move to Spain. I watch them all the time.
A TV moment that haunts me is… I saw the Will Smith slap live, in America. I was in New York at the TWA hotel, and I was waiting to fly back to London. So I was in my bed watching the Oscars, and it happened, and then everything cut out. I was like “what’s going on?” I totally thought it was a joke. I’ve got to say, it really hits different to have seen “the slap” live. It was absolutely fantastic seeing them live vision mixing and really stressing out.
My favourite TV moment is… I can vividly remember the night that C4 started. It was live, it was Jaquie Brown, it was Clarke Gayford. I remember even as a child being like “this is a turning point in television”. I remember them introducing all of the different hosts for all of the different shows, I remember the white background, and the high angle on Clark and Jaquie. That was a very monumental television moment for me.
My favourite TV character of all time is… For some reason, my mind went to Gob from Arrested Development. My favourite character from that show always shifts, but he is one of the funniest characters in television to me. Also the log lady from Twin Peaks. And Liz Lemon, for her sins. Probably some combination of all of those people.
The funniest TV show of all time is… In my heart of hearts, it would have to be Arrested Development, because it’s the thing I could probably still watch and find funny. I chased that show around when it first aired here, because it never aired at consistent times. It would be on at 10pm, then like 11.30, and then just randomly at 9.
The most stylish person on television is… I saw a couple of episodes of Twin Peaks the other day, and I do think Audrey Horne is a real style inspiration for me. Every time I cut myself a bob, I regret it, but it’s because I’ve watched Twin Peaks recently. Elaine Benes from Seinfeld as well – I definitely have to get some tiny glasses and grow my hair out.
My favourite TV project I’ve ever been involved in is… It has to be Starstruck, because it was working with my best friends, and the most amazing crew and cast. Sadly that is an easy one: it’s my own show. But special shout out as well to ULive, because it put me in a group of people that I would be friends with for many years to come, and it was very, very cool and fun.
A TV project I would love to be involved in is… Get me in Slow Horses, guys. Where is my self-tape for Slow Horses? I think it would be really fun to do something like that, or an action thriller-y kind of thing. Put me in Slow Horses and I will run down the street really fast. Or put me in Seinfeld to be one of Jerry’s one episode girlfriends, that would be great.
My controversial TV opinion is… I’m such a big supporter of terrestrial television. I think it’s important and I don’t trust people who don’t have access to terrestrial television. I think ads are important too. I watch so many shows with ads that aren’t targeted to me, like ads for mobility scooters and goggles with lights on the end of them. I think it is good to step outside the algorithm and get back into terrestrial TV.
A show I will never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… I don’t think I’ll ever properly get into any iteration of The Real Housewives. I’m sorry. I can’t do it.
The last thing I watched on television is… Sadly, it was an episode of Escape to the Country. This afternoon. A lovely couple moving to Southampton.
Watch Rose Matafeo in Junior Taskmaster, 7pm Thursdays on TV2 or on TVNZ+