Morrison's film debut is the 1973 film Rangi's Catch, playing the title character. He trained in drama under the New Zealand Special Performing Arts Training Scheme. One of his earliest starring roles was in the 1988 film Never Say Die, opposite Lisa Eilbacher. After this he played Dr. Hone Ropata on the television soap opera Shortland Street from 1992 to 1995.
In 1994, he received attention for his role as the violently abusive Māori husband Jake "The Muss" Heke in Once Were Warriors, a film adaptation of Alan Duff's novel Once Were Warriors. The film became the most successful local release in New Zealand, and sold to many countries. The role won him international acclaim and he received the award for best male performance in a dramatic role at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. He reprised the role in the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, for which he received the Best Actor award from the New Zealand Film Awards. Morrison said in 2010 that he felt typecast by the role, to the point that it was "a millstone round my neck".[4] In 1996, he appeared in the Pamela Anderson film Barb Wire.[5]
He has appeared in supporting roles in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) and The Beautiful Country (2004). In 2005, Morrison became the host of the talk show The Tem Show on New Zealand television.
He started writing an autobiography in 2009, which he hoped would inspire others to "reach for the stars".[7]
He released his debut album, Tem, through Sony Music Entertainment NZ in late November 2014. It consists of covers of songs that his father, and uncle Sir Howard Morrison, had performed at local venues when he was growing up.[8]
Morrison physically portrayed Boba Fett for the first time in the second season of The Mandalorian (2020).[10] In the show, Morrison portrays an aged, weathered version of the character.[11] Morrison's Fett has heavy scars on his face, and wears dark robes before reclaiming and restoring his armor. Morrison says that with the physically worn appearance, he adjusted his voice to be more gravelly, as if Boba's vocal cords were affected by his past traumas. With the role, Morrison was also able to bring a bit of his own Māori culture to Fett's portrayal. In an interview with The New York Times, he said that he "wanted to bring that kind of spirit and energy, which we call wairua, [to the role]"[11] and used that influence in his on-screen fight scenes, both in the hand-to-hand combat and while wielding weapons.
In 2020, a spinoff of the series The Mandalorian was announced, titled The Book of Boba Fett.[12] Morrison reprises his role as Boba Fett,[12] following Fett's life after the events of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. The series premiered on 29 December 2021.[13]
In 2022, Morrison made a cameo appearance as a homeless veteran clone trooper in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series,[14] and voiced Rex and other clones in an episode of Ahsoka.
Other roles
Morrison returned to Shortland Street for six weeks in June and July 2008 to reprise the role of Dr. Hone Ropata.
In 2008, he appeared on New Zealand skit comedy television show Pulp Sport, in a sketch that made fun of him being cloned.
Morrison lives in New Zealand, and divides his time between filming there, Australia, and the United States. He has an adult son from a relationship in the late-1980s with singer Kim Willoughby from the all-girl group When the Cat's Away; and a daughter with Peata Melbourne. Morrison's partner is Ashlee Howden-Sadlier,[17] who is of Māori descent (specifically Tūhoe and Ngāti Porou descent).
^Duncan, Jody (July 2002). "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones – Love and War". Cinefex (90): 90. The same technique was used to create multiple twenty-year-old clones in the commissary, with Rosenberg shooting actor Bodie Taylor a total of 99 times, in various positions, on a set of ILM
