Gladiator: The Norm Hewitt Story

Gladiator: The Norm Hewitt Story follows All Black hooker Norm Hewitt's battle with alcoholism and his journey to redemption. After a tearful public apology became a personal "defining moment", Hewitt (Ngāti Kahungunu) reinvented himself as a youth worker and ambassador for Outward Bound. Directed by Michael Bennett, Gladiator is based on the best-selling biography of the same name by Michael Laws. In this excerpt, Hewitt visits Papatoetoe and talks with Mama Tere Strickland, who co-founded an organisation to support sex workers, and help them leave the industry. 

Despite going to a Māori school, by the time I left college being Māori was still foreign to me . . . because I didn't understand the culture, I wanted no part of Māoridom.

– Norm Hewitt, at the start of this clip

Key Cast & Crew

Tainui Stephens

Te Kai Urungi

Norm Hewitt

Narrator, Subject

Grant Johnson

Camera Operator

John Keir

Producer

Rewa Harre

Camera Operator

Michael Bennett

Director