It has all the makings of a Hollywood film – a dashing protagonist on a grand adventure, becomes embroiled in a tragic love story. As his dreams collapse, our hero is forced to face his demons, before beginning the slow, uphill journey of a life rebuilt. Only, it isn’t a film – it’s a true story, with James Trevena-Brown in the leading role.
LOOKING at James Trevena-Brown, you could assume all sorts of things. He looks a bit like a Ken doll (“Argh,” he groans, “I get that all the time!”) – and let’s face it, Ken’s a babe, but he never has much to say. Trevena-Brown, however, describes his parent’s divorce, his struggles with depression, insecurity and extreme heartbreak, with uncommon openness.
At just 24 years old, Trevena-Brown has represented New Zealand four times in the inline hockey World Championships, and played professional ice hockey in Germany for three years. Now he’s focusing on the next dream – of Hollywood success, as an actor.
So how’d he get from point A to point B?
At age seven, while living in Kapiti, Trevena-Brown found an ad in the local paper calling for people who’d like to try inline hockey.
“I gave it a try and fell in love,” he says.
Driven by a desire to be the best at everything, Trevena-Brown devoted himself to inline hockey, dreaming of playing professionally at an international level.
“I was told my whole life by everyone except those closest to me that I couldn’t do it,” he says.
But he did. At the 2007 World champs, Trevena-Brown won most valuable player, most valuable defence, and was named in the world all-star team. Headhunted by the a professional ice hockey team in Germany, Trevena-Brown made the difficult decision to halt his studies, at Massey University in Palmerston North, to chase his dream.
“A lot of people laughed at me, but that just made me want to do it more,” he says.
Trevena-Brown landed in Passau, Germany, and set about learning what was essentially a new sport, training twice a day for seven months of the year.
“It was a real blow to the ego – going from being one of the best in New Zealand to the worst, over there,” he says.  
As well as practicing, Trevena-Brown spent those years falling in love with a local girl. He proposed to her on his 21st birthday, they moved in together and bought a dog – a border terrier named Scruffy. All was going well until the day she told Trevena-Brown that something had happened with another man, a good friend on his team.
“I’m ashamed to say I just lost it, I started smashing up the apartment. There was a degree of arrogance in it – you know, like, ‘this shit doesn’t happen to me’,” he says.
Trevena-Brown invited the other man around.
“I walked out onto the street, which was buried two metres in snow, and I just lay into him. It got to the point where I was really trying to hurt him. If the police hadn’t shown up, I could’ve ended up in prison. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever been out of my mind,” he says.
Trevena-Brown spent a week in his apartment alone, curled up in bed crying. He didn’t eat, or sleep, and his ex’s parents came by every couple of hours to let Scruffy out to the bathroom. Eventually, he called his Mum.
“She started talking about bringing me home and I said, ‘Mum I don’t wanna come home, I’m too embarrassed’,” he says.
Despite worries that people would consider him a failure, Trevena-Brown did come home, and in Kapiti began his recovery.
When he was ready to try working, his Mum got him a job at the primary school where she’s principal.
“On my first day, I went into Mum’s office and broke down, crying, saying, ‘I can’t do this, I’m a mess’. It all hit me – here I was with no drive, no dream, wondering what I was gonna do with my life.”
After a big talk with his Mum about possible careers, Trevena-Brown found himself on website starnow.co.nz – a forum for actors, dancers and models to advertise their services and apply for work.
“There was an audition for a short film called Baby, and I thought ‘f*$k it, I’ll give it a go.”
After a few drinks to calm the nerves, Trevena-Brown entered the audition room. “I had the awkward sweats and I was shaking. I said ‘Look, sorry guys, I can’t do this’.”
He would’ve left, but director Raquel Simms calmed him down and encouraged him to go on.
“It was Raquel who said I should consider doing this as a career, and since then she’s always pushed me… always been proud of me.”
Trevena-Brown also got mentoring from actress Miranda Harcourt.
“She’s given me a lot of confidence, I can’t thank her enough. I owe a lot to both of them.”
Trevena-Brown didn’t get cast in the role he auditioned for (“I wasn’t ‘gritty’ enough”), but he did get a role – and so his first scene in a film, was a sex scene.
“From now on, I’m writing a sex scene into all my scripts,” he jokes.
Since that first job, Trevena-Brown’s modeled on catwalks and in his underwear, acted in a short film called Night Storm, been in a Colgate ad and a music video for local band The Aviators (stripped down, running, in slow motion), and was most recently cast as the lead in a low budget action film called Contract Killers.
The last four years have been up and down, to say the least, but Trevena-Brown’s feeling the return of stability.
“I know I’ll be disappointed again, probably with love, too, but I’d still rather throw myself into something headfirst… I’m not a ‘what if?’ person. Right now I’m very content, for the first time in a long time.”
And while ice hockey carries too many bad memories for Trevena-Brown to go back, he is heading off to the inline hockey World Champs in June.
Trevena-Brown credits his brother Simon, and especially his Mum, for everything.
“Her whole life has been for us, she’s never said no when we need something – she’s always found a way. Whoever I am or will be, it’s all down to her.”
Trevena-Brown is driven, and well supported. You get the feeling that whatever chooses to do, he’ll make it, even if it means taking a few knocks on the way.
Melody Thomas