“No one needs to care whether I have children or not,” says Rose Matafeo. Yet when the 33-year-old actor, director, writer and comic was tapped last year to host the child-sized spinoff of the U.K. competition show “Taskmaster,” at least one member of the British press immediately made assumptions about her own maternal aspirations. After all, if a woman is working with children, surely she must feel a pull toward bearing and raising them.
As she explains in her new Max stand-up special “On and On and On,” Matafeo does not, in fact, have an inner mother yearning to burst out of her. During our “Salon Talks” conversation, the creator and star of the cherished Max rom-com series “Starstruck” got serious as she discussed “that expectation that’s bestowed upon you when you’re born into a body that can have children” and the surrealness of living in a moment when “So many of these things are going backward in terms of actual rights, of being able to have access to birth care or abortion.” As she says frankly, “That is so scary to me.”
But like most comics, Matafeo uses her fears as her creative fuel. Her stand-up show takes its name from a 16,000-word Notes document — or as she describes it to us — an “unhinged manifesto” she created to document her thoughts and anxieties on dating, millennial angst and why she says she’s “very bad at endings.”
But after wrapping up “Starstruck” in 2023, the New Zealand native launched herself into a series of new projects — taking the wheel as host of “Junior Taskmaster,” returning to her roots in stand-up, and entering the Disney canon as a character in “Moana 2.” “I need elderly health care from my nieces and nephew,” she says drily, “so I need that cultural cachet.”
Watch our “Salon Talks” here, or read it below to hear more about Matafeo’s love for the rom-com genre, grappling with stage fright, and why she’s unapologetic about being child-free. “Make that money,” she says. “And spend it on yourself.”
The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Your comedy special takes its title “On and On and On” from the most vulnerable and liminal of spaces, the Notes app.
Who would’ve thought when they invented that simple application, that it would be the format in which we read so many harrowing, harrowing things written at 2 a.m., going through a tumultuous time?
And list the books we want to read.
Exactly, and New Year’s resolutions, to-do lists that I never do. I still have the long Note that this whole show is based on in my phone.
You call it a manifesto. 16,000 words.
An unhinged manifesto. It’s an essay. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written in my life. It really is. I was terrible at university. I could never write essays, and I’m like, “16,000 words? It’s bizarre.”
Tell me about the pivotal moment that made you begin this document and then say, “Now, this is a thing I can turn into content.”
I think all comedians rely on the Notes app, or a notebook, or some form of writing down ideas. With the Notes app on your phone, you’re always with it. I was finishing up on the third series of “Starstruck” and editing it, and I started doing a lot more stand-up because that year had been quite a full-on year. Lots of things were ending, that’s what I talk about in the show.
“I’ve always had to gear myself up for being on stage because I find it quite uncomfortable, quite scary and basically, awful. I get quite bad stage fright.”
I’m very bad at endings because many things in my life were coming to an end, doing this massive show that I’d done for three series and relationships that were ending.
People were passing away. A whole kind of interesting portion of one’s life was coming to a close, which is your mid-20s going into your early 30s where everything quite abruptly starts changing, probably quicker than I had the capability to deal with. It’s just interesting and very weird. It’s a very small two or three-year period of life, where everything changes a little bit.
The third series of “Starstruck,” I put it into the future, so it was happening when I was turning 33. I’m turning 33 next month, and all of the things that happen in the show are happening now. My friends are having babies. They’re getting married, and it’s very spooky.
Recently someone said to me that time isn’t linear and sometimes events run up ahead of you. You just have to catch up with them.
That is the exact type of thing I would’ve written down in a Notes app and not read for another three months. “Yep, jot that down. I need that one day.”
You describe yourself as an introvert. Also, your life is your brand. There are autobiographical elements in this and everything you do. How do you separate the two, as someone who also needs privacy and solitude?
Have you heard of “The Substance”? [Laughter.] No, I’m just kidding.
It’s horrific. It’s weird. It’s so strange. It’s something that I didn’t realize was going to be the cost of doing this as a job as much as I do now. I started stand-up so young. It’s only until now I’ve realized that the more people get to know you or watch your stuff, the more strange parts of your privacy are compromised. I take a little bit more care with stand-up to keep a little bit of your actual self to yourself.
My friends find it bizarre when they see my shows because they’re like, “You are so energetic. You are the most sloth, lazy, depressive, miserable person in real life, and in your shows you’re manic.” That’s probably where the shift happens. I’ve always had to gear myself up for being on stage because I find it quite uncomfortable, quite scary and basically, awful. I get quite bad stage fright. I think a different version of yourself comes out a bit, but everyone’s like that. Everyone has different aspects of their personality that come out in different contexts.
Not all of us do it on a stage.
I make money from it. I manage to monetize my compartmentalization.
You talk about personal things in the show. You are upfront about not wanting to have children, which, as you say, should not be controversial. I want to know the response you get from other people who are also wrestling with these things.
It was interesting doing it live, when I would be able to catch up with anyone or see anyone who came to the show after it. That bit resonated with them in the same way that it resonates with me when I see other people speak about that. It’s kind of no one’s business, and no one needs to care whether I have children or not, because ultimately, it’s my decision.
For me, being able to see people talk about it in media, or their work, and having people who are doing it and are quite unapologetic about it [shows] it has come a long way. That expectation that’s bestowed upon you when you’re born into a body that can have children is changing, and it changes more with how more people publicly speak about it and what their choices are.
“I love turning on terrestrial television in any country that I’m in. It really gives you the lay of the land.”
In a weird way, even though it’s 2025, so many of these things are going backward in terms of actual rights, of being able to have access to birth care or abortion. That is so scary to me because growing up you’re like, “Oh, we’re on an upper trajectory where things are getting far less scary, far less dangerous for women.” Then things are going backward, and you’re like, “How is this happening?” I do think that the backlash to a woman or a person saying that they don’t want to have kids is just one end of the spectrum of that.
The more people can get used to talking about that openly and being okay with it is great. But also, sometimes it feels like I’m a real “old man yells at cloud” vibe because it’s like, “No one cares you don’t want kids. Shut up.”
But if you can make content out of it, why not?
Exactly. Make that money. And spend it on yourself.
You recently became the host for “Junior Taskmaster.” You started at the same age that these kids you’re working with are now. What is it like working with kids?
It was so fun to be in the position where you’re meeting these kids who were just so funny, so talented. As soon as I heard the idea for the show, as a “Taskmaster” fan, you’re like, “I would love to watch that.” To be able to work on it was an absolute joy. It’s a funny thing, speaking about how you don’t want kids doesn’t mean you don’t like kids. It was so much fun, I think you can enjoy kids even more when you know that you don’t have to take care of them. These kids were so well cast, so wonderful.
I got to work with Mike Wozniak on it, and it was scary though because “Taskmaster” fans, they’re tough. If you don’t do well, if you don’t live up to their expectations, you can get killed.
They don’t mess around. So much of U.K. content is some sort of a quiz show. If you’re in Britain working as a comedian, you are on every show. What is it about that country that has such respect for employing its comedians in a way that you just don’t see anywhere else in the world?
I don’t know. I think it’s a real question of TV culture, isn’t it? I mean, I love turning on terrestrial television in any country that I’m in. It really gives you the lay of the land. It makes you understand a country. I had this experience in America the other day where I was like, “I feel like I’m in a different universe.” Even watching the Thanksgiving parade, I was like, “I don’t know what is going on here.”
When I moved to the U.K., so much stuff on telly, I was like, “What the hell’s going on here?” But when I first moved there, I got so many opportunities to do lots of comedy panel shows, which I used to illegally download in New Zealand on the internet because that was my way of seeing my favorite comedians on telly. But it rarely works here with American comedians.
I’m going to ask you about “Moana 2,” because you get to be part of this franchise. Does it change your life that you are now a Disney character?
I’m in the Disney canon. It all happened quite weirdly because “Moana 2” was originally a television series, and then it got turned into a movie. I didn’t realize that until I saw it on Instagram. I think that email got lost. It all happened incrementally. I would’ve done it in whatever iteration because it was an awesome team, great directors. I got to go to Abbey Road to record the songs, just months and months going back into recording booths in London, never ever meeting anyone else in the film, and pretending to see a giant clam and scream and run about.
I’ve said this before: I need elderly healthcare from my nieces and nephew, so I need that cultural cachet. I need it.
I’ve read a lot of the commentary online that’s like, “We’re so proud of her as a New Zealander.” What does it mean to be that person who is, in some way, representing this culture?
“I am the one who has been on a single-handed campaign to get Bridget Jones into the Criterion Collection.”
It feels bizarre to me. I forget that a lot because I’ve lived in the U.K. for nearly ten years now. I still feel like a New Zealander. I have people like Flight of the Conchords and Taika Waititi and these other New Zealanders who [I think], “They’re super-duper big overseas.” Then I’d forget that I’m from there as well and I’m on the same TV shows that I would’ve watched them on. It is a weird, surreal experience, but it is the New Zealand way to downplay it and say, “I know. No, no one knows me. It’s fine.” I’m going to wear a name tag for people to know who I am.
I want to ask a “Starstruck” question because you have spoken before about the ambivalent and tense relationship we all have with the rom-com. It’s a little fraught.
It is fraught. I’ve been through so many ups and downs with it and talking about it, because in promoting the show over so many years, so many feelings have changed as I’ve gotten a bit older and gone through making one. I’ve got so much love for the genre, and I am the one who has been on a single-handed campaign to get “Bridget Jones” into the Criterion Collection. It’s just one of the best films ever. I will not have anyone argue with me on that. It’s just incredible.
Making a TV show that sort of lives in that genre but also doesn’t, you’re always pulling from different things. There are rom-com purists who potentially hated lots of things that were in the third series because it wasn’t happy ending rom-com vibes, which I loved. I do think that there is so much room to stretch the genre there.
So what’s your favorite? Is it “Bridget”?
I think so. “When Harry Met Sally…” is one of my favorite movies ever. It’s annoying because I think sometimes to describe that film as a rom-com feels like it minimizes it too, like, “It’s just a rom-com.” But then I think about that and go, “Why does that feel like I’m minimizing it?” That’s a gendered thing as well, because you’re going, “Oh, because rom-com is for women.” That’s not something to be minimized. That’s something to celebrate.
There are just romantic movies that are funny, and there are romantic elements in action films. There are romantic elements in crime. That’s my big defense of rom-coms. It’s that there’s always romantic storylines in all of these other ones. There doesn’t have to be action or thriller storylines in rom-coms, because it’s enough.
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