Christopher Luxon: 'I'm lucky, I'm an extrovert... I'm very wired by engaging with people'

7:21 pm on 26 February 2025

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon doesn't need much sleep, watches television in 20 minute chunks and goes to the movies with his bodyguards.

He joined RNZ's Afternoons Bookmarks to discuss his cultural passions, the music he loves, the TV he manages to catch and why he never checks his phone at the movies.

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"I don't often stay asleep for long. I can get two hours, then I might get up and do some reading for an hour, and then I might go back to sleep for another hour or so.

"In my past life, I did a lot of global travel, and I always had a view, which was when I was back at home, the jet lag was my problem, not the family's problem, and so I've sort of just learned to survive as I need to with as little sleep as I get."

If he snatches his sleep in chunks, it's a similar story when he and Amanda Luxon sit down to watch TV, he said.

"We'll pick a series we can often watch in 15 or 20-minute blocks at different moments in time."

Slow Horses is a current favourite, he said.

"The quality of the shows on the streaming services is just amazing, isn't it?

"Slow Horses, just love that, Gary Oldman, I think he's just an awesome actor. And Peaky Blinders was awesome."

He's not into meditation or yoga to unwind, but New Zealand's 42nd prime minister has caught the ancestry bug. He was inspired to delve into the Luxon family history after watching the 2011 wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

"I thought, 'oh, maybe there's a connection to the royal family through the Luxons'.

"And it's been a bitter paddock of weeds basically, of discovering over 3000 years, we spent a hell of a lot of time in jail.

"There's a guy that was married to three women at the same time - totally bigamous."

The ever-present security that goes with the job doesn't faze him, he told Jesse Mulligan, even though his bodyguards join him and Amanda at romantic dinners or other family moments.

"I'm lucky, I'm an extrovert, right? So, I'm very wired by engaging with people, and I love that, and I never want the security team to get in the way of me being able to talk to people as I'm moving through airports or moving around the country.

"But they also do an incredible job, and they're amazing people."

His security detail were with him when he and Amanda saw the film Conclave recently, he said.

"Talk about political leadership. I mean, this is about a Pope has died, and the appointment of a new Pope, and the process that happens before the white smoke goes out from St Peter's in the Vatican for the appointment of a new Pope.

"But great movie, awesome movie. Absolutely loved it."

Going to the movies in New Zealand remains a fairly uncomplicated process, he said.

"We were able to go with two friends and again, our security team, they get to go to the movies too, whether they want to go or not.

"The fact that a prime minister in New Zealand can do those things is actually really important."

And does he check his phone during the film? No, he said.

"I will check my phone in the morning at 4.30, before I get into the office at 6am or 7am, and then, basically, I'll check it again at lunchtime, I'll check it again in the evening, but if something's really urgent, someone will get hold of me.

"I've always felt, in the spirit of full engagement, you and I are doing this right now, there'll be 100 emails that might be coming into my phone and messages and stuff. But if it's of a critical importance, someone will come and grab me."

RNZ's Afternoons will be inviting leaders from other political parties on the show for Bookmarks throughout the year.