Shorty star Jaxin's double act 'SHE'S BETTER THAN I AM!'

The actor's daughter Ruby is following in her dad's footsteps

- Leena Tailor

He portrayed Ferndale's murdering pastor so chillingly that Shortland Street fans rarely brave approaching him. But behind the baddie, Jaxin Hall's a big softie especially when it comes to his kids! Take the moment he saw 10-yearold daughter Ruby portraying Haley Mockingbird in Sweet Tooth.

"I cried seeing Ruby on screen the first time," Jaxin, 36, tells Woman's Day. "When you're watching on set, it's cool, but nothing beats the first time seeing it as a production."

Ruby chimes in with, "It wasn't the first time you've seen me on screen!" 

"But it was the first time I saw you on Sweet Tooth," replies Jaxin, who also has a six-year-old son Nikau with American wife Natalie Hall, 34. "I also cried when I saw you in a Spark commercial. I'm a dad - it's what I do!"

While Jaxin was 15 when he nabbed his first role - as an extra on Shorty, 20 years before returning as Pastor Scott - Ruby's an international pre-teen star. It's no surprise given she was only three when she borrowed Jaxin's phone to record a video about the Great Wall of China, using Play-Doh.

"I was trying to make a YouTube video because I was obsessed with YouTube," she recalls.

Adds Jaxin, "It was crazy how confident and good she was!"

So when Jaxin signed with an agent after the family relocated from the States to New Zealand in 2019, he signed Ruby up too. She promptly landed a US commercial.

"It was a long, freezing day on the beach, but she was a trooper," he recalls. "I was like, 'Man, she's better than I am! Then she nailed her second audition, for Spark, and I went, 'Wait, you're two for two?!'