The major oil player that she endorsed in a television ad over twenty years ago is the same company that has gotten her arrested over her protest acts.

Actress and Greenpeace activist Lucy Lawless, who got arrested on Monday for illegally boarding Shell Oil's Arctic-bound drill ship Noble Discoverer and occupying the vessel for four days, said she remembers the line 'it's the fuel of the future' from the TV ad.

Ms. Lawless was responding to media queries on how she feels now that she is raising protests against Shell after starring in a TV ad for the oil firm.

"I remembered only when we were up there (the rig) that I actually did. I was pumping gas and somebody, and I don't think it was me, said 'it's the fuel of the future'. I don't think it was my character but I always remember that line. And ah, sadly it isn't the fuel to take us into the future, we've got to get something clean," the actress said.

It was in the early 1990s when Lawless acted as a pump attendant in a television advertisement for Shell petrol.

Lawless and six other Greenpeace members who were arrested were charged with burglary and released on bail to appear at New Plymouth District Court on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace NZ executive director Bunny McDiarmid told Fairfax NZ it was not surprising if Ms. Lawless has had a change of heart after starring in the commercial "20 years ago, when climate change was hardly a speck on the radar."

"She, like most people, they're going to wake up and realise that we have to stop drilling in the Arctic if we're going to have a future," Ms. McDiarmid said.

Responding to media queries as to whether something was taken from the drill ship due to the nature of the charges against the activists, NZ Central District police communications manager Kim Perks said burglary is legally defined as "to enter property without authority and with the intent to commit a crime," noting the difference between burglary and trespass was criminal intent.

In contrast, illegally boarding a ship is a crime under the Maritime Transport Act.