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Speaker 1: Sunday night at eight o'clock. Austin premieres on ABC and

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Speaker 1: I View. Michael Theo is the star of Austin, and

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Speaker 1: Darren Ashton is the creator and director, and they're both

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Speaker 1: joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, gentlemen, Good morning everyone.

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Speaker 1: So Darren, give us a little synopsis of what Austin

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Speaker 1: is about.

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Speaker 3: Look in a nutshell.

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Speaker 4: It's about a author who is visiting Australia on a

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Speaker 4: book tour, he and his wife, and he retweets something

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Speaker 4: that he shouldn't have and he's canceled.

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Speaker 2: And then at the.

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Speaker 4: Same time, Michael's character turns up at their book launch

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Speaker 4: and says, I'm your biological son from a fling you

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Speaker 4: have with my mother twenty eight years ago.

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Speaker 2: Whoops.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the double punch of stuff happening, and of course,

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Speaker 1: and of course.

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Speaker 4: What he thinks he's way back into the work world

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Speaker 4: is to kind of write on the coattails of his neurodiverse.

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Speaker 3: Oh yeah, okay, Disney, Michael, Yes he is.

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Speaker 2: Hey Michael, how did you find acting?

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Speaker 5: Mate?

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Speaker 2: Are your experienced campaigner?

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Speaker 5: Now?

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Speaker 2: Did you enjoy it?

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Speaker 4: Yes?

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Speaker 5: I certainly did, because I spent my whole life since

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Speaker 5: childhood questing for this and now I've finally done it

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Speaker 5: and I'm going to keep issuing acting.

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Speaker 2: Oh, very good, well done.

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Speaker 1: You were a script consultant on the series as well.

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Speaker 1: How did you help with the script making it real?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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Speaker 5: I explained what I did as script consultants. I did

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Speaker 5: a lot of zoom calls with the crew.

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Speaker 4: Well, and also you had all the scripts and just Michael,

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Speaker 4: what are you saying about zoom?

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Speaker 5: Michael?

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Speaker 4: Was essentially your life experience kind of found its way

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Speaker 4: into the script, didn't that exactly?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, Bustin Hogan was actually the character inspired by me,

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Speaker 5: and a lot of things in the show were based

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Speaker 5: on me and my life.

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Speaker 1: Right because we first saw you on Love on the Spectrum. Michael,

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Speaker 1: how's the search for love going?

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Speaker 5: It's still going well, but you haven't gotten anywhere with anyone.

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Speaker 6: Right right, join the club.

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Speaker 2: But with the acting roles, you never never know because

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Speaker 2: more people will see you.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, they'll slide into your DM's buggle.

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Speaker 4: Now. He said to me the other day that he's

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Speaker 4: focus is going to be on acting for a while,

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Speaker 4: and I said, anymore, you never know when you're done,

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Speaker 4: When you're not looking for love, then that's when it

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Speaker 4: finds you.

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Speaker 6: That's when it knocks you down.

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Speaker 1: Darren and Michael, how important is it to have neurodiverse

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Speaker 1: representation on TV?

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Speaker 6: Do you think?

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Speaker 5: I would say that it's definitely important because to play

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Speaker 5: a new divergent character, you need a new a divergent actor,

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Speaker 5: because if you get a newer typical actor, it's not

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Speaker 5: as authentic and not as organic.

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Speaker 2: It's true, I think.

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Speaker 4: I think also, you know, the reality is that I

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Speaker 4: think for most of us these days, know, somebody will

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Speaker 4: have a family member or in fact maybe neuro diverse, and.

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Speaker 2: You know, I remember when I was growing.

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Speaker 4: Up, you know, someone was a little bit idiosyncratic or

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Speaker 4: they're a little bit odd or But what it does

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Speaker 4: is it sort of brings up to the forward, doesn't

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Speaker 4: It sort of makes it kind of more mainstream is

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Speaker 4: probably not the right word, but you know, makes it more.

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Speaker 2: A more awareness of it, don't you think, Mike, Yeah, of.

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Speaker 5: Course, because people on neurodiverse people that needs aren't catered

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Speaker 5: to very often. But is becoming more and more aware

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Speaker 5: of how important it is to cater to the needs

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Speaker 5: of neurodiverse people.

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Speaker 1: And they see you doing what you're doing, Michael, and

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Speaker 1: then everyone thinks, well, there's no barrier to me for anything.

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Speaker 2: I have Greg at that too, thank you.

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Speaker 5: And one of the reasons why I'm such a determined

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Speaker 5: person is because I decided a long time ago that

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Speaker 5: I was just done taking no for an answer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good in regards to my goals at least, Yes, it's.

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Speaker 7: Going to push Hey, both of you, gentlemen, Ben Miller, Giacredi, so,

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Speaker 7: Sally Phillips.

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Speaker 2: This is a wonderful line up of actors around Michael,

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Speaker 2: isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Well, yeah, you had a great time working with everybody.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, it was an absolutely wonderful experience working with them,

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Speaker 5: because not only are they amazing actors, but they're also

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Speaker 5: just some of the most awesome people I've ever met.

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Speaker 2: Really, that's what you want.

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Speaker 6: Roy Billings in It, isn't he?

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Speaker 5: Roy?

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Speaker 6: It's awesome he.

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Speaker 3: Plays He plays Austin's grandfather, doesn't he? And it was

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Speaker 3: interesting we have a billions got to go. It was

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Speaker 3: interesting Michael when we were in went shoot in the UK.

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Speaker 3: We had a hotel and everything, but Michael spent a

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Speaker 3: lot of time just going from one actor's house to

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Speaker 3: the others.

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Speaker 1: I did, id you'd always wanted to go to the UK, Michael,

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Speaker 1: So what a way.

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Speaker 5: To do it? Well? The offer role of Austin is

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Speaker 5: we actually triggered I love for English things.

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Speaker 3: Clean on the weather on the first day of shooting

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Speaker 3: it was cold and that was torture.

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Speaker 2: You had to try and concentrate on your lines. What

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Speaker 2: do you freeze?

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Speaker 5: I was actually doing my best to concentrate. Couldn't help,

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Speaker 5: but I was shivering.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, takes a little bit to get used to Michael.

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Speaker 4: He's only complained on the wardrobe was the fact that

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Speaker 4: he looked really good in the in the wardrobe, but

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Speaker 4: the beanie was a little bit too.

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Speaker 3: Small, wasn't.

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Speaker 7: Do you?

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Speaker 6: Michael? Do you have any more acting jobs on the

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Speaker 6: horizon right now?

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Speaker 5: It's actually a couple in the pipeline.

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Speaker 6: Yes.

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Speaker 5: I can't really go into it too much.

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Speaker 6: Before you are an actor, I can't say.

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Speaker 7: All right, And just before you go, gentlemen, Michael, what's

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Speaker 7: it like seeing yourself on the screen. You must have

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Speaker 7: seen the trailer and that is it just a bit strange?

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Speaker 7: Is it wonderful?

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Speaker 5: I first saw myself on Love and the Spectrum, Yeah,

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Speaker 5: it felt pretty weird. But after seeing myself on Austin.

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Speaker 5: In the first episode or two, it didn't really feel

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Speaker 5: as weird right, Bill, just doesn't feel like it's normal.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it ever will. It's always going

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Speaker 1: to be a little bit weird. Well, Michael THEO and

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Speaker 1: Darren Ashton really looking forward to seeing Austin. It starts

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Speaker 1: eight o'clock Sunday night on the ABC and lovely to

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Speaker 1: chat to you both.

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Speaker 2: Congrat to you too.

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Speaker 5: I also have a quick shout out to give as well.

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Speaker 2: Okay, I'd like to.

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Speaker 5: Give a quick shout out to my dearest friends in Perth,

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Speaker 5: Hannah and Lawrence and Sarah Maxwell.

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Speaker 2: Okay, very good. We hope you're listening right listening, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: quickly before you go.

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Speaker 4: One scoop from one is that Michael has aspirations to

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Speaker 4: move and live in Perth.

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Speaker 2: Very good.

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Speaker 6: Well, Michael, you'll have to come and visit us if

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Speaker 6: you do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you won't need a beanie here, buddy.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you so much, guys, Thank you,