Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast past week.
Speaker 2: Maline.
Speaker 1: Welcome back guys to TV Reload. As you may know,
Speaker 1: my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast
Speaker 1: to get all the inside goss on the popular TV
Speaker 1: shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably
Speaker 1: our TV's that's a major part of our home entertainment,
Speaker 1: and yet very little is known about how our favorite
Speaker 1: shows get made. So each episode I've been finding guests
Speaker 1: that want to dive just that little bit deeper into
Speaker 1: the shows they're currently making, so that you can hear
Speaker 1: all their exclusive stories and gain access to some of
Speaker 1: the biggest names in Australian television. I want to thank
Speaker 1: you for downloading all subscribing to this podcast however you've
Speaker 1: found me. I love hearing your feedback, so make sure
Speaker 1: you leave a review or a comment on your chosen
Speaker 1: podcast platform. On today's podcast, I have Kick Gurry, an
Speaker 1: Australian actor who has been on our screens for over
Speaker 1: two decades. Is start alongside Tom Cruise, Christina Richie, Pa
Speaker 1: Miranda and so many others in a career that he
Speaker 1: has collected relationships and connections that has led him to
Speaker 1: this series we're here to talk about today. Court is
Speaker 1: a brainchild that came out of the Melbourne Locke Downs.
Speaker 1: Kick picked up the interest of Sean Penn, signed him
Speaker 1: up as an executive producer, signed up friends Matthew Fox,
Speaker 1: Alexander London, Lincoln Unis, amongst many others. Not to mention
Speaker 1: Susan Sarandon and Brian Brown, both cinematic legends right across
Speaker 1: the globe. Court sees four Australian soldiers sent on a
Speaker 1: mission to a war torn country who were captured by
Speaker 1: freedom fighters who they convinced to produce a hostage video
Speaker 1: that goes viral. It is a satirical comedy. Even though
Speaker 1: you listen to that and think what is going on?
Speaker 1: You kind of have to watch it to believe it.
Speaker 1: But it is a bold choice and they go for
Speaker 1: last where most filmmakers would not dare. Kick is the writer, producer,
Speaker 1: director and star of Court, and I can't wait to
Speaker 1: hear how this all came together. I will talk to
Speaker 1: Kick about gaining the interest of Sean Penn and how
Speaker 1: his involvement affected the production of the show. Kick will
Speaker 1: talk about the essence of the series and how Court
Speaker 1: reflects modern society in terms of who we are on
Speaker 1: social media and the pathway to everyone now wanting to
Speaker 1: be famous. Along the way, we will unpack the giant
Speaker 1: penis scene which you might have seen in the trailer,
Speaker 1: and Kick will reveal how many people were allowed on
Speaker 1: set for that naked shoot. Plus we will get plenty
Speaker 1: of exclusives from behind the scenes of Caught, which comes
Speaker 1: out on Stann Australia September twenty eighth. So make sure
Speaker 1: you are subscribed to stand for this because it is
Speaker 1: quite hilarious. Anyway, let's bring Kick into the podcast, and
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this chat, even though you can
Speaker 1: hear that I have a cold and it makes me
Speaker 1: sound like I'm seriously talking from underwater. Anyway, let's bring
Speaker 1: Kick in. How are you very excited to talk to you?
Speaker 2: Very excited to talk to you, Benjamin. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 2: doing good. Just feeling the heat in Sydney yesterday and
Speaker 2: today actually, which is very strange in September.
Speaker 3: But no, it's a very exciting time, you know, to have.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people in my line and work
Speaker 2: who dream of this moment, and I certainly for twenty
Speaker 2: five years have dreamed of telling my own story and
Speaker 2: having something that I created. So I'm really just trying
Speaker 2: to soak it all in. It's a very special five
Speaker 2: years of a career for me, which has been filled
Speaker 2: with far more disappointment and failure than success, and you
Speaker 2: sort of bake that into your soul and you kind
Speaker 2: of have to get your head around the idea that
Speaker 2: this moment will never happen, that you'll never get to
Speaker 2: tell your own story. That's unfortunately the journey we're on
Speaker 2: as artists. So I'm very grateful for having forgetting to
Speaker 2: have this moment.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I mean, I've been in your audience
Speaker 1: for so long. It was funny. I was actually just
Speaker 1: looking at your IMDb and I remember watching like wild Side,
Speaker 1: Sea Change, all of these performances. I remember seeing a
Speaker 1: previous screeting of Looking for Ola Brandy about four months
Speaker 1: before it was released. It was like screening for it,
Speaker 1: and I was so familiar with that book, and I
Speaker 1: thought that the casting in that movie was brilliant. So
Speaker 1: you've been in my life the whole time. And I
Speaker 1: guess when you are an actor, you're sort of measuring
Speaker 1: yourself up against your successes. But for me, it seems
Speaker 1: like you've always been amazing.
Speaker 3: You would be wildly inaccurate in that. Remember that's your
Speaker 3: that's that's your that's your reality. That's bad. I wish
Speaker 3: I could live in that.
Speaker 2: But no, I just in some ways, I wouldn't really
Speaker 2: change much about the journey. I've been so lucky to
Speaker 2: have worked on the things I have, and I've always
Speaker 2: had a real instinct to drift towards things like wild
Speaker 2: Side and Sea Change, and that wasn't by choice early
Speaker 2: in my career, they were the first jobs I got.
Speaker 2: But working with Kerry Armstrong and John Howard on Sea Change,
Speaker 2: and Tony Martin and Alex Demitriartis on wild Side, Rachel Blake,
Speaker 2: I mean, I was a young actor and just I
Speaker 2: just couldn't believe I was getting to work with these
Speaker 2: people and real heroes of mine.
Speaker 3: And yeah, just just lucky the whole the whole way through.
Speaker 2: Then getting to work with you know, there were Chowski's
Speaker 2: on movies, and getting to do a little role in a.
Speaker 3: Movie with Tom Cruise.
Speaker 2: I mean, so many of the the you know, But
Speaker 2: but I just don't want to sort of pretend like
Speaker 2: that's been the whole journey that the year and a
Speaker 2: half before you get those moments is a lot of
Speaker 2: disappointment and failure and a lot of people asking you
Speaker 2: if you're still acting.
Speaker 3: Hey, are you still acting? And you sort of go,
Speaker 3: oh god. It takes a toll, but yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: change much of it.
Speaker 1: Well, I love your courage to tell bold stories. I
Speaker 1: mean this new story. You know, I found this quote
Speaker 1: about someone saying how audacious it is, but I mean
Speaker 1: it is a six part series, very satirical, It's a
Speaker 1: great story for Stan Australia. It's like nothing I think
Speaker 1: audiences have ever seen before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was very much the plan, Benjamin.
Speaker 2: I have an insatial appetite for sort of original things,
Speaker 2: and they're the things that I love when something's new
Speaker 2: and you I think for me that the way we've
Speaker 2: drifted as storytellers, if you look at the world as
Speaker 2: a whole, is I think for some reason, the tail
Speaker 2: started wagging the dog in that I think people started
Speaker 2: to want to know what they were watching when they
Speaker 2: were watching it. They want to know, they sort of
Speaker 2: want to know the lens they're watching it through. And
Speaker 2: I've always loved my favorite thing in life is when
Speaker 2: you're at a dinner, you're hanging out on a tram
Speaker 2: or a train, and you're hearing someone tell a story
Speaker 2: and you have no idea where they're going with it.
Speaker 2: That's what I love the most, and there's a danger
Speaker 2: in that because it could be headed some where that
Speaker 2: you don't lie, and I do think we've lost as
Speaker 2: an entertainment community. We've lost slightly first for provocation, and
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily think provocation is a bad thing in
Speaker 2: I love art to provoke ideas and thoughts, and I
Speaker 2: personally think art has played a huge role in where
Speaker 2: we've evolved to as a society, which I think is
Speaker 2: certainly a more equitable one, and one focused on that
Speaker 2: people of different cultures, different ways of life, different genders,
Speaker 2: different sexual orientations should be embraced as magical and special
Speaker 2: for their differences.
Speaker 3: Rather than weird and you're you know you're the other.
Speaker 2: I think we've certainly drifted towards that, and I think
Speaker 2: hopefully we can keep doing that.
Speaker 3: But I think art has played a big role in
Speaker 3: that drift, and I.
Speaker 2: Think we need provocative stories to keep that push going
Speaker 2: because we need people to you need people to sit
Speaker 2: around the table and debate and convince each other.
Speaker 3: Of good ideas. Aren't just say something is.
Speaker 2: A good idea and then everyone goes like, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: you need smart people having good conversations to get there.
Speaker 2: So yeah, this show hopefully was my contribution to that
Speaker 2: of I mean, there's certainly some ludicrous elements which.
Speaker 3: Child here for Billy. Yeah, me too.
Speaker 1: I was talking to your friend Claire Lovering and she
Speaker 1: was saying that you were working on this during lockdown
Speaker 1: and that you know, you kept saying, Oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have Sean pen involved and I'm going to do this,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to do that, and it seemed so
Speaker 1: outrageously ambitious that she was like, oh yeah. But then
Speaker 1: she said, you know you've pulled it off. Is this
Speaker 1: a project? Is this your love child from the COVID
Speaker 1: lockdowns in Australia?
Speaker 3: Very much? So yeah, we we.
Speaker 2: I thought of the idea just before COVID And in
Speaker 2: a way, you know, it's a bit uncouth to say
Speaker 2: COVID was a blessing because it was a devastating thing
Speaker 2: for everybody and including me, But within it that all
Speaker 2: that time and doing nothing for you know, six months,
Speaker 2: I was in the Melbourne lockdown, I just sort of
Speaker 2: put my head down and just kept writing the show,
Speaker 2: and then we would do a table read every week,
Speaker 2: which Claire was a part of.
Speaker 3: On some of them, we were all in lockdown around Australia.
Speaker 2: We'd all get on Zoom, which I'd never heard of,
Speaker 2: but we'd get on Zoom and we'd do a table
Speaker 2: read of these scripts that I was writing, and some
Speaker 2: were bad, some were good, some were fun, some weren't,
Speaker 2: but it was all great for us because we had
Speaker 2: nothing else to do. And then yeah, on the on
Speaker 2: the back side of it, now here it is ready
Speaker 2: to roll, and yeah, Claire's right, and the ambition of
Speaker 2: it kind of just.
Speaker 3: Kept growing growing.
Speaker 2: It was pretty crazy because Sean got in Champagne got
Speaker 2: involved early on, and once he was involved, it sort
Speaker 2: of felt like, well, if that's the outer marker, then
Speaker 2: everything's in play, you know. So the ambition kind of
Speaker 2: grew and grew and grew, and it did make me
Speaker 2: really proud. Last night we watched it with the crew
Speaker 2: and it just made me really proud that because it
Speaker 2: was an almost impossible feat to pull off, not for me,
Speaker 2: for me personally, it.
Speaker 3: Wasn't my difficulty.
Speaker 2: It was me saying to them, this is what I
Speaker 2: want to do, and the crew just pulled it off.
Speaker 2: The organizational structure, the sort of know how and the
Speaker 2: sort of motivate to say, let's do it what you
Speaker 2: know is just spellbinding. Was it was a miracle and
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of them all.
Speaker 1: Did you have actors in mind for the roles? I mean,
Speaker 1: were you're writing stuff and thinking, well, Brian Brown, who
Speaker 1: was an Australian legend, you know, he has to play
Speaker 1: the prime minister. I mean, did you know that those people?
Speaker 1: I mean, did you have those people in place? Did
Speaker 1: you have them in mind?
Speaker 2: No one, I'm definitely in mind, but no one was
Speaker 2: in place. But every role was written for the actor
Speaker 2: that played those roles.
Speaker 3: So certainly as I was right.
Speaker 2: I mean, Brian, I've known him for over twenty years
Speaker 2: and you really when you're he's such an incredible thinker
Speaker 2: and a problem solver, and I've always thought, you know,
Speaker 2: he'd be such a great prime minister.
Speaker 3: But there's not that much humor in Brian bringing a great.
Speaker 2: Prime minister, and so I wanted him to play a
Speaker 2: bit of an idiot, which he was more interested in
Speaker 2: playing because he's real life.
Speaker 3: His owner is a wild intellect.
Speaker 2: So for him it was a fun chance to come
Speaker 2: and play against Taipe and played this real idiot he
Speaker 2: doesn't know what's going on, which felt like it pope
Speaker 2: fun of a political system that didn't feel like we
Speaker 2: drifted too far into satire. To be honest, it felt
Speaker 2: like it was almost realistic.
Speaker 1: Well, some of the things you could just believe happening,
Speaker 1: I mean, the ridiculousness of the Today Show with Karl
Speaker 1: Stefanovic and Bindio and but Mindio and like, there's lots
Speaker 1: of things in place that are ridiculous, but they're kind
Speaker 1: of a piss take on the realities of what it's
Speaker 1: like to actually be in some of those situations.
Speaker 3: Oh, no doubt.
Speaker 2: And I do think, benjam we've drifted into an absurd
Speaker 2: reality that we're all living in and we're sort of
Speaker 2: not commenting on it in a way. And I felt
Speaker 2: like those scenes for me was meant they were my
Speaker 2: sort of reflections on the absurdity of what we're doing
Speaker 2: in the world. And as you say, like you watch
Speaker 2: them and you go, well, this isn't really it's not
Speaker 2: really that exaggerated. I mean, Matthew Fox sort of inspired
Speaker 2: the Sean on the Today Show scene because Matthew he
Speaker 2: was on a show somewhere and he got told he
Speaker 2: was going to promote last and suddenly they brought out
Speaker 2: these puppets, and he didn't know what was going on,
Speaker 2: and he was suddenly interacting with these puppets, and he
Speaker 2: didn't know I think it was in a foreign country
Speaker 2: and he didn't speak the language, so he didn't know
Speaker 2: whether what he was doing was meant to be funny
Speaker 2: or whether they were doing a sort of a satire
Speaker 2: or if it was real. And he's suddenly with these puppets.
Speaker 2: And we always laugh about that story, me and him,
Speaker 2: So that scene is sort of based on that well.
Speaker 1: And actually, you know, I was going to jump in
Speaker 1: there and say, you know, I was on a reality
Speaker 1: show which I won, and then the next day I
Speaker 1: was on the Today Show with these people, and I
Speaker 1: thought I was there for like an interview, but they
Speaker 1: really threw me in at the last part while they
Speaker 1: were cooking prawns, and they quickly asked me about this
Speaker 1: whole experience. But with no TV experience with live television
Speaker 1: like that, I felt like this whole thing was just
Speaker 1: so ridiculous. I was like, here was me thinking I
Speaker 1: was getting some sort of Andrew Denton sit down interview
Speaker 1: about my experience, and then all of a sudden, it
Speaker 1: was something completely different. It was like not just one thing,
Speaker 1: it was like three things added in, which made me
Speaker 1: laugh so hard at this whole thing.
Speaker 2: I think that the line, you know, reality TV, I
Speaker 2: think Big Brother was really the first one.
Speaker 3: I remember when that that that came out when I
Speaker 3: started acting.
Speaker 2: So this birth of reality TV happened at the same
Speaker 2: time that I was becoming an actor, and I think
Speaker 2: reality TV was sort of that first ten years, and
Speaker 2: then that morphed into social media because I think reality
Speaker 2: TV gave birth to the idea that it's sort of
Speaker 2: we lost the mythology of or the myth of that
Speaker 2: famous people. But no, but no that. But I think
Speaker 2: it's quite a simple thing because I think human beings
Speaker 2: are just fascinated by human beings. It's it's what separates
Speaker 2: us is that there's a line in it in court
Speaker 2: about Iguanas don't tell stories. They don't tell each other
Speaker 2: what just happened.
Speaker 3: We do. We share our experience, and in a way
Speaker 3: it's a very.
Speaker 2: Exposing vulnerable place to go to to go on Big Brother,
Speaker 2: And I think people think it's about.
Speaker 3: Fame and you know, trying to get famous, But I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's really when I watch really TV,
Speaker 2: I don't when I used to. I don't think that
Speaker 2: was most people involved in that sort of motivation. I
Speaker 2: don't think that you were going on there to become famous.
Speaker 2: I think you were going on there. I don't know
Speaker 2: this for sure. I'm being very presumptuous, but my observation
Speaker 2: was that people are going on to tell stories, to
Speaker 2: share and connect, and filming it was sort of a
Speaker 2: way to you know, immortalize it in a way it'll
Speaker 2: be forever. We sort of care about legacy and what
Speaker 2: will my story be if I don't tell it in
Speaker 2: a way that gets recorded. And then that morphed into
Speaker 2: social media, which became everyone. So suddenly it wasn't just
Speaker 2: the people on reality TV, like you, it was everyone.
Speaker 2: It was everyone at school going like here's my holiday
Speaker 2: in Europe. And group emails. When group emails started and
Speaker 2: people started sending a group email to their whole email
Speaker 2: list about like, oh I'm in Europe and I'm doing
Speaker 2: this and I remember thinking, why they're telling everyone this
Speaker 2: and they couldn't be bothered writing.
Speaker 3: But then and I think storytelling became, you know, morphed
Speaker 3: into something else. And I don't think.
Speaker 2: We've necessarily there hasn't been a show that I've seen
Speaker 2: that as that drift in society. So I felt like
Speaker 2: this show, for me, was me trying to start a
Speaker 2: conversation and hopefully provoke a conversation around because I do
Speaker 2: think that in the story, like he wants to become
Speaker 2: famous to save his daughter. I don't think that's an
Speaker 2: unrealistic goal.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, think that's.
Speaker 1: The thing that made me laugh so loud because the
Speaker 1: whole absurdity of a blue tick. You know, you guys
Speaker 1: mock it so well. I mean, Justine Clark is so
Speaker 1: great because she's playing that role straight. And not to
Speaker 1: give too much away because I want people to enjoy
Speaker 1: that scene and unpack it when they see it, but
Speaker 1: I just loved the ridiculousness of how accurate that was.
Speaker 1: She was like, well you need help. Well I had
Speaker 1: this person for maths come in who raised one hundred.
Speaker 1: You know, the whole thing was just so ridiculous but
Speaker 1: extraordinarily accurate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think that's a thing that we're wrestling
Speaker 2: with as individuals in life, and that we're trying to
Speaker 2: work out where the moral compass sits on all of that,
Speaker 2: because we surely we don't want to live in a
Speaker 2: world where a child can be saved by some one
Speaker 2: from maths but not saved by our own medical system.
Speaker 3: And we've sort of drifted.
Speaker 2: Into that place, and you say, well, how do we
Speaker 2: get out of that place?
Speaker 3: And the thing for me about the commentary on social
Speaker 3: media is.
Speaker 2: Sort of that we've created a machine that could save
Speaker 2: the world, but we haven't figured out how to use
Speaker 2: it yet. So I see social media as an enormously
Speaker 2: positive thing. When you saw the Arab spring, when you
Speaker 2: see movements.
Speaker 3: Shamefully, I can't remember it was it about.
Speaker 2: It was about gay marriage, I think when everyone changed
Speaker 2: their their profiles, the flag, those things are so powerful
Speaker 2: as an information source, as a movement, and so we've
Speaker 2: sort of created this engine that can be this powerful
Speaker 2: agent of change, but as a society, we've sort of
Speaker 2: lost control of it at the wheel and it's just
Speaker 2: running wild now, and it feels to me like it's
Speaker 2: probably more of a negative at the moment than it
Speaker 2: is a positive overall, and I wish we could figure
Speaker 2: out how to drive it properly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that the problem with it all is
Speaker 1: the narcissism of social media. I think that if smarter
Speaker 1: people wanted to use it, well maybe they don't want
Speaker 1: to use it because it feels too self indulgent, do
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like, you really do have
Speaker 1: to put yourself on the line to put yourself out
Speaker 1: there with a particular cause, And because there are so
Speaker 1: many people with a glutton for fame and a glutton
Speaker 1: for attention, it probably distracts a lot of the other
Speaker 1: people from wanting to use that space in a way
Speaker 1: that could benefit other people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2: And I think it gave everyone a voice. I mean
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, if someone wanted to say
Speaker 2: something bad about you, they wrote it on the toilet
Speaker 2: the bathroom stall on the wall.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, kick going.
Speaker 2: Dickhad and you'd sort of be upset when you'd go
Speaker 2: into the toilet you'd see it, but only the people
Speaker 2: that went to the toilet saw it. And it was
Speaker 2: sort of it was it was sort of caged in
Speaker 2: its own demise because it was written on a toilet wall.
Speaker 3: So but then we created social media and now everyone
Speaker 3: can say.
Speaker 2: Anything about anyone anywhere, and it doesn't have it has
Speaker 2: an air of validity to it online for some reason.
Speaker 2: It's not like a toilet wall. People read things, they
Speaker 2: think it's real, and I think, yeah, I think there's
Speaker 2: a danger to it that yeah, we haven't quite figured
Speaker 2: out yet, and I do think then I call it
Speaker 2: the nacissistic cyclone. I've had many friends get lost in
Speaker 2: it where they're just posting things about themselves. Everyone's commenting
Speaker 2: on it, and they're just in this swirling idea of
Speaker 2: meanness and they don't they can't look out and see
Speaker 2: the beautiful, wide world out there.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard. I think you're putting value on something
Speaker 1: in a different way. I remember after doing something like
Speaker 1: Big Brother, it was just as social media started, and
Speaker 1: I remember I posted a photo every day for like
Speaker 1: twelve months, like something for my life. But I realized
Speaker 1: my life was about curating this photo after a while,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, if I stopped doing this,
Speaker 1: I'll lose all my followers. And then I ended up
Speaker 1: talking to someone about that and they were like, well,
Speaker 1: what's what is having all that followers mean to you,
Speaker 1: and it meant nothing. So I stopped posting every day,
Speaker 1: and my followers kept decreasing because you know, obviously I
Speaker 1: wasn't doing it. But it didn't matter, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like my life was no longer. My
Speaker 1: life was still important regardless as to whether or not
Speaker 1: I was posting it. And the other person that it
Speaker 1: really mattered to anyway was me, Like, why would I
Speaker 1: value the fact that some you know, one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: faceless people have commented on a photo? Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean?
Speaker 3: You know, I think, fortunately for you, that's very enlightened.
Speaker 2: I think unfortunately for a lot of people is they
Speaker 2: don't have that enlightenment.
Speaker 3: They do care, and they're growing.
Speaker 2: Up with this metric of views as all of encompassing
Speaker 2: and they just want it. And I just see teenagers
Speaker 2: and I think, god, man, growing up now would be
Speaker 2: a nightmare when you just you know, they see it
Speaker 2: that this person's got a blue tick, this person's got
Speaker 2: ten thousand this, but it's like they genuinely think that
Speaker 2: it's always been this way a little bit, but an
Speaker 2: eye surgeon who spent their life developing a treatment for
Speaker 2: glorg co homers or something that's helping people in the
Speaker 2: third world see for the first time might have ten
Speaker 2: thousand followers, and then someone who's just posting bikini selfies
Speaker 2: will have two hundred thousand. A lot of kids these
Speaker 2: days just look at those two and think that the
Speaker 2: two hundred thousand and one is more important.
Speaker 3: That there's no.
Speaker 2: Morality or integrity baked into their measurement of those two scenarios.
Speaker 2: They just look at it and go that one. I
Speaker 2: want that one because it's got more, and you go,
Speaker 2: oh wow, we're sort of in an eighties and nineteen
Speaker 2: eighties Bigger is better, more is better, sort of greed
Speaker 2: period again, sort of good and Gecko's style. So I've
Speaker 2: been really obsessed with this whole idea of pop culture
Speaker 2: and reality TV and social media and what it all
Speaker 2: means and where it's where it's pointing us as a society,
Speaker 2: and so the show really was born out of that
Speaker 2: obsession a little bit.
Speaker 1: I could see that though. Kick I was like watching
Speaker 1: the first three episodes and I've actually watched them through twice,
Speaker 1: so I've watched it three times. I've watched it through
Speaker 1: again twice, and I just thought to myself when I
Speaker 1: finished watching it the last time, I was like, like,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your ability to collect stories. I felt
Speaker 1: like this was like your collection of nostalgia in some ways,
Speaker 1: like filter take a picture, that song that takes us
Speaker 1: out of the first episode. I feel like that's an
Speaker 1: eclectic nostalgia that you've been able to bring to this
Speaker 1: show whilst being able to voice a particular opinion on
Speaker 1: society today. And then even these amazing people Like I
Speaker 1: was talking to someone who said, I can't believe Susan Sarandon,
Speaker 1: Sean Pan, Matthew Fox, all these people are in it.
Speaker 1: But then I knew your career well enough to know
Speaker 1: that you'd actually met a lot of those people, you'd
Speaker 1: worked with them along the way, and you collected them
Speaker 1: and so yes, some people forget to use the stories
Speaker 1: they've got, And I think you've really brought all of
Speaker 1: it together for this big project, which is a success.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really important for other people to
Speaker 1: watch and then believe in themselves to do something similar.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the hope, benjam It means a lot
Speaker 2: to hear you say that, actually, because that's the hope
Speaker 2: for this for me is that there is an ambitious
Speaker 2: nature to a collection of those stories. But for me personally,
Speaker 2: they're just my friends and people I've worked with along
Speaker 2: the way, and I love them all so dearly.
Speaker 3: And there was part of me that worried about it.
Speaker 2: I thought, well, what happens if you do put Matthew
Speaker 2: Fox and Sean Penn and Susan in an Australian comedy.
Speaker 3: Some people are going to look at that and say and.
Speaker 2: Have a negative reaction to it, and a bit like
Speaker 2: you with losing followers and fearing that a little bit,
Speaker 2: I suddenly realized at one point, well, if that's their reaction,
Speaker 2: then I welcome that. If they want to think that
Speaker 2: and feel that, that's fine, but that's not my story.
Speaker 2: My story is These people are my life. They've been
Speaker 2: my friends, they've been my heroes, and I want to
Speaker 2: put them in this story that I want to tell,
Speaker 2: and I want to do it in Australia, and I
Speaker 2: want to I personally would love it if Australians felt
Speaker 2: a deep sense of pride about like where this little
Speaker 2: I always feel that when I watched the Olympics, where
Speaker 2: this little country. You know, we're a big country in
Speaker 2: mass but we're twenty million people on a global scale.
Speaker 2: We're a spec but we can compete at the highest
Speaker 2: level in I mean seeing the Matildas my girlfriend kept
Speaker 2: laughing at because I mean I was in tears every
Speaker 2: single Matilda's game. I was crying and it just something
Speaker 2: about it just was so beautiful. And I don't know
Speaker 2: if it was that it was the first time women's
Speaker 2: sport was just exploding on such a big scale.
Speaker 3: And I've got nieces and my mom, my grandmother's.
Speaker 2: And so many females in my life that I sort
Speaker 2: of felt like I wish they lived in that world
Speaker 2: where these women were being celebrated. But whatever it was,
Speaker 2: I just thought it was beautiful. But part of it
Speaker 2: was We're just this little country. I mean we were
Speaker 2: playing against Spain and France and I mean these are
Speaker 2: soccer mad.
Speaker 3: Countries and these girls were just dominate.
Speaker 2: I just loved it so much, and for me, this
Speaker 2: was I want to do that artistically with the show.
Speaker 2: Is I wanted to be a show that he's like
Speaker 2: the Matilda's where you know, people in Australia get to
Speaker 2: go like, yeah, man, we can you know, we can
Speaker 2: have Oscar winners on TV shows why not.
Speaker 1: Why was laughing because I was like, we have a
Speaker 1: Georgie Parker practice joke with Susan Sarandon and Sean Pen
Speaker 1: and Matthew Fox or I grew up watching on Party
Speaker 1: of five, Like the whole thing was so ambitious but
Speaker 1: so hilarious, Like that's what made me laugh so much
Speaker 1: throughout it, as well as the Big Dicks. But you
Speaker 1: know that's a different story. Yes, I have to tell
Speaker 1: you this really quickly before I go. I had so
Speaker 1: many questions. I think I've asked you too, which is
Speaker 1: great because I'll just let you take us on a journey,
Speaker 1: which I've really appreciated. And I was going to say
Speaker 1: to you. I had Claire Lovering on the podcast and
Speaker 1: I was talking about you not knowing you knew her,
Speaker 1: and I was, I don't know how we got onto it.
Speaker 1: I think she's told you this story, but I was.
Speaker 1: I had to go on Google it the other day
Speaker 1: to find out what was the bar, but I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure I was at the bar at the Dime Bar
Speaker 1: on Fairfax in Los Angeles when you're on your first date,
Speaker 1: no disrespect to your current partner with Christina Ritchie, and
Speaker 1: I was like on the table listening to this conversation
Speaker 1: happening now, I want to ask, is this real?
Speaker 3: Was it a fit?
Speaker 1: Do you remember whether or not that was a first
Speaker 1: date or.
Speaker 2: I don't remember if that was a first date, But
Speaker 2: I definitely used to hang out at the Dime on Fairfax.
Speaker 2: That was a favorite haunt. My friend used to live
Speaker 2: just around the corner. And yeah, that would be That's
Speaker 2: certainly an event that I would back your recollection of
Speaker 2: better than mine. I'm not I don't have a memory
Speaker 2: of it, but yeah, I would back I would back
Speaker 2: yours for sure.
Speaker 1: I think we just stopped. My friend and I who
Speaker 1: were there with we stopped talking just so we could
Speaker 1: try and listen into what you were saying. But as
Speaker 1: you know from the Dime bar, it's quite loud, so.
Speaker 3: Very loud, loud, and very dark, so dark, so.
Speaker 1: Dark, but really fine bar. I hope it's still there.
Speaker 1: I haven't been back.
Speaker 2: Matthew box and I actually used to go there a lot,
Speaker 2: so I'm surprised Matthew wasn't there when we finished speed Racer.
Speaker 3: You know, Christina was in speed Racer as well.
Speaker 2: Christina Boxy, Susan, John Goodman, Emil her I mean, we
Speaker 2: all became such good friends at the end of that.
Speaker 3: And that's what I've been really lucky in my career
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: A part of things, you know, like even you know,
Speaker 2: doing Tangles TV show in Australia or even Wild Tide,
Speaker 2: like I still speak to Tony Art and Rachel Blake
Speaker 2: and it's like I've been a part of these things
Speaker 2: that you sort of have these friends that you take
Speaker 2: with you for life, and that to me is the
Speaker 2: Brian Brown actually said it once.
Speaker 3: Really I thought it was such a smart thing.
Speaker 2: He said, I didn't become an actor because I wanted
Speaker 2: to play Hamlet, or he said, I just saw a
Speaker 2: world with insanely interesting people, and I just wanted to
Speaker 2: be in that world for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3: And that's really for me. How I felt like, I love,
Speaker 3: you know, even your openness to talk about your story,
Speaker 3: your life.
Speaker 2: Not that many people in the world just openly say, ah, well,
Speaker 2: I was worried about losing followers, and like, you're exposing
Speaker 2: a part of your life that you and I. In
Speaker 2: our world that we exist in in this industry is
Speaker 2: quite commonplace. Were around people who just expose themselves and
Speaker 2: I just find that so intoxicating, and I just I
Speaker 2: love being around that, and I just want to be
Speaker 2: around that always and forever.
Speaker 1: Well. I think Sean said that really beautifully. I think
Speaker 1: he was saying, everyone's afraid of selling, you know, telling
Speaker 1: stories right now, and we have to push forward with
Speaker 1: our courage in storytelling. And there's nothing more of a
Speaker 1: commodity that works with connecting with other people than being
Speaker 1: raw and being real and sharing your story. And it's
Speaker 1: funny that we know that, but yet we still struggle
Speaker 1: to do it. And I feel like with this particular series,
Speaker 1: while it's a satirical comedy, I feel like it's a
Speaker 1: kick Gurry spitball. You've rolled up all of your experiences
Speaker 1: and put it in and you've shot it out. All
Speaker 1: I have to say is I hope people love it
Speaker 1: as much as I've loved it, so that they can
Speaker 1: enjoy it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the ultimate hope is that people just enjoy it.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think we get lost a little bit in the
Speaker 2: analysis of stuff. At the end of the day, we
Speaker 2: want to be entertained, we want to be enthralled, we
Speaker 2: want to be moved and made feel things, and that's
Speaker 2: what we attempted to do and we worked really hard
Speaker 2: at that and all the actors did to entertain people
Speaker 2: have something that they could watch and just really enjoy.
Speaker 3: And it is very much what you said. That was
Speaker 3: my aim.
Speaker 2: I thought, if I'm going to tell my story, I
Speaker 2: want it to be unique to my experience. And I
Speaker 2: have had a weird, unique experience, you know, through life,
Speaker 2: through so many crazy work experiences.
Speaker 3: You know, I ended up when I first moved to Hollywood,
Speaker 3: I ended up living at Heath Ledger's house.
Speaker 2: And then years later I did a film with Joaquin
Speaker 2: Phoenix called Buffalo Soldiers by an Australian director, and I
Speaker 2: ended up, you know, spending time at Joaquin's house. And
Speaker 2: dawned on me at one point recently that I'd lived
Speaker 2: with both jokers who won Academy Awards for their performance
Speaker 2: as a joker.
Speaker 3: And I thought, but.
Speaker 2: It has been a strange It's been a strange journey
Speaker 2: through the world of film and television and pop culture
Speaker 2: for me, and I wanted to sort of have a
Speaker 2: way of expressing that creatively.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, this is that. It's nice to hear you
Speaker 3: say that, Benjamin.
Speaker 1: Well, I think you could run a lot of biography.
Speaker 1: You know, I think people be very interested. Before you go,
Speaker 1: though I have to because I have to let you
Speaker 1: go to some run out of time. I honestly could
Speaker 1: talk to you for twenty four hours. I feel that
Speaker 1: what is something from behind the scenes of making caught though,
Speaker 1: something that the audience won't see, kind of like a
Speaker 1: behind the scenes moment that's kind of ridiculous. I guess
Speaker 1: you know that you can audiences.
Speaker 3: You alluded to.
Speaker 2: There's a there's a pit scene with a Joe Lige.
Speaker 3: Giant, yes, and we were all in there.
Speaker 2: And these days it's very sensitive around that stuff on
Speaker 2: a film set, thankfully, so there's real rules and regulations
Speaker 2: around it, and you make sure everyone's there, and there's
Speaker 2: intimacy coordinators. And we're all four mates, so we didn't
Speaker 2: give a shit. We were just sitting there, you know.
Speaker 2: At one point, Ben and I, you know, we were
Speaker 2: all wearing you know, cock socks.
Speaker 3: They call them in the industry. So we're all wearing socks.
Speaker 2: We're all in the pit naked together, and everyone had
Speaker 2: said to me, you know, and I'd sort of told
Speaker 2: the boys.
Speaker 3: I said, listen, you know, it's gonna a close set.
Speaker 2: And we set up a tent around it so that
Speaker 2: no one could see us, and it was all very
Speaker 2: official and a close set's meant to be just the
Speaker 2: camera crew are in there with you and no one
Speaker 2: else and what We've been in there for about an hour.
Speaker 2: At one point I was directing from underneath the four boys.
Speaker 2: All of them were on top of me, which is
Speaker 2: a strange experience. And we got out for a rest.
Speaker 2: At one point the first d D said, you know, boys,
Speaker 2: get it, stretch the legs, get arrest and I stood
Speaker 2: up in the pit and so it stretched from the
Speaker 2: back and I looked over and there was Andrew, phenomenally
Speaker 2: talented caterer who was doing the catering on the show,
Speaker 2: and he was standing there with a huge tray of
Speaker 2: food walking it to lunch and he was just watching
Speaker 2: what was going on on the side and he looks
Speaker 2: at me and he goes, this is the funniest thing
Speaker 2: I've ever seen. And I was saying, that's about as
Speaker 2: far from a closed set as you can get when
Speaker 2: literally the light, you know, the the caterer is sitting
Speaker 2: on the set. But that's what the show had was
Speaker 2: this very festive you know, and then we had peacocks
Speaker 2: running around. We're out in the pow camp and there
Speaker 2: were peacocks that natural naturally there and Ben and I
Speaker 2: off at one point and we're chasing the peacock and
Speaker 2: there's funny photos of us naked running after these peacocks,
Speaker 2: and so yeah, when people see that scene, they should
Speaker 2: know that the crew around that on that day was
Speaker 2: just it was such a festive atmosphere because a little bit,
Speaker 2: like you alluded to, Benjamin, we are afraid of telling
Speaker 2: stories now a little bit, and we were four guys
Speaker 2: who just wanted to tell a wild, crazy story and
Speaker 2: create that wild moment, and everybody fed into it, whole crew.
Speaker 2: They were all so into it. We're all laughing hysterically,
Speaker 2: and you know, the outtakes from that day could go
Speaker 2: on for hours. And yeah, so that was a fun,
Speaker 2: fun little experience on that day.
Speaker 3: Little Bond scenes, A.
Speaker 1: Lot of it feels like the outtakes, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like a lot of it feels like you're
Speaker 1: watching people having a lot of fun telling a story,
Speaker 1: and the story's worth watching and you get some really
Speaker 1: good belly laughs out of it. So I really hope
Speaker 1: that people tune into Stand Australia and watch it and
Speaker 1: enjoy it as much as I have.
Speaker 2: Thanks Benjamin and I love this chat and Matte we
Speaker 2: should travel unto a twenty four hour chat on a podcast.
Speaker 3: We'll break the record.
Speaker 1: Many questions you have no idea