Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. An welcome back to
Speaker 1: TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris and on this podcast
Speaker 1: I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television.
Speaker 1: Each episode you will get a front row seat with
Speaker 1: content makers like executive producers, writers, editors, and casting agents,
Speaker 1: plus the talent that we see on our screens. TV
Speaker 1: Reload reloads the shows that you were currently watching and
Speaker 1: gives you a better insight at our television industry and
Speaker 1: streaming services today. On the podcast, I have one of
Speaker 1: the key ingredients to Neighbour's success over the last thirty
Speaker 1: seven years. It is casting legend Jan Russ. Jen has
Speaker 1: been at the top of the appreciation list when it
Speaker 1: comes to many of the actors who have walked the
Speaker 1: streets of Ramsey Street. The actors who were cast by
Speaker 1: Jen loved her enthusiasm for the show and her undeniable
Speaker 1: love of actors. If you had a meeting with Jan,
Speaker 1: you never forgot it, as she always found a way
Speaker 1: to add somew you to the careers and the minds
Speaker 1: of the hopefuls who stood before her. Responsible for the
Speaker 1: initial cast and the ongoing series for decades. Her credits
Speaker 1: include Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pearce, All Three Hemsworth,
Speaker 1: Margo Robbie and that's just a handful of names who
Speaker 1: found their career origin stories at Neighbors. We will talk casting,
Speaker 1: the backstory to Neighbors, early trials and tribulations, what Jen
Speaker 1: would look for in casting, and what she thinks of
Speaker 1: the soap coming to an end. However, let's get started
Speaker 1: with this celebration of Neighbors as it does conclude Thursday night,
Speaker 1: I'd like to welcome Jan Russ to TV Reload.
Speaker 2: TV Soapy axed.
Speaker 1: It certainly feels like the end of venera.
Speaker 2: You'll go so quickly.
Speaker 3: Putting that whole cast together, that was really exciting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, lots of our faces working there.
Speaker 3: It's strange seeing and lovely seeing some of the old cars.
Speaker 2: Street is not going to be the same without you.
Speaker 2: In these days, a lot of people think they can
Speaker 2: be actors.
Speaker 1: We might be leaving the street, but we're always going
Speaker 1: to be in each other's life always.
Speaker 3: That was part of my purpose to make sure that
Speaker 3: the audience really believed these people were actually living maybe
Speaker 3: in the television seat.
Speaker 1: Hi, Jan, how are you.
Speaker 2: I've been I'm really good. Thank you. It's lovely to talk.
Speaker 1: To you, so lovely to chat with you. And I
Speaker 1: guess we should start by asking, is this a strange
Speaker 1: week for you to be so intrinsically connected to the
Speaker 1: success of Neighbors. How are you feeling?
Speaker 2: Well, it's sort of I don't feel anything, and yet I.
Speaker 3: Feel the end of an era really an interesting concept
Speaker 3: because obviously I haven't been with Neighbors for involved with
Speaker 3: them for a few a few years now, and so.
Speaker 2: It's I don't know, it's a very weird feeling.
Speaker 3: It's strange seeing and lovely seeing some of the old
Speaker 3: cast obviously have come back, and that's wonderful, you know,
Speaker 3: to have seen photos of them. I would have loved
Speaker 3: to have been there to meet them all again, because
Speaker 3: you know, it was such an incredible time that we
Speaker 3: had back then, back in the eighties, was an extraordinary
Speaker 3: time here in Australia with the show. It was phenomenal,
Speaker 3: and so that would have been lovely. I mean, it's
Speaker 3: sad that something after thirty seven years, which is quite
Speaker 3: extraordinary here in Australia, that a show has finished. But
Speaker 3: as I say to people, every good thing must come
Speaker 3: to an end.
Speaker 2: Life moves on.
Speaker 1: And nothing last for ever. You know what is interesting
Speaker 1: about it is the amount of people that they have
Speaker 1: been able to secure to come back and do this
Speaker 1: send off for Neighbors. Are you surprised to have seen
Speaker 1: Guy pears, Kylie Minogue, you know, Margo, Robbie, Jesse Spencer,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing names come back and take part
Speaker 1: in the finale.
Speaker 3: Yes, I was, But then again that's where they will
Speaker 3: start and that's where they've got their big break. So
Speaker 3: I think it's lovely that they have come back and
Speaker 3: they do appreciate that that's where it all basically sort
Speaker 3: of started for them really. I mean they had done
Speaker 3: other things before, some of them, but Neighbors was their
Speaker 3: real starting point that lifted them through to the success
Speaker 3: that they've got now, which is fantastic.
Speaker 1: You know, we do like to pay homage, I guess
Speaker 1: to where we get started. We don't forget our roots.
Speaker 1: I think that to me that sounds Australian to me.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it does to you. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a good thing.
Speaker 3: Well, it certainly does, and it certainly has as far
Speaker 3: as they're all concerned by coming back on the show.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I don't think it's an all Australian thing.
Speaker 3: I think sometimes we get that it's all about self
Speaker 3: in a way.
Speaker 2: Sometimes sometimes egos get.
Speaker 1: In the way. What an industry an industry full of egos.
Speaker 1: I think you were involved with the show even before
Speaker 1: it was called Neighbors. What was your first conversation that
Speaker 1: you had about the series.
Speaker 3: My first conversation I had a call, a telephone call
Speaker 3: from Reg Watson and he was, you know, the concept.
Speaker 3: He had the concept of the show obviously, and he
Speaker 3: rang me and I was casting prisoner at the time
Speaker 3: for Grundies. And he rang and said, oh, Jane, we're
Speaker 3: thinking of doing a new show. We'd like to do
Speaker 3: this new show. And he said, I'll send you a
Speaker 3: couple of scripts to read. I want you to read them,
Speaker 3: and he said, start compiling, putting a list of cast together.
Speaker 3: So he sent them down, these scripts down to me
Speaker 3: and which were originally called Living Together. And so I
Speaker 3: read them and started putting a cast together. And you know,
Speaker 3: so we had a few conversations backwards and forwards. Then
Speaker 3: it came through that yes, we're going to do the show.
Speaker 3: So then a producer, John Holmes was brought on board,
Speaker 3: and then a director was brought on board, and so
Speaker 3: that's that's how the whole thing started. And Channel seven
Speaker 3: were the ones that actually picked it up first.
Speaker 1: And then Channel seven really only had it for a
Speaker 1: short period of time before they kind of dusted their
Speaker 1: hands with it. And then it was Channel ten who
Speaker 1: brought it back and sort of reimagined it a little bit.
Speaker 1: But there was also a fire that may have happened
Speaker 1: at some point.
Speaker 3: It's funny, that, isn't it. It's funny how the steps
Speaker 3: got burnt down. Absolutely, that was very strange. Yes, a
Speaker 3: few funny things happened when we changed over, but yes,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, not knocking Channel seven. But at
Speaker 3: that time they didn't really do a lot to publicize
Speaker 3: the show. And then I remember, you know, they asked
Speaker 3: the show and on front of the Truth, which was
Speaker 3: a newspaper back then, was big black headlines, TV soapy acted,
Speaker 3: you know, it was it was an incredible thing, and
Speaker 3: so fans were standing outside with black arm bands and
Speaker 3: red carnations because even then we had a following, you know,
Speaker 3: which was lovely.
Speaker 2: And then I remember was all in my.
Speaker 3: Office, the producer and the assistant producer and myself and
Speaker 3: my assistant sitting in my office waiting for that phone
Speaker 3: call to see if it had been picked up by
Speaker 3: another network. We were just waiting. Then the Champagne of course,
Speaker 3: was sitting on the desk, ready to go, ready to
Speaker 3: be popped. And so the phone call came through and
Speaker 3: they said, yes, Channel ten have picked it up. Well
Speaker 3: that was it, and then Channel ten were absolutely fantastic
Speaker 3: with their you know Brian Walsh, he's now with Fox,
Speaker 3: and just the publicity that they did was just extraordinary.
Speaker 3: And I mean they had you know, Kylie and Jason
Speaker 3: others flying into State on weekends giving away television sets.
Speaker 3: I was doing lots of traveling all around Australia with
Speaker 3: the big shopping centers, with some of the cast doing
Speaker 3: auditions and all that sort of thing. So the publicity
Speaker 3: was fantastic. And then of course we heard that Reg
Speaker 3: was going to the UK to see if he could
Speaker 3: sell the show, and then it came back that he'd
Speaker 3: sold the show to the BBC, so we thought, oh,
Speaker 3: this is lovely.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Well then of course, you know, it aired on the
Speaker 3: BBC and then everything went wow, it really went crazy,
Speaker 3: and I mean, we had journalists flying in from overseas
Speaker 3: during that early eighties period, you know, from News of
Speaker 3: the World and all of that from the UK.
Speaker 2: But they were all trying to sort of.
Speaker 3: Find negative things about the cast, you know, and it
Speaker 3: was an extraordinary time because we'd never experienced that here
Speaker 3: in Australia. They're all trying to find out after you know,
Speaker 3: we've got to dig the dirt on any of the
Speaker 3: actors and they were interviewing you know, their family and
Speaker 3: friends and you know, I mean we were getting having
Speaker 3: to get you know, they were paying money to people
Speaker 3: to say anything and we were having to get sort
Speaker 3: of declarations. I was sitting in on interviews with these
Speaker 3: journalists because you know, I was there sort of saying well, no,
Speaker 3: you can't ask that, or you know, all of that
Speaker 3: sort of thing. So it was a really amazing time
Speaker 3: and it was for us it was sort of we'd
Speaker 3: never experienced that here in Australia before. You know, it
Speaker 3: was quite quite extraordinary the publicity that came from the
Speaker 3: UK when it really hit the ground running over there.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that the UK became so obsessed
Speaker 1: with neighbors? I mean, what do you think the connection
Speaker 1: was that made the UK audiences just resonate with this
Speaker 1: show being made so far away from where they lived.
Speaker 3: Well, I think a lot of it was, you know,
Speaker 3: the outdoors, the blue skies, the sunshine, the swimming pools
Speaker 3: and you know, I mean get dark over there at
Speaker 3: four o'clock or something like that.
Speaker 2: You know, where is that?
Speaker 3: And I think seeing these wonderful, fresh faced young people
Speaker 3: and very importantly the older generation as well.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really key point that you're making
Speaker 1: about the successive neighbors, and that was the diversity of
Speaker 1: the cast. And absolutely, you know when you looked and
Speaker 1: even still today do we have the correct representation of
Speaker 1: the invisible older woman. And they were so intrinsic to
Speaker 1: the story and they were so beautifully written in and
Speaker 1: it felt very seamless, you.
Speaker 3: Know exactly exactly and what it also does, and this
Speaker 3: is something that was taught to me by a lady
Speaker 3: called Betty Pounder when I was in musical theater with J. C.
Speaker 3: Williamson's that you have your older actors there. You must
Speaker 3: have those for the younger ones and they give support
Speaker 3: to the younger ones. So the level of experience and
Speaker 3: knowledge that the younger ones learned from the older ones
Speaker 3: help them and the older wonderful experienced actors and they
Speaker 3: learning from them and they don't do that these days.
Speaker 3: It frustrates me so much when I watch a lot
Speaker 3: of Australian television that they don't have that where they
Speaker 3: have in America, they have it in England.
Speaker 2: We don't have it here.
Speaker 3: We do not respect our older performers and we've lost
Speaker 3: so many of them and some of the wonderful, wonderful actors.
Speaker 3: We still have some of them, and they're not used
Speaker 3: to their full ability, which is really sad.
Speaker 1: Well. Anne Hattie, who played Helen Daniels on the show,
Speaker 1: everyone knew that she was kind of the mother hen
Speaker 1: on set and people loved to work with her because
Speaker 1: she was able to teach them so much. And then
Speaker 1: Jackie Woodburn also sort of took over that for so
Speaker 1: many years. And if I spoke to anyone that was
Speaker 1: working on Neighbors, whether it was Jesse Spencer or Nalie Bassingthwaite,
Speaker 1: not to name drop a few, but they always talked
Speaker 1: about how generous Jackie was, and the older cast always
Speaker 1: talked about how generous, you know, Anne Hattie was.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and well, you had Anne Hattie, you had Anne.
Speaker 3: Charleston, you had Mara de Grout, and you had all
Speaker 3: of them back then, you know, you had a big
Speaker 3: group of the older ones, which gave strength to everyone
Speaker 3: and really helped the younger ones. And I mean, I
Speaker 3: think I remember a night of the Logis that Jason
Speaker 3: won Best New Talent and Mara at that time had
Speaker 3: been in hospital because she had cancer, and so she
Speaker 3: was allowed to out of hospital that night in a wheelchair.
Speaker 3: So she arrived at the Logis in the wheelchair and
Speaker 3: she was there for a while and then she had
Speaker 3: to leave, but she missed out on Jason getting his
Speaker 3: LOGI and he dedicated it to her, which was the
Speaker 3: most beautiful thing. You know, he dedicated his BLOGI to
Speaker 3: Mara because you know, she had given them so much.
Speaker 2: And I think that was you know, that was very
Speaker 2: very special.
Speaker 1: When people in the industry thought of neighbors, they thought
Speaker 1: of you, Jan Russ, it was the first thing they
Speaker 1: thought of. And I've been around the industry for so
Speaker 1: long and your name is still so heralded with the success,
Speaker 1: you know, of the casting of such amazing legends. Is
Speaker 1: that an amazing thing to know that you've sort of
Speaker 1: in the zeichgeist of Australian television forever for such an achievement.
Speaker 3: Yes, it is because it was. It was not anything
Speaker 3: that any of us expected. But you know, I've always
Speaker 3: felt I had an eye for that, having been a
Speaker 3: performer myself, you know, and I think that has made
Speaker 3: a big difference in my knowledge of actors and knowing
Speaker 3: what they can they're capable of doing.
Speaker 2: And because I've been an actor.
Speaker 3: And done a lot of you know, I've done theater, film, television, stage,
Speaker 3: I've done it all, so I sort of really understood
Speaker 3: actors and I think that helped me. And it is
Speaker 3: it is quite humbling actually to know that.
Speaker 1: What do you think, really, I mean, apart from having
Speaker 1: your background of acting, what made you so successful in
Speaker 1: the role of casting? What does casting mean to you
Speaker 1: when it comes to finding the right person for the role.
Speaker 3: My love of actors, having been there myself, I've understood
Speaker 3: all of that, as I said before, but to me,
Speaker 3: it was important that I actually worked with the actor
Speaker 3: and auditioned them and then I would I needed to
Speaker 3: see if they could take direction and see if if
Speaker 3: they would listen to me.
Speaker 2: What I was saying and that they could change.
Speaker 3: And I could, you know, I could see if they
Speaker 3: had that talent and ability to extend into something else.
Speaker 3: They weren't just a pretty face that could spout words
Speaker 3: and not fall over the furniture. And I think that
Speaker 3: comes from and I think it's probably an maybe it's
Speaker 3: an inner instinct as well that I had that I have,
Speaker 3: I still have. I can still pick them, you know.
Speaker 3: You know, casting was I loved doing my job. I
Speaker 3: loved it, and I loved being able to give back.
Speaker 3: Does that opportunity to fly, to take that opportunity to fly?
Speaker 3: And if they did that, good on them. Some of
Speaker 3: them did, some of them didn't. Some of them went
Speaker 3: into other things and they flew, you know. But that
Speaker 3: to me was the most exciting part.
Speaker 2: Of it all.
Speaker 3: And because I loved actors, I think that was that
Speaker 3: was my biggest thing.
Speaker 1: What happened in the way in which you, as an
Speaker 1: actor decide to cross the floor in a way, so
Speaker 1: to speak, and decide to work on casting? I mean,
Speaker 1: was there something that made you make that career decision?
Speaker 3: Well, in another I've had a few lives. In another life,
Speaker 3: I did a bit of I did do some directing
Speaker 3: and of plays. So I had that idea. But I
Speaker 3: was in a show called Godspell and we do in
Speaker 3: New Zealand, and we were playing in Melbourne and there
Speaker 3: was another friend of mine in the show called Chrishiel,
Speaker 3: who has passed away, but he became a television director
Speaker 3: on the ABC. And we used to sit between shows
Speaker 3: and eat our dinner before the next show, and we'd
Speaker 3: sort of say what we'd like to do, and he
Speaker 3: wanted to to be a TV director and I said, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I think i'd like to sort of, you know,
Speaker 3: get into casting.
Speaker 2: I feel that I have that right instinct.
Speaker 3: And so when that, you know, I mean, after that
Speaker 3: all happened a while later, obviously, and I knew there
Speaker 3: was a vacancy coming up at Crawford Productions because someone
Speaker 3: I knew had just left. So I applied to that
Speaker 3: and got the job, and that was working with Bunny
Speaker 3: Brook and so I was at Crawford's and then and
Speaker 3: then I had a phone call from in Smith and
Speaker 3: he rang me and said, oh, you know, do you
Speaker 3: want to go for lunch? And I thought, oh, hello,
Speaker 3: free lunch, Yeah, I'll go. So I went to this
Speaker 3: lunch and it was actually with the producer of Prisoner,
Speaker 3: who at that time was a guy called Lex van Oz,
Speaker 3: who I had known when I'd worked in New Zealand
Speaker 3: because I worked in New Zealand in television, film and
Speaker 3: all that over there as well. And he said to me,
Speaker 3: we'd like you to come in and cast Prisoner and
Speaker 3: I said, oh, oh my god, no.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can do it.
Speaker 3: I've been working with Bunny, but you know, and he said, no, no,
Speaker 3: we believe you. And so I went to Crawfords and said, look,
Speaker 3: I've been off of this job. And I went to
Speaker 3: Bunny and said, you know, I've been off of this job.
Speaker 3: And she said, you have stolen my brain?
Speaker 2: How dare you? How dare you?
Speaker 3: They should have offered me the job. I took the
Speaker 3: job and so I cast, you know, I cast a
Speaker 3: prisoner for the last couple of years. And then that's
Speaker 3: during that time was when Neighbors.
Speaker 2: Popped up as well. So yes, that's how it all
Speaker 2: came about.
Speaker 1: Was there a person that you placed in a role
Speaker 1: at the beginning where you thought to yourself, Wow, I'm
Speaker 1: really good at this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just loved at the beginning putting that whole cast together,
Speaker 3: that was really exciting because you're putting families together and
Speaker 3: trying to make them believable as families, but still getting
Speaker 3: good performance. And what I had in my mind was
Speaker 3: I wanted to find good actors who really weren't terribly
Speaker 3: well known. That makes it all believable for the viewer,
Speaker 3: you know, otherwise that you were seeing, oh there's so
Speaker 3: and so playing a role, Well, that's not making it believable.
Speaker 3: That was always in my head for neighbors as well.
Speaker 3: And so that to me was is the exciting part.
Speaker 3: And yeah, there were times that I sort of thought,
Speaker 3: oh my god. I mean Kylie was one. I mean,
Speaker 3: it's all the ones that have been successful. I mean
Speaker 3: it's Kylie and Margo Robbie and Chris Hemsworth and you know,
Speaker 3: Liam Hemsworth, and I mean all of those guys you know,
Speaker 3: to me had that extra power, they had that X
Speaker 3: something and it's I mean, but I used to I'm
Speaker 3: not like today they sit around and wait for the
Speaker 3: phone to ring. I mean I was out all the time, looking, searching,
Speaker 3: traveling for talent, looking for it, you know, And that
Speaker 3: to me is what you have to do. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can't sit on your bum and wait for the
Speaker 3: phone to ring or wait for someone to come into
Speaker 3: your office. You've just got to get out there and
Speaker 3: look for and know every actor that you possibly can.
Speaker 2: That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1: I love those stories about you because I heard that
Speaker 1: for years that you were just so passionate about what
Speaker 1: it is that you were doing, that you were tapping
Speaker 1: into so many different resources and continuously meeting people and
Speaker 1: sort of shifting around your vision board. I think that,
Speaker 1: to me is the ultimate passion of television, you know,
Speaker 1: and so you really tried to do very different things
Speaker 1: to make that show always sing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is important because that's that, to me, is
Speaker 3: what a casting person is all about. You need to
Speaker 3: be out there, you know. I'd go to local shows,
Speaker 3: not just professional. I'd go to local shows. I'd go
Speaker 3: to local schools. I'd go to drama classes, I'd go
Speaker 3: to anything possible.
Speaker 2: And that's why I love.
Speaker 3: Sort of traveling around, you know, because you're going to
Speaker 3: different states. I even went to New Zealand and brought
Speaker 3: three actors back from there from New Zealand. At one stage,
Speaker 3: you know, therefore, that wasn't good I suppose taking work
Speaker 3: away from Australians, but you had to You've got to
Speaker 3: expand you can't live in that little bubble because what
Speaker 3: I see a lot now is you see same faces.
Speaker 3: A lot of the same faces are popping up all
Speaker 3: the time, and you gok, God, there's so much talent
Speaker 3: out there, and I see so much talent. I still
Speaker 3: try and get out as much as I can. I
Speaker 3: don't see it being wasted.
Speaker 1: There's a delightful story on TV tonight regarding the casting
Speaker 1: of Kylie Mino. You mentioned how shy she was, you know,
Speaker 1: but was right for the role that you thought she
Speaker 1: was right. What does that say about actors? Do you think?
Speaker 3: That's an interesting questions? It's something that to me, they've
Speaker 3: got that inequality. For a start, there's something that's in there, well,
Speaker 3: they have the passion, a true act that has the passion,
Speaker 3: and that's an inequality. And it's also what happens between
Speaker 3: the actor and the camera. Where is that graordinary something
Speaker 3: that happens. You know, people have called it all sorts
Speaker 3: of things, and I've had so many people say to me,
Speaker 3: what's the answer, you know, and you go, well, there's
Speaker 3: no real answer.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just something that.
Speaker 3: You see that you go, oh my god, there is
Speaker 3: something extra there that is you don't see anywhere else.
Speaker 3: And not every actor has it. Not every actor has it.
Speaker 3: There's only some actors that have that real special something.
Speaker 3: It's that inequality that's there. Some people have called it
Speaker 3: animal quality or you know, there's been all sorts of
Speaker 3: names bandied around. I just think it's it's a passion.
Speaker 3: It's something that's there, you know. And these days a
Speaker 3: lot of people think they can be actors. I mean,
Speaker 3: I mean I had years ago, I had one guy
Speaker 3: ring up and say, I really want to come in
Speaker 3: and see you because I really feel I could be
Speaker 3: an actor. I know inside me I'm an actor, and
Speaker 3: I'm oh, okay. And that time I was doing a
Speaker 3: lot of go sees. So we came in to see
Speaker 3: me and came in.
Speaker 2: Sat down.
Speaker 3: I said, well, you know, why do you do you
Speaker 3: feel you want to be an act said, I just
Speaker 3: know inside me I can be an actor. And he
Speaker 3: said I can, you know, he said, I can work it.
Speaker 3: He said, because I can, I can come from work
Speaker 3: and go to the studio and do the show and
Speaker 3: be home in time for dinner. I know you thought
Speaker 3: that half aus or on screen was all you had
Speaker 3: to do. So we had no idea. And you know,
Speaker 3: I've done a lot of teaching as well at TV
Speaker 3: acting and it's interesting too because a lot of people
Speaker 3: think just because you can learn a few words, that's.
Speaker 2: All there is to it. And some of them have said, oh,
Speaker 2: but this is this is really hard.
Speaker 3: Well absolutely, you know it's not just learning a few
Speaker 3: lines and walking around. You know, there's a lot more
Speaker 3: to it. And they go, oh, oh, well it's too hard.
Speaker 3: It's too hard.
Speaker 2: I you know, I just want to I just want
Speaker 2: to learn line. No. No.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a couple of things. It's a couple
Speaker 1: of driving forces to making someone pop on television. I mean, yes,
Speaker 1: they have to be believable, but there has to be
Speaker 1: like a genuine element that we as an audience also
Speaker 1: can relate to. There has to be that transparence.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's that extra something that comes through the screen
Speaker 3: to the audience too. And I always say to the
Speaker 3: actors you must listen. Listen is the most important thing.
Speaker 3: And you don't just listen with your hearing, you listen
Speaker 3: physically as well. You know, you totally listen and it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, I say, like Morgan Freeman calls himself a
Speaker 3: listening actor, you know, I mean, he's quite extraordinary. And
Speaker 3: so what I said before is that extra quality is
Speaker 3: what that comes through the screen. The warmth, you know,
Speaker 3: the warmth comes through the screen. That's what the audience love,
Speaker 3: and that's what they will believe because if people have that,
Speaker 3: if they're a bit nervous or scared or unsure of themselves,
Speaker 3: or they're insecure and all that sort of thing that
Speaker 3: shows up instantly on screen.
Speaker 1: What did you look for when casting? Did you have
Speaker 1: a few touch points or a few key elements that
Speaker 1: you know, later on, when we look back, we go
Speaker 1: that is an actor that was cast by jan because
Speaker 1: they have these particular attributes.
Speaker 3: I think so, because look at the ones that I've cast, Yeah, what.
Speaker 2: Can I say? I mean, that's it, you know.
Speaker 3: And as I said, even some of them that didn't
Speaker 3: go on to international sex like you knows, not an
Speaker 3: international zears, you know, like all the others, but some
Speaker 3: of them went onto success in other areas, which some
Speaker 3: of them became directors, you know, and some of them
Speaker 3: you know, became writers and you know, all other other areas,
Speaker 3: so that to me is fantastic as well. Some of
Speaker 3: them become producers of films and they've gone into the
Speaker 3: area of filmmaking and.
Speaker 2: All of that. So I guess I did have a
Speaker 2: bit of a generous touch.
Speaker 1: My favorite question to ask you is this one. What's
Speaker 1: the strangest way that people would try to get in
Speaker 1: front of you? Because everyone in Melbourne throughout the eighties
Speaker 1: and nineties wanted to sit down with jan They wanted
Speaker 1: to sit down with you. And yes, there was many
Speaker 1: means you could get an agent, you could do whatever.
Speaker 1: But you know what, some of the strangest ways that
Speaker 1: people tried to get in front of you.
Speaker 2: I have a few of those stories.
Speaker 3: Actually, I heard one fairly recently from Matt Norman and
Speaker 3: he said to me, he said, I wanted to get
Speaker 3: in to see you, he said, and uncle, he said,
Speaker 3: So I dressed up as a courier and went into
Speaker 3: reception and pretended that I had something for you, and
Speaker 3: I had to give it to you personally. So that
Speaker 3: was one story. An actor came in dressed up as
Speaker 3: God in the full God outfit and did one of
Speaker 3: those singing telegrams to me. People sent me a box
Speaker 3: of popcorn with their demo tape.
Speaker 2: People sent me.
Speaker 3: They used to send me a lot of presents, and
Speaker 3: you know, back then, I used to get champagne and
Speaker 3: flowers and all sorts of things, and a little box
Speaker 3: with legs sticking out saying I want to be on television.
Speaker 3: And then someone would send me a tin of mustard
Speaker 3: saying I'm as keen as mustard. And then there was
Speaker 3: a guy and a girl. They actually came in to
Speaker 3: see me one day and sitting in my office, and
Speaker 3: they started sort of arguing with each other, and I
Speaker 3: I thought, what's going on here?
Speaker 2: And she's saying, have you got the keys? Got the keys?
Speaker 3: But you have know I haven't got the keys. So
Speaker 3: this went on, this little band went on, and what's
Speaker 3: going on? Then suddenly he stood up. He took his
Speaker 3: jacket off, took his shirt off, took his pants off,
Speaker 3: standing there in red jocks, and I'm going people are
Speaker 3: walking past my office, going what is going on in there?
Speaker 2: And he walked over to me. I think, I thought,
Speaker 2: oh God, what's going to happen now?
Speaker 3: There was a little bit of paper sticking out of
Speaker 3: his job, which is indicated to me to take out,
Speaker 3: and so I took it out and it was an
Speaker 3: invitation to a play.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: He got dressed and I said, could you do that
Speaker 3: again because I missed it the first time.
Speaker 2: That was quite funny. Yes, so yes, And I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, people used to write me the.
Speaker 3: Most incredible letters, and I mean, yes, it was. It
Speaker 3: was amazing that it was someone who used to send
Speaker 3: me a present every week. It didn't matter what it was.
Speaker 3: They just would send me presents, you know.
Speaker 1: And none of those people we have a cast, well
Speaker 1: some of.
Speaker 2: Them were, some of them were, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Was there anyone that you saw multiple times over the
Speaker 1: years before you found them a character?
Speaker 2: Probably different ones?
Speaker 3: I mean why not I any I auditioned Danny Jones
Speaker 3: at the same time as I did Kylie for that role,
Speaker 3: and when the character of Jane came up, I remembered
Speaker 3: auditioning Annie and I went, oh, I think she could
Speaker 3: be right for that role. So that happened there. Another
Speaker 3: one was I suppose it was some Daniel McPherson who
Speaker 3: his agent. I was in Sydney auditioning and his agent
Speaker 3: Ring said I've got this young guy. You know, I'd
Speaker 3: like you to see him, and I said, look, I
Speaker 3: haven't got time. He said, oh, you know, you see him.
Speaker 3: I said, all right, I'll make time. Because I thought
Speaker 3: I would always think, you never know if you're missing
Speaker 3: out on something if you say no, so I'd always
Speaker 3: say yes, I will see them, even if I had
Speaker 3: a tiny area to fit them in.
Speaker 2: And and so I.
Speaker 3: Said, yes, okay, I'll see him. So Daniel came came
Speaker 3: out and I walked out into reception and then I thought, oh,
Speaker 3: this could be an interesting young man, and so I
Speaker 3: auditioned him. I came back to Melbourne and said, look,
Speaker 3: I've found this young guy. I think he's really something.
Speaker 3: I think we've got to do something with him. We've
Speaker 3: got to write him in somehow. So they said, yes, okay,
Speaker 3: we will. You will write him in. So they wrote
Speaker 3: him in. I think it was a few months later.
Speaker 3: I actually rang him and said, okay, Daniel, you know you've.
Speaker 2: Got the role. So that took you know, that took
Speaker 2: a while. So there are there are There are a
Speaker 2: couple of those.
Speaker 3: And another one was Carla Bonna and I had actually
Speaker 3: cast another girl in the role, and we sort of
Speaker 3: went and she had a few personal problems and so
Speaker 3: we thought, we've just got to find someone else very quickly.
Speaker 3: So I thought of carl and I rang her agent
Speaker 3: and I said, you know, I need to see Carla now.
Speaker 3: He said, well, actually she's sitting right in front of me.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, bring her in. He said, she's got
Speaker 3: a kids with her. I said, I don't care, get
Speaker 3: her in to see me now. So that was that
Speaker 3: was another another one. And then who's got Michaelson who
Speaker 3: was in the show. He introduced me to Holly Vera
Speaker 3: Lance and Nikola Charles.
Speaker 2: That's yeah.
Speaker 3: So it's it's interesting how that all happens. I mean
Speaker 3: with the Hemsworth boys, they the three boys actually Auditionton came.
Speaker 2: You know, I've had the three boys in.
Speaker 3: The show, and and sometimes their mum would come in
Speaker 3: with them, and she was lovely. She'd done a bit
Speaker 3: of acting too, and so she was always there, very
Speaker 3: supportive with her boys. And I remember with Liam, he
Speaker 3: was in the show, and he was in for a
Speaker 3: period of time, and then I had a call from
Speaker 3: his agent saying that Sylvester Stallone was maybe looking at
Speaker 3: Liam for a movie, and would I write a letter
Speaker 3: to Sylvester Stallone telling him about Liam, which I did,
Speaker 3: so I wrote this letter to the Vesta Stlone. And
Speaker 3: although I don't believe Liam did get that movie, he
Speaker 3: did get another one later on. So there's lots of
Speaker 3: lots of those sort of interesting little stories that you know,
Speaker 3: suddenly pop into my head and I remember them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I also think, you know, the magic of casting
Speaker 1: for you was getting people to be quite genuine. As
Speaker 1: I mentioned before, more often than not, try and cast
Speaker 1: people on a soap like Neighbors where they're actually more well,
Speaker 1: quite close to who the characters are to a certain extent.
Speaker 3: Yes, I always find that it's important. That's why I
Speaker 3: love personal auditions, not these self tapes, because you get
Speaker 3: to know the person. And that's important because you have
Speaker 3: to think, well, are they going to fit in with
Speaker 3: everybody else with their personality, because if that personality doesn't
Speaker 3: fit in with anybody else, there's going to be problems,
Speaker 3: and those problems show up on screen. So all that is,
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's it's much WHI than looking at
Speaker 3: someone with.
Speaker 2: A pretty face and all of that. You've got to
Speaker 2: look beyond all of those.
Speaker 3: There's so many things to look at, you know, And
Speaker 3: so I think all those things are important.
Speaker 1: I started watching Neighbors with my mum when I was
Speaker 1: six years old, So in nineteen eighty six we watched it.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you a funny story. Was the actress
Speaker 1: who played Daphne, what.
Speaker 2: Was her name, oh, Elaine Smith.
Speaker 1: Elaine Smith, and she was pregnant on the show and
Speaker 1: her character was and my mom said to me, you know,
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? And you know, do
Speaker 1: I know anything about pregnancy or anything? Anyway, my lines
Speaker 1: were blurred between reality and the show so very you know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't quite see it. So my mum banned me
Speaker 1: from watching Neighbors for twelve months. But the thing that
Speaker 1: stayed with me from this story was, you know, Neighbors
Speaker 1: felt so authentic. It felt like you were literally spying on,
Speaker 1: well not spying on, but you're a fly on the
Speaker 1: wall on the street next door. And I think that
Speaker 1: came down to the accessibility of these characters and how
Speaker 1: much they felt real.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's one of the things that I wanted
Speaker 2: to make sure that was imparted, because the audience needed
Speaker 2: to feel that they were a fly on the wall.
Speaker 2: And that's where it comes.
Speaker 3: As I mentioned before, if you use well known people,
Speaker 3: well known faces, the audience can't really relate as that,
Speaker 3: you know, they've seen that personality, you're not totally believing.
Speaker 3: And back then, when you're talking about was when I
Speaker 3: was doing it all.
Speaker 2: That was part of my purpose to make sure that the.
Speaker 3: Audience really believed these people were actually living maybe in
Speaker 3: the television set, you know, or in their lounge room
Speaker 3: five nights a week. It wasn't some personality that they
Speaker 3: were looking at playing a role. And I think that's
Speaker 3: what you're talking about that made it all so real
Speaker 3: and believable, and that's what drew our audiences in and
Speaker 3: because they could associate so much of their lives in
Speaker 3: a way with what was happening on screen.
Speaker 1: Casting towards the end of Neighbors has seen a lot
Speaker 1: of boxes being ticked, you know, with queer, indigenous, transgender disabilities.
Speaker 1: What were the conversations like back in the day when
Speaker 1: it came to you know, maybe these types of characters.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we did have people like that back then,
Speaker 2: and we did have a gay character as well back then,
Speaker 2: you know, but it was it was probably played a different.
Speaker 3: Way, but you know, we did have that. So with
Speaker 3: people saying we didn't have it. You know, I just
Speaker 3: think it seems to be a lot of it all
Speaker 3: at once. That's happening, you know what I mean at
Speaker 3: the moment, and I think you've got to sort of
Speaker 3: spread these things out. But yeah, I mean we had
Speaker 3: a gay character back years ago and during the Jason
Speaker 3: and Guy, I mean, Tony Briggs was in it, you
Speaker 3: know who went on with the Sapphires and all that
Speaker 3: sort of thing. He had great success with that because
Speaker 3: he wrote that, and we had a lot of different
Speaker 3: different nationalities, different ethnicities and different you know, it was
Speaker 3: probably not as diverse as what suddenly Neighbors has become,
Speaker 3: but it was there and it was all it was
Speaker 3: all just played nicely without any big deal about it.
Speaker 3: And I think that was the thing that people just
Speaker 3: accepted it and didn't notice it, whereas now it's it's
Speaker 3: I think it's sort of been pushed a lot more
Speaker 3: and you go, no, you've always got to It's like
Speaker 3: an actor, you say, underplay, Darling, underplay, And I think
Speaker 3: if you push too hard as an actor, it doesn't work.
Speaker 3: And you pushed you hard with stories like that, it
Speaker 3: doesn't work either. As well as what it should. You know,
Speaker 3: as an actor, if you underplay, you get a much
Speaker 3: better performance.
Speaker 1: Have you watched the last episodes of Neighbors?
Speaker 3: Well, look, I haven't because I've had my family here
Speaker 3: from South Korea and I haven't seen them for nearly
Speaker 3: three years. And my grandsons are five and six, so
Speaker 3: they're into pokemon and cartoons and I can't drag them away.
Speaker 3: So it's really a bit it's tricky to try and
Speaker 3: watch the show. But I'll try and watch it this week,
Speaker 3: try and get away into another room and have it
Speaker 3: and watch it this week because I want to see
Speaker 3: some of the you know, let's see how it finishes up.
Speaker 1: What are you going to do on Thursday night? You're
Speaker 1: going to pour a glass of champagne? Are you are
Speaker 1: going to invite Kylie minoguer around to watch the show
Speaker 1: with you? What's the plan?
Speaker 2: No, I'd probably just sit quietly and say farewell and
Speaker 2: remember all the good times.
Speaker 1: You know, while there's no denying Neighbors that's coming to
Speaker 1: an end. Could it ever be rebooted? And do you
Speaker 1: think you know, when you think about it being rebooted,
Speaker 1: you know, could it just start all over again in
Speaker 1: a different street sometime in the future.
Speaker 3: I don't think you can ever try. And you know,
Speaker 3: I mean you look at the success of Kyline. Look
Speaker 3: how many tried to be another Kylie. There's one Kylie,
Speaker 3: and there's one show you cannot repeat. It just doesn't work.
Speaker 3: It's got to be another show totally different. It could
Speaker 3: be another show sitting in the street, you know, but
Speaker 3: not like two Neighbors. It will never be that same
Speaker 3: Neighbors again.
Speaker 1: Well, Jen, My last question that I want to ask
Speaker 1: you is something I ask everyone who joins the podcast,
Speaker 1: no matter what show it is. What is something from
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that we're as an audience did not
Speaker 1: see that we will never see. That's kind of a
Speaker 1: behind the scenes secret from your time working on Neighbors.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know, that's interesting. I did say that
Speaker 3: one thing about waiting for the moment of when the
Speaker 3: change over from seven to ten. I used to love
Speaker 3: going into the green room back then because you'd have
Speaker 3: a guy I'd be there, maybe strumming on a guitar,
Speaker 3: and you know, I remember Jason had been on his
Speaker 3: skateboard up and down the passageways and the and the studio,
Speaker 3: and everybody would be sort of there having to chat
Speaker 3: and sitting around and back then there was a good
Speaker 3: camaraderie with the with the actors. Everybody got on so well,
Speaker 3: you know, and we had some we had some great parties.
Speaker 3: We did have some great parties. Some of the things
Speaker 3: I can't talk about.
Speaker 1: That's all we want to know, that's what we want
Speaker 1: to know.
Speaker 2: I'd get sued. Hey, hey, read the book.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody.
Speaker 2: I've had so many people say to me, you know,
Speaker 2: you should write the book.
Speaker 1: You should.
Speaker 3: So, you know, people have been on me again recently,
Speaker 3: you know, because you know, maybe my time on EF
Speaker 3: I don't know how long, and and.
Speaker 2: So get it all out, you know, and then nobody
Speaker 2: will be able to sue me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get it all lockdown. I'm sure you've heard. You know,
Speaker 1: there's TV lovers that would love for you to write
Speaker 1: that book. And you know, there's so many people in
Speaker 1: your audience.
Speaker 2: I've got a lot of notes from over the years.
Speaker 1: I just want to say to you. I just want
Speaker 1: to say to you, thank you so much for your
Speaker 1: contribution with Neighbors. Neighbors is such a huge part of
Speaker 1: the fabric of Australian television and you were so iconic
Speaker 1: and your passion and your belief was evident in every
Speaker 1: series that you ever worked on, and I just feel
Speaker 1: so honored to be able to sit here and have
Speaker 1: this conversation. And also you should also hear the iconic
Speaker 1: jam laugh, which i'd heard about, so this is being
Speaker 1: quite quite the moment.
Speaker 2: I've never heard that one before.
Speaker 1: I always heard that. You know, I've got friends that
Speaker 1: have worked on the show over the years that you'd cast,
Speaker 1: and people often talked about your laugh and your infectious laughs.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's a signature movie that you didn't even
Speaker 1: know you had exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: Oh that's lovely to know. Thank you, Darling. It's been
Speaker 2: an absolute joy and pleasure.