Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week.
Speaker 2: Am I how would I describe a television set, oh
Speaker 2: Man from a headline grabbing point of view, the hack
Speaker 2: producer me says one hundred percent put him in.
Speaker 1: Welcome back guys to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris
Speaker 1: and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with
Speaker 1: the biggest players in television.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great questions. The show's about the game. There's a
Speaker 3: lot of great television out there in Australia.
Speaker 1: But I've also got to go behind the scenes with writers.
Speaker 1: The truth is, when I started writing it, it wasn't
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the news and casting agents they.
Speaker 3: Know from a casting point of view what they need.
Speaker 1: And editors because that's what we do as editors where
Speaker 1: storytellers them. Not to forget some incredible executive producers who
Speaker 1: are making some of the best TV content in Australia.
Speaker 4: I have been on the program since the beginning and
Speaker 4: it's kind of in my DNA.
Speaker 1: So thanks for joining me each week and I hope
Speaker 1: the podcast continues to give you real insight into the
Speaker 1: magic of tee. This week on the show, I have
Speaker 1: special guest Kirsty de Valance, who is a casting genius.
Speaker 1: Kirsty runs a cast of thousands which has cast some
Speaker 1: of the biggest reality shows in Australia and is currently
Speaker 1: working for screen Time Australia. Kirsty would have to be
Speaker 1: one of the most sought after creatives in the country
Speaker 1: and I have to say that every one of the
Speaker 1: people I spoke to leading up into this chat talked
Speaker 1: about her empathy, her intelligence and an ability to unearth
Speaker 1: stories at a level that most people could only ever dream.
Speaker 1: You might recognize her name from her work on reality,
Speaker 1: factual and documentary shows like Big Brother, Master Chef, Playing
Speaker 1: It Straight, The Bachelor, Farmer Wants a Wife. But today
Speaker 1: we'll focus on Channel seven smash Hit SAS Australia. The
Speaker 1: seven network is of course about to launch the second
Speaker 1: series of SAS on Monday, the tenth of September at
Speaker 1: seven point thirty, and all eyes will be on the
Speaker 1: seventeen celebrities who will face some of the most toughest
Speaker 1: challenges at the hands of an elite team of ex
Speaker 1: Special Forces soldiers. These celebrities will be cut off from
Speaker 1: the outside world at a secret base in a harsh
Speaker 1: but spectacular terrain where they will eat, sleep, and train
Speaker 1: together in punishing conditions with no allowance made for their
Speaker 1: celebrity status, age or gender. As they are subjected to
Speaker 1: extreme physical endurance, sleep deprivation, interrogation and psychological testing, these
Speaker 1: celebrities will be pushed beyond their limits. Kirsty and I
Speaker 1: will also talk about how to stand out in casting,
Speaker 1: how celebrities get picked, will the industry run out of celebrities,
Speaker 1: and the backstory to her amazing career. However, let's get
Speaker 1: started with today's guest. I'd like to welcome to TV Reload.
Speaker 1: It's Kirsty de Valance.
Speaker 3: When I am casting, I'm looking for celebrities that might
Speaker 3: have a story.
Speaker 4: In the Special Forces, you're expected to have physical fitness.
Speaker 3: You have to be an open book and you have
Speaker 3: to be vulnerable.
Speaker 5: If you think the Olympic tools tough.
Speaker 3: We change people's lives in a weird sort of way.
Speaker 5: We need to see these sausages try to meet through
Speaker 5: sees true.
Speaker 3: Personally, I don't want to see people like that on
Speaker 3: something like.
Speaker 4: This SAS Australia.
Speaker 3: Thank you were talking about SAS and our ill Flator
Speaker 3: trip to New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Hi, Kirsty, how are you.
Speaker 3: I'm very well, Thanks Benjamin.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome to TV Reload.
Speaker 1: You know, I was on the phone to you the
Speaker 1: other day and you were saying you were wondering when
Speaker 1: I was going to call you and make you do
Speaker 1: this podcast.
Speaker 3: Indeed I was. I thought, Oh, come on, this is
Speaker 3: You're into second series and you haven't called me in
Speaker 3: the first series. I'm very upset.
Speaker 2: Well spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: I had a couple of people talking about casting, and
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't want to do casting every time.
Speaker 1: So if you look at it this way, you're the
Speaker 1: first casting person really for series two.
Speaker 2: So it's a coup.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. That makes me feel feel very special.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to be talking a lot about television
Speaker 1: and the thing that really fascinates me, and that is casting.
Speaker 1: And you know, you've been working and casting for so long,
Speaker 1: which is so elusive, and everyone wants to know about it,
Speaker 1: and you kind of hold the keys, so you're happy
Speaker 1: to open up and seat of reveal how casting happens
Speaker 1: on television.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, throw the questions at me and I'll do the
Speaker 3: best I can.
Speaker 1: You know, what is one thing that makes a person
Speaker 1: stand out above the rest?
Speaker 2: Is there a trait that people commonly might have.
Speaker 3: It's a silly thing, but it is just a feeling
Speaker 3: when someone walks in the room. I still remember one
Speaker 3: of my first big shows when I first started a
Speaker 3: cast of thousands. One of my first gigs was The
Speaker 3: Mole when it came back and we were doing it
Speaker 3: was The Mole Live. To this day, I still remember
Speaker 3: Liz Cantor coming in and she's in a green T shirt.
Speaker 3: She's playing green green T shirt jeans, and she's just
Speaker 3: someone I will always remember from that moment that she
Speaker 3: walked in the door.
Speaker 5: Los Cantor with the latest breach reports every Friday and
Speaker 5: Saturday night.
Speaker 1: It's a tough job.
Speaker 3: Someone's going to do it, lo and behold, she ended
Speaker 3: up winning The Mole and going on and having a
Speaker 3: lovely career in television just because of that green T shirt.
Speaker 1: All of these people are going to be turning up
Speaker 1: to auditions from now on green T shirt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just one of those weird things. It's just
Speaker 3: something to It's the idea of first, you know, just
Speaker 3: standing out in something about you. You know, And I
Speaker 3: do bang on about and I've always banged on about authenticity.
Speaker 3: I think a lot of people can't maintain the kind
Speaker 3: of character that they've come in thinking that you want
Speaker 3: to see as a casting person. It wears off very quickly.
Speaker 3: I mean your perfect example would be a Big Brother
Speaker 3: audition where you're there for hours. It's not like you
Speaker 3: just walk in and do a quick audition. You are
Speaker 3: being observed for hours and end and you see people's
Speaker 3: energy levels change or you know, you think they're this
Speaker 3: person and you know they're being watched and you see
Speaker 3: a different part of them come out. So it's an
Speaker 3: interesting thing just to see people who are going to
Speaker 3: maintain being authentic.
Speaker 2: I think you kind of still have to have the
Speaker 2: human element.
Speaker 3: Look absolutely you do, and it's just looking at personalities
Speaker 3: that you think can maintain or maintain whole series. I mean,
Speaker 3: that's the thing. You don't want twelve of the same
Speaker 3: types of people. It'll make boring television.
Speaker 1: Is there a personality trait that you particularly like, you
Speaker 1: know that you are looking out for that is something
Speaker 1: that in your mind goes that always makes a good
Speaker 1: reality TV contest.
Speaker 3: I think there has to be layers on them. And
Speaker 3: when you say that the backstory, it might not be
Speaker 3: that someone's had cancer, or someone's gone through an absolute
Speaker 3: massive tragedy, But there's always something for me. It's like
Speaker 3: the bus driver is an interesting person because they would
Speaker 3: be seeing different people and they would be observing people
Speaker 3: every day, so there's something interesting about them and their job.
Speaker 3: I guess for me, a lot of people's jobs are
Speaker 3: quite interesting. That can always get my attention straight away.
Speaker 3: When you read about someone else's jobs, they also my
Speaker 3: job's interesting, But I actually find other people's jobs interesting.
Speaker 3: So that's something that jumps out straight away.
Speaker 2: Right, What else am.
Speaker 3: I looking for? I hate saying it because it just
Speaker 3: sounds like you're not giving it a proper answer. But
Speaker 3: there is always an X factor. There's always just something
Speaker 3: that you cannot put your finger on it until you
Speaker 3: get to know them and you walk out of an
Speaker 3: interview or a meeting in you go, gosh, I really
Speaker 3: like that personal gosh, that person was like the sand
Speaker 3: in the oyster. They're going to be great because they're
Speaker 3: going to be that sort of disruptor. It's a quality
Speaker 3: of the X factor, that weird quality that you just
Speaker 3: know you know.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that being good at casting has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with reading between the lines. What makes
Speaker 1: you do you think really good at being able to
Speaker 1: read between the lines? I mean, I have done a
Speaker 1: lot of research on you and listen to a podcast
Speaker 1: today about your life story, and I thought to myself
Speaker 1: while listening to your life story, which we won't go
Speaker 1: into all of today, but I can imagine something to
Speaker 1: do with your upbringing and your experiences have.
Speaker 2: Helped you read people.
Speaker 1: But a couple of words in your mouth, you know,
Speaker 1: you've got to say what beautifully Benjamin.
Speaker 3: Look, No, I honestly feel that that is a big
Speaker 3: part of where I have come from to how I
Speaker 3: got into this, into this job. I mean, I fell
Speaker 3: into this job anyway. It wasn't something. It wasn't even
Speaker 3: a thing called reality TV casting when I first started
Speaker 3: in television all those years ago. Yeah, look, I grew up.
Speaker 3: I'm a girl from the Central Coast. I'm Bogan. I
Speaker 3: still live in the suburbs now. I don't live in
Speaker 3: the you know, I'm not an Eastern Suburbs girl by
Speaker 3: any stretch of imagination. I live in the Burbs and
Speaker 3: I like watching people. You get to see how people interact.
Speaker 3: And I'm not in the bubble of say a bonder
Speaker 3: where you know a lot of the beautiful people live.
Speaker 3: I'm up in the northern suburbs of Sydney where it's
Speaker 3: all sorts of people.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: It's a funny thing my mom. As you're aware that
Speaker 3: my mom passed away when I was sixteen. My neighbor
Speaker 3: after she died, and my neighbor had said, your mum
Speaker 3: always had an affinity with people, and I feel that
Speaker 3: that is something that track with me. I've always had
Speaker 3: an affinity with people, and I guess that's back too.
Speaker 3: I think that's why I do read people well. I
Speaker 3: have a good sixth sense about people, not in that
Speaker 3: psychic kind of way, but just a knowing of people,
Speaker 3: you know, knowing what, yeah, what makes people tick. I
Speaker 3: guess I should have been a psychologist. I would have
Speaker 3: been paid.
Speaker 2: Well, have been as much fun.
Speaker 1: That is very Actually, you can't really sit back as
Speaker 1: a psychologist and well go onto YouTube and see how
Speaker 1: they're going these days.
Speaker 2: You know, when you think about these people.
Speaker 1: You've cast over the years, you probably think to yourself,
Speaker 1: I wonder what that person's doing and just type it
Speaker 1: in and you can reconnect.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny. I do. I do always wonder about that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've been around for gosh twenty odd years
Speaker 3: on things and one of my first projects and I
Speaker 3: wasn't casting on it. I was, I guess a production
Speaker 3: assistant at the time, and that's scandalous.
Speaker 5: The fans anxiously wait for the climax of the show,
Speaker 5: their favorite Australia's number one get single Me Myself.
Speaker 4: And.
Speaker 3: You know, they were the second lot of pop stars
Speaker 3: and I was very, very involved in their lives for
Speaker 3: eighteen months and I got to go on. Actually it's
Speaker 3: our twentieth anniversary this year. And see how I say we,
Speaker 3: It's like I was like the mother hand. It's like we.
Speaker 3: I was with them every step of the way. You know,
Speaker 3: we toured the UK and things together and it's been
Speaker 3: wonderful to follow their careers over the twenty years, and
Speaker 3: you know, different ways that their lives have gone. So
Speaker 3: you know, they're one of many that I feel like
Speaker 3: I've got a connection with. And I was, yeah, I do,
Speaker 3: wonder how do they go? Like Master Chef for example.
Speaker 3: You know a lot of the first few series of
Speaker 3: Master Chef, we were very involved with the casting and
Speaker 3: it's just amazing to see we change people's lives in
Speaker 3: a weird sort of way, you know, by you know,
Speaker 3: just by reading their bio and then you know, going, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think I'd like to meet them at the audition,
Speaker 3: to then seeing them do their cook off at their
Speaker 3: first audition, and then going to michelin stas you know,
Speaker 3: restaurants and things and they're cooking and following their passions.
Speaker 3: So it's very exciting. Master Chef definitely changed my life.
Speaker 2: I've had my own cooking.
Speaker 3: Shows, written books, started my own business. It was just
Speaker 3: that electricity in the Master Chief kitchen.
Speaker 1: Well, backtracking on something you said as well, I think
Speaker 1: is so vital when it comes to what it is
Speaker 1: that you do.
Speaker 2: I love the fact that.
Speaker 1: You can own that you're a bogun, but that also
Speaker 1: that you're living in the suburbs and you're living with
Speaker 1: the people that watch the television, which means that you're
Speaker 1: not living in some strange society where you don't understand
Speaker 1: the people that are going to be watching Free to Wear.
Speaker 1: You know, you're living amongst it, which means that that's
Speaker 1: some of the best voyeurism.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and it's quite funny because I use my sisters
Speaker 3: wouldn't mind me telling you this, but they love television,
Speaker 3: and you know, there's been times where I've rung them
Speaker 3: about a potential host for a show. And one of
Speaker 3: the big ones was when we end up changing the
Speaker 3: host of The Biggest Loser from AJ and you end
Speaker 3: up going with Kaylee Lewis. And I remember having a
Speaker 3: chat with my sister and talking to her about some
Speaker 3: thoughts of who we were looking at, and it was
Speaker 3: just sadly to hear her she just thought Hailey was
Speaker 3: the best person for the job because everyone loved Hailey.
Speaker 3: And then she came on and she was She was
Speaker 3: a much loved presenter for that series, and I think
Speaker 3: she was a wonderful edition. Hi everyone, Hi, welcome to
Speaker 3: Today's Wayne. Yeah, I use my sister sometimes there's a
Speaker 3: bit of a barometer of what's out there and what's happening.
Speaker 3: So and they've been pretty spot on.
Speaker 1: Actually, she's going to call your sister tomorrow and be like,
Speaker 1: I was listening to this podcast.
Speaker 2: Apparently I got a job because of you.
Speaker 3: So how did you.
Speaker 1: Get into casting, because I know that you got a
Speaker 1: job at Channel nine early days when you were starting
Speaker 1: in TV.
Speaker 2: How did you get into this casting and find out
Speaker 2: that this was your superpower?
Speaker 3: It's a funny. It's a funny. So yes, I started
Speaker 3: at nine and I worked in facilities, so I was
Speaker 3: booking in at the time. You know, VHS takes to
Speaker 3: be recorded and so at Channel Army had a number
Speaker 3: of productions happening and it was quite a busy little
Speaker 3: beast to call it the factory. It was a lot
Speaker 3: lot going on and I just helped in the facilities
Speaker 3: and operations side of it. That was that was my
Speaker 3: very first job in the industry. And then I moved
Speaker 3: over to special projects and one of the jobs was
Speaker 3: for a documentary series called The Waiting Game, and it
Speaker 3: was where we were going to follow ten overweight people
Speaker 3: as they went on a weight loss journey. But they
Speaker 3: did different types of diets and different ways of how
Speaker 3: they Vandaloo's weight. And that was my first sort of
Speaker 3: job as casting. But I the researcher, so that was
Speaker 3: what you called it in the days. It wasn't There
Speaker 3: wasn't a casting person. It was just did research and
Speaker 3: you found people to do the show. And this is
Speaker 3: well before the internet, young people, and you know, you'd
Speaker 3: have to send letters or you know, you'd make phone
Speaker 3: calls and you'd have to wait for information to come
Speaker 3: in by mail and crazy things like that. I think
Speaker 3: we had ms doss so you couldn't you couldn't email it.
Speaker 3: It was all letter writing or faxing actually, So that
Speaker 3: was the start. And then I moved across and did
Speaker 3: another show where I was like a research or associate producer,
Speaker 3: a show called Playing It Straight, which was a really,
Speaker 3: really horrible show. You can say that, I can say
Speaker 3: that now and at the time, you know, at the time,
Speaker 3: it was like, well this is it's a bit controversial,
Speaker 3: but it's still I just still shake my head now.
Speaker 3: I think I can't believe we made it.
Speaker 5: Tension viewers.
Speaker 6: The male contestants in this program may be lying or
Speaker 6: misrepresenting themselves at all times, including in their interviews.
Speaker 3: We had an American producer come over and he was
Speaker 3: serious producing it, and I found the cast and again
Speaker 3: thinking that was his research, and he said, look, if
Speaker 3: you're in the state, she'd be the casting director. And
Speaker 3: I was like, what do you mean. So that was
Speaker 3: kind of a plan of the seed. And then I
Speaker 3: think within a year and a half I'd created a
Speaker 3: cast of thousands and it's been going for what sixteen
Speaker 3: seventeen years now.
Speaker 1: I think I've been on a date with someone from
Speaker 1: that series. Ooh, and that's a really bad because it
Speaker 1: sounds really rude. But I'm pretty sure my partner and
Speaker 1: I both went on a date with this.
Speaker 3: There's only what eight of them that you could choose
Speaker 3: from her really because it was hard too.
Speaker 2: Was named John O what may have been? Oh god,
Speaker 2: I feel so bad.
Speaker 1: Anyway, Now I'm forty one now, so I'm old, and
Speaker 1: it was probably twenty years ago, right, do you know
Speaker 1: what it was?
Speaker 3: And it's funny because I'm still friends with beck who
Speaker 3: was the main girl, and Simon who was one of
Speaker 3: the boys on the show, who's still a very dear
Speaker 3: friend now, which has not really it's actually really nice.
Speaker 1: And then here we are, But what point did you
Speaker 1: want to start? You know, your company a cast of thousand.
Speaker 3: Look, it was just timing. I don't know, it just came.
Speaker 3: It just was like, I think it was the right
Speaker 3: place at the right time. Sort of took the leap
Speaker 3: of faith that I could do it, and you know,
Speaker 3: within a few months I was given the mole. I
Speaker 3: ended up doing the first celebrity Survivor again way back,
Speaker 3: was one with Bobby and Guy Leach and so I
Speaker 3: did that, and then the Biggest Loser came along, and
Speaker 3: that again another life change, life changing thing for the business.
Speaker 3: At that point, my husband was in He was a
Speaker 3: creative services guy in an advertising agency and he didn't
Speaker 3: like it, and we just had kids and he was
Speaker 3: hating going in and out into the city and back
Speaker 3: and not seeing us. And just one day I said,
Speaker 3: and I was bringing other people in to do some
Speaker 3: sort of subcontracting to me, and he was like, why
Speaker 3: are we paying other people? I could do this. So
Speaker 3: then he kind of quit his job and we went, shit,
Speaker 3: what have we done? And then literally, I think within
Speaker 3: two weeks we had Biggest Loser, we had Master Chef
Speaker 3: and World Strictest Parents. So it kind of exploded into
Speaker 3: a business that was crazy and we got to employ
Speaker 3: other people and it was you know, it's been chuggling
Speaker 3: along ever since. It's you know, we've had up and
Speaker 3: up and down times, but we've cast some pretty amazing
Speaker 3: shows and I've been really lucky to have traveled all
Speaker 3: over Austronia meeting people from all walks of life.
Speaker 1: Isn't it funny where you say to yourself, oh shit,
Speaker 1: It's usually when something really amazing ends up happening.
Speaker 2: It's funny.
Speaker 1: It's those times where you take a massive gamble and
Speaker 1: sometimes it pays off. And I do tell people sometimes
Speaker 1: you need to have the leap of faith if it's
Speaker 1: in line with something that you're truly passionate about, because
Speaker 1: if you're truly passionate about it something you know you'll
Speaker 1: make a.
Speaker 3: Work absolutely absolutely. And look, some days you think, oh
Speaker 3: what am I doing this for? And you know, and
Speaker 3: you work. You don't sleep at night sometimes because I'm
Speaker 3: worried about gosh, I haven't set that person that document,
Speaker 3: or this person's jumping on a plane tonight, and oh,
Speaker 3: my good goodness that they have they made that flight.
Speaker 3: And you know, I take a lot of things personally,
Speaker 3: which a lot some people may not, but for me,
Speaker 3: it's like everything has to be done. This, you know,
Speaker 3: has to be right, and if it's not, I'm the
Speaker 3: panicker and a worrier.
Speaker 1: People love that about you, though, because when I was
Speaker 1: doing the research for this, that's something your social intelligence
Speaker 1: and your empathy and your emotions, that's part and parcel
Speaker 1: of who you are, and that is why people want
Speaker 1: to work with you. Sometimes it's good to be a
Speaker 1: little bit emotional and be connected.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely, I've definitely cried in front of do we
Speaker 3: talk about Says and our Ill Flavor trip to New
Speaker 3: Zealand that was that definitely was me putting my heart
Speaker 3: on my sleeve. That's for sure.
Speaker 1: Well we're going to get into Says, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: But you've successfully worked in Australia television and you've seen
Speaker 1: obviously a lot. Has the reason for why people want
Speaker 1: to be on television changed in your career.
Speaker 3: Definitely, because I think when I started, there wasn't things
Speaker 3: like social media and Facebook and Instagram and what have you.
Speaker 3: But I still think people they look, they do it
Speaker 3: because it is a unique experience and I think it's
Speaker 3: something that money can't buy being on that And look,
Speaker 3: I would say ninety percent of people have a good time.
Speaker 3: Even more I would say majority of people have it.
Speaker 3: I think some people might complain about it afterwards, but
Speaker 3: I think in general, anyone that I've spoken to or
Speaker 3: I have cast, have had a good experience. Look, I
Speaker 3: think there's an element of people thinking they're going to
Speaker 3: get fame after this. You know, in the early times,
Speaker 3: it would have been hoping that they would get to
Speaker 3: become a TV presenter and what have you. But I
Speaker 3: don't blame them for thinking that, because of course, there
Speaker 3: are some people that have come from reality TV and
Speaker 3: have had are having successful careers in radio and television
Speaker 3: and podcasting and instagramming. So look, I think part of
Speaker 3: it is, yeah, I think it's a mixture of hoping
Speaker 3: to get fame or to change, you know, get out
Speaker 3: of their mundane jobs and go to something different. And
Speaker 3: the other one is just the unique experience, you know,
Speaker 3: and we try and tell people, you know, like again
Speaker 3: with Master Chef, but in series two we had I
Speaker 3: would so close to I think it was like over
Speaker 3: ten thousand applications, so you know, and from that you
Speaker 3: then have to get it down to I think we
Speaker 3: saw maybe six hundred people around the country and then
Speaker 3: from that you go to I think it was the
Speaker 3: top fifty from that, so that's crazy. I think that
Speaker 3: many people wanted to do the show, and a lot
Speaker 3: of them was because they wanted their own you know,
Speaker 3: they want to be a travel writer or a travel
Speaker 3: and food writer, or they wanted a cookbook and things
Speaker 3: like that, and not everyone came to have that. But
Speaker 3: then at the same time, if you really wanted a cookbook,
Speaker 3: Well you could actually make your own one. You don't
Speaker 3: necessarily have to do a TV show to do that,
Speaker 3: but I guess it helps.
Speaker 1: You've got to go into this with an expectation that
Speaker 1: the only person you need to impress is yourself and
Speaker 1: have a good time.
Speaker 3: Perfectly said, absolutely, just enjoy it because you'll never get
Speaker 3: to do that experience again.
Speaker 1: I have had the right to me and they're like,
Speaker 1: I want to do it because of my partner. You know,
Speaker 1: I want to impress my partner. I want to show
Speaker 1: my dad that I can do something. And I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: you're already going in the wrong direction. It sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: But the only reason why you want to do it
Speaker 1: is because you want to impress you. And if you
Speaker 1: can do that, that's achievable because you're never going to
Speaker 1: know how competitive are all these celebrity shows now, Like
Speaker 1: I'm a celebrity, get me out of here at sas
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars? How competitive is casting those people?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: Are you all chasing after the same people to get
Speaker 1: onto these shows?
Speaker 2: I want to know about the competition in that bubble.
Speaker 3: But the silly thing is that you never you never
Speaker 3: really talk to other casting people about it, so I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: I don't know who I'm a celebrity got or whose
Speaker 3: celebrity apprentice is chasing. A lot of the time you
Speaker 3: were talking to agents first, and of course they're going
Speaker 3: to put their talent forward. And I'm sure that there's
Speaker 3: a situation where it's well, who's offered the most money
Speaker 3: and will go with that, and it is it's getting harder.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, you want to have the best
Speaker 3: possible cast you can find, but Australia is only such
Speaker 3: a you know, it's a small pool, and it gets
Speaker 3: smaller because we have got you know, it almost feels
Speaker 3: like it gets diluted in a funny sort of way.
Speaker 3: But in saying that, I think SAS is a different
Speaker 3: type of show where you have to be a type
Speaker 3: of person to want to do that, and it's a
Speaker 3: type of show that a lot of celebrities have said
Speaker 3: no to. Other shows that have said this said yes
Speaker 3: to this.
Speaker 5: If you think the Olympics is tough, wait to see
Speaker 5: these Aussies try to make through sees training Jule.
Speaker 1: Olynthia in both winter and Summer Olympic Games from the
Speaker 1: Upins Olympics.
Speaker 2: My first Olympics.
Speaker 1: I want to meet with the gold medal in the
Speaker 1: Sydney two thousand Games.
Speaker 4: I don't care who they are. It's about what's in
Speaker 4: here that counts.
Speaker 2: My whole life was to become a professional tennis player.
Speaker 2: In confident.
Speaker 4: We'll take them to the edge, then we'll push them up.
Speaker 3: I think why it works and why people like it
Speaker 3: is they have a master interview and then the next
Speaker 3: time they are in front of the cameras, are they
Speaker 3: starting to do the course And we don't interfere with
Speaker 3: any of that stuff. And it's quite an authentic experience.
Speaker 3: So I think that's I'm very lucky in that regard
Speaker 3: that people have seen the show. They kind of know
Speaker 3: what they're going to get, what they're getting themselves into,
Speaker 3: and they it's again back to that unique experience. It's
Speaker 3: an experience that money can't buy.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been chasing a celebrity and chatting to
Speaker 1: them and then they've just appeared on one of the
Speaker 1: other reality shows.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know you can't be angry at that.
Speaker 3: I mean it's you know, people people needing, needing to
Speaker 3: get paid, and maybe this one was more like more
Speaker 3: fun for them than what something like says was I mean, look,
Speaker 3: there's a big brother brought in some people from overseas
Speaker 3: and I think, well, that's it's a different gimme cuss
Speaker 3: the post. You know, you've got to raise the stakes
Speaker 3: to an agree to get a different sort of look
Speaker 3: of people. You know, you don't want to see the
Speaker 3: same people on TV on different celebrity things.
Speaker 5: Hello, Australia, I've been very busy. They have searched the
Speaker 5: country and around the world for the most fascinating stars
Speaker 5: and I've found them.
Speaker 3: Look, and I'm sure my celebrities, like other cries, the
Speaker 3: celebrities that were on series one and then the current series,
Speaker 3: I'm sure I've seen them on something else down the
Speaker 3: track and I you know, good for them. I mean
Speaker 3: it's it's it's a paying job, so i'd be doing it.
Speaker 3: There's not a lot of pain work out there.
Speaker 1: So who's a celebrity that you've cast that you particularly
Speaker 1: wanted and chased?
Speaker 2: After that, you feel really proud.
Speaker 3: Of, Oh, Sabrenna Frederick Series one of sas Australia knows
Speaker 3: me as an AFL player, I'm here to prove that
Speaker 3: when men can win this.
Speaker 2: Oh really, look Chappelle.
Speaker 3: Of course, I think Chappelle was a coup. And you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes I still shape my head and go, how the
Speaker 3: hell did I do that?
Speaker 2: And I am Stephen Moriarty.
Speaker 3: Look, Stephen. Stephen and I have had a really good
Speaker 3: relationship for a number of years and we've always stayed
Speaker 3: in contact. And again, I think because of who I
Speaker 3: am and he trusted me, and because of that, I
Speaker 3: got to, you know, talk to Chappelle and I gave
Speaker 3: him my pitch and it was during lockdown last year
Speaker 3: and we spoke for over an hour about the show
Speaker 3: and how hard it would be. But the fact that
Speaker 3: again it's back to says appealed to her because of
Speaker 3: the authenticity of it and that she could just be
Speaker 3: herself and was on her terms.
Speaker 5: Last of Feast the Backwards Fall is notorious convicted drug
Speaker 5: smuggler Chappelle Corby.
Speaker 1: I think the public sees me as.
Speaker 5: And attention seeking girl.
Speaker 1: They think I'm out for money, they think I'm out
Speaker 1: for celebrity, they think I'm out for everything that's completely
Speaker 1: opposite to me.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm pretty proud of that, I must say. But
Speaker 3: I'm extremely proud of Sabrina only because I'm a passionate
Speaker 3: AFL supporter anyway at the best of times, but I'm
Speaker 3: also passionate advocate for women's sport. And when Sabrina was
Speaker 3: keen to do it, we actually had it. She was
Speaker 3: actually our reserve. I don't know whether you know this,
Speaker 3: but she as you know, we were meant to film
Speaker 3: Series one in New Zealand, so we had our whole cast.
Speaker 3: COVID had just hit I think it was China and
Speaker 3: it was Starlin Starts slightly seeping in and I mean
Speaker 3: the rate that it moved was phenomenal. But we had
Speaker 3: planned to be in New Zealand on the I think
Speaker 3: it was the twenty third of March, and on the
Speaker 3: week kend before a Saturday afternoon, my boss at screen
Speaker 3: Time rang and it was like three o clock on
Speaker 3: a Saturday, and I went, this isn't going to be
Speaker 3: a good call. What's nothing good comes of a call
Speaker 3: on a weekend? And he just said, New Zealand are
Speaker 3: about to shut their borders. We need the cast over
Speaker 3: in New Zealand tomorrow. It was just like, okay, give
Speaker 3: me a couple of hours. So from three o'clock till
Speaker 3: midnight I had to ring all sixteen cast members and
Speaker 3: say can you pack your bags? Can you be on
Speaker 3: a plane tomorrow? And Forasdarani was in Adelaide at a
Speaker 3: fortieth having a great old time. I had made a
Speaker 3: call to his brother who was in Sydney, saying can
Speaker 3: I get his passport? He can? You know, it was
Speaker 3: just this crazy coordination of getting Foras and for us
Speaker 3: was an easy one. He was in Adelaide, so we managed.
Speaker 3: He flew first thing Sunday morning, brother met him at
Speaker 3: the airport and the end up getting At one point
Speaker 3: I thought I was going to be driving out to
Speaker 3: his brother's house at eleven o'clock at night on the
Speaker 3: Saturday night to get the passport, but that all got sorted.
Speaker 3: Shannon Pontm was in Hawaii. Happened to have an Apple watch,
Speaker 3: so he heard the buzzer go from me and I said,
Speaker 3: can you get on a flight. So he left his
Speaker 3: family on a holiday, which jumped on a flight from
Speaker 3: Why and we got him into all before the border shut.
Speaker 3: Shane and Jack was on this survival weekend to practice,
Speaker 3: so she was on this on Morton Island where there
Speaker 3: was no fine coverage, and I'm ringing him. I'm saying
Speaker 3: where is she to go? She's on this survival thing
Speaker 3: with this guy with this guy, and I'm like, this
Speaker 3: is so weird, Like what do you mean you don't
Speaker 3: know what your daughter is? So I had my husband,
Speaker 3: He's ringing every camp around on Morton Island, and somehow
Speaker 3: the word got to her that she was we needed
Speaker 3: her on a flight. So she was on a boat
Speaker 3: at nine o'clock at night, on some speedboat in the dark,
Speaker 3: getting her land to get on to the seven o'clock
Speaker 3: foot like it was just it was nuts, madness, madness.
Speaker 3: So I managed to get sixteen of sixteen on flights
Speaker 3: into the country and then the border shut and then
Speaker 3: for five days we were just in an hotel in
Speaker 3: Queenstown kind of waiting it out. And the plan was
Speaker 3: we were meant to they weren't meant to know each
Speaker 3: other before they go on the show, and that's normally
Speaker 3: what happens with a lot of the celebrity shows is
Speaker 3: that you want the meeting to be real when they
Speaker 3: first see each other. But for five days we were
Speaker 3: kind of stuck at this hotel and we just said, well, look,
Speaker 3: you're all here, you've all known who's been in because
Speaker 3: you've been on planes together and what have you. So
Speaker 3: we kind of hung out for five days and they
Speaker 3: were all amazing, like they trained and you know, we're
Speaker 3: getting haircuts done and because they all came a week
Speaker 3: earlier than what they thought. And then on the front
Speaker 3: afternoon got called to say it shut down. We can't
Speaker 3: go ahead and film because all of New Zealand was
Speaker 3: going into a lockdown. So crew had to go home.
Speaker 3: We weren't allowed of film and you know, in the time,
Speaker 3: it's like, well film in this bubble, and it was
Speaker 3: like everything was so unexp like we just didn't know
Speaker 3: what was going ahead. Twenty four hours later everyone was
Speaker 3: back on planes going back to back home. And that
Speaker 3: was the day our pride because we've got them all there.
Speaker 3: Everyone was just ready to go and they'd all worked
Speaker 3: so hard in their training. And then it was like, sorry,
Speaker 3: it's done with We've got to pull up at the pin.
Speaker 1: And then did you lose a lot of celebrities? Who
Speaker 1: or the reshoot? So you've lost two? Who were the
Speaker 1: two that you lost?
Speaker 3: We lost Yanna?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and she was having a baby I think by
Speaker 2: the was that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So she hadn't falling pregnant, so she had the baby,
Speaker 3: and there was just a tweet with someone else who
Speaker 3: had had an injury, so we kept them off that
Speaker 3: show preferred not to name the person, and then because
Speaker 3: of that, we had an opening and that ended up
Speaker 3: being ended up being Chappelle, so she came in and
Speaker 3: that was you know again, we were sitting around waiting
Speaker 3: and hoping that something, you know, where we're going to
Speaker 3: go back to New Zealand or what else we were doing,
Speaker 3: and then we had the plan was, hey, let's to
Speaker 3: shoot in New South Wales. We'll go to Gindervine. The
Speaker 3: stars aligned. Kids weren't traveling for school excursions and people
Speaker 3: weren't allowed to travel, so then we had the ridges
Speaker 3: at Ginderbyne opened up and we pretty much had I
Speaker 3: think most of the accommodation there. We fell under the
Speaker 3: radar because still people thought Sas Fudares Wins was the
Speaker 3: Mike Whitney show, so they didn't realize what the show
Speaker 3: actually was. So we've all kind of got everyone there
Speaker 3: under the radar, and then we kept Chappelle from everyone.
Speaker 3: None of the cast knew that Chappelle was in it,
Speaker 3: and they didn't know about Arabella or Sabrina. So when
Speaker 3: we had to do our reshoot for publicity, Sabrina and
Speaker 3: Arabella rocked up and it was just like, oh gosh,
Speaker 3: who are you too? And then we kept Chappelle right
Speaker 3: up until the moment you see the goods come off
Speaker 3: on the very first shoot. No one knew it was
Speaker 3: Chappelle until None of the cars knew about her until
Speaker 3: that very moment.
Speaker 2: What was the look on their face? Can you do
Speaker 2: it for me?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: For a podcast?
Speaker 3: Everyone was a bit shot. I think maybe five people
Speaker 3: knew that she was doing the shows, even to the
Speaker 3: point we had to bring her in earlier to do
Speaker 3: her Master interview like we did with everybody else. Thankfully,
Speaker 3: everyone was wearing masks on planes even at the time
Speaker 3: last year, so I met her at the airport. There
Speaker 3: was no one around because of no plane. I had
Speaker 3: very few people flying last year, so again, so I
Speaker 3: managed to meet her at the airport at Sydney Airport,
Speaker 3: take her to Master interview, get her back on a plane.
Speaker 3: No one knew. I still to this day cannot believe
Speaker 3: no one ever knew that happened. And then when we
Speaker 3: got her down to Ginderbye under a cloak and dagger
Speaker 3: so to speak. Again, no one knew and then it
Speaker 3: was announced. Channel seven did the big announcement on the
Speaker 3: Sunday paper that she was in the show, and I
Speaker 3: think within six hours we had three paps. So oh, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1: You're like, let's just put a big dirty target on
Speaker 1: our back and every junior path that's working for the
Speaker 1: Daily Mail will be here in five minutes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well they were. They were through bushes and yeah,
Speaker 3: they were everywhere, ringing, ringing the hotel trying to ask
Speaker 3: for her and stuff. But in fact she wasn't there.
Speaker 3: She was on the course.
Speaker 1: What makes the right level of celebrity to be on
Speaker 1: these shows? Because I'm going to ask this all the
Speaker 1: time because I meet people who have experienced some form
Speaker 1: of notoriety in their life and so they think, in
Speaker 1: their minds, I could be on one of these shows.
Speaker 2: You know, in your mind, what makes a celebrity.
Speaker 3: Combination of things? I mean, sports stars are sports stars,
Speaker 3: so people know them by their their first name or
Speaker 3: their nickname and what have you. I think that's that's
Speaker 3: a level onto itself.
Speaker 4: For me.
Speaker 3: Celebrity. It could be Instagram followers and that is Look,
Speaker 3: it's another form of media. It's not traditional television, but
Speaker 3: it's not I think it's what the new generation of
Speaker 3: people are following. So I think you can be an
Speaker 3: Instagram you can be a celebrity through your Instagram look
Speaker 3: notoriety to a degree, but it's a funny one because
Speaker 3: if we look at Chappelle, no, she's not a celebrity,
Speaker 3: but she's one of the most intriguing people our country
Speaker 3: has ever had. So sometimes I hate the word celebrity
Speaker 3: because it doesn't define a lot of people who kind
Speaker 3: of fall under that umbrella. Because it's intriguing, someone who
Speaker 3: was intriguing or is part of our culture or you know,
Speaker 3: our vernacular. I think that makes you a celebrity.
Speaker 1: In the UK, though, they kind of see celebrity really differently.
Speaker 1: Like I just looked at the lineup of celebrity goggle
Speaker 1: Box and I was like, oh, wow, those two from
Speaker 1: RuPaul's Drag Race are in there. And then I showed
Speaker 1: a picture to like sent the photo online to another
Speaker 1: friend of mine and said, oh, this is so exciting,
Speaker 1: and they were like, who are those people?
Speaker 2: And I was like, they're in.
Speaker 1: UK's RuPaul's Drag Race two years ago and they were
Speaker 1: like well, they're not a celebrity, and I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: exactly right. In the UK they have a different opinion
Speaker 1: on celebrities.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and they do they kind of they like in
Speaker 3: the UK they do a celebrity show and then it
Speaker 3: does boost their appeal and then they end up going
Speaker 3: into going into further other celebrity bits and pieces. It's
Speaker 3: so funny when I look at someone like Katie Price,
Speaker 3: I think she was a Page three girl and then
Speaker 3: she ended up doing the first I think it was
Speaker 3: the very first time a celebrity over here and met
Speaker 3: Peter Andre and then since then her I mean she's
Speaker 3: a massive celebrity over in the UK, but for doing
Speaker 3: not a lot, just being a celebrity.
Speaker 1: Love in Sas though where they you hear the special
Speaker 1: forces people saying if you're here.
Speaker 2: Further your career, we will find you. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I kind of like this.
Speaker 4: I do not give two flying who these celebrities are.
Speaker 5: Who keep your hand to doll.
Speaker 4: I want to know about your beautiful life, how much
Speaker 4: money you earned, how many followers you've got a don't
Speaker 4: look done. Do not think that this is to boost
Speaker 4: your career. Just walk You're not done to just walk.
Speaker 4: We've been there, done it. It's real for us. You
Speaker 4: have to get into that military mindset.
Speaker 3: Put your arms down, arms down, if your head well done.
Speaker 4: If you've come here for the wrong reasons, we will
Speaker 4: make you suffer.
Speaker 1: You know this season of Essays Australia, which launches on
Speaker 1: Monday night at seven thirty on Channel seven, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: way more intense because I've seen the first I think
Speaker 1: five episodes of it. It's way more intense than I
Speaker 1: ever expected it to be on top of what we
Speaker 1: saw last year. Did the producers give you a heads
Speaker 1: up and say we're going to be turning it up
Speaker 1: a few notches now?
Speaker 3: You know what I always say, I don't want to
Speaker 3: know because in case I accidentally bloat something out, so
Speaker 3: I am kept in the dark as much like all
Speaker 3: all we say is watched. You know, when we're approaching.
Speaker 3: When I'm approaching celebrities, it's have a look at series one.
Speaker 3: Here's the links, check it out and then let us
Speaker 3: know whether you know, let me know if you if
Speaker 3: this is going to be of interest to you. It's
Speaker 3: good that we've had one series now because people are
Speaker 3: aware of what they will get themselves. Into they all talk,
Speaker 3: so celebrities from this series ask, you know, some advice
Speaker 3: to from the celebrity series one, and I know that
Speaker 3: the same things happening with my current crop that we're
Speaker 3: talking to the celebrities from series two. So look, they
Speaker 3: have to make it different, you know, to the first series.
Speaker 3: So obviously we had a different location, we wanted a
Speaker 3: different look, and the challenges have to be different because
Speaker 3: people aren't going to tune back in if it's just
Speaker 3: seen the same thing again. So yeah, there's some I mean,
Speaker 3: I've only actually seen the first two episodes, and oh
Speaker 3: my goodness, there's some things where you just absolutely, you're right,
Speaker 3: absolutely compelling, compelling to watch.
Speaker 1: Watching a part of it, you know, and you've obviously
Speaker 1: seen episode two, so you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: But yes, I just was like as a viewer on
Speaker 1: my couch, and granted I was watching it in a
Speaker 1: home cinema, so it was very big, but I was
Speaker 1: very much experiencing the vertigo and I just could. I
Speaker 1: had so much sympathy for them because some of them,
Speaker 1: one of them being one of the most famous people
Speaker 1: on the show. This year, he was referred to as.
Speaker 2: Bambi donno bum bin get fucking up.
Speaker 1: Because his legs were just jelly and he just kept
Speaker 1: falling over and I just had so much sympathy for him.
Speaker 1: So I was like, make sure that person doesn't help
Speaker 1: with any of the referrals for the casting moving forward.
Speaker 3: A few people said, don't do it, but look at
Speaker 3: everyone who has done it has said they don't regret it,
Speaker 3: regardless if they got out on episode one or got
Speaker 3: to the end. No one has actually regretted giving it
Speaker 3: a got.
Speaker 1: Can you do me a favor because I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people out there that would love this
Speaker 1: phone call.
Speaker 2: What does the pitch see sound like?
Speaker 1: You know when you ring the person you have the
Speaker 1: phone and the ring rang, this is you And you've
Speaker 1: now got to be like, Hi, Derma Braritan.
Speaker 2: Hanging a second.
Speaker 1: We'll come up with a different celebrity, but there's anything
Speaker 1: wrong with dermy Sonya Krueger. Let we'll go with Sonya Krueger.
Speaker 1: So she's she's on seven, all on seven.
Speaker 3: Hi, it's Kirsty. I'm casting sas series three. I was
Speaker 3: just wanting to know what you think. Have you seen
Speaker 3: the show? What are your thoughts? Would you think about
Speaker 3: having a go on doing it yourself. Then they go
Speaker 3: want to get my number all so now it's look,
Speaker 3: a lot of the time I am approaching agents. Of course,
Speaker 3: you sort of have a hit list of who you
Speaker 3: love to have on the show, and then are the
Speaker 3: ones that you can end up talking to you to themselves,
Speaker 3: be it I sent slide into dms and ask people
Speaker 3: on Instagram or whatever if they'd like can I talk
Speaker 3: to them? Going to have a chat, And a lot
Speaker 3: of people I've spoken through just by touching base of
Speaker 3: them via Instagram and then having a proper, proper chat
Speaker 3: with them. Look, there's a few people that have been
Speaker 3: approached and were keen at first and then slept on
Speaker 3: it and went, look, it's just not for me. And
Speaker 3: that's absolutely know. You've got to be You've got to
Speaker 3: be have strong belief in yourself and I think you
Speaker 3: you know, it is a really strong mindset as well,
Speaker 3: like you've got to have. Of course, there's you know,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to I have to find people who at
Speaker 3: least have a good baseline of fitness, but it's it's
Speaker 3: also mental toughness. So when I'm when I am casting,
Speaker 3: I'm looking for celebrities that might have a story, because
Speaker 3: a part of that is it's about breaking through some
Speaker 3: of the things that you may have read in the
Speaker 3: media and breaking through and moving on from it. And
Speaker 3: that's the whole part of SAS is just being an
Speaker 3: open book and letting all that crap go that if
Speaker 3: you may have had in your in the past, it's
Speaker 3: been hung, the monkey off your back and you move
Speaker 3: on from it.
Speaker 1: One of the things I really love about Says is
Speaker 1: some of the types of celebrities that are there. You know,
Speaker 1: someone who's got a backstory that's like a personal struggle,
Speaker 1: they've got an image issue, or something's happened in their life.
Speaker 2: Is that the juicy sweet spot that.
Speaker 1: You're looking for, You know, when you're reaching out to
Speaker 1: people that they kind of might fit the mold of
Speaker 1: being interrogated the way that they will be.
Speaker 3: Absolutely you have to you have to look for it
Speaker 3: because if you haven't got anything interesting to say in
Speaker 3: the interrogation, it doesn't work, it doesn't make it interesting.
Speaker 3: So there's no truth whatsoever in those allegations.
Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
Speaker 3: Starf Ad media cammed outside the front door for weeks,
Speaker 3: chasing me across the front lawn, asking me with a
Speaker 3: camera and a mic in my face.
Speaker 5: So you were slight?
Speaker 1: Are you really?
Speaker 5: Sharon Stone?
Speaker 3: So you do need to have you need to have
Speaker 3: something and it doesn't have to be a juicy thing.
Speaker 3: It might be just something from me past or you know,
Speaker 3: the death of your parent has really shaped to who
Speaker 3: they are, or career. You know, someone's had a career
Speaker 3: and then they've been on the back burner and they
Speaker 3: want to reignite that or change the person that they want.
Speaker 3: They want to become that person again that they that
Speaker 3: they knew ten years ago or what have you. So
Speaker 3: look there again that every person has a story. But
Speaker 3: you're a celebrity or you're not a celebrity. There is
Speaker 3: a story there with every person and I think with
Speaker 3: Sas the big part we've said to everyone is, you know,
Speaker 3: you have to be an open book and you have
Speaker 3: to be vulnerable because if you're not, it's just why
Speaker 3: you're doing it. You know, it's not worth it because
Speaker 3: if you're going to keep your guard up the whole time,
Speaker 3: you're not going to get anything from it.
Speaker 1: You know, some of them are really polarizing people that
Speaker 1: people either love them or they hate them. You know,
Speaker 1: we all read the headlines with the casting drama that
Speaker 1: happened with another popular show which is now in the
Speaker 1: can Do you think someone like Katie Hopkins would have
Speaker 1: worked on a show like Sas because of that? Like,
Speaker 1: is that an opportunity for them to the special forces
Speaker 1: people to give her a grilling because she is on
Speaker 1: the cusp of polarizing. And when I say polarizing, one
Speaker 1: percent of the population or on board, ninety nine percent aren't.
Speaker 1: But would she have made a better person to cast
Speaker 1: on essays?
Speaker 3: Look? Possibly, But I don't think she's ever going to
Speaker 3: change who she is. I think that's her stick. And look, personally,
Speaker 3: I don't want to see people like that on something
Speaker 3: like this because I feel like I'm giving that person
Speaker 3: a platform that's me personally, But then at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, it's not my Like I present to
Speaker 3: the network and they say yes or no, they if
Speaker 3: they want this person or they don't. Look, she may have,
Speaker 3: but I don't know because it was never She was
Speaker 3: never in an equation to start with, So it's a
Speaker 3: hard thing to sort of say in a mirror him, Yes,
Speaker 3: she probably would have. It would have been really interesting
Speaker 3: to watch, But I just don't think this would have
Speaker 3: changed her attitude or changed the way that she is.
Speaker 3: Then I don't know her personally. I've never had a
Speaker 3: conversation with her. I don't know whether she's all talk
Speaker 3: or you know, she is she saying things for afect,
Speaker 3: for effect or you know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: So what about Pete Evans, Like, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of people don't like Pete Evans anymore? Would he be
Speaker 1: a good person for essays because we would get to
Speaker 1: watch him being interrogated?
Speaker 2: Like do people want to answer?
Speaker 3: Absolutely? I would have. I would have loved to have
Speaker 3: had him on the show. I think it would have
Speaker 3: been good to see see him get built. But would
Speaker 3: he have broken down? I don't know. I think he
Speaker 3: would be he'd be fascinating to you would have been fascinating.
Speaker 1: Well, then that kind of leads me to because he
Speaker 1: ended up nearly being on I'm a Celebrity, What do
Speaker 1: you think is the major difference between your show SAS
Speaker 1: from I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here.
Speaker 3: I think SAS it's more authentic in the regards to
Speaker 3: and again, I've never worked on I'm a Celebrity, So
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're set up. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of similarities in cameras everywhere. When they're on
Speaker 3: base and then they do challenges, I think I'm a celebrity.
Speaker 3: It's not as physically punishing, and they have a lot
Speaker 3: more like the food challenges and things like that, more
Speaker 3: sort of fun, I guess, quirky challenges that are a
Speaker 3: bit gross, whereas here it is a real authentic experience.
Speaker 3: And by that it is, and even the celebrities they
Speaker 3: you know, you can tell them time time again. Once
Speaker 3: we hand you over to the DS that very first morning,
Speaker 3: we're hands off, like we have very minimal interaction with you,
Speaker 3: like it is an authentic experience. The DS want it
Speaker 3: to be an authentic experience. So I don't even see
Speaker 3: the recruits until they VW at the end, and then
Speaker 3: I'm there to sort of take them back and clean
Speaker 3: them up and you know, get them hot meal and stuff.
Speaker 3: So I think that's the difference with this. It is
Speaker 3: completely authentic. We don't pull you aside and ask you questions,
Speaker 3: like you don't come off and do a chat on
Speaker 3: today that day's challenge. We do a pre interview leading
Speaker 3: up to the show. A couple of weeks before where
Speaker 3: we hope to cover everything that could possibly happen on
Speaker 3: the show, and that's the only time they ever get
Speaker 3: an interview, so it's and they do. We do a
Speaker 3: short one when they VW, a very very brief one,
Speaker 3: but that's it, so they don't once they're in. It's
Speaker 3: a twenty four to seven. It's crazy. It is lack
Speaker 3: of sleep, lack of food, and I think, honestly do
Speaker 3: like you can tell them, but this is explain exactly
Speaker 3: what I've just said, how authentic it is, and that
Speaker 3: you're sleeping in these bunks and the ds actually sleep
Speaker 3: on the base. I don't go back to a hotel.
Speaker 3: They're in a room off from the where the dorm is.
Speaker 3: They live the experience, as do the recruits. But I
Speaker 3: think at the start they thought we would break and
Speaker 3: you'd have cut okay, yout a cup of tea and
Speaker 3: there's there's a little little craft area where there's food
Speaker 3: for them. Well there isn't. It's not that at all.
Speaker 3: You get serve the meals and the army rations, and
Speaker 3: you eat when you get given to eat, you eat
Speaker 3: and then you're off to the next challenge. So the
Speaker 3: first twenty four hours, throws.
Speaker 2: People, no craft services, no craft.
Speaker 3: Services, not not there not on this show.
Speaker 2: Have you been allowed to watch the physical and mental
Speaker 2: challenges in the flesh?
Speaker 3: And yes, yes, sorry, not in the flesh. I'm in
Speaker 3: the control room. I can see a lot that goes
Speaker 3: on on the base, and I am I can't of
Speaker 3: get a warning if someone that they think someone's a
Speaker 3: bit wobbly, so I'll be they're on standby that someone
Speaker 3: leaves at three o'clock in the afternoon or eleven o'clock
Speaker 3: at night, and I take them home and I look
Speaker 3: after them at the accommodation wherever we are after and
Speaker 3: just make sure that they're looked after from the moment
Speaker 3: they leave and have a shower and have a pop
Speaker 3: basket all their technology back and they can speak to
Speaker 3: their families and what have you, and then I look
Speaker 3: after them to get them home.
Speaker 1: In a small description, what's the hardest one that you've
Speaker 1: had to watch? Like, what's the one challenge boxing?
Speaker 3: Okay, I actually got to see it sort of live
Speaker 3: in this when we did shot the Civilian series, and
Speaker 3: it was hard to watch.
Speaker 2: I heard this rumor.
Speaker 1: Now you can just clarify because I heard this rumor
Speaker 1: that you make people carry a bag of bricks like
Speaker 1: that are like really heavy for ten kilometers to see
Speaker 1: if they're fit enough to do the show. Is there
Speaker 1: any physical challenge that you make some celebrities do, because
Speaker 1: you're like, I'm not sure if Denise Dreisdale could carry
Speaker 1: Daryl Summer's upper.
Speaker 2: Hill, you know, is there a challenge that you make
Speaker 2: some people do?
Speaker 4: Not a challenge.
Speaker 3: We give them a guide so they get they do
Speaker 3: get a training guy. The big things are that they
Speaker 3: before they start and they once they've signed on, we
Speaker 3: send them the boots, so they actually train in those boots.
Speaker 3: And the boots that they wear on the course. They've
Speaker 3: already warn them in because listers are a bitch and
Speaker 3: they're already going through enough pain as it is to
Speaker 3: have blisters as well. So they all get boots a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks beforehand, they train in them, and they
Speaker 3: bring them on the course, and that's the boots that
Speaker 3: you see them wearing, so they've already the one thing
Speaker 3: that's already been worn in. We tell them to just
Speaker 3: pack march so not bricks, but the bourgens each way
Speaker 3: twenty kilos, so the backpacks that they have on the
Speaker 3: show are twenty kilos, so we tell them to start
Speaker 3: training and build up to twenty kilos in a backpack
Speaker 3: so you're used to carrying it. So a lot of
Speaker 3: them might train in weighted vests or what have you.
Speaker 3: But they all are told that. They all get a
Speaker 3: training guide about being able to run maybe two kilometers
Speaker 3: and do some hiking and do all that sort of thing.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they're given we call it the guidelines. And
Speaker 3: then but again most of them are quite it anyway.
Speaker 3: So then they go and it's up to them if
Speaker 3: they want to go harder or just keep to that.
Speaker 3: A couple of them people get obsessive and they are
Speaker 3: out training a few times a day and what have you.
Speaker 3: And you know, I had people go on as like
Speaker 3: Shana and Kerry put Us in this series. They went
Speaker 3: off to a survival twenty four hour survival camp to
Speaker 3: learn how to do things and just get themselves mentally prepared. Yes,
Speaker 3: so there's people will do different different ways to prepare,
Speaker 3: but the basics are you've got to work up to
Speaker 3: we do. They all have to do a fitness test,
Speaker 3: which is like a beat test. It's how many push
Speaker 3: ups they can do in a minute, how many hangs
Speaker 3: they can do a swim test just to make sure
Speaker 3: they can tread water and swim, just in case they're
Speaker 3: in a well. As you've seen on series one, they're
Speaker 3: in the water with the boat challenge, so we just
Speaker 3: have to make sure that they are they can tread water,
Speaker 3: should be should they get into trouble. It's pretty stringent.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, they have to pass extensive psych
Speaker 3: tests as well as a medical.
Speaker 1: What kind of medical insurance gets organized for these people?
Speaker 1: And does it cost ten billion dollars?
Speaker 3: That I wouldn't know because I don't do that. They
Speaker 3: are ensured, but now I stick to the casting and
Speaker 3: that stuff, but they are. You have to be sort
Speaker 3: of dangerous things that they're going to be doing.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: There's a great future for SAS.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've got a civilian series that's coming up,
Speaker 1: which we're very excited about. What can you tell us
Speaker 1: about the type of people who are.
Speaker 2: Going to be in the civilian series?
Speaker 3: Got all walks of life at all different ages the civilians.
Speaker 3: It's a really interesting bunch, ranging from I think the
Speaker 3: youngest is about twenty one to forty seven, So it's
Speaker 3: a really, really interesting range of range of talent.
Speaker 1: Have any of them experience any levels of notoriety like
Speaker 1: as in, have they been in the media for nearly
Speaker 1: drowning or being eaten by a shark?
Speaker 2: So they have some stories that may have some kind
Speaker 2: of notoriety, yes, but.
Speaker 3: I'm not divulging who or what those stories were. But
Speaker 3: there were two stories from out of all of the
Speaker 3: people that my plient that will be interesting to watch
Speaker 3: and to know know more about.
Speaker 2: I'm excited. I just don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited about this after watching the first few
Speaker 1: episodes of this second series. For anyone that's listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast, tune in on Monday night because it is unbelievable.
Speaker 3: What did you like about episode one? What was what
Speaker 3: intrigued or what were you most surprised about?
Speaker 1: You know, truthfully, it was the look on my partner's
Speaker 1: face because we sat on the couch and watched it.
Speaker 2: I think it was a Sunday evening.
Speaker 1: Everything that I was feeling, I could look over and
Speaker 1: look at my partner and he was expressing it with
Speaker 1: his face. So watching Mark philippouss sitting in a toilet
Speaker 1: doing a number two next to Manu was a TV
Speaker 1: experience that I never thought I was going to have,
Speaker 1: and my partner's face was just was amazing. So there
Speaker 1: are so many of those moments I think for the
Speaker 1: viewers that are kind of I just didn't see that coming.
Speaker 3: That's something I really I love about it too, is
Speaker 3: that you just have to expect the unexpected because you
Speaker 3: you just don't know what's going to happen. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: excited for the viewer to follow everyone's journey and see
Speaker 3: where they end up.
Speaker 1: One of my questions that I always ask all my
Speaker 1: guests before they go is what's an amazing story from
Speaker 1: behind the scenes.
Speaker 2: That we as an audience would appreciate.
Speaker 3: I would have to say, and I'm sure she won't
Speaker 3: mind me saying this is in series one with Chappelle.
Speaker 3: As I've spoken earlier on that, you know, she flew
Speaker 3: in under the radar and no one knew that she
Speaker 3: was there, and we got her on surprised everyone when
Speaker 3: the hood came off at the very start of the series.
Speaker 3: So when she came out, we didn't want the media
Speaker 3: because the media had all come down and that we
Speaker 3: had pats everywhere, and we didn't want the media to
Speaker 3: know that she had gotten out early in the piece.
Speaker 3: So I was in a two bedroom apartment at the
Speaker 3: Ridges in Ginderbyne, and that was the plan, was that
Speaker 3: it was like a revolving room. So every day I
Speaker 3: would get a VW and I'd have my room, they'd
Speaker 3: have their room, and you know, I'd fetch them food
Speaker 3: and all sorts of things. So they went alad to
Speaker 3: leave the apartment because of media. So she came in
Speaker 3: and it was like, well, look, we can't get her
Speaker 3: on plane now tomorrow because people will know she's around.
Speaker 3: So she ended up sharing. She basically became my flatmate
Speaker 3: for three days, and she was amazing that she lets her.
Speaker 3: We So from day one when they all fell out
Speaker 3: of the helicopter, they were all in their cities in
Speaker 3: series one, so they had all this wet clothes and
Speaker 3: it was a Sunday morning. Nothing in Koum or Ginderbyrone
Speaker 3: was open. So when they'd started and they'd gone, I
Speaker 3: come back to the production room and production office and
Speaker 3: do my bits and bits of paperwork and what have you. Oh,
Speaker 3: their wet clothes are in bags all in the production
Speaker 3: office and I'm like, well, what are we doing with that?
Speaker 3: And they went well, there's there's nowhere to wash the
Speaker 3: wash all these clothes. So I started taking the bags
Speaker 3: and putting them in my room in our apartment and
Speaker 3: washing them. And then she fell support, bring it to me.
Speaker 3: I've got nothing else to do. So she sat for
Speaker 3: the next three days, washed and dried and folded and
Speaker 3: had everybody's clothes all sorted so when they got when
Speaker 3: they came out, she had a pile of every person's
Speaker 3: close or beautifully washed, cleaned, dried, done for everyone. And
Speaker 3: it was just just it just showed me what type
Speaker 3: of person she was.
Speaker 6: She was just such a beautiful girl, and to just
Speaker 6: do that just out of just to be kind and
Speaker 6: to help to be to be at least to be
Speaker 6: doing something while she was sort of crammed up in
Speaker 6: our little apartment.
Speaker 3: So I thought she was very special.
Speaker 2: That ends in a way that I thought was much
Speaker 2: nicer than where I thought it was going.
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to be like we had
Speaker 1: to keep her there for three months, So we recreated
Speaker 1: a Balinese prison and we met her stay in a
Speaker 1: room for three months, and no one spoke to her.
Speaker 3: No, that was very much, very much in my life anyway.
Speaker 1: I just want to say thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being able to join today on TV Reload. It was
Speaker 1: so amazing with these stories. I could talk to you forever,
Speaker 1: and I just want to say thank you for your
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence and your empathy and what it is that
Speaker 1: you do when you work with these people. Because I've
Speaker 1: spoken to producers, I've spoken to the bruties, and they
Speaker 1: all say the same thing and that you were just
Speaker 1: so fantastic to work with, so.
Speaker 3: Well, that's nice to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, thank you so much for being able
Speaker 2: to be here today.