Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week Their Life.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, welcome back to TV Reload, and also welcome
Speaker 2: back to me, who has been absent for the last
Speaker 2: week as I had shingles off the back of that
Speaker 2: horrendous cold that you might have noticed that you could
Speaker 2: hear in my voice over the last few weeks. But guys,
Speaker 2: I am back and I want to thank you for
Speaker 2: clicking and downloading on today's episode with Novi Perez, who
Speaker 2: was one of this week's stars booted on Channel seven,
Speaker 2: which guys Dancing with the Stars. I'm absolutely loving this year.
Speaker 2: I have to say that I love Shane Crawford as
Speaker 2: one of my favorites, and boy can Lisa mccowne really dance.
Speaker 2: It's been quite a fantastic season so far. But my
Speaker 2: guest today is an Australian legend. As you would know,
Speaker 2: Nova is an Aboriginal Australian athlete and former politician. As
Speaker 2: a part of Australia's women's field hockey team in the
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety six Olympic Games, she was the first Aboriginal
Speaker 2: Australian to.
Speaker 1: Win an Olympic gold medal.
Speaker 2: We have seen her on Survivor and at the moment
Speaker 2: she has been doing some sports commentary for the Olympic Games.
Speaker 2: What an honor it is to talk with her today.
Speaker 2: I will talk about how hard it is in the
Speaker 2: rehearsals and what she really thought of Craig, her dance partner.
Speaker 2: We will find out exactly what she thought of each
Speaker 2: judge as well, with some home truths for two of
Speaker 2: the lineup, which I think is really going to surprise
Speaker 2: some people. There is an opportunity to talk about where
Speaker 2: she is commentating the Olympics and what it means to
Speaker 2: her to still be included in the Australian coverage so
Speaker 2: many years later. We will discuss the advantages each contestant
Speaker 2: has based on their careers, and which friend group she
Speaker 2: has found herself in with an unlikely friendship with Aunt Middleton.
Speaker 2: There's actually so much to talk about with Nova as
Speaker 2: you can imagine, So as I said, sit back and
Speaker 2: relax and enjoy us unpacking the wonderful world love dancing
Speaker 2: with the stars.
Speaker 1: Amazing, Hi Nova, how are you good?
Speaker 3: Thank you?
Speaker 1: Am I right to say that your knee deep in
Speaker 1: Olympic commitments at the moment.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is correct.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm here to talk about dancing with the stars.
Speaker 2: But I'm curious, am I talking to you? Are you
Speaker 2: in Paris or are you doing your work here from Australia.
Speaker 3: No, I'm doing from Australia at the band studio p
Speaker 3: at Channel nine in Melbourne.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, we're here to talk about dancing with the stars.
Speaker 2: But I was just thinking, if you're in Paris, it
Speaker 2: would be remiss of me not to harass you and
Speaker 2: ask you about what it's like.
Speaker 3: Got all my family over there at the moment. So
Speaker 3: my younger cousin's a hockey rates. Oh wow, she's prying.
Speaker 2: Well, what does it mean to you to still be
Speaker 2: included in such a global event?
Speaker 1: I mean, the Olympics is madness.
Speaker 3: Yeah it is, and it's just I'm sleep deprived, but
Speaker 3: it's a good sleep deprivation.
Speaker 2: My stepfather he was mad for sport and international sport
Speaker 2: because he was English, so it was funny. I don't
Speaker 2: know how he ever got nothing done because he was
Speaker 2: always up at these really odd.
Speaker 1: Times trying to watch sport when it's live.
Speaker 3: Incredible, crazy, crazy, It is crazy.
Speaker 2: But I need to ask you, how did you survive
Speaker 2: the cyclone experience that is dancing with the stars.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a good experience. I know, I just not
Speaker 3: made it enjoyable of having a fantastic partner Craig Munley.
Speaker 3: He was just such a patient teacher, a really good teacher,
Speaker 3: beautiful human like that makes you experience. I guess good
Speaker 3: if you can have a partner that is actually someone
Speaker 3: that you get along with because you do spend an
Speaker 3: incredible amount of time with them. It was five weeks
Speaker 3: of training before the actual filming, so it was nine
Speaker 3: weeks of your life that you're spending a lot of
Speaker 3: time with a person you've never met before. But the
Speaker 3: reason why I did it, I'm fifty three years old.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say that too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. And it was just I'm always challenging myself,
Speaker 3: so I thought, why not, all I'll go and have
Speaker 3: a crack and it was good fun.
Speaker 2: There's something about you which I always think of when
Speaker 2: I hear your name, is that you're someone who's kicked
Speaker 2: the tire in life.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: You're not the sort of person who has sort of
Speaker 2: sat back. You've really achieved some amazing things and it's why.
Speaker 3: You pity the judges didn't.
Speaker 1: We've got to work on bribery. I think that's what you.
Speaker 3: Need, you know what. It's funny. I just it's subjective,
Speaker 3: isn't it. The judging of it, it's incredible. It's not
Speaker 3: like the Dancing with the Stars is puer entertainment where
Speaker 3: I come from a pure performance based life where you
Speaker 3: have to you train and train and train. You don't
Speaker 3: care what you look like. You need to just get
Speaker 3: out and get the job done. And so it's just
Speaker 3: a totally different aspect of you know, dancing with the stars,
Speaker 3: but you know, throwing yourself and I Middleton and I
Speaker 3: had this conversation and I think it was the night
Speaker 3: that I got punted out that we make ourselves vulnerable.
Speaker 3: We're not in the entertainment industry like Shane and Being
Speaker 3: you know, they're retired and they're spots and Middleton and myself,
Speaker 3: you make yourself vulnerable. You put yourself in a totally
Speaker 3: different feel of something you'd never think about doing in
Speaker 3: your lifetime. And I have no dance background. The only
Speaker 3: time you'd see me dancing is Buddy on a bar
Speaker 3: when we's won World Cup for an Olympic gold medal
Speaker 3: and it's the celebration after us. So to be in
Speaker 3: that you do make yourself. I know, it's interesting the
Speaker 3: judging of the you know, all subjective, how their eyes
Speaker 3: see something, which is like, oh my god, I have
Speaker 3: no dance background. You know, don't look at your partner,
Speaker 3: don't smile, turn your head this one. I'm like, why
Speaker 3: you look at your part knowing your body dance and.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, everything you instinctively feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: you kind of have to throw out the window, which
Speaker 2: I think is which is interesting. But you know, you
Speaker 2: bring something up which I thought was quite fascinating. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've been talking this season to a number of the
Speaker 2: stars about advantages. I mean, you're an Olympic gold medalist.
Speaker 2: I wondered whether being a sports star had given you
Speaker 2: an advantage because I can now see being an actor
Speaker 2: can help Lisa McCune and I can see how being
Speaker 2: a sea. What are your thoughts, What do you think
Speaker 2: is the biggest advantage going this season if you are
Speaker 2: a star taking it on.
Speaker 3: I think the training aspect, the fitness I didn't struggle
Speaker 3: with like in twenty what year in our twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two twenty twenty three, I've done back to back Kakoda
Speaker 3: track and they're doing the Kakoda track is one of
Speaker 3: the most physically hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 3: It's mental, spirit, it's all of that. So being able
Speaker 3: to push myself, I can do that. That's not even
Speaker 3: an option. So there were some of the days, you know,
Speaker 3: for five weeks of training there with your partner from
Speaker 3: eight eight thirty in the morning, you finish at between
Speaker 3: four and five in the afternoon. And on my right knee,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you notice my dance last night,
Speaker 3: I had it strapped. So I struck my legs every
Speaker 3: single day. And I don't have any cartilage left in
Speaker 3: my right knee none at all. Wow, God, So it's
Speaker 3: bone on bone. Art writers. I've had our frost. My
Speaker 3: left one was not that much better. And I just
Speaker 3: thought to myself that if some things in life you
Speaker 3: just got to do because you'll never get another chance
Speaker 3: to do. And I said, ask stuff, but I'll I'll
Speaker 3: just go and do it and I'll grind away. And
Speaker 3: so every if it wasn't every day, every second that
Speaker 3: I was having ice baff, I was knocking back to
Speaker 3: celebrates and the anti inflammatory and I got through and
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, I had I had fun. And the
Speaker 3: thing is having done Survivor before where everyone wants to
Speaker 3: basically stab each other in the back and light your face. Yeah,
Speaker 3: coming in and doing you know, Dancing with the Stars
Speaker 3: with everyone, all the celebrities, we all cheered each other
Speaker 3: on and all got along like a house on fire.
Speaker 3: There was we all. We all became a twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four Dancing with the Stars family, and it was it
Speaker 3: was fun in that aspect, you know, there's that was
Speaker 3: a nice thing to be able to walk away from
Speaker 3: a really reality TV show and say, gosh, wasn't that fun?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: To have that, But you know that doesn't happen every year,
Speaker 2: right because this season and you know, I've got my
Speaker 2: finger on the pulse when it comes to what goes
Speaker 2: on behind the scenes of these shows. And everything I
Speaker 2: kept hearing back from this was how well this cast
Speaker 2: connected and the friendship was very genuine and you were
Speaker 2: all very supportive, and that isn't what happens every year.
Speaker 2: There's sometimes people that you know, take it too seriously,
Speaker 2: and you've got some people there that are obviously taking
Speaker 2: this very seriously. But isn't it nice that our Australian
Speaker 2: sportsmanship comes out and that you can still get along
Speaker 2: off the dance floor.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think so, And maybe I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, Shane Ben, myself and us sort of for
Speaker 3: we could say, where the sporty? So we had that
Speaker 3: high level of respect for each other. And then you
Speaker 3: look at you know, Aiden Hayden and Jans and well,
Speaker 3: I guess surely all the rest of them. They're all entertainers. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they're all entertainers in different field. So there was no
Speaker 3: need to be envious of the other person. So I
Speaker 3: got to feel we are all successful within our own right,
Speaker 3: you know. And you know even Nadia, you know she's
Speaker 3: I thought she did incredible within herself and you know,
Speaker 3: her own fashion design. So we're all high achieving people.
Speaker 3: And Nikki Osborne. I got close to Nikki. She was
Speaker 3: absolutely hysterical. She sort of you know, kept the humor
Speaker 3: going with all of us. And yeah, we had fun
Speaker 3: and like I said, there was no reason for anyone
Speaker 3: to sort of be disgrunted with anyone. We all got
Speaker 3: along really well and had some really good fun times.
Speaker 2: It's funny because this competition is about physical and that's
Speaker 2: what we think of first. But I also think about
Speaker 2: you talking about the mental side of this as well,
Speaker 2: and I think your pedigree with your background is actually
Speaker 2: quite good for dancing with this. Does not you have
Speaker 2: got that sports side, but also having the politicians, which
Speaker 2: is also mentally quite challenging. I think the combination of
Speaker 2: those two would work for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I sort of feel it's funny because you
Speaker 3: have to entertain and have the facial expressions. People like
Speaker 3: your Samantha Jay you know, you lease the me cus
Speaker 3: and and you know, even Nicky they can do the
Speaker 3: facial expressions and all that sort of stuff, and they
Speaker 3: knew where the camera was, you know, even like James
Speaker 3: Stewart performing, you know, as an entertainer, you know where
Speaker 3: they look for the cameras. And I was like just
Speaker 3: trying to remember the dance steps.
Speaker 1: I could see that in you. I like that though.
Speaker 3: And it's funny because the countdown to the song starts
Speaker 3: to go. It does like a little four beats that
Speaker 3: go into and then you just think, oh, ship, here
Speaker 3: we go, and you don't you do.
Speaker 4: Something if you jump it up, it's just do it
Speaker 4: straight on and It's one of those things you've just
Speaker 4: got to, you know, try and best and nail a
Speaker 4: nail your performances.
Speaker 3: And yeah, like I said, it was all foreign, but
Speaker 3: you just have to embrace it. And you know, my
Speaker 3: heart rate if I had.
Speaker 4: A worn to wash when I was sitting up on.
Speaker 3: That fricking shoe and that dance, my heart rate would
Speaker 3: have been one twenty one thirty sitting on my backslide
Speaker 3: on a big bloody shoe. So, yes, the nerves get
Speaker 3: to you, and yes, the you know, the breath. And
Speaker 3: it was funny because even that first dance I get.
Speaker 3: I think it was telling Richard, oh, you look so nervous,
Speaker 3: and I was thinking to myself because honey, you wouldn't
Speaker 3: have it through what nervous was look like when you
Speaker 3: line up in a bloody in the final, I was
Speaker 3: just like hit myself, thinking, am I going to stuff
Speaker 3: a step up? It's like game day? And then you
Speaker 3: have for me is the game place that was? I
Speaker 3: took it seriously, you know. And then when you're the
Speaker 3: jive and the I just sang the whole way and
Speaker 3: even my kids like, mom, you were just singing the
Speaker 3: whole time. I said, Yes, made me bloody.
Speaker 4: Of a lot.
Speaker 1: I loved it.
Speaker 2: I love watching you being able to sing along with
Speaker 2: it because that made it look like you were having fun.
Speaker 2: I mean, you definitely had the look sometimes because I
Speaker 2: could see myself in you. I was like, if that
Speaker 2: was me, that's how I would look, you know, I
Speaker 2: would I would be looking around because you're a little
Speaker 2: bit like a deer in a headlights at some point,
Speaker 2: because you really are putting yourself, you know, you're really
Speaker 2: putting yourself out there. I thought that Julia Goodwin's admission
Speaker 2: in last night's episode was really quite telling as well,
Speaker 2: where she talked about saying, you know, she said that
Speaker 2: she believes things about herself that she didn't believe before.
Speaker 2: I think these shows can teach us things that are
Speaker 2: quite out of the box, like something that wouldn't happen
Speaker 2: to you if you wouldn't have said yes to this show.
Speaker 1: Did you walk away with.
Speaker 2: A similar feeling like this show had taught you something
Speaker 2: that you may not have known before.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. Like well, to begin with, when
Speaker 3: you're learning the steps and I have all this video
Speaker 3: with Craig was videoing from the very first to the last,
Speaker 3: It's like Wow, to actually think that I could remember it,
Speaker 3: and what it does is like going back to sports.
Speaker 3: So even when at the Olympics, you've become a creature
Speaker 3: of habit, right, And when I played an Olympics in
Speaker 3: ninety six, our philosophy was game plan would keep it simple,
Speaker 3: stupid because you do all the training and then you
Speaker 3: become reactive in a game and all your drills and everything.
Speaker 3: You've trained hours and hours and years and you've dreamt
Speaker 3: of that moment and it's a weird thing. Even like
Speaker 3: a Dancing with the Stars. Craig would say to me,
Speaker 3: if you just keep practicing going over and going over,
Speaker 3: and you know, we fit in five weeks, you actually
Speaker 3: end up learning five dancers or six dancers, thinking that
Speaker 3: everyone set the chance to get to the finals. So
Speaker 3: it's not like you just practiced the one for two
Speaker 3: or three weeks. You're practicing multiple dances. And there was
Speaker 3: even one day, I think it was the week before
Speaker 3: we started, Craig said let's do this dance. I just
Speaker 3: looked at him and said, I can't even remember that,
Speaker 3: and he goes, I've been doing for I can't remember it.
Speaker 3: And I did show the sheet and he just wo
Speaker 3: was Oh that dashing.
Speaker 2: I'm overwhelmed talking to you about this today. I don't
Speaker 2: think the average person can put that much information into
Speaker 2: their brains to remember it. I'd have PTSD if I
Speaker 2: ever saw Craig again, you know, just as much as
Speaker 2: you loved working with him in his training, as soon
Speaker 2: as you'd see this man, I'd be like, I'll get
Speaker 2: him away from me.
Speaker 1: That's too much.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it was like that. And some days, are you
Speaker 3: all right? And my brains, athletic brain was on frick
Speaker 3: and hurting, but I'm not. I'm going to tell you
Speaker 3: I'm hurting. I'm going to say, yes, we've got two
Speaker 3: more hours to go. So it was like you just
Speaker 3: you kept pushing. And even though for Julie, you know,
Speaker 3: she's spent her you know, she's she's got her own
Speaker 3: story and she's got a book out this year, and
Speaker 3: and like for her to do something that is so
Speaker 3: totally foreign, you know, it's and people don't realize. It's
Speaker 3: easy for people to just get online say oh you
Speaker 3: are terrible and whatever. I'm like, this isn't our thing,
Speaker 3: you know, Like ID even watched the show last night.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you the true I haven't watched it because
Speaker 3: I'm getting my head around to the athletics, which I
Speaker 3: publitate at four thirty in the morning, you know, So
Speaker 3: it's it's a part of your life that's come and gone,
Speaker 3: and yes, I'll catch up with it, but I you know,
Speaker 3: I had my mum and everyone really meet you so
Speaker 3: that they loved it and all the rest of it.
Speaker 2: So what do you think about the judges, because I
Speaker 2: think they've got a tough job because, you know, not
Speaker 2: only they get to give you sound advice, but they
Speaker 2: also need to be entertaining because it's a TV show.
Speaker 2: So do you think sometimes they can go too far
Speaker 2: with some of the negative criticisms. I mean, we know
Speaker 2: it's for entertainment, but how do you how do you
Speaker 2: feel in those moments?
Speaker 3: You know? I think what I take away is Shanna
Speaker 3: she gave good sound advice how to hold certain things,
Speaker 3: but she was like, great, that was great. I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed it. I could see, you know, that wasn't an
Speaker 3: easy thing to do. I thought Mark Wilson, he was great.
Speaker 3: I appreciated that he reminded people of my achievements beyond
Speaker 3: dancing with the stuff, which was nice. Yeah, And then
Speaker 3: you know, I think Helen was inconsistent with her critiquing.
Speaker 3: It was very inconsistent that I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 3: And then with Craig, if it's meant to be funny,
Speaker 3: work on your funny joke. You know, there's a line
Speaker 3: in the sand which you have to draw between.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm going to critique you about this, but then
Speaker 4: there's a line in the sand how you can describe
Speaker 4: things for a woman.
Speaker 2: I think that becomes where it's hard because you know,
Speaker 2: if it was just them giving you really positive critiques,
Speaker 2: I don't know if this show works, you know, globally
Speaker 2: where if you watch this show, whether it's you know,
Speaker 2: Strictly Dancing or wherever it's played, or America's you know,
Speaker 2: Dancing with the Stars, you know, there needs to be
Speaker 2: these sort of polarizing comments. And I don't think that
Speaker 2: he is genuinely trying to upset you. I think he's
Speaker 2: got a mark that he has to hit, which is
Speaker 2: a dangerous ground. It's a dangerous ground to play in
Speaker 2: because he can leave himself open in moments like that.
Speaker 2: But I just think it's hard to facilitate that role,
Speaker 2: and you know that would be challenging in it in itself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but there's ways of means of getting a message across,
Speaker 3: like this isn't a thing, and you know, we all
Speaker 3: open ourselves up to vulnerability. But even like the critiquing
Speaker 3: of my stuff from it never changed in anything, like
Speaker 3: the judges, Oh this is your best dance or whatever,
Speaker 3: the score has never changed. Oh you're improving, Well, the
Speaker 3: score's never changed. I stayed on fucking nineteen all three dances.
Speaker 3: So you know, there's inconsistency. Everyone improved except for me,
Speaker 3: and I actually thought I improved as I went on.
Speaker 3: So I was inconsistent life with that. And I feel
Speaker 3: like with Craig Revel whatever his name is, So the
Speaker 3: critiquing from that wasn't okay. You know, when I did
Speaker 3: a slip, do you know how long it took Craig,
Speaker 3: my partner, to convince me to have a go at that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine. I can imagine I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: done you.
Speaker 3: Know, I know, and just you know, like even like,
Speaker 3: for example, my leg who have taken me for thirteen
Speaker 3: years of representing this country on the international stage, I
Speaker 3: can't straighten my leak. So and as a track athlete,
Speaker 3: finding one track athlete that does not have a kink
Speaker 3: in their leak because printers, that's our body like that.
Speaker 3: So you're being judged all the legs are straight. Well,
Speaker 3: fucking my legs don't go straight. Period.
Speaker 2: I don't meant to laugh, but it's you know, it's
Speaker 2: you're making a valid point. No, I think you're making
Speaker 2: a valid point, and I totally see where you're coming from,
Speaker 2: and I think that that's where it's a bit of
Speaker 2: a gray area because the show, the magic of the
Speaker 2: show is about getting people that don't know how to
Speaker 2: dance to dance like it's it's the magic of this
Speaker 2: show is getting to see people that you know are
Speaker 2: recognizable faces and then seeing what they can do and
Speaker 2: how they can.
Speaker 1: Dance, which is something completely out of box for that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I could talk to you about this all day,
Speaker 2: and I just think you were so fantastic on this show,
Speaker 2: and I wish I did have more time to sort
Speaker 2: of unpack this, but look, you took this competition on
Speaker 2: and it was fantastic to watch, which, at the end
Speaker 2: of the day is the true magic of this show.
Speaker 2: So thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I've got to ask you my last question just is
Speaker 2: what is something from behind the scenes, something that we
Speaker 2: didn't get a chance to see. What's your behind the
Speaker 2: scene secret for doing Dancing with the Stars, because I
Speaker 2: asked that question for everyone who joins the podcast.
Speaker 3: Secret.
Speaker 1: Yeah, something that we wouldn't know, something happened. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: a funny story or an anecdote or.
Speaker 3: Just something that funny story is we all stay at
Speaker 3: the one apartment.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, and like two and.
Speaker 3: A half three weeks in Shane Cowford still got lost
Speaker 3: in the apartment where lift would go to the four
Speaker 3: five get out. It was hysterical. And then one time
Speaker 3: Li and Mique was in her pajamas with no shoes on,
Speaker 3: keet to go down there's to meet someone, and she
Speaker 3: realized you didn't have the key to get back up.
Speaker 3: So it was one feel down the bottom for like
Speaker 3: ten minutes and listening up and down. And then Shane
Speaker 3: has kept getting lost in it. But that was a
Speaker 3: bit of a funny sort of gay that we stayed
Speaker 3: at this one hotel for like I love it, three
Speaker 3: four weeks, oh my god.
Speaker 2: But it's a kind of like Big Brother behind the
Speaker 2: scenes of Dancing with the Stars, which you know, could
Speaker 2: be a TV show within itself. You know. Good luck
Speaker 2: with everything with the Olympics, and I thank you for
Speaker 2: being so generous with your time and chatting with me today.
Speaker 1: I loved it.
Speaker 3: And take care, Thank you, say bye,