Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast last week. I'mby Hey guys, welcome
Speaker 1: back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for
Speaker 1: clicking and downloading on today's episode with Julie Goodwin, who
Speaker 1: is one of the latest celebrities to sign up to
Speaker 1: Channel sevens Dancing with the Stars, which starts this Sunday
Speaker 1: night at seven point thirty. Julie Goodwin is an Australian cook, author,
Speaker 1: radio and television presenter. She came to public attention when
Speaker 1: she won the inaugural season of Master Chef Australia back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine, defeating artist and now host
Speaker 1: of Master Chef Polling Yao in a nail binding finale
Speaker 1: that I myself has still not gotten over. I think,
Speaker 1: like most of Australia, we love to see Julie succeed
Speaker 1: and watching her time on Dancing with the Stars feels
Speaker 1: like another opportunity.
Speaker 2: For us to see her do well.
Speaker 1: I will talk about why Julie said yes to Dancing
Speaker 1: with the Stars and what her concerns were when contemplating
Speaker 1: doing all of those grueling rehearsals. We will unpack her
Speaker 1: journey in the media industry thus far, why radio wasn't
Speaker 1: for her, and why she is still saying yes to
Speaker 1: new challenges. There is an opportunity to talk to her
Speaker 1: about her last few days on Master Chef back in
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, and why in her autobiography she
Speaker 1: described it as looking up from underneath the water. We
Speaker 1: will talk about her feelings on the rest of the
Speaker 1: cast and if she was intimidated by some of those
Speaker 1: well known athletes. There's actually so much to talk about
Speaker 1: with Julie, so sit back and relax as we unpack
Speaker 1: the wonderful world of Dancing.
Speaker 2: With the Stars. Hi Julie, Hi Dan, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm good.
Speaker 1: I was like just going back through my chats with
Speaker 1: people over the years, and I'm like, Julie Goodwin, I've
Speaker 1: got to move up the ranks on how many times
Speaker 1: I've chatted to you on the podcast.
Speaker 3: There, he goes, I'm a frequent chat Yeah.
Speaker 2: You're a frequent flyer. I'll send you a show back
Speaker 2: or some merch.
Speaker 1: I was so excited to have the chance to talk
Speaker 1: to today because you know, Julie is such a such
Speaker 1: a joy in everything that we get to see you
Speaker 1: do and I have been in your audience since the
Speaker 1: very first day you were on Mastership.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's been a lovely thing to say thank you.
Speaker 1: You know, I did Breakfast Radio after I did Big Brother,
Speaker 1: and I did that for three years, and I really
Speaker 1: connected with your story the other day where you said
Speaker 1: that you loved it but you would never go back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty brutal. To some people. It's their last,
Speaker 3: and if you make it your last, you can sort
Speaker 3: your schedule around it. But it was too brutal for me.
Speaker 3: I needed more sleep.
Speaker 2: I need my sleep.
Speaker 1: I remember it would get to Friday night and my
Speaker 1: partner would finish his working week and would want to
Speaker 1: go out and do something. And I remember just saying
Speaker 1: to him after a few weeks, I said, Friday night,
Speaker 1: I can't do it. It's like I'm underwater, like I felt.
Speaker 1: I'd have one drink sitting at a bar with him
Speaker 1: and I couldn't hear anything. It was like being underwater
Speaker 1: and looking up at him.
Speaker 3: That's a really interesting description. I actually in my biography,
Speaker 3: my book that I just released, I described the last
Speaker 3: three days on Mastership as though I'm underwater. Everything sounds
Speaker 3: like it's underwater. It looks like it's underwater. I felt
Speaker 3: like I was swimming through those days. Yeah, it's an
Speaker 3: interesting one. It's a bit of association, that is, that's
Speaker 3: your brain kind of getting out of your body.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean that's made me want to buy your book
Speaker 1: even more so I'll go down to Big Cap here and.
Speaker 2: Took that up after this chat.
Speaker 1: You know, fabulous to be talking to you a head
Speaker 1: of the launch of Dancing with the Stars this Sunday night.
Speaker 1: It's a fantastic lineup of stars and you must have
Speaker 1: been so excited to get that call.
Speaker 3: Look, I was frightened. I'm not a dancer, and my
Speaker 3: head just went this is not possible, but also excited
Speaker 3: and intrigued, and you know, I kind of they kind
Speaker 3: of talked me into a little bit because I said,
Speaker 3: you know, I can't get you go the wrong number. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is a mistake, and they're like, no,
Speaker 3: you'll be fine, and no, seriously, I don't think you
Speaker 3: can hear what I'm saying. I don't caan't have, never, could,
Speaker 3: never dance, and they just saent. You know a lot
Speaker 3: of people say that give it a go, and well,
Speaker 3: you know what, I've had so much richness and joy
Speaker 3: come my way from trying things that are outside my
Speaker 3: comfort zone. Why not, I'm going to give it a go.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether we're operating at different like living
Speaker 1: parallel lives at the same time, but look, when breakfast
Speaker 1: Radio came along, I was like, yep, I'll give this
Speaker 1: a go. And many years ago I got like an
Speaker 1: early call for Dancing with the Stars and I was
Speaker 1: in Ireland actually, so I couldn't do it, but I
Speaker 1: remember seeing immediately I was in my head just toying
Speaker 1: with the idea, and I wondered if I had been there,
Speaker 1: would I have ever been able to get out of
Speaker 1: my head, because it just that to me was so daunting.
Speaker 1: And look in the rock Astadford at school, Julie. They
Speaker 1: gave me a part in it, but they had to
Speaker 1: make me a role that was not one that danced,
Speaker 1: because I had very little dance or rhythm rhythm at all,
Speaker 1: and they only left me with one small thing that
Speaker 1: I had to do, and in the performance I leapt
Speaker 1: over the person I was supposed to leap over and
Speaker 1: fell off the stage.
Speaker 3: I feel that on a cellular level, this is my
Speaker 3: this is my my level of dance exactly. You know,
Speaker 3: I did Joe ballet as a little tacker, and it
Speaker 3: was kind of recommended that I stopped, not.
Speaker 2: To your skill set. And then now you're feels it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're now in front of Australia, you know dancing.
Speaker 1: Are you nervous because I mean, you have such a
Speaker 1: strong fan base. I feel as though you could do
Speaker 1: the Chicken dance and everyone will applaud.
Speaker 2: But are you're nervous for your fans to watch you're
Speaker 2: singing dancing?
Speaker 1: It me?
Speaker 3: I floated that idea. Look very nervous. But at the
Speaker 3: same time. The funny thing is then, is that this
Speaker 3: is not what I do for a living. So it's
Speaker 3: different to going back onto mastership, where if I rarely
Speaker 3: screwed this up, that's my career. But if I can't dance,
Speaker 3: then it's just as you were. Nobody saw I could anyway.
Speaker 3: You know, I just thought, the worst thing that can
Speaker 3: happen is that I make a bit of a vindictiveness.
Speaker 3: But in all honesty, it was so much fun. It's
Speaker 3: so much fun, and I just had such an instant
Speaker 3: connection and friendship with my dance partner, and I dared
Speaker 3: all the other celebrities, and the production itself is such
Speaker 3: a joyful, joyful production. But I look, I loved it,
Speaker 3: really very regrets about making that decision. I'm so glad
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 2: Had you been asked to do the show before, I
Speaker 2: mean that they'd ever called you up.
Speaker 3: I got the call a very long time ago, not
Speaker 3: long after the master Chef, and my response was, I
Speaker 3: have spent quite enough time working on television for a while.
Speaker 3: That's pretty hard, no, that grandship.
Speaker 1: I always think that you're full of hidden talents. Like
Speaker 1: I remember chatting with you after your last mastership experience,
Speaker 1: and I loved the fact that it was a surprise
Speaker 1: to me that you had an electric I think it's
Speaker 1: an electric guitar. If I remember incorrectly, you had a guitar,
Speaker 1: basic guitar, Julie like not something I saw on my
Speaker 1: bingo card for Julie Goodwin.
Speaker 2: And I loved it. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2: Do you're just full of all of these hidden secrets?
Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you that the dance secret is
Speaker 3: so well hidden that I don't know I'll find it.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, that's right. You leave that one in the
Speaker 1: bottom of the drawer, but great stories to be telling
Speaker 1: the grandkids. Hey.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I actually with my grandchild now. So I'm
Speaker 3: down at the beach, I'm having a family holiday. My
Speaker 3: whole family's around me, my little baby granddaughter's here, and
Speaker 3: this is living.
Speaker 1: Right absolutely, Oh my god, that is so. I'm so
Speaker 1: glad that I'm on a holiday with Julie Goodwin. That's amazing. Technically,
Speaker 1: how hard are those training sessions though? That's what I
Speaker 1: want to know. I want to know how long were
Speaker 1: you there for? Was it as grueling as you thought
Speaker 1: it was going to be?
Speaker 3: Well? Absolutely it was. So when I first found out
Speaker 3: that I was going to be doing it, I started
Speaker 3: training just on my own, not dance training, just physical
Speaker 3: training because I thought I don't want to be or
Speaker 3: puffed out and embarrassed about being unfit. So I got
Speaker 3: as sit as I possibly could, as strong as I
Speaker 3: possibly could. And then my dance partner came from Singapore
Speaker 3: and he came and lived on the Central Coast for
Speaker 3: months and we for Cony and so he came and
Speaker 3: we were scheduled to dance eight hours a day, five
Speaker 3: days a week, and so, I mean that's hardcore, right,
Speaker 3: It's pretty physical and then he would say to me,
Speaker 3: what have you got on for the weekend and a
Speaker 3: not much. You go good, I will book the studio.
Speaker 3: So it turned out we only had like two days
Speaker 3: off in that first home month, and then you go
Speaker 3: to Sydney and it's when we're not filming, we're dancing,
Speaker 3: we're training. So it is it's an absolute one hundred
Speaker 3: percent commitment of every sea minute of your time and
Speaker 3: then get home and utterly collapse from exhaustion because it's
Speaker 3: really really physically hard core.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's wild. That's kind of what I thought it
Speaker 1: was going to be like, and that that might be
Speaker 1: a little bit too much time for me.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, you can elect to not commit to
Speaker 4: it like that, but I don't see the point. I
Speaker 4: don't want to do it in a half sort of
Speaker 4: a half way and then think well I could have
Speaker 4: done better.
Speaker 3: If I've tried harder. So I tried the hardest I could,
Speaker 3: and then you know, you walk away with no regrets.
Speaker 1: When you saw the cast, when you saw everyone you
Speaker 1: were going to be dancing alongside, what was your original thoughts, like,
Speaker 1: what were those initial thoughts. Did you have an idea
Speaker 1: on who could and couldn't dance.
Speaker 3: Oh, I had my hysteria when I saw the rest
Speaker 3: of the cast. I mean, you've seen them. We've got
Speaker 3: Olympic athletes, we've got football players, we've got four time
Speaker 3: Gold Lodi winners who performed for a living with all thesebulous,
Speaker 3: dobulous people, and I just thought, my poor dance partner
Speaker 3: like drawing us all out of the hat. And so
Speaker 3: you know, somebody's getting the athlete, and somebody's getting the actress,
Speaker 3: and somebody's getting the tabby, middle aged gramother.
Speaker 2: Julie.
Speaker 1: What I think is amazing about you is is that
Speaker 1: age you have defied, Like you are going out there
Speaker 1: and doing whatever you want when you want it. There's
Speaker 1: so many people out there, Like when I talk to
Speaker 1: my mom, Mom says no to things, and I'm just like, no,
Speaker 1: you need to say yes. And that's what I think
Speaker 1: is really inspiring about you, is that you do say yes,
Speaker 1: and you do put yourself into uncomfortable situations.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's sometimes I think it's we've got to
Speaker 3: learn to say no to the things that we should
Speaker 3: say no to, which is too much work, you know,
Speaker 3: too many commitments, too much stuff that brings you down.
Speaker 3: And sometimes I've got to say yes to the things
Speaker 3: that we ought to say yes to. And that can
Speaker 3: be as simple as how that sits up the laptop
Speaker 3: and come for a walk if you And if your
Speaker 3: response to that is no, no, I've got too much
Speaker 3: work to do, maybe just rethink that. Go you know what, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm going to do that if you can't, and then
Speaker 3: come back to whatever you have to do.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I always think if you can't complain, if you can't
Speaker 1: commit to something, then don't do it. Like I think,
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to say okay, I'm putting
Speaker 1: that site that space aside.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask you.
Speaker 1: About your reality TV experiences because now you've clocked up
Speaker 1: a few things on your daycard. You've done ie a celebrity,
Speaker 1: You've been on multiple master Chefs, now done Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars. I just want to know what's the hardest,
Speaker 1: like in terms of reality TV in Australia, with your experience,
Speaker 1: can you rank them for me?
Speaker 3: Look, for me, the hardest will always be Season one
Speaker 3: of Masterships, just because I had no idea what I
Speaker 3: was getting into. No I, however, and I had no
Speaker 3: idea what I'll get out of it, you know, so
Speaker 3: that's were always set up there in one of the
Speaker 3: hardest things I've ever done in my life. I honest
Speaker 3: already had its physical discomforts, but I found that a
Speaker 3: really joyful experience, and dancing in terms of physical really
Speaker 3: that dancing was the hardest. But you know, I mean
Speaker 3: there's a fear I haven't done yet then, so let's
Speaker 3: see how I go on Buddy Survivor and about it.
Speaker 1: You know, Julie, you and po have really been one
Speaker 1: like a huge television success story between the two of you,
Speaker 1: both have achieved so much. I feel like at this point,
Speaker 1: what is on the vision board? Like, what is it
Speaker 1: that you want to do next?
Speaker 3: You know what? Then, I actually I've arrived a point
Speaker 3: where I was planning to get it. I don't know
Speaker 3: what's around the corner. This is such a it's a
Speaker 3: sickle industry, It's a sickle and unpredictable life. And so
Speaker 3: I am just making sure in each day that I
Speaker 3: building enough stuff that brings me go and keeps me grounded.
Speaker 3: But as those next opportunities, I'll just flit and see
Speaker 3: what MUCKs on my door and deside whether or not
Speaker 3: I'm going to open it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: It's a good man try to have Well. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to ask you two last questions before you go.
Speaker 1: I feel like the best thing to ask you is
Speaker 1: who's the most competitive person this season?
Speaker 2: Like who should we watch out for in.
Speaker 1: Terms of who is there to win and is like
Speaker 1: there to kill anyone to do it?
Speaker 3: Look, I reckon if you're talking about competitiveness, you can't
Speaker 3: go past neither Peris.
Speaker 4: She's an Olympian.
Speaker 3: She's an Olympian and a politician. So as far as
Speaker 3: competition goes, I reckon her her eyes on the prize.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to watching her dance. That's going to
Speaker 1: be very exciting. And then, Julie, every time you've joined
Speaker 1: the podcast, I've asked you this question and you can
Speaker 1: now talk about it in relation to Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: What is something from behind the scenes, something that we
Speaker 1: as an audience may not know from what it's like
Speaker 1: to be on the show. Is there a secret from
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars you can share?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, I would have to say, blew my mind.
Speaker 3: How much time is spent and efforts sent by wardrobe
Speaker 3: and hair and makeup. It is wild, Like the wardrobe
Speaker 3: people came to my place to see me to get
Speaker 3: me all fitted. And you know, these costumes are made,
Speaker 3: I'm stitched into them. They're I'm all cuped in and
Speaker 3: held up and gussied and all that, and there's just
Speaker 3: so much commitment to excellence in those costumes. And then
Speaker 3: you know the hair takes ours and his hair pieces
Speaker 3: and eyelassers, and it is seriously blame orate.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 1: I did enjoy it when I did the Google search
Speaker 1: on you this morning that people were like Julie Goodman
Speaker 1: Sick's and makeover on Dancing with the Stars, And I
Speaker 1: was like, to be honest, I'm like, I think you
Speaker 1: look the same in this photo as you do in
Speaker 1: your press photo for the last Mastership.
Speaker 2: And I was like, I think you're looking good hair makeup.
Speaker 3: Thanks for that, Ben. I don't think benefit was a
Speaker 3: bit of professional help. Can tell you what I have
Speaker 3: said yesterday, I glinched myself on the way out of
Speaker 3: the house to go to the shop and I'm a plug. Beetlejuice,
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Hopefully nobody so agressed me today.
Speaker 1: Did your husband manage to say beetlejuice three times? Maybe
Speaker 1: that's what happened. And maybe that's what it happened.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's what needs to happen.
Speaker 1: You have the best time with your family on your
Speaker 1: holiday today. I will be thinking of you on Sunday
Speaker 1: night as Australia watches you take on the dance floor.
Speaker 2: We are all rooting for you.
Speaker 1: I can tell you that much right now, and I
Speaker 1: just look forward to chatting to you again when it happens.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm here anytime. I love it so much, Ben,
Speaker 3: I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Take care, lovely, see you, Julie.