Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload, the podcast last week they lie.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris
Speaker 2: and this is your podcast to get all the inside
Speaker 2: goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching
Speaker 2: from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are still
Speaker 2: a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very
Speaker 2: little is known about how our favorite shows get made.
Speaker 2: Each episode, I find guests that want to dive just
Speaker 2: that little bit deeper into the shows they're currently making,
Speaker 2: so you can hear all their exclusive stories and gain
Speaker 2: access to the biggest names in Australian television. I want
Speaker 2: to thank you for downloading or subscribing to this podcast.
Speaker 2: I love hearing your feedback, so make sure you leave
Speaker 2: a review or a comment on your chosen podcast platform.
Speaker 2: On today's podcast, I have Jeffrey Walker, the director from
Speaker 2: the exciting Newstand original film The Portable Door that is
Speaker 2: now available to stream on Stand. Jeffrey was a child
Speaker 2: actor who audiences would know from popular series like Ocean
Speaker 2: Girl and the cult classic Round the Twist, but now
Speaker 2: he is an actor winning content creator who is working
Speaker 2: with some of the best filmmakers in the world. Today
Speaker 2: we will be talking about The Portable Door, his feature film,
Speaker 2: and his delight to be directing Sam Neil and Christoph Waltz,
Speaker 2: who will also star in the film. The story centers
Speaker 2: around a man who lands in internship at a mysterious
Speaker 2: London firm which has a bunch of unconventional employees, including
Speaker 2: a charismatic CEO who is incorporating modern corporate strategy into
Speaker 2: ancient magical practices. It has all the magic of a
Speaker 2: fantasy classic and families from around the world I'm sure
Speaker 2: are going to really enjoy this. I will talk to
Speaker 2: Jeffrey about his transition from child acting to making it
Speaker 2: big behind the scenes. We will also talk about his
Speaker 2: mentors and his passion for Australian film. We will also
Speaker 2: talk about the importance of telling stories that young people
Speaker 2: can enjoy and why this film is so important to
Speaker 2: his career. Plus we will get plenty of exclusives from
Speaker 2: behind the scenes. Anyway, let's bring Jeffrey into the pod
Speaker 2: and I really hope you enjoy this chat. Hi mate,
Speaker 2: how are you.
Speaker 1: Going very well? And glad to be with you.
Speaker 2: It's interesting that you've got this amazing legacy with Australian content.
Speaker 2: You know, I can still remember going home and watching
Speaker 2: Around the Twist and Ocean Girl, very popular shows four o'clock.
Speaker 2: I would have to be home to watch them. But
Speaker 2: do you get recognized still to this day for those
Speaker 2: for all of these roles that you played as a kid.
Speaker 1: I never get stopped in the street. But what does
Speaker 1: happen sometimes is you're meeting people or I start working
Speaker 1: with another crew and they can be you know, sort
Speaker 1: of generationally younger than I am, but have come to
Speaker 1: the project through its retro kind of you know, nineties
Speaker 1: and thiss. But what will happen is someone will bring
Speaker 1: it up and then everyone will go, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: used to watch that when I was at school, or
Speaker 1: I watched that on Saturday mornings or so the mornings
Speaker 1: are after school. Like it probably is something that I'm
Speaker 1: stopped in the street for these days, But definitely there
Speaker 1: was you know, probably you know, a generation half of
Speaker 1: kids that were, for better or worse, force to watch
Speaker 1: Round the Twist. And so it's just a project that
Speaker 1: stays with me, you know, now thirty years or something
Speaker 1: since I did it, but yet it's still sort of
Speaker 1: its legacy has lived on oddly and that's a pretty
Speaker 1: special thing being a part of.
Speaker 2: And then I have to ask you about this transition
Speaker 2: because you know, for a lot of child actors, you
Speaker 2: hear horror stories about what happens to them. But instead
Speaker 2: you've gone on to be a successful filmmaker behind the
Speaker 2: scenes because you know, quite often people say, you know,
Speaker 2: once you cross the floor from being in front of
Speaker 2: the camera to behind the camera, you kind of have
Speaker 2: to pick a team. What made you want to decide
Speaker 2: to become a content maker yourself?
Speaker 1: Well, I don't think. I mean, I loved acting as
Speaker 1: a kid and everything, but I don't think I think
Speaker 1: even working with the fabulous actors that I work with now,
Speaker 1: I just know that I wouldn't. I'm definitely not and
Speaker 1: never was that, you know, a caliber of actor to
Speaker 1: sit alongside, from Sam Neil and Krystal Watson, the types
Speaker 1: of films that I now get to direct. So I'm
Speaker 1: very happy behind the scenes that have no interest whatsoever
Speaker 1: in performing in front of the camera. Ever. Again, I'm
Speaker 1: quite happy that that, you know, that's something that I
Speaker 1: enjoyed and is behind me. One thing I would say,
Speaker 1: I guess is that it started for me, you know,
Speaker 1: in regard to you know, when that desire for a
Speaker 1: transition behind the scenes began, you know, really young, probably
Speaker 1: around the time I was doing Proof and around the Twist,
Speaker 1: I was about eight or nine years old and I
Speaker 1: was on set, you know, so I guess like forty
Speaker 1: hours a week or something as a kid, and you
Speaker 1: would just spend all this time with these amazing camera people, first,
Speaker 1: assistant directors, directors, grips, you know, all these folks who
Speaker 1: were probably away from their kids as well. And I'm
Speaker 1: away from my parents, who, you know, I had a
Speaker 1: lovely close family, and of course, you know, you sort
Speaker 1: of go to work and you miss everybody. So I
Speaker 1: think that I ended up finding all these amazing mentors
Speaker 1: behind the scenes, and they were probably the people that
Speaker 1: encouraged me, maybe even unknowingly, you know, to sort of
Speaker 1: develop this real fixation and passion and the very least
Speaker 1: an interest, you know, in everything behind the scenes. And
Speaker 1: I started making Sure films when I was probably about
Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen, and at that point I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: well this is it. And shortly after, when I finished
Speaker 1: high school, I was able to train with Jonathan Schiff
Speaker 1: as a producer. I'd worked with on An Ocean Girl
Speaker 1: at Thunderstone, and he very kindly knew that I had
Speaker 1: been bitten by the bug and he trained me as
Speaker 1: an assistant for the producers and director on his projects.
Speaker 1: And it was just it was just an amazing in
Speaker 1: ten year apprenticeship to sort of get to where I
Speaker 1: ultimately wanted to be, which was a director.
Speaker 2: And it's a close knit industry. I guess at some point,
Speaker 2: have you found yourself becoming the boss of people who
Speaker 2: were making content for you when you were a kid?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know, and like I was, I still work
Speaker 1: with people like I spoke about with Martin McGrath, who
Speaker 1: worked with him when I was seven or eight years old,
Speaker 1: and I worked with him as recently as you know,
Speaker 1: the start of last year on our I don't know,
Speaker 1: tenth twelfth project or something, you know. So first, a
Speaker 1: d's all these people we all keep coming back into
Speaker 1: our lives that I remember. It was a Grip who
Speaker 1: came up to the first crew person I remember ever
Speaker 1: having a conversation with as a kid. I was nine
Speaker 1: years old, and he came up and said, my name's Aaron.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I do? And I said, and
Speaker 1: he said well as a grip. I put the camera
Speaker 1: on the dolly lay all these tracks and he showed
Speaker 1: me all the year and it was like Lego and Micano,
Speaker 1: but for grown ups, and I was just like, this
Speaker 1: is amazing, and I just just attached myself to that
Speaker 1: gripping department and Aaron and I've worked with Aaron on Riot,
Speaker 1: you know, which was the sort of the Mardi gar
Speaker 1: origin story we did a couple of years ago as
Speaker 1: our kid Grip and it was just one of the
Speaker 1: sweetest things to be able to vibe this industry, working
Speaker 1: it for so long and get to re meet these
Speaker 1: fabulous people from three decades. It's just extraordinary. I feel
Speaker 1: grateful every day for it. You know.
Speaker 2: I can imagine, you know, growing up in the eighties
Speaker 2: and nineties, you would have seen some amazing people take
Speaker 2: flight and have phenomenal careers. Who are some of those
Speaker 2: content makers that you have looked up to?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, well, I mean I remember when I
Speaker 1: watched as a fourteen or fifteen year old, when I
Speaker 1: watched Romeo and Juliet for the first time and saw
Speaker 1: what Bazz, Catherine Martin, Jill bill Kock, and Don mceuelpine
Speaker 1: were doing. I just went like, okay, you know, I
Speaker 1: just thought that was the most probably the most confident
Speaker 1: start to a film that I'd seen at that point.
Speaker 1: I just went, wow, have a look at this. It
Speaker 1: was so stylized, Leo was an absolute knockout in it,
Speaker 1: and you know, clear dangers incredible. So I just remember
Speaker 1: that film and it being made by Australians US funded,
Speaker 1: made in Mexico, with some incredible international soundtrack of you know,
Speaker 1: every cool artist that was around at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably around that sort of time. I went okay, well
Speaker 1: there's you know, I had grown up sort of loving
Speaker 1: all of the Australians sort of quirky comedies and different
Speaker 1: strictly war Room I'd really loved and Muriel's wedding and
Speaker 1: all that sort of thing. But I think that there
Speaker 1: was a cool about coolness about that that I really
Speaker 1: does And the most exciting part of that was that,
Speaker 1: you know, I followed Don Michael Pine's career my whole life,
Speaker 1: and you know, and John Seals and you know this
Speaker 1: handful of Greg Fraser, Mandy Walker, there's his handful of
Speaker 1: absolute doions of cinematography and lo and behold, you know,
Speaker 1: my first feature film. Don Michael Pines shot it for me,
Speaker 1: and then he made Lambs of God with me and
Speaker 1: he shot Portable Door as well, you know, in in
Speaker 1: his eighties. I worked with him in three projects and
Speaker 1: I learned as much from him. I'm sure he has
Speaker 1: the same role as he did for his directors on
Speaker 1: you know, on Me and Juliet, as he would have
Speaker 1: been with Baz, you know, at that stage of his
Speaker 1: career and being younger coming through and you know, doing
Speaker 1: your first films. He's just a font of knowledge, creativity
Speaker 1: and a complete gentleman and someone that you can draw
Speaker 1: a lot from. So kind of rapped with the Australian industry,
Speaker 1: and I hope it just continues to grow and grow
Speaker 1: and get all bigger exports, whether they're made here find
Speaker 1: a bigger audience overseas, or the individuals get the biggest
Speaker 1: platform they can to show off their skills.
Speaker 2: Do we have a better work ethic or something I
Speaker 2: can't work out, you know, why we've been so successful internationally,
Speaker 2: especially in the States. I kept, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know the reason why. Maybe there's something in the water
Speaker 2: in Australia, But what is your rationale for the success
Speaker 2: that we've been able to have around the world.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that the hard thing is everyone sort
Speaker 1: of goes astrain and felt like there was a period
Speaker 1: of time where everyone you know was giving a strain
Speaker 1: film a really hard time because it was dark, it
Speaker 1: was brooding, it was you know, sort of tortureous stories
Speaker 1: about you know, heroin addicts, and there's no beautiful films
Speaker 1: made by incredible filmmakers. They were like, oh, where's the comedy,
Speaker 1: where's the castle again? With this? The thing is that
Speaker 1: we make We are such a small territory. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't even equate to a second or third tier
Speaker 1: state in America in terms of size of our industry.
Speaker 1: You know, Atlanta, the industry in Atlanta worked enormous. You know,
Speaker 1: it's huge. So I think that the big thing to
Speaker 1: kind of keep in mind is that, you know, we
Speaker 1: produce an extraordinary amount of incredible stuff, but from a
Speaker 1: very small, ultimately very small if you compare it to
Speaker 1: you know, the UK, France, US, just you know, or Canada.
Speaker 1: You know, in areas like Toronto and Vancouver, these are
Speaker 1: enormous for film hubs. So I think that you know,
Speaker 1: the quality that you know kind of exists in Australia.
Speaker 1: Within that ultimately, that sort of smaller pool is definitely
Speaker 1: a you know, it's it's rarely matched, you know, anywhere
Speaker 1: for the amount of actors that come out of Australia,
Speaker 1: you know, through television shows that you know are being
Speaker 1: watched by people all around the world, even if they
Speaker 1: might not be on a huge platform overseas. The astute
Speaker 1: executives and casting directors from around the world are watching
Speaker 1: what we're making here in Australia, and suddenly someone will
Speaker 1: be in a fabulous Foxfel series or a you might
Speaker 1: be in an ABC theories and then they'll turn up
Speaker 1: in a big US something you know, and it's because
Speaker 1: that talent can be spotted. It just takes sometimes a
Speaker 1: little bit of fining what we're hoping to do. A
Speaker 1: particularly the last couple of projects that I've made is
Speaker 1: you have more of the projects here you know, made here,
Speaker 1: breakthrough and be watched, you know, by larger audiences around
Speaker 1: the world, so that it's not sort of you don't
Speaker 1: have to find them, they.
Speaker 2: Find you and you get to really live through a
Speaker 2: couple of generations here of some of these amazing shows
Speaker 2: being made and how they were made, and now we're
Speaker 2: in this new era of streaming services which allows people
Speaker 2: like yourself to probably think a little bit more out
Speaker 2: of the box. Because before, just to get something greenlit,
Speaker 2: you it seemed like there was a very structure to
Speaker 2: the narrative of stories being made and you kind of
Speaker 2: had to tick those boxes. But how do you feel
Speaker 2: now that you've got the opportunity to be a part
Speaker 2: of you know, streaming services like stan Well.
Speaker 1: Yes, Dan, and you know, Disney Plus made a huge
Speaker 1: splash last year and just said, look, we're just going
Speaker 1: to go out and make a whole you know, we're
Speaker 1: coming up with what our Australian brand will be. And
Speaker 1: I've been lucky enough to work on two of their
Speaker 1: of that stable of projects, one being The Clearing, which
Speaker 1: is a you know, fabulous and very dark and brooding
Speaker 1: kind of psychological thriller, and then another one The Artful Dodger,
Speaker 1: which is all sort of you know de Genzi and
Speaker 1: Midnight teenth Century. These are bold projects to be making,
Speaker 1: and certainly on mass these were not being made ten
Speaker 1: years ago. You might get one project or two projects
Speaker 1: a year that were high concept, and you know, when
Speaker 1: they were outside of like you're saying this sort of
Speaker 1: the safety of being able to say, well, at our
Speaker 1: budget range, we can make these shows confidently. And I
Speaker 1: think that Australia you know, did that for a really
Speaker 1: long time. But now those projects can exist alongside things
Speaker 1: that you push that conceptual limit and hopefully allow projects
Speaker 1: to come through that are able to be financed at
Speaker 1: the budget range they need to be to sit alongside
Speaker 1: their counterparts from the UK and the US.
Speaker 2: Did you make decisions like that with this particular project
Speaker 2: as to why you filmed it here in Australia versus
Speaker 2: being able to film where the story is set.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean with portable door, I mean we looked
Speaker 1: at so many parts of the world to make it
Speaker 1: and it's really written like the storyline is, you can
Speaker 1: take a portable door to anywhere in the world. So
Speaker 1: we had a budget line for the longest time that
Speaker 1: you know, we're taking our actors to this country in
Speaker 1: that country, I shoot here or do this and coming
Speaker 1: up with a you know, sort of a shooting style
Speaker 1: that would be free and maybe we could shoot it
Speaker 1: without permits. And these are like we really were down
Speaker 1: the path and then COVID came along and you know,
Speaker 1: the film collapsed and it was you know, it was
Speaker 1: so sad and devastated. These independent film even at this scale,
Speaker 1: you know, which is a larger scale independent film, but certainly,
Speaker 1: you know, they're so precarious. The ingredients in the alchemy
Speaker 1: that goes on to bringing something like it together a
Speaker 1: just extraordinary. It could fall over in a day. So
Speaker 1: certainly being able to have project that you know was
Speaker 1: firstly affected by COVID and then with the good health
Speaker 1: that kind of you know started to creep in in
Speaker 1: Australia and we were able to boast to talent and
Speaker 1: to people from around the world, production finances and everything
Speaker 1: that Queensland was a safe place to film that got
Speaker 1: everybody behind it, and you know stand a big part
Speaker 1: of that, and the Jim Henson company, who you know
Speaker 1: were the champions of the film for all this time,
Speaker 1: Sky in the UK and most recently MGM, you know
Speaker 1: Plus in the US. But you know, it took all
Speaker 1: of these amazing sort of people to come together. Australia
Speaker 1: just happened to be, you know, the place that made
Speaker 1: the most sense for us. You know, I live, you know,
Speaker 1: very close to where we filmed it. Todd Film and
Speaker 1: the wonderful producer lives right near where we filmed it,
Speaker 1: and we were able to entice you know, Christal Boltz
Speaker 1: to come and do a couple of weeks of quarantine
Speaker 1: and film with us and go home again, which I
Speaker 1: was very gratefully did so. Yeah, and then I guess
Speaker 1: in the end, you know, our locations. We came up
Speaker 1: with location solutions for all of the things that we
Speaker 1: needed to shoot here. We had a micro micro unit
Speaker 1: of maybe one or two people in the UK helping
Speaker 1: us get all of our plate shots and different things.
Speaker 1: But it was, Yeah, it was a feat of probably
Speaker 1: thinking outside of the boxes. Most filmmakers had to do
Speaker 1: it around that sort of time. But it all came together.
Speaker 1: It was it was so much fun to make, and
Speaker 1: it taken so many years to get off the ground.
Speaker 1: It was just nice to be out there and actually
Speaker 1: doing it.
Speaker 2: And then you've got to pinch yourself that you're working
Speaker 2: with Jim, like get the Jim Henson production Company, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, this is amazing crazy.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when I was growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: and why I ended up being an actor in the
Speaker 1: shows we were talking about at the start of the interview,
Speaker 1: you know, like, you know, like those films are never
Speaker 1: ending story in the Goonies, and then from the Henson
Speaker 1: Company Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal stand by Me. These
Speaker 1: coins these kind of young adolescent adventure films that you
Speaker 1: know that weren't for kids. You know that you felt
Speaker 1: like you were really you know, you were really being challenged,
Speaker 1: whether it was emotionally or visually, or there would be
Speaker 1: a jump scare or something that felt like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm eleven or twelve, but I'm watching something that you
Speaker 1: know is challenging me a little. And when I started working,
Speaker 1: you know, on this film in the Handsome Company, I
Speaker 1: was like, you know, they really Dark Crystal really scared
Speaker 1: me as a kid, and they were like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: but the sort of the ethos was is that, you know,
Speaker 1: we'll undercut it with a bit of humor, or we'll
Speaker 1: give you the equipment in a film like Labyrinth that
Speaker 1: you can watch it and you get a little laugh,
Speaker 1: you will get a little scared, and will take you
Speaker 1: on that sort of journey. It's not a horror movie
Speaker 1: as such that there's moments of it and that was
Speaker 1: kind of through the lens with which you know, I
Speaker 1: tried to make The Portable Door, and you know, having
Speaker 1: now screened it a couple of times and had kids
Speaker 1: in the audience, there's definitely a couple of beautiful jump scares.
Speaker 1: They don't last very long, and then the humor comes
Speaker 1: back in and they're at ease and they've had it.
Speaker 1: They've been exhilarated. And that's what I felt watching those
Speaker 1: those early pickies.
Speaker 2: I love those moments being in the cinema. The first
Speaker 2: movie I ever saw at the cinema was The Never
Speaker 2: Ending Story. Still, when I'm scared in a theater watching
Speaker 2: current shows, it takes me back, you know.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what's so funny is that that Portable
Speaker 1: Door has that it has a sort of a contemporary edge,
Speaker 1: and then you know, it kind of goes off to
Speaker 1: another place altogether. Not in the same way as the
Speaker 1: intercut work, but they're not that dissimilar when you go
Speaker 1: from the sort of the mundane of a little kid
Speaker 1: reading a book to this fantastical world. Our version of
Speaker 1: that in The Portable Door is that it's kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: half the movie is The Office, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: just people in an office in London, and the other
Speaker 1: half is Harry Potter and you know, you're sort of
Speaker 1: in this world of fantastical goblins and you know, traveling
Speaker 1: through portable doors and magic, and so I don't know
Speaker 1: if the audience will necessarily feel all that. I hope
Speaker 1: they do. You know, they feel all those sort of
Speaker 1: that connective tissue back to those films, but certainly making
Speaker 1: it that was the ethos and what we were trying
Speaker 1: to achieve with it.
Speaker 2: It kind of also reminded me of The Wishing Chair
Speaker 2: and the Far Away Tree of those adventure books that
Speaker 2: we have been brought up with that were so popular
Speaker 2: of the eighties and nineties. And I think it's so
Speaker 2: important to take your kids along to shows like this,
Speaker 2: the stories like this to sort of say, this guy's
Speaker 2: the limit with the imagination that they can have. I
Speaker 2: think there's something really important in the DA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. And also because it's sort of like
Speaker 1: we have a little motif that runs throughout the film,
Speaker 1: which is that you know, every single background artist and
Speaker 1: there are hundreds of them. Every single extra in the
Speaker 1: film is on their phone and the leaves are never
Speaker 1: so you know, the idea is is that you know
Speaker 1: that there is so much magic in the world and
Speaker 1: sometimes it comes through your phone. That's cool too. But
Speaker 1: there's so much magic in the world, and it's such
Speaker 1: a beautiful, wonderful place, and even with my own little boys,
Speaker 1: you know, draft it outside every now and then, just
Speaker 1: to take it all in. And I hope that it
Speaker 1: kind of you know, I would love that, you know,
Speaker 1: young people to leave the audience and or leave the
Speaker 1: film and think about where they might take a portable
Speaker 1: door to and use their imagination in that way and
Speaker 1: hopefully even be a little scared that a goblin might
Speaker 1: be in their house or something. I think that that's
Speaker 1: kind of capture my imagination.
Speaker 2: I think there's a real three sixties sort of journey
Speaker 2: for you to be back here in fantasy like this,
Speaker 2: in this kind of a world.
Speaker 1: Tall Jenny is the reason that I wanted to read
Speaker 1: it as a kid, those wonderful, crazy and so slightly
Speaker 1: naughty stories. You know. Yeah, so it's you know it is.
Speaker 1: It's a wacky it's a wacky long journey that has
Speaker 1: brought us to this film.
Speaker 2: I think, what is it about content these days that
Speaker 2: you're looking for? Is there a common theme when you're
Speaker 2: looking for a project to work on.
Speaker 1: No, there isn't, and I think probably the work in
Speaker 1: the last year has been the most exemplary of that,
Speaker 1: because you know, the Portable Door is a Jim Hintson
Speaker 1: esque fantasy family film. There's a cult series and then
Speaker 1: a period nineteenth century medical heist, so it's like that.
Speaker 1: I think the thing that I'm desperately looking for at
Speaker 1: all times in the project is too, is to travel
Speaker 1: somewhere new and explore something new. You know. I think
Speaker 1: that it's one of the great gifts as a storyteller
Speaker 1: filmmaker working in Tellivision series is that, you know, you've
Speaker 1: got this incredible capacity to explore worlds, and as an audience,
Speaker 1: that's what I want to do as well. I want
Speaker 1: to find projects that take you somewhere completely new, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the great excuses I think, you know,
Speaker 1: as a filmmaker to dive into a world, yeah, is
Speaker 1: to be a direct sort of reading material that you say,
Speaker 1: when I'm fascinated by this, I'm so fascinated by it,
Speaker 1: and so I think that that's where I probably am
Speaker 1: making the choices from. The more that I can be
Speaker 1: intrigued and fascinated by a world, the more I want
Speaker 1: to dive into it. And I think that's because you know,
Speaker 1: also just purely the volume of projects that I do,
Speaker 1: I think it's my greatest chance of having any life
Speaker 1: experience as well, is to sort of, you know, have
Speaker 1: a reason to take some time inside a world at
Speaker 1: outside of my own and surround it with you know,
Speaker 1: wonderful talented people who and we all all find it together.
Speaker 2: I mean, like even just looking at your resume, working
Speaker 2: on things like Home and Away and Neighbors and some
Speaker 2: of those soapies that are here have been a really
Speaker 2: great opportunity for content makers like yourself to learn the
Speaker 2: craft and build the resume.
Speaker 1: They were the strongest training grounds, you know. And then
Speaker 1: the stepping stone up from that was to do Blue
Speaker 1: Heelers and All Saints and these projects City Homicide, These
Speaker 1: projects that ran for seasons and seasons by very talented,
Speaker 1: clever people, had wonderful cast in them, and you know
Speaker 1: a lot of the cast household names, and the show
Speaker 1: is very popular at that stage. You know, it's sort
Speaker 1: of you know, big stars in Neighbors and Home and
Speaker 1: Away when I was working on those projects at that time,
Speaker 1: because it was you know, Chris Hemsworth and you know
Speaker 1: it was Delta Gudroom was you know in neighbors and all.
Speaker 1: It was just it was an exciting way to cut
Speaker 1: your teeth and to learn. And they're and they're almost unbreakable.
Speaker 1: You know, if you came in with a level of experience,
Speaker 1: whether it was on set as an actor or as
Speaker 1: I did, or a trainee or this or that, or
Speaker 1: you know you're a camera pers DPY, you could, if
Speaker 1: you had the right sort of approach to it, you
Speaker 1: could come in and train and learn. And I still
Speaker 1: think that probably there aren't many days that go by
Speaker 1: that somewhere in that training, you know, you're not calling
Speaker 1: on something, you know. I think that ultimately when you
Speaker 1: work on a project like The Door, the script's fabulous,
Speaker 1: the actors and Oscar winners and everything else and so terrific. Great,
Speaker 1: you know, it's all in a line. But you know
Speaker 1: you're still when things you know are tricky, challenging, you're
Speaker 1: up against the clock to get a certain thing. You've
Speaker 1: got all of these sort of reserves to pull upon
Speaker 1: or draw upon, you know, based on the sort of
Speaker 1: the larger volume. You know, run serious stuff that I've
Speaker 1: done overseas, and.
Speaker 2: Well, it's good that Neighbors is coming back. I mean,
Speaker 2: I did read though the other day. I thought it
Speaker 2: was hilarious that Carli Minogue' annoyed that she was tricked
Speaker 2: into being a part of the last episode episode.
Speaker 1: I'm sure they're all annoyed if I'd be annoyed if
Speaker 1: I was Guy, I'm annoyed by the whole thing. I
Speaker 1: haven't asked Guy about it actually since, but because we
Speaker 1: work to get on the clearing. But it's a big
Speaker 1: decision to come back, and they write in this thing
Speaker 1: and they you know, they're like, it's like a John
Speaker 1: Farnham tour that never ends. It's just you know, keeps going.
Speaker 1: So so yeah, I don't know, it's it's a really funny.
Speaker 1: I was happy for the cast and crew, but I
Speaker 1: did think, boy, you're really you really pulled out all
Speaker 1: the stops to get all those actors to come back
Speaker 1: from all over the world and do all this, and
Speaker 1: then it's like trick got another season.
Speaker 2: I was there on the last day that they you know,
Speaker 2: in the sound stage, and they had a long lunch
Speaker 2: for like the actors and the creators and you know,
Speaker 2: some of the some of us media were lucky enough
Speaker 2: to go along, and I kept looking at everyone that
Speaker 2: was invited by the media. I'm like, I can't believe
Speaker 2: we've been invited to this milestone event, and then the
Speaker 2: fact that it wasn't this milestone.
Speaker 1: It still makes me laugh.
Speaker 2: But I'm also you know, if that's the small price
Speaker 2: that a few very high profile actors had to pay
Speaker 2: to company.
Speaker 1: Fine, they're fine. The other thing, can you imagine if
Speaker 1: you're a freemantle whoever? You know, I'm sure it's that
Speaker 1: runs runs either they said this is the final, then
Speaker 1: then they got offered another series and they're either liars
Speaker 1: or they're stupid, And they're not stupid, so they're definitely
Speaker 1: going to come back and do another one if it
Speaker 1: comes up.
Speaker 2: We can't clarify that. I don't think anyone wants that clarified. Well,
Speaker 2: you know, the portable door is, how are you describing
Speaker 2: this particular story to people? Like, what's the hook?
Speaker 1: So's there's two young interns that start working at a
Speaker 1: company in London. They have no idea what it does,
Speaker 1: and they go on a journey to basically find out
Speaker 1: that this company is this ancient order that curate magic
Speaker 1: and coincidence the world over and in the process of
Speaker 1: this is sort of a very complex character in the
Speaker 1: CEO takes one of these interns under his wing, and
Speaker 1: that's Christophe's character takes Patrick Gibson under his wing, and
Speaker 1: he says, I'm about to achieve something ginormous, but I
Speaker 1: need your help. You have to help me find my
Speaker 1: portable door. It's gone missing. This thing has a personality
Speaker 1: in Paul just seems like he's lucky if he gets
Speaker 1: the mail delivery job at the office and he suddenly
Speaker 1: tasked with this enormous responsibility. Problem is that once he
Speaker 1: does find a portable door, all he wants to do
Speaker 1: is have fun that instead of handed over. So that's
Speaker 1: that's our movie.
Speaker 2: And then you're getting Harry Potter references. And you know,
Speaker 2: the review so far has been extremely positive. I mean,
Speaker 2: this must be a pretty exciting project for you to
Speaker 2: have been working on.
Speaker 1: It's a really exciting I mean the most nervous phase,
Speaker 1: to be honest with it at the moment, because it
Speaker 1: is weird. And I've worked on things before where I
Speaker 1: can sort of tell which way they're going to go.
Speaker 1: I've worked on things that were you know, I could
Speaker 1: have always you never know completely, but just sort of
Speaker 1: all this is being aimed to be a critical darling.
Speaker 1: Let's hope that the reviews do. Then they do that,
Speaker 1: and you go, isn't that lovely? This one. I've had
Speaker 1: no idea. I've got, you know, the best. The best
Speaker 1: gauge is, you know, if if families can watch it together,
Speaker 1: either in the cinema or on stand or you know,
Speaker 1: sky and gym, if there around the world and they
Speaker 1: sit there and they all enjoy it. And I think
Speaker 1: about the films that do that in this contemporary space,
Speaker 1: and not a huge amount of them alive action picks.
Speaker 1: I do it, you know, with routine, but it's really,
Speaker 1: you know, it's a hard thing to sort of pull off.
Speaker 1: Some You're meeting me at my nervous phase with it,
Speaker 1: and I just I get to hand it over now
Speaker 1: and I will take on whatever this how this film
Speaker 1: is kind of interpreted by the audience, and that's the
Speaker 1: exciting thing. I guess. My point of view is I've
Speaker 1: got all my hang ups about it, but now it's
Speaker 1: it's another person's, you know, another person's project to watch
Speaker 1: and hopefully enjoy.
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at this in real time for you
Speaker 2: and not looking at my phone because I'm bored. I'm
Speaker 2: just going to say, I am dB giving it nine
Speaker 2: out of ten so far, so you know, there's some
Speaker 2: positive feedback that's coming in.
Speaker 1: That's my family though, That's that's that's all I'm going
Speaker 1: I've got a large extended family that the myamdb accounts clearly.
Speaker 2: You've got a board at home that's just automatically ten
Speaker 2: tens across the board, gas.
Speaker 1: Everywhere, and they're going to aggregate it down now to
Speaker 1: three that like we smell a rat at the Walker household.
Speaker 2: What it looks like now.
Speaker 1: Man, the feedback's being really good. I think that, you know,
Speaker 1: some of the things I was reading was sort of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we think it's pretty good. I think that sort of
Speaker 1: is like I think there's something in it. I think
Speaker 1: Sam's having fun in it, and I think it's a
Speaker 1: fun and fantasy film. So yeah, as long as that
Speaker 1: sort of continued, I think that, yeah, it'll be really
Speaker 1: interesting once it finds its way onto the streaming platforms,
Speaker 1: because first it's going to cut through and people have
Speaker 1: to you know, know enough about it to want to
Speaker 1: watch it, and everything in standard probably the best promoters
Speaker 1: of their content in the country. So I think you
Speaker 1: know it it They've given us a huge chance, an
Speaker 1: opportunity to find an audience, and a young audience is
Speaker 1: pretty brutal. They'll either love it and watch it fifty
Speaker 1: million times or they'll just go okay, okay. So I'm
Speaker 1: just hoping that it's one of those ones that you know,
Speaker 1: family can watch together.
Speaker 2: You know, Sam Neil's playing against type in this, and
Speaker 2: he he looks like from the scene that I watched,
Speaker 2: he's having a lot of fun being more villainous in this.
Speaker 2: Was it really surreal to watch Sam Neil being a
Speaker 2: villain in a movie.
Speaker 1: Like this wonderful. You know, he I've worked with him
Speaker 1: once before and I was so intimidated and nervous. I'm
Speaker 1: always pretty nervous because he's, you know, someone I respect
Speaker 1: so much. But he's dramatic is you know kind of
Speaker 1: action work. And you know, like we've spoken about it.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're in this business at the age
Speaker 1: that I was, you know, in your Jurassic parks a
Speaker 1: life changer, you know, and then you watch in the
Speaker 1: Piano or you go back and watch my grand career
Speaker 1: or you watch everything you know that I mean, his
Speaker 1: career is kind of just extraordinary. So it's intimidating and exciting,
Speaker 1: and he genuinely, I felt on this project was having fun.
Speaker 1: He really loved his co stars on this He got
Speaker 1: to have play in that fantasy space, and I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he was having a blast. And I certainly
Speaker 1: hope that I made that a safe and fun home
Speaker 1: for him on set to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: achieve everything that he wanted to with him well.
Speaker 2: People don't know about him though, is that he could.
Speaker 2: This is my opinion. I probably should speak on behalf
Speaker 2: of everybody, but I think he could be a comedian.
Speaker 2: He's the funniest person I've ever interviewed. I interviewed him
Speaker 2: after I'd done two Jurassic Park movies, and you know,
Speaker 2: you have to ask him a Jurassic Park question if
Speaker 2: you're talking to him, you know, in a broader interview.
Speaker 2: It would be ridiculous to not have brought it up.
Speaker 2: And I said, you know, would you do another Jurassic
Speaker 2: Park film? Spoiler alert? He ends up doing one, but
Speaker 2: he said absolutely not. He was like, the only thing
Speaker 2: that's left for the dinosaurs to do is to wear
Speaker 2: pajamas because they've done everything now you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: And then he like he just I was laughing, but
Speaker 2: like crying laughing, and he just was rattling off like
Speaker 2: it was a set. And I was like, to me,
Speaker 2: I always thought Samuels would be really dry, like you know, and.
Speaker 1: I know he has got you know, but if you
Speaker 1: think about who he speaks when you hear him talk
Speaker 1: about John Clark, who's you know, one of probably the
Speaker 1: great you could say, Australian or New Zealand comedians, you know,
Speaker 1: writing and performing, and Sam's love for John. As soon
Speaker 1: as you know that, you just know how witty and
Speaker 1: funny Sam's taste is, you know, and many of you
Speaker 1: know John stuff, it's like yep, okay, now I get.
Speaker 1: But Sam definitely has you know, a big comedy crush
Speaker 1: and he loves it. And he's a very funny person
Speaker 1: by his nature. And I think, you know, his book
Speaker 1: that's just come out as sort of you know, the
Speaker 1: stories of his life and travels through the film business
Speaker 1: and so on, and he just has a comedic take
Speaker 1: on things and he's sort of Also what's really fun
Speaker 1: when you chat to him is that his vocabulary is
Speaker 1: extremely contemporary, which is awesome, you know, so he just
Speaker 1: he says things that sound like he could be twenty
Speaker 1: three or twenty four. It's just that he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's a progressive, young at heart, you know, super intelligent,
Speaker 1: hard working, fun person. And I think you're right. The
Speaker 1: image would be that he's a serious, historic actor's actor,
Speaker 1: and he's all of those things. But he's also got
Speaker 1: a wonderful, wicked, hilarious sense of humor and he and
Speaker 1: the choice to make this movie is a good example
Speaker 1: of that too. For Sam, you know, I think that
Speaker 1: he's very aware that he's got to keep making fantastic
Speaker 1: choices in his projects with Don mckelpine, you know, in
Speaker 1: his eighties as a cinematographer, doesn't ever want to shoot
Speaker 1: on film again, doesn't really particularly like talking about his
Speaker 1: old movies. He drives a tesla, he wears an eye watch.
Speaker 1: You know, he's an example of what it takes to
Speaker 1: stay relevant contemporary or opinion means something. You know, now,
Speaker 1: four or five decades into a very successful career, and
Speaker 1: you know, couldn't we all be so lucky?
Speaker 2: Well, something that I ask everyone before they leave the
Speaker 2: podcast is what is a secret? What's the thing from
Speaker 2: behind the scenes While you're making this project something that
Speaker 2: we won't see as an audience, but you know, something
Speaker 2: we might appreciate. Could be an acto, It could be
Speaker 2: something funny, could be something that went terribly wrong.
Speaker 1: I can tell you something from behind the scenes. Does
Speaker 1: it have to be in front of the scenes or
Speaker 1: going to be behind the scenes?
Speaker 2: Anything about your relationships the making of this show. I
Speaker 2: was so excited for this chat today. You could literally
Speaker 2: talk to me forever. You could tell me what you
Speaker 2: brought at the supermarket and I would still be listening
Speaker 2: to everyone.
Speaker 1: From the red carpet to the supermarket is basically my life.
Speaker 1: By the way, if you ever wanted to like figure
Speaker 1: out what I'm like behind the scenes, that I just
Speaker 1: go between those two things. So anyway, but I'll tell
Speaker 1: you this fabulous and then it really picks up on
Speaker 1: what we were just talking about. One of the sweetest
Speaker 1: memories was at the very start of the film. The
Speaker 1: two leads, Patrick Gibbson Sophie Wild fabulous actors. They were
Speaker 1: experienced to an extent, But they're twenty five years old
Speaker 1: and only so experience. You can be a a kid
Speaker 1: actor is still coming through And think about the word
Speaker 1: Crystal Watson, Sam Ney and mirand Rotto and they're the
Speaker 1: lead this support asked his Christoph Waltz and sam Neil, like,
Speaker 1: what the heck? So they were feeling so intimidated nervous.
Speaker 1: I was feeling condated, nervous. And Sam Neil got us
Speaker 1: and another wonderful support actor, Arkadace together in pre production
Speaker 1: and he said, just to the young cast and myself,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm organizing in an evening and like you
Speaker 1: were saying before, that might have meant something very okays
Speaker 1: with me a dinner and Sam Neil and what's going
Speaker 1: to happen? And he had us at the Gold Coast
Speaker 1: RSL watching a Queen tribute band and we had the
Speaker 1: most fun. We sung along. Everyone kept coming up with
Speaker 1: Sam of every age you could imagine, who just wanted
Speaker 1: to have a cuddle in a photo. And he was
Speaker 1: terrific and sweet to all of them. And Paddy relaxed
Speaker 1: and I relaxed, and we all had a drink and
Speaker 1: it was very very sweet. And I remember that night too.
Speaker 1: He gave me a wonderful piece of advice that he
Speaker 1: just said, look, this is a pretty out there movie
Speaker 1: for me, and he goes I don't need a lot
Speaker 1: of direction, but I would love you to tell me
Speaker 1: just occasionally more or less, more or less, and I'll
Speaker 1: give you a take it away, and I won't be
Speaker 1: offended with which one you say. But let's go, and
Speaker 1: let's go and tackle this thing. And it was just
Speaker 1: such a lovely forum. And I think it totally galvanized
Speaker 1: Sophie and Sam and Patty and they just became thick
Speaker 1: a thieves and they wanted to hang out all the time,
Speaker 1: even though they're generationally so different. And I think that's
Speaker 1: sam lovely treat and I won't forget it. Who else
Speaker 1: gets to, you know, get to go to a queen
Speaker 1: tribute act with Sam? What a treat.
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you I've been in your audience
Speaker 2: for basically my whole life, and I think your passion
Speaker 2: for storytelling is amazing. Doing the research for this interview
Speaker 2: and watching some of your interviews, reading some of your interviews,
Speaker 2: I could feel the passion for this industry that you're
Speaker 2: a part of. And I'm so excited about this film.
Speaker 2: I hope everyone watches it on Stan and I can't
Speaker 2: wait to see what you make next.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. It's so lovely to chat
Speaker 1: to you. And yeah, I hope any of your listeners
Speaker 1: out there who have the chance to watch Bornable Door
Speaker 1: do and I really hope they enjoy it. It's really
Speaker 1: made it for the audience, so I hope it finds
Speaker 1: a big audience