Speaker 1: It's in the news today, but it was actually on
Speaker 1: TV Reload the podcast to beat the line. Hey guys,
Speaker 1: welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris,
Speaker 1: and on today's episode, I'm joined by three incredibly talented actors,
Speaker 1: Ben Lawson, Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgis, the stars of
Speaker 1: the new Binge series Mixtape. Now, if you're anything like me,
Speaker 1: you've probably been aware of these actors for quite some time.
Speaker 1: Jim Sturgis, of course stolar hearts in One Day, the
Speaker 1: film with Anne Hathaway. Not sure if Europe's as obsessed
Speaker 1: with that movie as I am. He's gone on to
Speaker 1: make a huge name for himself all around the world.
Speaker 1: Theresa Palmer, of course, is one of Australia's brightest exports.
Speaker 1: Has starred in Warm Bodies, A Discovery of Witches and
Speaker 1: I only just found this out. Not only has she
Speaker 1: had this amazing career in film and television, but she's
Speaker 1: also about to be a mother of six, like where
Speaker 1: do you find the time? And also Ben Lawson, who
Speaker 1: we first met in Australia's very own soap opera Neighbors.
Speaker 1: He's managed to carve out a solid Hollywood career. I
Speaker 1: know that most of my female friends are obsessed with
Speaker 1: Firefly Lane, thirteen reasons why, and I could go on.
Speaker 1: I mean, the list for these guys is quite unreal.
Speaker 1: Today we're talking about the deeply emotional series Mixtape, from
Speaker 1: the lost art of making mixtapes to the emotional depth
Speaker 1: of playing flawed, complex characters. These three don't hold back
Speaker 1: in this chat, and if you could see that they
Speaker 1: have some amazing chemistry between the three of them, you'll
Speaker 1: get to hear what it was like bringing younger and
Speaker 1: older versions of these characters to life, how music became
Speaker 1: a central heartbeat to this story, and why Mixtape hits
Speaker 1: so hard emotionally. And yes, we do get into a
Speaker 1: few hilarious behind the scenes stories, including Ben's surprising first
Speaker 1: crash pad in Los Angeles with a best friend of
Speaker 1: one of the cast of nine to two one zero.
Speaker 1: It's very random story to just add into the podcast. So, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm really hoping you're here to listen to some fantastic
Speaker 1: stories about how Mixtape has been made. It was so
Speaker 1: much fun to sit down with these three. Even though
Speaker 1: it is a short episode, it is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So let's dive in. Hey, guys, thanks for jumping on
Speaker 1: and chatting about mixtape. I'm actually a ridiculously big fan
Speaker 1: of all three of you for very different reasons. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll start with you. Jim So my partner whenever goes away.
Speaker 1: I watch the movie one day. I've probably seen it
Speaker 1: more like an unhealthy amount of time.
Speaker 2: Very good.
Speaker 1: And Theresa. I've been like obsessed with you and asking
Speaker 1: to have you on this podcast for probably four years,
Speaker 1: and I've done five hundred and sixty episodes, So to
Speaker 1: have you here today is amazing. Congratulations on baby number
Speaker 1: one hundred.
Speaker 3: I see, I think I'm at six now.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Then, I met you years ago in Los Angeles, and
Speaker 1: I think you were living with Tory Spelling's best friend
Speaker 1: or something. Does that ring a belty?
Speaker 2: That was the very first place I ever stayed in LA.
Speaker 2: It was I had a month sublet that I found
Speaker 2: on Craigslist, and yeah, it was Tory Spelling's first.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, did toy pop over all.
Speaker 3: Anti climbacc.
Speaker 1: Red hair from memory? I remember?
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all three of you need a restraining order against me.
Speaker 1: What a way to start? I want to say, the
Speaker 1: music had to be really good. For this series to work,
Speaker 1: and it really does lift. And I must admit I've
Speaker 1: already started putting together a mixtape of the soundtrack. But
Speaker 1: for you guys, are you familiar with the era of
Speaker 1: making a mixtape for something?
Speaker 3: Yeah, do you know how old we are?
Speaker 2: You're the youngest. I mean, you're surely.
Speaker 1: Your night in the middle of you're in the middle
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 5: You started being into CDs?
Speaker 3: I did, but I did star in my very first car.
Speaker 3: I didn't have a CD player and like a hold
Speaker 3: of a Marina and so I had a little mixtapes
Speaker 3: I would make and I'd put in my mum's little
Speaker 3: red hole and Marina. It was so fun. It was
Speaker 3: like we were saying, it's actually a shame that they're
Speaker 3: like the days of.
Speaker 2: The past now.
Speaker 4: And also who could afford to buy tapes?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: It was like if you were rich, you know, you
Speaker 4: could just go to the shop Brashes and buy like
Speaker 4: a real tape. But like otherwise, the gifting and exchanging
Speaker 4: of curated you know, mixtapes was where I was at.
Speaker 3: My dad owned a CD shop my whole oh, my childhood,
Speaker 3: so I could go and get like for me, it
Speaker 3: was Michael Jackson. It was like Michael Jackson tapes. That's
Speaker 3: when I first started listening to. I'd just go down
Speaker 3: to my dad's, like the compact disc shop that my
Speaker 3: dad had, and I.
Speaker 1: Had go and get her.
Speaker 3: And then of course it folded because no one listened
Speaker 3: to CDs after all.
Speaker 1: It's so funny though, because like with this story, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, when you make food for someone,
Speaker 1: it's kind of romantic. It's kind of that sort of
Speaker 1: you know, where someone takes the time to put together
Speaker 1: their playlist, and that's really the center of this story,
Speaker 1: which has done really well. Had any of the three
Speaker 1: of you read the book before being approached to do this.
Speaker 5: I had read the novel and it was it was
Speaker 5: presented to me as the screenplay first, you know, which
Speaker 5: is kind of you know, it was good because I
Speaker 5: think they did change the world a little bit from
Speaker 5: the book, and there was different music that we used,
Speaker 5: and we used a different sort of period of time.
Speaker 5: So yeah, we sort of focused on the screenplay predominantly
Speaker 5: and sort of built it all together. It was really
Speaker 5: such a collaborative kind of experience to sort of pickle
Speaker 5: the music. Working with Lucy Gaffie the director, who is
Speaker 5: the most collaborative person I've ever ever worked with in
Speaker 5: my life.
Speaker 3: I have to say Jim had a big part in
Speaker 3: the music selection. You would be sending tracks consistently.
Speaker 5: I got kind of obsessed in it and I used
Speaker 5: it and I tried to pretend that it was part
Speaker 5: of my character research. But I believe I was just like,
Speaker 5: sort we got it right because it's all set in
Speaker 5: the North part of England, which is a which is
Speaker 5: a place that I know and understands sort of well,
Speaker 5: and the music very specifically was coming out of that
Speaker 5: place at that time, and so I believe that these
Speaker 5: young kids will be listening to a specific kind of sound,
Speaker 5: you know. And everybody was really on board with that,
Speaker 5: and we really started to dive deep and investigate and
Speaker 5: find out what these kids, what these young teenagers would
Speaker 5: really be listening to, you know, And often it wasn't
Speaker 5: the obvious tracks, so you know, it wasn't the sort
Speaker 5: of the number one hits or the sort of single
Speaker 5: from the album. It was the more sort of obscure
Speaker 5: album tracks. Certainly, when I made mixtapes, you'd put the
Speaker 5: weird ones in there to try and make yourself look cool,
Speaker 5: you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1: How did you go about? Because I mean there's so
Speaker 1: much back and forward between the young actors playing these
Speaker 1: characters and yourself, and I was so mesmerized by it
Speaker 1: that I started doing a deep dive on lots of
Speaker 1: film and TV where this happens. How did you guys
Speaker 1: go about making sure that these characters were the same people.
Speaker 3: We didn't really have that opportunity, to be honest, because
Speaker 3: the younger versions of us were cast after we had
Speaker 3: already shot maybe three quarters of our stuff, so it
Speaker 3: was probably more on them to meet what we've done.
Speaker 3: And then Lucy Gaffe, being the genius that she is
Speaker 3: our director, she was able to steer I think both
Speaker 3: of those younger formers into a place where it felt
Speaker 3: like we were playing the same person. But I think
Speaker 3: for me it was probably easier than say, Jim, because
Speaker 3: my character is completely shape shifting, so I didn't have
Speaker 3: to necessarily match the exact energy that Florence was bringing
Speaker 3: up because I've completely reinvented myself and had a rebirth.
Speaker 3: But watching it last night, I noticed that there's like
Speaker 3: such subtleties and what both of us are doing where
Speaker 3: we're more reserved and we're quieter, and that was just
Speaker 3: two individual choices and it happened to a line. So
Speaker 3: we got really lucky there.
Speaker 5: I had beautiful Rory, who plays the younger version of me,
Speaker 5: and this is the first job that he's done, This
Speaker 5: is his first sort of professional acting job. So he
Speaker 5: came on to the set he was so hungry desperate
Speaker 5: to kind of learn, and asked the director if he
Speaker 5: could watch the monitor and sort of watch my scenes
Speaker 5: and see if he could sort of take anything from that,
Speaker 5: which was hugely intimidating as she's have a young actor
Speaker 5: could have studied the study the work that's going on
Speaker 5: at the time. And Lucy actually for me, she'd actually
Speaker 5: sent me some of the audition tapes that they were
Speaker 5: doing because she was she just wanted to know how
Speaker 5: I felt about you. I think they I think they
Speaker 5: were quite sure of who they were going to cast
Speaker 5: for the young Allison and they were sort of, you know,
Speaker 5: really sort of trying to make sure they got the
Speaker 5: right young Daniel. And so she did send me some
Speaker 5: casting tapes quite early on and said, who do you
Speaker 5: feel is feeling like your version? Who do you feel
Speaker 5: you're kind of connecting to with these young actors, and
Speaker 5: I was so grateful to be able to be included
Speaker 5: into that, you know process. And I could just see
Speaker 5: straight away from Rory that he just had a sort
Speaker 5: of there was a sort of gentleness and of vulnerability,
Speaker 5: and I believe that he was a sort of you know,
Speaker 5: he was a lad, and he was a sort of
Speaker 5: you know it was it was someone that could sort
Speaker 5: of hold his own but had a sort of slight
Speaker 5: kind of poetry to him as well.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I'm running out of time, Ben. I
Speaker 1: always finished this podcast with a question of what's something
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes, And I was going to say, Ben,
Speaker 1: the subtlety with your character and the fractures in the
Speaker 1: marriage that come across on screen almost immediately with his
Speaker 1: character would have been very difficult because Theresa is so likable.
Speaker 3: Yes, challenge, what a challenge.
Speaker 1: How did you go about sort of creating that subtlety?
Speaker 1: You know, for us as an audience, we kind of
Speaker 1: it almost gives us a reason to not like you
Speaker 1: in a way so that we can support the fact
Speaker 1: that she is setting back outside the well.
Speaker 2: That was the drawer of the role for me, is
Speaker 2: you know, being able to jump into a character that
Speaker 2: it's not clear whether he's all good or all bad,
Speaker 2: or if we're supposed to like him or not. And
Speaker 2: there's many, many reasons why he's a good fit for Allison,
Speaker 2: you know, like she ended up with him for a reason,
Speaker 2: and you know, to sort of play him in a
Speaker 2: Mastache twieling, you know, villain way would have been like
Speaker 2: ridiculous but also insults you know, Allison Teresa's character because
Speaker 2: we go, well, why would the person that we're rooting for,
Speaker 2: why would she end up with this villain? So what
Speaker 2: was fun for me was to really sort of try
Speaker 2: to be the most likable version of this guy who's
Speaker 2: kind of controlling, you know, like he's certainly problematic in
Speaker 2: his marriage, and there are many clues in between them
Speaker 2: that tell us that she doesn't have a freedom in
Speaker 2: this marriage that she should have. So you know, that
Speaker 2: was really the fun part for me. It was like
Speaker 2: trying to get the audience on my side as much
Speaker 2: as possible to then have them go, oh, I don't
Speaker 2: know how to feel about this guy. So that was
Speaker 2: the game of it.
Speaker 1: Well, congratulations, guys, I have to let you go. This
Speaker 1: show is so great, Like it's so deep, it's so
Speaker 1: rich and I can't wait for people to watch this,
Speaker 1: to enjoy the music, enjoy your performances, and congratulations to
Speaker 1: the three of you.
Speaker 3: Oh thanks, Benjamin