Charlie Clausen Behind the Scenes

Australian star Charlie Clausen (Home and Away) discusses his role as Geoff in the Allegedly episode Love Gone Wrong in the Philippines, his own history in podcasts, his thoughts on the wildness of life in the Philippines, and more with Voyage CEO Nat Mundel.
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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Voyage. All right, listeners high, It's Nat Mondell, the founder of
Voyage. I'm super excited to introduceour listeners today to Charlie Clawson. Charlie
is playing Jeff in our upcoming episodeof our allegedly true crime series, in
the episode called Love Gone Wrong inthe Philippines, very exciting episode. You

(00:26):
probably know Charlie as the lead inthe long running Australian series Home Away,
excuse me, Home and Away,and for those of you that know the
Australian film and television market, youmight also know him from the hit drama
Blue Healers and also most recently,the TV spinoff of the horror film Wolf

(00:47):
Creek. So that's going to bea very exciting project. So Charlie,
thanks so much for joining us.No, it's exciting to be part of
this. I've never done a truecrime podcast. Some people would listen to
my regular podcas Us and accused meof committing a crime. But the first
time I've been involved in the truecrime one. Right on. Well,

(01:07):
we you know, we as wewere talking before we came on, you
know, we discussed just how longyou've been involved in podcasting? How long
have you been involved in podcasting,How on earth did you get started so
early? And what have you beendoing in this world? So yeah,
I have a podcast network called tooFop, which was a little play on

(01:29):
Russell Crowe had a band in themid two thousands called thirty odd foot of
God what thirty odd foot of Grunt, which we changed to a thirty odd
foot of pods, So therefore itturns into to Fop. And it was
just a friend of mine, WillAnderson's quite a well known comedian. Here
we were listening to podcasts. We'redoing a road trip one day, and
I think that was back when itwas just Ricky Gervais and Kevin Smith and

(01:51):
I think even Joe Rogan had juststarted out, and we were like,
we can do this. It's justtwo people in a room talking. You
know. We've done set a radioin the past and felt like it was
very constrictive, just having short conversationstwo minute, three minutes and the new
threat to a song or an ad. And so when podcasting came along,
we're like, well, here's amedium design for us. We're two guys
who like the sounds of our ownvoice, and all you need is a

(02:13):
microphone. Because about one hundred episodesto work out how to use the microphone.
But yeah, twelve years later herewe are, well, what were
some of those early shows that youdid other than TOFAP? Like, you
know you have a sports show too, right, Yeah, that's that's that
we did. That's the AFL show, which is Assie Rules. We started

(02:34):
that one seven years ago or sixyears ago. We're going to us seventh
year now. And that was aspinoff from TOFA because the listeners of TOFAP
were like, we hate how muchyou guys talk about football. Can you
please create a separate show so wedon't have to listen to that? And
then we started Will has another onecalled Whilosophy, which is more of a
kind of highbrow interview show. Wehas various celebrities and academics and intellectuals on

(02:59):
this show, and and then westarted producing other people's shows. So m
as you know, as a asa founder yourself, like, there is
a tremendous market for content, andyeah, I think it's a it's exciting.
We just love the idea that Willused to describe it as like the
punk rock era, that there wereno rules or no gatekeepers. All you

(03:20):
needed is like a couple of friendswho have like an idea and the basics.
With equipment, you can just getstarted. Unfortunately, there's just two
million sid viciouses, so we justhave to figure out how to get the
right ones discovered, right, right? So this is your first true crime
podcast? Is also is it alsoyour first podcast where you're actually acting and

(03:42):
playing a role? Yeah? Yeah, it's funny. I've always been fascinated.
There's quite a few that I've listenedto, and it seems like such
a natural extension. You know,it's almost in a weird way, we're
sort of almost going back to oldmedia in the era of radio plays and
stuff. But it makes sense thattrue crime is such a popular format and
genre in podcasting because there are somany stories out there. And I until,

(04:08):
you know, you guys got incontact, but I hadn't really thought
of the idea of dramatizing true crime. A lot of the podcasts that listened
to a more documentary style, butthis makes a lot of sense. And
you know, I was very excitedwhen I read this script, and I'm
like, Od's you know, it'sreally funny and it's really interesting, and
I think the way that you know, the narration and the acting kind of
go hand in hand. It's it'sit's I'm really hope this is enjoyed because

(04:29):
I think it's a tremendous script.Yeah, interesting, and yeah allegedly.
The our true crime anthology is thatdocu drama hybrid where we've got you know,
the the real life people talking abouttheir actual experiences and then cut together
with these scripted and narrated re enactmentsequences. We also have our first ever
show was a true crime show,but it was fully scripted called let Me

(04:53):
tell You About My Murder, Soit's one hundred percent actor performed, but
a real true crime story. I'venoticed you've used the word allegedly a few
times in our conversation, and sofar, are you're just covering yourself legally?
No? No, no, that'sthe name of our show, okay,
And and yes, part of thatstrategy is to make sure we're we're
not we're not saying that this isone hundred percent true where happened? But

(05:15):
it might have been right? Soum So on that note, you know,
let's dig into your episode. Whywhy choose this role? You know
what? What what attracted to youto this particular episode and show. I
just think it's it's a it's it'ssomething, it's going down the rabbit hole,
you know, like it starts offas a failure innocuous story, and
you know, Jeff is such alikable character, and then as situation continues

(05:38):
to spend more and more out ofcontrol, you sort of just like,
it can't get any worse, itcan't get any worse, and sure enough,
it gets worse. But there's areal sense of like humor to it,
Like you get a sense of Jeff'spersonality throughout the whole thing. Um,
you know, he has that kindof classic you know what people think
of it, like a classic Australianlaconic nature, Like even when you know

(05:58):
he's sort of getting tossed and Gailand people like that, there is a
there is a kind of rye sortof like sense of irony to the whole
thing. And I just found itreally compelling and funny. And I think
it's just the the shifts between thekind of uh scripted bits and also you
know, Jest narration I think justcomplete the pitchure beautifully. Like it's like
when you watch the rest of development, you know, Ron Howard's voice over,

(06:21):
it just takes the drama and justmakes it that much funnier, right
right, Yeah, And you knowthe character so interesting and the real real
life character so interesting in that youknow, I mean he gets really worked
over by you know, this villainouscandy character. Um and and you know
he's got some pretty clear red flagsalong the way. So as an actor,

(06:44):
you know, if you don't ifyou dive into that role, like,
what do you think was driving himto keep investing in her given all
those red flags? Well, initiallyit sounds like she was very beautiful.
That was That was like the clearThat's where it started. But I think
there's also like an element you knowwhen you sort of read between the lines
of what Jeff is saying is thathe's a romantic you know, I think

(07:06):
he wanted this to work and youknow, it was a second chance at
love and he I think he wantedto believe her, you know, and
he wanted this to work out,and even you know without sort of you
know, spoiling anything like becoming afather and all that kind of stuff.
Like I think there is a senseof obligation, like he's a very honorable

(07:27):
man, Jeff, you know,even though he had everyone saying to him
that your wife's a villain and youknow, she's cheating on you and all
this kind of stuff, like hecontinued to do the right thing and it
almost to his own detriment in alot of ways. Yeah, you know,
like he sort of keeps sort ofgetting into trouble because he gives her
the benefit of the doubt. AndI don't know. I mean I often
look at friends of mine who seemto ignore red flags, and I think

(07:51):
there's some people, you know,who who do it because maybe there's just
like an element of they love thedanger, you know, And I think
for Jeff that had to be partof it. You know, like living
in the philip Philippines is like apretty wild country to live in. You
know, you are sort of goingsomewhere where you know, there's a lot
of police corruption and the rules don'tapply. And so I think to make

(08:13):
your home there and start a family, you've got to have a little bit
of element of this is exciting andthis is great. There's something there.
Just to even start with, haveyou been to the Philippines? Uh?
No, My parents is to travelto the Philippines quite a bit, quite
a few Filippino friends. Yeah.Yeah, from everything I understand about it,
it is you know, it isa bit of the wild West.

(08:33):
Yeah, there's an edge there,right, there's a lot of edge and
excitement and you know, the sortof the two sides of the coin of
opportunity and and uh and fraud,right like, yeah, you know,
it's a it's a it's an excitingplace. So you so, Jeff is
a father, and I believe you'rea father, right Yeah. Yeah.
If I sound a bit craky,it's because my two year old was up

(08:54):
most of last night. So doesthat experience of fatherhood give you, you
know, sort of an ability toconnect to you know, Jeff understand the
bond that he has with the son, even though it might not even be
his Absolutely, Yeah, no,I think that's actually one of the bits.
One of the parts of the storythat I really identify with is that
it's a high wrenching when a childis used as a pawn against you,

(09:18):
you know, when it's manipulated tolie to you, or you know,
you know that the child has beenlied to you by the mother to turn
against you. I think that's youknow, you're asking sort of what motivates
Jeff. Well, if he's aman of honor and a guy who does
the right thing, then that's athat's the sure way to hurt him or
a sure way to get it inhis own molum a tool. Yeah,
absolutely, absolutely, Well, soCharlie, tell us what's next, man,

(09:41):
Like, what are you working on? What do you want your fans
to know? Well, to FOPthe network, we've had an extended break.
We're sort of bit burnt out likemost people after twenty twenty one,
but we are coming back. We'reslowly incrementally bringing the shows back. FOP
is back this week, two Guys, One Cup is going and to FOP
will be back at the end FIBAnd then I'm working in a FACI film.

(10:03):
Just I'm almost finished a script fora facire film that we're hyping to
put into production at the end ofthe year. My wife jim Lay's directing
it. So yeah, we've gota lot of stuff on. I mean,
that's it's been a nice break,but then you know, straight back
into work now. Yeah. Wow, well, good man, I'm glad
you're busy and excited. Well,thank you, um, you know so
much for choosing to play the roleand playing with us in this podcast sandbox.

(10:28):
It's a new space for Voyage.It's an exciting space and we're having
lots of fun doing it. Andso, you know, listeners, let's
let's give a you know, anice welcome to Charlie is our one of
our players. And also tune inwatch or excuse me, listen to Allegedly
and Charlie's episode in our upcoming show. You can find it on Apple and

(10:50):
Spotify and Google and anywhere you listento podcasts, so please do that,
and also on Voyage Media dot fmwhere all of our podcasts live. And
that's me at Mondell's signing off,and again thanks again Charlie. Cheers