June 17, 2025 • 10 mins
Welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris and on today’s episode I’m joined by three incredibly talented actors: Ben Lawson, Teresa Palmer, and Jim Sturgess. The stars of the moving new series Mixtape. Now available on Binge and Foxtel.
- Now, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably seen these three in stacks of different films and tv shows..
- Jim Sturgess, of course, stole hearts in One Day and has gone on to make a name for himself with roles full of depth and charm.
- Teresa Palmer, one of Australia’s brightest exports, has starred in Warm Bodies, A Discovery of Witches and, oh and I just found out she’s also a mum of six! (Where do you have the time?)
- And Ben Lawson – who we first met on Neighbours – has carved out a solid Hollywood career in Firefly Lane, 13 Reasons Why, and more.
Today, we’re talking about the deeply emotional series Mixtape. From the lost art of making mixtapes to the emotional depth of playing flawed, complex characters. In this chat these three don’t hold back. You’ll hear what it was like bringing young and older versions of their characters to life, how music became a central heartbeat of the story, and why Mixtape hits so hard emotionally.
Oh and yes we do get into a few hilarious behind-the-scenes stories, including Ben’s surprising first crash pad in LA, and a surprising link to Tori Spelling.
So whether you’re here for the music chat, the acting masterclass, or just some behind the scenes chat? This is an episode you’ll want to listen to from start to finish.
Let’s dive in.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload the podcast to beat the line. Hey guys,
welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris,
and on today's episode, I'm joined by three incredibly talented actors,
Ben Lawson, Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgis, the stars of
the new Binge series Mixtape. Now, if you're anything like me,
(00:21):
you've probably been aware of these actors for quite some time.
Jim Sturgis, of course stolar hearts in One Day, the
film with Anne Hathaway. Not sure if Europe's as obsessed
with that movie as I am. He's gone on to
make a huge name for himself all around the world.
Theresa Palmer, of course, is one of Australia's brightest exports.
Has starred in Warm Bodies, A Discovery of Witches and
(00:43):
I only just found this out. Not only has she
had this amazing career in film and television, but she's
also about to be a mother of six, like where
do you find the time? And also Ben Lawson, who
we first met in Australia's very own soap opera Neighbors.
He's managed to carve out a solid Hollywood career. I
know that most of my female friends are obsessed with
Firefly Lane, thirteen reasons why, and I could go on.
(01:07):
I mean, the list for these guys is quite unreal.
Today we're talking about the deeply emotional series Mixtape, from
the lost art of making mixtapes to the emotional depth
of playing flawed, complex characters. These three don't hold back
in this chat, and if you could see that they
have some amazing chemistry between the three of them, you'll
get to hear what it was like bringing younger and
(01:27):
older versions of these characters to life, how music became
a central heartbeat to this story, and why Mixtape hits
so hard emotionally. And yes, we do get into a
few hilarious behind the scenes stories, including Ben's surprising first
crash pad in Los Angeles with a best friend of
one of the cast of nine to two one zero.
It's very random story to just add into the podcast. So, guys,
(01:51):
I'm really hoping you're here to listen to some fantastic
stories about how Mixtape has been made. It was so
much fun to sit down with these three. Even though
it is a short episode, it is a lot of fun.
So let's dive in. Hey, guys, thanks for jumping on
and chatting about mixtape. I'm actually a ridiculously big fan
(02:12):
of all three of you for very different reasons. So yeah,
I'll start with you. Jim So my partner whenever goes away.
I watch the movie one day. I've probably seen it
more like an unhealthy amount of time.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And Theresa. I've been like obsessed with you and asking
to have you on this podcast for probably four years,
and I've done five hundred and sixty episodes, So to
have you here today is amazing. Congratulations on baby number
one hundred.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I see, I think I'm at six now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Then, I met you years ago in Los Angeles, and
I think you were living with Tory Spelling's best friend
or something. Does that ring a belty?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
That was the very first place I ever stayed in LA.
It was I had a month sublet that I found
on Craigslist, and yeah, it was Tory Spelling's first.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Oh my god, did toy pop over all.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Anti climbacc.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Red hair from memory? I remember?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, all three of you need a restraining order against me.
What a way to start? I want to say, the
music had to be really good. For this series to work,
and it really does lift. And I must admit I've
already started putting together a mixtape of the soundtrack. But
for you guys, are you familiar with the era of
(03:36):
making a mixtape for something?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, do you know how old we are?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You're the youngest. I mean, you're surely.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Your night in the middle of you're in the middle
of it.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
You started being into CDs?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I did, but I did star in my very first car.
I didn't have a CD player and like a hold
of a Marina and so I had a little mixtapes
I would make and I'd put in my mum's little
red hole and Marina. It was so fun. It was
like we were saying, it's actually a shame that they're
like the days of.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The past now.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
And also who could afford to buy tapes?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It was like if you were rich, you know, you
could just go to the shop Brashes and buy like
a real tape. But like otherwise, the gifting and exchanging
of curated you know, mixtapes was where I was at.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
My dad owned a CD shop my whole oh, my childhood,
so I could go and get like for me, it
was Michael Jackson. It was like Michael Jackson tapes. That's
when I first started listening to. I'd just go down
to my dad's, like the compact disc shop that my
dad had, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Had go and get her.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And then of course it folded because no one listened
to CDs after all.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's so funny though, because like with this story, it's
kind of like, you know, when you make food for someone,
it's kind of romantic. It's kind of that sort of
you know, where someone takes the time to put together
their playlist, and that's really the center of this story,
which has done really well. Had any of the three
of you read the book before being approached to do this.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
I had read the novel and it was it was
presented to me as the screenplay first, you know, which
is kind of you know, it was good because I
think they did change the world a little bit from
the book, and there was different music that we used,
and we used a different sort of period of time.
So yeah, we sort of focused on the screenplay predominantly
and sort of built it all together. It was really
such a collaborative kind of experience to sort of pickle
(05:28):
the music. Working with Lucy Gaffie the director, who is
the most collaborative person I've ever ever worked with in
my life.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I have to say Jim had a big part in
the music selection. You would be sending tracks consistently.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I got kind of obsessed in it and I used
it and I tried to pretend that it was part
of my character research. But I believe I was just like,
sort we got it right because it's all set in
the North part of England, which is a which is
a place that I know and understands sort of well,
and the music very specifically was coming out of that
place at that time, and so I believe that these
(06:01):
young kids will be listening to a specific kind of sound,
you know. And everybody was really on board with that,
and we really started to dive deep and investigate and
find out what these kids, what these young teenagers would
really be listening to, you know, And often it wasn't
the obvious tracks, so you know, it wasn't the sort
of the number one hits or the sort of single
from the album. It was the more sort of obscure
(06:23):
album tracks. Certainly, when I made mixtapes, you'd put the
weird ones in there to try and make yourself look cool,
you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
How did you go about? Because I mean there's so
much back and forward between the young actors playing these
characters and yourself, and I was so mesmerized by it
that I started doing a deep dive on lots of
film and TV where this happens. How did you guys
go about making sure that these characters were the same people.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
We didn't really have that opportunity, to be honest, because
the younger versions of us were cast after we had
already shot maybe three quarters of our stuff, so it
was probably more on them to meet what we've done.
And then Lucy Gaffe, being the genius that she is
our director, she was able to steer I think both
(07:12):
of those younger formers into a place where it felt
like we were playing the same person. But I think
for me it was probably easier than say, Jim, because
my character is completely shape shifting, so I didn't have
to necessarily match the exact energy that Florence was bringing
up because I've completely reinvented myself and had a rebirth.
(07:35):
But watching it last night, I noticed that there's like
such subtleties and what both of us are doing where
we're more reserved and we're quieter, and that was just
two individual choices and it happened to a line. So
we got really lucky there.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
I had beautiful Rory, who plays the younger version of me,
and this is the first job that he's done, This
is his first sort of professional acting job. So he
came on to the set he was so hungry desperate
to kind of learn, and asked the director if he
could watch the monitor and sort of watch my scenes
and see if he could sort of take anything from that,
which was hugely intimidating as she's have a young actor
(08:11):
could have studied the study the work that's going on
at the time. And Lucy actually for me, she'd actually
sent me some of the audition tapes that they were
doing because she was she just wanted to know how
I felt about you. I think they I think they
were quite sure of who they were going to cast
for the young Allison and they were sort of, you know,
really sort of trying to make sure they got the
right young Daniel. And so she did send me some
(08:34):
casting tapes quite early on and said, who do you
feel is feeling like your version? Who do you feel
you're kind of connecting to with these young actors, and
I was so grateful to be able to be included
into that, you know process. And I could just see
straight away from Rory that he just had a sort
of there was a sort of gentleness and of vulnerability,
and I believe that he was a sort of you know,
(08:55):
he was a lad, and he was a sort of
you know it was it was someone that could sort
of hold his own but had a sort of slight
kind of poetry to him as well.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You know, well, I'm running out of time, Ben. I
always finished this podcast with a question of what's something
from behind the scenes, And I was going to say, Ben,
the subtlety with your character and the fractures in the
marriage that come across on screen almost immediately with his
character would have been very difficult because Theresa is so likable.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yes, challenge, what a challenge.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How did you go about sort of creating that subtlety?
You know, for us as an audience, we kind of
it almost gives us a reason to not like you
in a way so that we can support the fact
that she is setting back outside the well.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
That was the drawer of the role for me, is
you know, being able to jump into a character that
it's not clear whether he's all good or all bad,
or if we're supposed to like him or not. And
there's many, many reasons why he's a good fit for Allison,
you know, like she ended up with him for a reason,
and you know, to sort of play him in a
(10:01):
Mastache twieling, you know, villain way would have been like
ridiculous but also insults you know, Allison Teresa's character because
we go, well, why would the person that we're rooting for,
why would she end up with this villain? So what
was fun for me was to really sort of try
to be the most likable version of this guy who's
kind of controlling, you know, like he's certainly problematic in
(10:23):
his marriage, and there are many clues in between them
that tell us that she doesn't have a freedom in
this marriage that she should have. So you know, that
was really the fun part for me. It was like
trying to get the audience on my side as much
as possible to then have them go, oh, I don't
know how to feel about this guy. So that was
the game of it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, congratulations, guys, I have to let you go. This
show is so great, Like it's so deep, it's so
rich and I can't wait for people to watch this,
to enjoy the music, enjoy your performances, and congratulations to
the three of you.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Oh thanks, Benjamin
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload the podcast to beat the line. Hey guys,
welcome back to TV Reload. My name is Benjamin Norris,
and on today's episode, I'm joined by three incredibly talented actors,
Ben Lawson, Teresa Palmer and Jim Sturgis, the stars of
the new Binge series Mixtape. Now, if you're anything like me,
(00:21):
you've probably been aware of these actors for quite some time.
Jim Sturgis, of course stolar hearts in One Day, the
film with Anne Hathaway. Not sure if Europe's as obsessed
with that movie as I am. He's gone on to
make a huge name for himself all around the world.
Theresa Palmer, of course, is one of Australia's brightest exports.
Has starred in Warm Bodies, A Discovery of Witches and
(00:43):
I only just found this out. Not only has she
had this amazing career in film and television, but she's
also about to be a mother of six, like where
do you find the time? And also Ben Lawson, who
we first met in Australia's very own soap opera Neighbors.
He's managed to carve out a solid Hollywood career. I
know that most of my female friends are obsessed with
Firefly Lane, thirteen reasons why, and I could go on.
(01:07):
I mean, the list for these guys is quite unreal.
Today we're talking about the deeply emotional series Mixtape, from
the lost art of making mixtapes to the emotional depth
of playing flawed, complex characters. These three don't hold back
in this chat, and if you could see that they
have some amazing chemistry between the three of them, you'll
get to hear what it was like bringing younger and
(01:27):
older versions of these characters to life, how music became
a central heartbeat to this story, and why Mixtape hits
so hard emotionally. And yes, we do get into a
few hilarious behind the scenes stories, including Ben's surprising first
crash pad in Los Angeles with a best friend of
one of the cast of nine to two one zero.
It's very random story to just add into the podcast. So, guys,
(01:51):
I'm really hoping you're here to listen to some fantastic
stories about how Mixtape has been made. It was so
much fun to sit down with these three. Even though
it is a short episode, it is a lot of fun.
So let's dive in. Hey, guys, thanks for jumping on
and chatting about mixtape. I'm actually a ridiculously big fan
(02:12):
of all three of you for very different reasons. So yeah,
I'll start with you. Jim So my partner whenever goes away.
I watch the movie one day. I've probably seen it
more like an unhealthy amount of time.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And Theresa. I've been like obsessed with you and asking
to have you on this podcast for probably four years,
and I've done five hundred and sixty episodes, So to
have you here today is amazing. Congratulations on baby number
one hundred.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I see, I think I'm at six now.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Then, I met you years ago in Los Angeles, and
I think you were living with Tory Spelling's best friend
or something. Does that ring a belty?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
That was the very first place I ever stayed in LA.
It was I had a month sublet that I found
on Craigslist, and yeah, it was Tory Spelling's first.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Oh my god, did toy pop over all.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Anti climbacc.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Red hair from memory? I remember?
Speaker 4 (03:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Yeah, all three of you need a restraining order against me.
What a way to start? I want to say, the
music had to be really good. For this series to work,
and it really does lift. And I must admit I've
already started putting together a mixtape of the soundtrack. But
for you guys, are you familiar with the era of
(03:36):
making a mixtape for something?
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yeah, do you know how old we are?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You're the youngest. I mean, you're surely.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Your night in the middle of you're in the middle
of it.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
You started being into CDs?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
I did, but I did star in my very first car.
I didn't have a CD player and like a hold
of a Marina and so I had a little mixtapes
I would make and I'd put in my mum's little
red hole and Marina. It was so fun. It was
like we were saying, it's actually a shame that they're
like the days of.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
The past now.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
And also who could afford to buy tapes?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
It was like if you were rich, you know, you
could just go to the shop Brashes and buy like
a real tape. But like otherwise, the gifting and exchanging
of curated you know, mixtapes was where I was at.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
My dad owned a CD shop my whole oh, my childhood,
so I could go and get like for me, it
was Michael Jackson. It was like Michael Jackson tapes. That's
when I first started listening to. I'd just go down
to my dad's, like the compact disc shop that my
dad had, and I.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Had go and get her.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
And then of course it folded because no one listened
to CDs after all.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It's so funny though, because like with this story, it's
kind of like, you know, when you make food for someone,
it's kind of romantic. It's kind of that sort of
you know, where someone takes the time to put together
their playlist, and that's really the center of this story,
which has done really well. Had any of the three
of you read the book before being approached to do this.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
I had read the novel and it was it was
presented to me as the screenplay first, you know, which
is kind of you know, it was good because I
think they did change the world a little bit from
the book, and there was different music that we used,
and we used a different sort of period of time.
So yeah, we sort of focused on the screenplay predominantly
and sort of built it all together. It was really
such a collaborative kind of experience to sort of pickle
(05:28):
the music. Working with Lucy Gaffie the director, who is
the most collaborative person I've ever ever worked with in
my life.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I have to say Jim had a big part in
the music selection. You would be sending tracks consistently.
Speaker 5 (05:41):
I got kind of obsessed in it and I used
it and I tried to pretend that it was part
of my character research. But I believe I was just like,
sort we got it right because it's all set in
the North part of England, which is a which is
a place that I know and understands sort of well,
and the music very specifically was coming out of that
place at that time, and so I believe that these
(06:01):
young kids will be listening to a specific kind of sound,
you know. And everybody was really on board with that,
and we really started to dive deep and investigate and
find out what these kids, what these young teenagers would
really be listening to, you know, And often it wasn't
the obvious tracks, so you know, it wasn't the sort
of the number one hits or the sort of single
from the album. It was the more sort of obscure
(06:23):
album tracks. Certainly, when I made mixtapes, you'd put the
weird ones in there to try and make yourself look cool,
you know, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
How did you go about? Because I mean there's so
much back and forward between the young actors playing these
characters and yourself, and I was so mesmerized by it
that I started doing a deep dive on lots of
film and TV where this happens. How did you guys
go about making sure that these characters were the same people.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
We didn't really have that opportunity, to be honest, because
the younger versions of us were cast after we had
already shot maybe three quarters of our stuff, so it
was probably more on them to meet what we've done.
And then Lucy Gaffe, being the genius that she is
our director, she was able to steer I think both
(07:12):
of those younger formers into a place where it felt
like we were playing the same person. But I think
for me it was probably easier than say, Jim, because
my character is completely shape shifting, so I didn't have
to necessarily match the exact energy that Florence was bringing
up because I've completely reinvented myself and had a rebirth.
(07:35):
But watching it last night, I noticed that there's like
such subtleties and what both of us are doing where
we're more reserved and we're quieter, and that was just
two individual choices and it happened to a line. So
we got really lucky there.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
I had beautiful Rory, who plays the younger version of me,
and this is the first job that he's done, This
is his first sort of professional acting job. So he
came on to the set he was so hungry desperate
to kind of learn, and asked the director if he
could watch the monitor and sort of watch my scenes
and see if he could sort of take anything from that,
which was hugely intimidating as she's have a young actor
(08:11):
could have studied the study the work that's going on
at the time. And Lucy actually for me, she'd actually
sent me some of the audition tapes that they were
doing because she was she just wanted to know how
I felt about you. I think they I think they
were quite sure of who they were going to cast
for the young Allison and they were sort of, you know,
really sort of trying to make sure they got the
right young Daniel. And so she did send me some
(08:34):
casting tapes quite early on and said, who do you
feel is feeling like your version? Who do you feel
you're kind of connecting to with these young actors, and
I was so grateful to be able to be included
into that, you know process. And I could just see
straight away from Rory that he just had a sort
of there was a sort of gentleness and of vulnerability,
and I believe that he was a sort of you know,
(08:55):
he was a lad, and he was a sort of
you know it was it was someone that could sort
of hold his own but had a sort of slight
kind of poetry to him as well.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
You know, well, I'm running out of time, Ben. I
always finished this podcast with a question of what's something
from behind the scenes, And I was going to say, Ben,
the subtlety with your character and the fractures in the
marriage that come across on screen almost immediately with his
character would have been very difficult because Theresa is so likable.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yes, challenge, what a challenge.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
How did you go about sort of creating that subtlety?
You know, for us as an audience, we kind of
it almost gives us a reason to not like you
in a way so that we can support the fact
that she is setting back outside the well.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
That was the drawer of the role for me, is
you know, being able to jump into a character that
it's not clear whether he's all good or all bad,
or if we're supposed to like him or not. And
there's many, many reasons why he's a good fit for Allison,
you know, like she ended up with him for a reason,
and you know, to sort of play him in a
(10:01):
Mastache twieling, you know, villain way would have been like
ridiculous but also insults you know, Allison Teresa's character because
we go, well, why would the person that we're rooting for,
why would she end up with this villain? So what
was fun for me was to really sort of try
to be the most likable version of this guy who's
kind of controlling, you know, like he's certainly problematic in
(10:23):
his marriage, and there are many clues in between them
that tell us that she doesn't have a freedom in
this marriage that she should have. So you know, that
was really the fun part for me. It was like
trying to get the audience on my side as much
as possible to then have them go, oh, I don't
know how to feel about this guy. So that was
the game of it.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Well, congratulations, guys, I have to let you go. This
show is so great, Like it's so deep, it's so
rich and I can't wait for people to watch this,
to enjoy the music, enjoy your performances, and congratulations to
the three of you.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Oh thanks, Benjamin
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