March 24, 2025 • 17 mins
Hi everyone, welcome back to TV Reload!
I truly appreciate you tuning in for today’s episode, featuring two powerhouse content creators at the top of their game in scripted drama—John Polson and Bruna Papandrea. They join me to discuss their latest project, The Last Anniversary.
Bruna Papandrea is an acclaimed Australian film and television producer and the founder of Made Up Stories. Before that, she co-founded Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon. Her impressive resume speaks for itself, with hits like Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers etc. The list goes on. Plus the feature film, The Dry, and the sequel to that, Force of Nature. It’s an absolute honour to have her here to discuss this exciting new TV series, now streaming on Binge and Foxtel.
Joining her is John Polson, the director of The Last Anniversary. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since the ’90s, ever since I saw him in The Sum of Us alongside Russell Crowe. Over the years, John has made a remarkable transition behind the camera, working out of New York and making a significant impact in film and television. He’s also the creative force behind Tropfest, the world’s largest short film festival, which has supported countless emerging filmmakers.
In this episode:
- • Bruna shares her favourite Liane Moriarty book and the three key elements she looks for when choosing a story.
- • John explains how directing a TV series differs from filmmaking and what unique challenges come with signing onto a project like this.
- • We uncover some fascinating behind-the-scenes details—Did Liane Moriarty want a role in the series? Has Bruna ever considered acting herself?
- • Plus, we’ll discuss the stellar cast, including Miranda Richardson, why this series has a broader appeal than some of Bruna’s past projects, and an update on Big Little Lies Season 3 (which Liane just finished writing this week!).
There’s so much to dive into, with plenty of exclusive insights. So sit back, relax, and enjoy as we explore the incredible world of The Last Anniversary, streaming weekly on Binge and Foxtel!
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 last week. Thereby, welcome back to
TV Reload. I truly appreciate you tuning into today's episode
featuring two powerhouse content creators at the top of their
game in scripted drama, John Paulson and Bruta pop Andrea.
They joined me to discuss their latest project, The Last Anniversary.
Bruta pop Andrea is an acclaimed Australian film and television
(00:23):
producer and the founder of Made Up Stories. Before that,
she co founded Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon. Her impressive
resume speaks for itself with the hits like Big Little Lies,
Nine Perfect Strangers, the feature film The Dry and its
sequel Forces of Nature. It's an absolute honor to have
her here to discuss the exciting new TV series now
(00:43):
streaming on Binge and Foxtail. Joining her is John Paulson,
the director of The Last Anniversary. I have been a
huge fan of his work since the nineties, ever since
I saw him in the Summer of Us alongside Russell Crowe.
Over the years, John has made a remarkable transition behind
the camera, working out of New York City and making
a significant impact in film and television. In this episode,
(01:05):
Bruna will share her favorite Leanne Moriarty book and the
three key elements that she looks for when it comes
to storytelling. John explains how directing a TV series differs
from filmmaking and what unique challenges come with signing onto
a project like this. We uncover some fascinating behind the
scenes details. Did Leanne Moriarty one to who have a
(01:26):
role in this series? Has Bruna pop Andrea Ever considered
acting herself? Plus, we will discuss the stellar cast, including
Miranda richardson why this series has a broader appeal than
some of Bruner's past projects, and an update on Big
Little Live Season three, which Leanne just finished writing this week.
Pretty exciting. There's actually so much to dive into today
(01:48):
with plenty of exclusive insights, So sit back and relax
and enjoy as we explore the incredible world of the
Last Anniversary, streaming weekly on Binge and Foxtel. So excited
to be talking to the two of you because here's
such powerhouses in storytelling and I've been in your audience
for so long, so when the opportunity came across my
(02:09):
desk to talk to you, both. I felt like I
was going to hyperventilate.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So ah, that's so sweet of you.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You don't just say that about John, But thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
God is a part of my sexual awakening.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
This podcast, Benjamin, that was one night I thought we
weren't going to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well, it's because of the sum of us. I love.
That's my Australian film.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I know that that means a lot to me because
that was very special to me and I know to
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
For my fortieth birthday, my best friend said to me,
what do you want to do? I said, don't want
to go out for dinner. I just want to watch
like a really good movie. So that is what I
watched on my.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Fortieth That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Just thought to throw that in there. I loved the
Last Anniversary. I love this book and I loved this series.
I have to tell you I watched it in one sitting.
So I was very lucky and watched the whole thing. Yeah, okay, right,
I was in a log cabin. It turned up in
my email. I had the luxury of being able to
watch it all in one go, and I it was
(03:13):
such an amazing experience. I think I like stories about family,
and I think I like stories about secrets, and I
think that's what this is.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I like the same two things.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, yeah, Bruno, I think that. You know, you can
see that through all of your work. I mean that
sort of is a common theme than women. Yes, and
John likes women too, Yeah, he does. Is it weird
that I'm a little bit patriotic about Leanne's books being
in Australian voices? I feel like because I've read them
that way, I've particularly liked this series because it's in
(03:45):
Australian voices.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
No, I don't think that's weird at all. I'm a
patriotic like that too. And obviously she I don't think
she'll write a book does not send New South Wales,
so this is particularly special.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Was it true that she wanted to play a role
in this or it was she asked to play a role?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
No, first, play a role like acting role?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Oh god, no, she would die. No, I mean I
can barely get it to like come and do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
But no, she's so no what I did hear?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And Bruno will correct me if I'm wrong. This was
one where she said I really need this to be
so yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's definitely she needed it to stay in Australia acting.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
No, I never heard that. I wanted to.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Play a role, but John wouldn't cast me, just cast
himself as you saw.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And there's no need to mention it. I know you
loved me in it, but I had a small part.
But yeah, Leah, No, I hadn't heard that.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Is it. John is good to be able to unpack
something like this. I guess Brunie you've been doing it
with some of the other books. But as a director,
having the time to tell stories in long form and
being on the project the whole way through it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, and it was really apart from the book, apart
from coming back to Australia, a part from working with
Bruno again.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We've worked together a couple of times. That was probably
the main thing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
To be able to see it all the way through
from the get go, direct them all right through to
post and obviously editing way through it. It was pretty special.
It's kind of like making a big movie, a long movie.
I think it's probably for an half five hours, but
it's a lot of work. But it was really great.
I think it's great. I had a lot of actors
feeling like, you know, when you have rotating directors, it
(05:24):
can be a little bit disconcerting.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So I don't have one person on the set all
the way. It's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well, we're sort of seeing that more like it used
to be. You know, we've got all these different directors
working on TV series like that. But I think as
that's changed, these series feel the richer for it just
keeping one person's vision of it.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, and interestingly, I think this is Bruner's thing because,
funnily enough, living in New York, when they first brought
it to me, it was a little bit overwhelming to think,
oh God, I'm going to have to be away from
my family for a long time.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I think there was a.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Very short moment where I said, hey, what if I
direct like the first three, we bring someone into the
second three. And they were like, well, respectfully, that's kind
of not how we do it. And so I had
a meeting with my family and talked to it through.
I was like, you know, I don't really want to
do that either. I want to try and do this
whole thing. So that's what happened.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
You can feel it though, you know, that's the way
I prefer to do it.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I prefer to Maybe.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
It's because we all come from film, so I just
prefer to make it, you know, like a big movie.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I've done it the other way.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
And there are definitely shows, particularly ongoing shows, where you know,
in terms of schedule and yeah, that she voluing me
have to and it is it is not for the
faint hearted, like you know. I mean I've had one
director who did all of them get shingles in the middle.
We've often had to take breaks in the middle of them,
you know if at six, seven or eight, it's.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
A lot for a filmmaker.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I mean also it's a lot like every time I
went to have lunch and I'd be like, can you
come to lunch? It's too busy working. And it was
always I was like, what's the point of working with
my friend if I couldn't even have lunch.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, it's why you have to ask your family can
I go and do this project, because you're basically asking
to go on a very big holiday.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
But it was very fortureous the way the schedule panned out,
because we had a three week hiatus around Christmas, so
I was able to say, look, it is a long
time in Australia, but I'm never going to be gone.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I think it was like four or five weeks was
the longest period, and then I'm going to come back,
you know, for Christmas or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So it kind of fell into place.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But as Brinie said, like there are shows, I think,
I don't know, eight is probably the maximum before you start,
just for logistical reasons, you know, prepping while you're shooting.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, it's impossible to have really one day.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
That's essentially that's Wall movies.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But I will say one great thing about working in
Australia the hours are much more civilized. Yeah, much more
civilized than I'm used to in America. In America, it's
you know, it's not an unheard of at all to
do fourteen our days, maybe longer. Here we had a
very strict, pretty much ten hour rule. For me, that
was a breath of fresh aut.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I could go home.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I was working when I got home about the next
day or the next week, but I wasn't on set
really past about ten hours. And I found that very
very civilized and a great way to make something good,
because you know, you can't sort of just do fourty
nowadays every day of the week and expect to kind
of keep the quality up.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It's probably why we've had so many amazing actors coming
to Australia to work as well. Like it's a real
draw card. Miranda Richardson is so good in this How
do names like this come about?
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
How did she become involved with this project? I should
probably ask?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
I mean we go through a process with the cast
in director Jane Norris, who works this cast almost everything
we've done, and I think that you know, when you
have a big ensemble cast like that, you know, we
realized we could afford, particularly as there was a significant
amount of females at the center of this, we could
afford to have someone who and it's very common, as
you know you live here, to have people have come
(08:50):
from England, you know what I mean, It's like a
very common thing. England to Australia is a much easier transition.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think. And so we just started making a list
and she was at the top of it.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I've been so luckly like that, and we approached her
and then John got on the phone with her and.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Then you know, I think she was really up for it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
She was amazing.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
It was interesting because when we went to her, as
Brina said, we had a long list.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She was at the top, but you.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Never assumed that first person is, you know, because it
could be reasons she's unavailable, she's not into it, whatever,
But we kept coming back to her.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So we went to her first and then she.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Wanted to get on the phone, and we only had
I think we only had two or three scripts at
that point that she could read. There were others, but
we didn't feel like they were ready for prime.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Time yet we were still working on them.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
So the word came back that hey, I'm interested, but
I kind of need to know how it ends, and
you know, can you do a zoom? So I actually
ended up doing a zoom with her, and I think
it was San Strauss, our incredible writer obsessed with her,
and maybe Sarah Walker, who also did a lot of
the writing. I think it might have been the three
of us did a zoom with Miranda, and we took
(09:58):
her through the end, which, as you know, without giving
anything away, is a big, you know, surprise, I'll say,
And there's more than one surprise, so I don't know
which one you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Of, but the one I'm thinking of was a big one,
and and she was like WHOA. And I thought, oh god,
I hope we have a master.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You know, that's when you rewrite the script to get
her to come and say yes, we.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Would pretty get We were down, you know, we were
also getting pretty close to shooting, you know, like we were
weeks away, but we weren't like months away. And she
we got word back that she she wanted to come,
and she wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It, and it was amazing. I just saw her in
New York a few days ago. She's a wonderful, wonderful person.
She's incredible in the show.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
She's so rewarding as an actress. For viewers, there's something
very and I think that's the word that I think
of when I think of her. She's very rewarding.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I think she she brings us sort of a kind
of a heavyweight element too. We I think when you're
see it in the trailer, everybody knows Miranda, they've seen her,
and it's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It was really great to have her.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Because I'm in limited time, I wrote a hundred questions
to ask you. Now I'm joking.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Timing around.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Let's go let's go.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Lightning Crown, Get out of the Cards. I really wanted
to ask you something which I don't feel like you
can answer because we're talking about this particular book that's
been turned into a series. Do you have a favoritely
Amriati story that you connected with, because you mean of
your books, of the books, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, I know I.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Will obviously Big Little Lies very close to my heart,
but her new book is my favorite book. Wow, he
one moment that just came out. I just think it's
so special. And then, honestly, The Last Anniversary is one
of my favorites because it is iconically Australian, and I
think it's because it's my mother's favorite. My mum actually
taught me about it even before I read it because
(11:46):
she'd read a lot of learn stuff and she was like,
my favorite is the Last Anniversary. So she's coming to
the premiere. My daughter's coming to the first premiere ever.
So that's very I think special to me. Last Anniversary
because it is about so many generations of family and whenmen,
and then her new one is spectacular.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You're going to get asked this all the time, but
it would be remiss of me not to ask this question. Yes,
let me get yeah, yeah, let's go do miment along
with me.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, I do get us at all. No, no, yeah, no,
she's just just you know, she said it.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
It's no secret she's been writing another book and it's
getting closer and closer, and you know, there's obviously a
great excitement from everyone, me, Nicole per Reese, everyone, We're
really excited to try and do more.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So we're getting closer.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I'll just keep rewatching the series I've watched, I mean
season one particularly, and I love both of them for
very different reasons. But Season one, to me, that's the
best television that's been made in the last ten years.
And what's so good about that is these series that
have been able to be made and how important that
is to Australian people like myself to see us on screen.
(12:57):
I think that's one of the biggest pull throughs of
going and watching stories being made, seeing ourselves on screen,
and that sort of gets encapsulated, you know, with man's
work and with your work.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's nice.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean I think this at Touchwood, I think
this one is going to have the broadest appeal. To
be honest, because I do feel like it's going to
hit not just women, men and women. I really think
it's going to have broad appeal in terms of like
demographics and age.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And I do think it's something probably my twelve year
old and.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
My mother and I can a watch together, which is
a rare thing to find. So I'm really excited to
see and I hope people, you know, kind of anticipate
as it drops weekly.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Which we haven't done in a while. That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That's good though for people. I love the idea of
having family appointment television, you know, and sitting down together
and watching it. I have to let you go because
you're very busy people. But I finished my podcast that's
what this is. This is episode five hundred and thirty eight.
So I've been doing a lot. I've spoken to Sam Strauss,
I've spoken to Sarah. I've had so many amazing people
(13:59):
on the podcas So to have the two of you
now is amazing. But the last question I ask everyone is,
what if something behind the scenes, something we won't see
on screen, kind of maybe a funny story. I don't know,
if John, if if you've got something from trying to
get this project made and your experience with it.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
That's good at me, and I always go to the
obvious one.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I'm very My obvious one is I'm really scared of nature,
Like I'm I'm scaredy at scaredy.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Cat you ever met.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
So there was one day we were shooting some of
the past stuff, you know, with the you know, the
beautiful stuff set in the past that there's incredulos and
I was like, oh, great, we're going to go down.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And then I arrived at the location.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
It's like literally in the middle of nowhere, and I
literally walked in saw what John said, Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
See you later. I was like, Ara, Larah preaches here
and there are snags. I'm good this. I don't think
I sat down. I might have been the quickest.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I was like, that's the stuff that you don't see,
because the amazing thing about what we do is you
end up you just never know. You get in your
car and you never know we're going to drive that day,
and you're just you're stire, You're an actually here, you
were a mission impossible, you are an actually here.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
There is that. I'm glad. I was trying to find
a way to bring that up and.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Impossible too is still amazing. I still love that film,
and it's weird because they've made like ninety five Mission
Impossible movies. But again, because I'm so patriotic. It was
said in Australia and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think Billy needs to make it come.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah. I get a lot of people telling me almost
every day, Billy, they're mostly my brothers.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Is just this fan voices in your head.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
But I don't have anything as fun as grown up.
I guess for me that I want to make sure
I understand your question. The secret behind the scenes here,
I think when you watch the show as you have
is scribbling Gum Island, this fictional island is really We
cherry picked locations from all over Sydney, from as far
(16:00):
away as Bundeena in the deep set south of Sydney,
parts of the Hawksbury, parts of other rivers, and then
sort of stitched it together with movie magic and VFX
so that the shots you see the island, all those houses,
I mean that island had nothing on it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
We buill that on.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Not to spoil any of the fun of it, but yeah,
so I kind of think that's that's cool.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I've got a feeling. You know, people are going to
be like, Okay, I want to go to the Scribbley
Gom Island and it really doesn't exist. Sadly, it should
be a great to us.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I was googling. I'm googling whether or not it existed.
I mean, I'm familiar with the Hawks three River, but
I was like, is it real?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
And then no, it's leone wrote the book or at
least was inspired on Dangar Island and that's where it
came from.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But yeah, the islands fictional.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, guys, I'm in your audience and I've been in
your audience for such a long time and I can't
wait for Australia to be able to bubble the world
to watch this series. It's so amazing. So congratulations and
thank you for being so generous with your time talking
to me.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Thank you great to chat to you.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
M
It's in the news today, but it was actually on
TV Reload the podcast last week. Thereby, welcome back to
TV Reload. I truly appreciate you tuning into today's episode
featuring two powerhouse content creators at the top of their
game in scripted drama, John Paulson and Bruta pop Andrea.
They joined me to discuss their latest project, The Last Anniversary.
Bruta pop Andrea is an acclaimed Australian film and television
(00:23):
producer and the founder of Made Up Stories. Before that,
she co founded Pacific Standard with Reese Witherspoon. Her impressive
resume speaks for itself with the hits like Big Little Lies,
Nine Perfect Strangers, the feature film The Dry and its
sequel Forces of Nature. It's an absolute honor to have
her here to discuss the exciting new TV series now
(00:43):
streaming on Binge and Foxtail. Joining her is John Paulson,
the director of The Last Anniversary. I have been a
huge fan of his work since the nineties, ever since
I saw him in the Summer of Us alongside Russell Crowe.
Over the years, John has made a remarkable transition behind
the camera, working out of New York City and making
a significant impact in film and television. In this episode,
(01:05):
Bruna will share her favorite Leanne Moriarty book and the
three key elements that she looks for when it comes
to storytelling. John explains how directing a TV series differs
from filmmaking and what unique challenges come with signing onto
a project like this. We uncover some fascinating behind the
scenes details. Did Leanne Moriarty one to who have a
(01:26):
role in this series? Has Bruna pop Andrea Ever considered
acting herself? Plus, we will discuss the stellar cast, including
Miranda richardson why this series has a broader appeal than
some of Bruner's past projects, and an update on Big
Little Live Season three, which Leanne just finished writing this week.
Pretty exciting. There's actually so much to dive into today
(01:48):
with plenty of exclusive insights, So sit back and relax
and enjoy as we explore the incredible world of the
Last Anniversary, streaming weekly on Binge and Foxtel. So excited
to be talking to the two of you because here's
such powerhouses in storytelling and I've been in your audience
for so long, so when the opportunity came across my
(02:09):
desk to talk to you, both. I felt like I
was going to hyperventilate.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So ah, that's so sweet of you.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
You don't just say that about John, But thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
God is a part of my sexual awakening.
Speaker 4 (02:23):
This podcast, Benjamin, that was one night I thought we
weren't going to talk about that.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Well, it's because of the sum of us. I love.
That's my Australian film.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So thank you.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
I know that that means a lot to me because
that was very special to me and I know to
a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
For my fortieth birthday, my best friend said to me,
what do you want to do? I said, don't want
to go out for dinner. I just want to watch
like a really good movie. So that is what I
watched on my.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Fortieth That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Just thought to throw that in there. I loved the
Last Anniversary. I love this book and I loved this series.
I have to tell you I watched it in one sitting.
So I was very lucky and watched the whole thing. Yeah, okay, right,
I was in a log cabin. It turned up in
my email. I had the luxury of being able to
watch it all in one go, and I it was
(03:13):
such an amazing experience. I think I like stories about family,
and I think I like stories about secrets, and I
think that's what this is.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I like the same two things.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, yeah, Bruno, I think that. You know, you can
see that through all of your work. I mean that
sort of is a common theme than women. Yes, and
John likes women too, Yeah, he does. Is it weird
that I'm a little bit patriotic about Leanne's books being
in Australian voices? I feel like because I've read them
that way, I've particularly liked this series because it's in
(03:45):
Australian voices.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
No, I don't think that's weird at all. I'm a
patriotic like that too. And obviously she I don't think
she'll write a book does not send New South Wales,
so this is particularly special.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Obviously.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Was it true that she wanted to play a role
in this or it was she asked to play a role?
Speaker 3 (04:01):
No, first, play a role like acting role?
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Oh god, no, she would die. No, I mean I
can barely get it to like come and do.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
But no, she's so no what I did hear?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And Bruno will correct me if I'm wrong. This was
one where she said I really need this to be
so yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's definitely she needed it to stay in Australia acting.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
No, I never heard that. I wanted to.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Play a role, but John wouldn't cast me, just cast
himself as you saw.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
And there's no need to mention it. I know you
loved me in it, but I had a small part.
But yeah, Leah, No, I hadn't heard that.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Is it. John is good to be able to unpack
something like this. I guess Brunie you've been doing it
with some of the other books. But as a director,
having the time to tell stories in long form and
being on the project the whole way through it was amazing.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yeah, and it was really apart from the book, apart
from coming back to Australia, a part from working with
Bruno again.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
We've worked together a couple of times. That was probably
the main thing.
Speaker 4 (05:01):
To be able to see it all the way through
from the get go, direct them all right through to
post and obviously editing way through it. It was pretty special.
It's kind of like making a big movie, a long movie.
I think it's probably for an half five hours, but
it's a lot of work. But it was really great.
I think it's great. I had a lot of actors
feeling like, you know, when you have rotating directors, it
(05:24):
can be a little bit disconcerting.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
So I don't have one person on the set all
the way. It's kind of nice.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Well, we're sort of seeing that more like it used
to be. You know, we've got all these different directors
working on TV series like that. But I think as
that's changed, these series feel the richer for it just
keeping one person's vision of it.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, and interestingly, I think this is Bruner's thing because,
funnily enough, living in New York, when they first brought
it to me, it was a little bit overwhelming to think,
oh God, I'm going to have to be away from
my family for a long time.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
And I think there was a.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
Very short moment where I said, hey, what if I
direct like the first three, we bring someone into the
second three. And they were like, well, respectfully, that's kind
of not how we do it. And so I had
a meeting with my family and talked to it through.
I was like, you know, I don't really want to
do that either. I want to try and do this
whole thing. So that's what happened.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
You can feel it though, you know, that's the way
I prefer to do it.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
I prefer to Maybe.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
It's because we all come from film, so I just
prefer to make it, you know, like a big movie.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I've done it the other way.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
And there are definitely shows, particularly ongoing shows, where you know,
in terms of schedule and yeah, that she voluing me
have to and it is it is not for the
faint hearted, like you know. I mean I've had one
director who did all of them get shingles in the middle.
We've often had to take breaks in the middle of them,
you know if at six, seven or eight, it's.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
A lot for a filmmaker.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
I mean also it's a lot like every time I
went to have lunch and I'd be like, can you
come to lunch? It's too busy working. And it was
always I was like, what's the point of working with
my friend if I couldn't even have lunch.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Yeah, it's why you have to ask your family can
I go and do this project, because you're basically asking
to go on a very big holiday.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:59):
But it was very fortureous the way the schedule panned out,
because we had a three week hiatus around Christmas, so
I was able to say, look, it is a long
time in Australia, but I'm never going to be gone.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
I think it was like four or five weeks was
the longest period, and then I'm going to come back,
you know, for Christmas or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
So it kind of fell into place.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
But as Brinie said, like there are shows, I think,
I don't know, eight is probably the maximum before you start,
just for logistical reasons, you know, prepping while you're shooting.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Yeah, it's impossible to have really one day.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
That's essentially that's Wall movies.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
But I will say one great thing about working in
Australia the hours are much more civilized. Yeah, much more
civilized than I'm used to in America. In America, it's
you know, it's not an unheard of at all to
do fourteen our days, maybe longer. Here we had a
very strict, pretty much ten hour rule. For me, that
was a breath of fresh aut.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I could go home.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
I was working when I got home about the next
day or the next week, but I wasn't on set
really past about ten hours. And I found that very
very civilized and a great way to make something good,
because you know, you can't sort of just do fourty
nowadays every day of the week and expect to kind
of keep the quality up.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
It's probably why we've had so many amazing actors coming
to Australia to work as well. Like it's a real
draw card. Miranda Richardson is so good in this How
do names like this come about?
Speaker 6 (08:26):
Like?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
How did she become involved with this project? I should
probably ask?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
I mean we go through a process with the cast
in director Jane Norris, who works this cast almost everything
we've done, and I think that you know, when you
have a big ensemble cast like that, you know, we
realized we could afford, particularly as there was a significant
amount of females at the center of this, we could
afford to have someone who and it's very common, as
you know you live here, to have people have come
(08:50):
from England, you know what I mean, It's like a
very common thing. England to Australia is a much easier transition.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
I think. And so we just started making a list
and she was at the top of it.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I've been so luckly like that, and we approached her
and then John got on the phone with her and.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Then you know, I think she was really up for it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
She was amazing.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
It was interesting because when we went to her, as
Brina said, we had a long list.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
She was at the top, but you.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Never assumed that first person is, you know, because it
could be reasons she's unavailable, she's not into it, whatever,
But we kept coming back to her.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So we went to her first and then she.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Wanted to get on the phone, and we only had
I think we only had two or three scripts at
that point that she could read. There were others, but
we didn't feel like they were ready for prime.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Time yet we were still working on them.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
So the word came back that hey, I'm interested, but
I kind of need to know how it ends, and
you know, can you do a zoom? So I actually
ended up doing a zoom with her, and I think
it was San Strauss, our incredible writer obsessed with her,
and maybe Sarah Walker, who also did a lot of
the writing. I think it might have been the three
of us did a zoom with Miranda, and we took
(09:58):
her through the end, which, as you know, without giving
anything away, is a big, you know, surprise, I'll say,
And there's more than one surprise, so I don't know
which one you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Of, but the one I'm thinking of was a big one,
and and she was like WHOA. And I thought, oh god,
I hope we have a master.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
You know, that's when you rewrite the script to get
her to come and say yes, we.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
Would pretty get We were down, you know, we were
also getting pretty close to shooting, you know, like we were
weeks away, but we weren't like months away. And she
we got word back that she she wanted to come,
and she wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
It, and it was amazing. I just saw her in
New York a few days ago. She's a wonderful, wonderful person.
She's incredible in the show.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
She's so rewarding as an actress. For viewers, there's something
very and I think that's the word that I think
of when I think of her. She's very rewarding.
Speaker 6 (10:46):
I agree.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
I think she she brings us sort of a kind
of a heavyweight element too. We I think when you're
see it in the trailer, everybody knows Miranda, they've seen her,
and it's it's nice.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It was really great to have her.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Because I'm in limited time, I wrote a hundred questions
to ask you. Now I'm joking.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Timing around.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Let's go let's go.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Lightning Crown, Get out of the Cards. I really wanted
to ask you something which I don't feel like you
can answer because we're talking about this particular book that's
been turned into a series. Do you have a favoritely
Amriati story that you connected with, because you mean of
your books, of the books, that's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, I know I.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Will obviously Big Little Lies very close to my heart,
but her new book is my favorite book. Wow, he
one moment that just came out. I just think it's
so special. And then, honestly, The Last Anniversary is one
of my favorites because it is iconically Australian, and I
think it's because it's my mother's favorite. My mum actually
taught me about it even before I read it because
(11:46):
she'd read a lot of learn stuff and she was like,
my favorite is the Last Anniversary. So she's coming to
the premiere. My daughter's coming to the first premiere ever.
So that's very I think special to me. Last Anniversary
because it is about so many generations of family and whenmen,
and then her new one is spectacular.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
You're going to get asked this all the time, but
it would be remiss of me not to ask this question. Yes,
let me get yeah, yeah, let's go do miment along
with me.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
No, I do get us at all. No, no, yeah, no,
she's just just you know, she said it.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
It's no secret she's been writing another book and it's
getting closer and closer, and you know, there's obviously a
great excitement from everyone, me, Nicole per Reese, everyone, We're
really excited to try and do more.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
So we're getting closer.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I'll just keep rewatching the series I've watched, I mean
season one particularly, and I love both of them for
very different reasons. But Season one, to me, that's the
best television that's been made in the last ten years.
And what's so good about that is these series that
have been able to be made and how important that
is to Australian people like myself to see us on screen.
(12:57):
I think that's one of the biggest pull throughs of
going and watching stories being made, seeing ourselves on screen,
and that sort of gets encapsulated, you know, with man's
work and with your work.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
That's nice.
Speaker 5 (13:07):
Yeah, I mean I think this at Touchwood, I think
this one is going to have the broadest appeal. To
be honest, because I do feel like it's going to
hit not just women, men and women. I really think
it's going to have broad appeal in terms of like
demographics and age.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
And I do think it's something probably my twelve year
old and.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
My mother and I can a watch together, which is
a rare thing to find. So I'm really excited to
see and I hope people, you know, kind of anticipate
as it drops weekly.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Which we haven't done in a while. That's exciting.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
That's good though for people. I love the idea of
having family appointment television, you know, and sitting down together
and watching it. I have to let you go because
you're very busy people. But I finished my podcast that's
what this is. This is episode five hundred and thirty eight.
So I've been doing a lot. I've spoken to Sam Strauss,
I've spoken to Sarah. I've had so many amazing people
(13:59):
on the podcas So to have the two of you
now is amazing. But the last question I ask everyone is,
what if something behind the scenes, something we won't see
on screen, kind of maybe a funny story. I don't know,
if John, if if you've got something from trying to
get this project made and your experience with it.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
That's good at me, and I always go to the
obvious one.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I'm very My obvious one is I'm really scared of nature,
Like I'm I'm scaredy at scaredy.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Cat you ever met.
Speaker 5 (14:26):
So there was one day we were shooting some of
the past stuff, you know, with the you know, the
beautiful stuff set in the past that there's incredulos and
I was like, oh, great, we're going to go down.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And then I arrived at the location.
Speaker 5 (14:38):
It's like literally in the middle of nowhere, and I
literally walked in saw what John said, Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
See you later. I was like, Ara, Larah preaches here
and there are snags. I'm good this. I don't think
I sat down. I might have been the quickest.
Speaker 5 (14:54):
I was like, that's the stuff that you don't see,
because the amazing thing about what we do is you
end up you just never know. You get in your
car and you never know we're going to drive that day,
and you're just you're stire, You're an actually here, you
were a mission impossible, you are an actually here.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
There is that. I'm glad. I was trying to find
a way to bring that up and.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Impossible too is still amazing. I still love that film,
and it's weird because they've made like ninety five Mission
Impossible movies. But again, because I'm so patriotic. It was
said in Australia and it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
I think Billy needs to make it come.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah. I get a lot of people telling me almost
every day, Billy, they're mostly my brothers.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
Is just this fan voices in your head.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
But I don't have anything as fun as grown up.
I guess for me that I want to make sure
I understand your question. The secret behind the scenes here,
I think when you watch the show as you have
is scribbling Gum Island, this fictional island is really We
cherry picked locations from all over Sydney, from as far
(16:00):
away as Bundeena in the deep set south of Sydney,
parts of the Hawksbury, parts of other rivers, and then
sort of stitched it together with movie magic and VFX
so that the shots you see the island, all those houses,
I mean that island had nothing on it.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
We buill that on.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Not to spoil any of the fun of it, but yeah,
so I kind of think that's that's cool.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I've got a feeling. You know, people are going to
be like, Okay, I want to go to the Scribbley
Gom Island and it really doesn't exist. Sadly, it should
be a great to us.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
I was googling. I'm googling whether or not it existed.
I mean, I'm familiar with the Hawks three River, but
I was like, is it real?
Speaker 4 (16:37):
And then no, it's leone wrote the book or at
least was inspired on Dangar Island and that's where it
came from.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But yeah, the islands fictional.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Well, guys, I'm in your audience and I've been in
your audience for such a long time and I can't
wait for Australia to be able to bubble the world
to watch this series. It's so amazing. So congratulations and
thank you for being so generous with your time talking
to me.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Thank you great to chat to you.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
M
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