It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week.
Theyby welcome back guys to TV Reload.
My name is Benjamin Norris and on this podcast I go behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. Each episode you will get a front row seat with content makers like executive producers, writers, editors and casting agents. What's the talent that we see on our screens? TV Reload reloads the shows that we are all currently watching and gives you a better insight into our television industry
and our streaming services. Today on the podcast, I have a very special chat with the latest big name at Prime Video Australia. Following a three week search, Prime Video has found Australia's biggest content junkie and her name is Alex Bain. Originally from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Alex has snagged the highly coverted Prime Video buff roll with her creative entry, which was stacked with entertaining personalities and puns that proved to the judges that she's the right girl
for the job. During the next three months, Alex will be paid forty thousand dollars to stream an unbelievable amount of film and TV and recommend us as the audience the best content, as well as a whole lot of other perks, which include access to red carpet events, exclusive
viewing of prime video content, and so much more. I will ask Alex how she managed to win the gig, what shows and films make her qualified for the role, and I'm sure you will get a snapshot of her fabulous personality that I'm sure Amazon Prime are going to be talking about for years. However, let's get started on today's episode as I welcome Alex Baine to the podcast TV Reload.
I mean there's a little bit of like Imposters intern there as well.
Tell me that you've built a time machine kind of a Galorio.
You know you already do this. Give it a go on like a bigger level bomb extremes. Bon I just love discussing, you know, film and TV. I love when someone disagrees with me. I love hearing their their opinions.
I came here to save you, Oh yeah, and who's going to come to save you?
I remember seeing ET and remember being as a young girl being brought to tears in this way. Oh I do do a pretty okay. Jennifer Coolidge. Hi there, Alex Bain, Hello, Hi Ben, I'm very well, thank you. How are you?
That is a celebrity name, if ever I've heard one. As soon as I read Alex Bain, I was like, who is this punny to speak to her?
She sounds amazing.
Oh well, thank you. I didn't even give it to myself, so thanks mom and dad. And I like it though. I never really saw the worth in my name until The Dark Knight Rises was released in around twenty twelve, I think, and it became a running joke. That was Gotham's recording, so that was that was a bit of fun. But that's where my nickname Bane comes from. Everyone calls me Vaines.
Well on brand that.
We've already got a popcorn for reference in this chat to The Dark Knight Rises, which was my least favorite Christopher Nolan Batman film.
No, I love to hear this. I love. I love a discussion about movies, especially when someone has a different opinion to me. I didn't love the first one he made with I think it was called The It was just before The Dark Knight Men begins, Batman begins, thank you, who's the video buff here? I really and then of course The Dark Knight just blew everyone out of the water. But I love to hear that. I do feel like Baane did a lot of the heavy lifting in that.
I feel like he was probably the best part of The Dark Knight Rises, which was weird for.
Me because I'm a really big fan and it annoys my friends. I'm a big Anne Hathaway fan, and so I was so excited about Anne Hathaway being Catwoman, and all my other friends were like, no, she's poorly cast. And then when I watched the movie, she did an amazing job, but it still didn't stay in the zeitgeist of like Michelle fire for as Catwoman in Batman.
I completely agree, and even like I love Zoe Kravitz, I think she's just incredible. She was actually very very well cast, but in the Newest Batman. But I met Michelle Pfeiffer, and it's probably a bit of nostalgia as well. She was I think with these nineties movies, she was allowed to be so camp and that's what I loved
about it. She just she just bought it, like she went from that, you know, the damselnd of stress, and she was just allowed to be super camp and silly, and I think that that's like these new incarnations with Anne and Zoe, that they're a little bit more, a little bit more of the time, a little bit more modern, and a little bit more you could see these people existing in some alternate universe Gotham. But oh my god, the Michelle Michelle Phiper as Catwoman is just iconic to me.
So congratulations on your winning of the Prime Video buff role. This must be quite exciting for you.
I think the best way to describe it, it's like a I mean, an alternate universe. You know, there's it's a timeline when I've woken up and everything's like what I was preparing myself to not win when I when I found out, But then I just left a job. I'd pretty much been made redundant at a job, and I had given myself a month to find something and a lot of the day after the last day at my job, and I was a bit stressed and bit teary.
The day after I get I get a call telling me I'm short listed, and it's just since then, I've just been living in this alternate reality. But it's wonderful, and I mean, you know, as well of like feeling like, you know, you're plucked out of this this group of people and you know sort of given this this opportunity, and I mean there's a little bit of like imposter syndrome there as well. For me.
I remember that.
I remember thinking, you know who me, you know, like you want it, and people go, oh, you wanted it.
You know, you applied, You've entered the competition.
At the same time, it's still you know, we all still have our insecurities, do you know what I mean?
And you know you're wanting to sort of deliver because you know, I mean these visiting these cool offices and meeting these amazingly talented people and it's like, yeah, it's I mean, it's wonderful. I can't complain about anything. I'm almost I'm too excited to sleep this week, but it's yeah, it's been a whirlwind.
How did this come about? Like, how did this?
How did you find out about the competition?
I had actually seen it online. I can't remember if I saw it by an email, I think, And I was thinking about it and I was kind of running over in my head what I would do because I thought that it was a two minute video, which is more time than I normally give myself to make silly tiktoks or you know, because it's mostly sixty seconds or reviews and stuff like that. So I was thinking in my head, what would I do if I applied for that, you know, the kind of way you'd think, you know,
what would I say if I want an Oscar? It was just out, you know, out there in your mind, what would I say if I land on the moon. And then and then I a friend of a friend of mine at the accounting firm I used to work out, so shout out to Mac, the accountant. He messaged me the link and he said, you should apply for this,
And I hadn't. I hadn't mentioned it to anyone, so I just sort of took it as a confirmation and I was like, okay, yeah, and we'd become friends, and I'd become friends with a lot of people at this place because I realized that if I was posting these like there were really low budget one minute videos. In fact, Christopher Nolan's Interstellar was the very first review I posted. But it started conversations with like people in my you know,
thirty person accounting office where I was the receptionist. So I liked just having conversations with people, and he must Yeah. Maca just was like, oh, you know you already do this, give it a go on like a bigger level, and yeah, I took it as confirmation. And I'd already kind of
been thinking over some ideas. So I just made the video, hoped for the best, applied in a lunch break on like my last week of work or something, my last fortnight of work, and then and then didn't think of it until I got the call, because it just, yeah, it was It was out of the realm of possibilities that someone would call me, you know, you know what I mean. You know, you enter competitions and you're just like,
you know, see how it goes. But yeah, as you would know, sometimes yeah it works out.
It does it does? I think you know, once you've applied, you've got to leave it alone. I know lots of people who apply for shows these days, and because I work as a journalist, I often interview a lot of the casting people, a lot of the executive producers. I then have my friends ringing me and saying can you ring them? Can you ask them and say that my audition's there, And I'm like it's not like that, you know. And it also also when you push people like that, it doesn't seem to work out.
I just think.
TikTok and making short, sharp videos is a real skill. And then when I went back and was able to look at some of the work that you've done and you know, with your reviews and your things on TikTok, and I was like, it's a real art form and I've got no ability to do that whatsoever, because I can't edit and censor myself down to that sort of level. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's because I'm in my forties, But you have a real skill at that. Where does
that come from that? Where does that creative side of you come? Then you can do tiktoking that sounds so old, you know.
What's really funny, Like you speak beautifully and you can you can get things across in it in a really, really good way. I do need to edit myself down. I've always felt more comfortable, I guess writing and pre recording and editing it down because I tend to have a lot of thoughts and they go all over the place. I've always been told like I waffle a bit, which I do, and I'm trying to like mid the Budded,
but I need to edit it down. I started doing like YouTube reviews, and I was just adding all these thoughts in, like this was like, I don't know, twenty thirteen or something, and I was adding all these thoughts in that just weren't really necessary, you know. By the third joke, it was starting to get a bit old, and so I realized I could make a greater impact. It was actually before reels that I started doing the reviews on Instagram, so I just put them as like
you know, those like landscape one minute videos that. Yeah, it was I think before the carousels as well well, So I just, you know, you could only make them a minute long. So being forced to condense it down, I had to get to the point it had to be sort of short, shorter, and sharper. And I feel like it just had more impact that way because I waffle. I feel like, but that's a part of.
Your charm, Like listening to you now, like you know a little bit of is kind of on brand for you, which is kind of endearing.
I actually think that.
We need more people to waffle and be, you know, more people on television talking with their real voices. You know, we're so nice old and you know we're told to be word perfect, where a lot of the nuances and a lot of the ways in which we relate to people is by the mistake in our language. Sometimes it's why they say don't not to say you know, when you're a presenter, never say um. However, arms are really
it's a pivot in a conversation. It's where you are listening and you are taking what they're saying on board and it's still evolving in your mind where you might be saying something you think and then you can pivot. So I don't think it's the worst in the world to say.
Especially really nice, because I remember as a receptionist one time my boss overheard a conversation with me and she said, you need to stop saying um and like. And I was so I was so ultra aware of it that I think I ended up saying it more.
And you do the more you say it to people, you know, in the auditions. I can't remember the original reality shows being made in Australia. They used to get the people who'd been shortlisted and they they'd say tell us in you know, three sentences why you would be good to be on this show, but you're not allowed to say the word. As soon as you said that to them, it was hilarious because they just would go and it's like, that is nervousness. That's nervousness. That's implanting it into you.
But you know, Alex, just.
Talking to you today, you know you're you're very engaging because of those nuances. So I'd be careful not to lose a lot of the waffles.
Thank you, you know, thank yeah with reviews because I'm like, I've got sixty to ninety seconds. I think it helps because yeah, I guess you can incorporate the waffle in. I just think it helps to get there, you go. I just think it helps to get to the point sometimes. So that's why it's a platform that works for me. I've seen it. I've seen a reaction video I posted for Stranger Things a few years ago, and it just
it just evolves into a bit of a mess. So if I've got some sort of a structure, it tends to work, like like talking with yourself and how you lead a conversation. So well, I do I do enjoy that. But yeah, now I'm saying because I'm thinking about it.
It's interesting though, you know, with the podcast, I enjoy the arms and the hours from people. However, when the editing happens at the podcast, they often take out the arms and the arts, and I often fight for the arms and ours to be left in there because I genuinely believe that some of the relatability, that's some of the ways in which people enjoy listening to people as much as it's true because it's authentic ry, Absolutely, it's authentic.
People want to have real people these days are listening to podcasts, listening to conversations with people because it's a companionship. A lot of these people, a lot of the podcasts that they're listening to are their friends, and so they want them to sound real.
They don't want them to sound like you know.
I noticed it with my mum, who's a super excitable primary school teacher. She's super cute, and sometimes I'm like, just get to the point. So if there's a there's a point to a video, because I know I'm like that sometimes like instead of a to B or a Z, it's like a f y J fack to a you know, So it's it can help to have a bit of focus and direction. But I'll remember that. That's really nice advice. That a bit of a bit of waffles. Okay, it's okay.
Don't beat yourself. Yeah, that's the thing. Don't beat yourself up over it. You know, you have to lean into who you are. You know, we all have to lean into who we are, because if we beat ourselves up for all of these things that we don't have, trying to make ourselves like somebody else, then we're just like everybody else, you know what.
I mean, Like, yeah, yeah.
And you build an audience better by just leaning into yourself. But I was going to ask you, you know what, why do you think you want? You know, what makes you Australia's biggest content junkie.
I don't know I'm the biggest. I feel sometimes like I'm the biggest because I spend so much time consuming you know, film and TV, and I love discussing it with people. I love opening up that line of conversation. But I'm also super excited about it. I remember I was out, you know, having some drinks with friends in Melbourne a few months ago, and somebody mentioned yellowjackets at another table and I was like, oh, my god, that ses. I just I just love discussing, you know, film and TV.
I love when someone disagrees with me. I love hearing their their opinions. I love hearing how something because of someone's history or how they've grown up might be really triggering for them, or as something like you really comforting
for them. You know, my little sister at the moment is obsessed with Gilmore Girls, and she says it's like she's she lives in Berlin, and she says it's because she's like she's homesick and it reminds her of being with Mom and I and whereas I just I like Gilmore Girls, but it's not something I'd be switching on at the moment. I love how people associate with things and why a certain movie means, you know, so much
to someone. You know, I was just talking to a lovely girl, Hannah here, and she was telling me just you know how the Lion King was just like part of her like formative years, and it made her feel better about herself and you know, the challenges you face
your life. Just I mean, I know that sounds a little bit wishy washy, but you know, I remember where I was when I first saw The Godfather and what I was studying and how it made me feel, which was in love with young Appucino and obsessed with Yeah, obsessed with Coppler's work. But it's like when a big world event happens, right like, where were you when this happened?
My my mom the best stories about when her and my dad, who aren't together anymore, but when they were dating, going and seeing Star Wars and how to her it seems like magic. They've never seen anything like that before. And to this day she's still, you know, obsessed with
Harrison Ford and talks about it. She said, it was like it was like magic, And she said, can you imagine what the Wizard of Oz would have been like for people who are used to seeing black and white and it starts black and white and suddenly it's color. You would it would feel like witchcraft.
You know. My grandfather was originally from Bendigo but moved to Melbourne with his family, and we have an old theater in Melbourne called the Astor you know, which is still in operation.
Which is brilliant.
Yes, But he saw Wizard of Oz at the Astore Theater for the first time and he remembers going to Lunar Park and riding the Big Dipper for the first time and then going and watching The Wizard of Oz. And that was one of my favorite stories for my grandfather to tell me. And he said something really interesting about it, and that is that films they're nostalgia. You know, you could be transported back in time to the first
time that you'd seen it. And he said, whenever he watched Wizard of Oz, he could smell the popcorn and the ferry floss at Lunar Park. And I think, you know, it's the same for us. I think, you know, some of those movies that we grew up watching, like you know, Et and Indiana Jones and Star Wars, a lot.
Of those favorite those films.
In particular, were so so impressive they left a timestamp.
I remember seeing ET and remember being as a young girl being brought to tears in this way. But I remember thinking, like, you know, oh my gosh, like a movie, I can emotionally feel feel something that makes me like physical. I remember I was like six or something when Mum like put it on in the you know, the VHS player, and I remember just thinking, oh my gosh, like how
can how can like this affect me so much? I think in my little brain, my little kid brain, I was just sort of like, I didn't know how to voice it, but it was just such an emotional experience to me. I was in love with this little creature and the way that that had been constructed to make us feel was just like the most special, special feeling for me.
I was gonna also ask you about you know. I was looking at your entry video and it was hilarious and I really enjoyed your impersonations and you know your puns that you were able to put into it. But who is your best? Like this is terrible because I'm gonna make you do it, so just prepare yourself. But who's your best impersonation?
I can do one. Many many people can do a better version than me. But I do do a pretty okay Jennifer Coolidge.
Oh brilliant. I love it.
Alrighty, you're gonna have to what do you need?
What do you need?
Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do a three two one county.
All right, let's Alex and Canning in alright three two one scene?
Oh you look like July makes me want to I dug real bad. That wasn't That wasn't my best.
Sorry, but she's amazing. It doesn't work out on the red carpets. If it doesn't work out as a journalist, I think you have a career as Jennifer Coolidge. Whenever she's sick.
Oh, Jennifer Collidge would I would be I would be Jennifer Coolidge as anything she is. She is Queen Coolidge to me, do.
You have any reporters or journalists or media personalities that you look up to, like, you know, this is such an exciting opportunity for you, and obviously in these roles, you know you can let people influence you. You know, do you have any influences on the style of I guess reporting that you're going to do.
As far as like way back, and I'm talking like twenty years ago, I was actually such a huge Osher fan and I met him on Monday, and I was just really sort of fangirling and screaming internally because I remember him from Channel V and he had the long hair. He was so lovely. He was just so lovely and he's such he's such a fan. I knew he was a music fan obviously, but he's such a film and TV fan and was talking about these great adaptations and
and had these amazing recommendations. And I love talking to a family, like the story you just had about you know, your grandpa, what you remember about movies and stuff like he he was he was telling me about the experience of watching a movie after reading the book and how it was just such a strong adaptation. And I love that.
I love a great adaptation because you don't see it all the time, and it was it was It was sort of unreal because I grew up watching him, and how how easy it was for him to bring out you know, like like what you can do to bring out good answers from people, and how at ease he was just talking to anyone and and and I remember I remember watching when Umi and Jane Mathis but selected as like the TV presenters. And Bomb took to me when I was fifteen to the Channel B studios and
took a photo of me outside of it. And it was like two thousand and one, and I had a one shouldered chop on with an American flag And what was I thinking?
But the best we were all wearing that. I mean, maybe not mad, you know, but I wanted to. I love all of those people. I love all the inspirations that we pick up along the way. But before you go, I have to ask you, what are we watching for summer? What is your picks for what I need to watch for summer.
Hunter season two is coming out, and I'm not sure, like this is I literally called my mom last night and I'm like, have you seen Hunters? Because I get mad that she's seen everything before me, and she's just like, oh, of course, She's like that came out years ago, and I'm already like, so season two of that is coming out. It's like, have you seen it?
No, I've never seen it before.
I'm with you, and I feel like I'm the ultimate pop culture person.
But we've failed. We've failed Ali, I know.
I know, I've got exactly the same. And Mary from blad Bible's like, no, it's it's good. It's really good. And to hear her say that because she and I don't disagree on everything, so she and I don't agree on everything, like, yeah, she's not a fan of the boys. Love I love the boys, and pretty much everyone I've spoken to loves the boys, but it's very much it's like the boys only they're Nazi hunters and it's just satisfying.
It's got our Pacino and it's so good to see al Pacino doing something that he's like, super worthy of him. It's got a great cast. I just am absolutely hooked. I'm about to manage the first season and the second season is coming out so just in time. And we talked about we talked about Coolidge before, but and I'm looking forward to I've done a little you know, sneaky squirrel watch of it one of the purpose of the job. But Shotgun Wedding, which is like a j LO fun
time rom com. I didn't I didn't realize what it was about. And I didn't realize that Coolidge is in it, and she's just so hilarious and I cannot wait to watch it with my friends and a bottle of wine. It's the best.
Okay, Well that when I that's right up, my Alliwell, I need to ask you quick story. What's something from behind the scenes of you getting this amazing opportunity kind of like a behind the scenes secret. Everyone who comes on the podcast has to reveal something, So is there a funny story? Is there any kind of mishap that happened along the way.
Probably like Colin Gosha Andrew G was up there. I didn't call him that, but I was like, I reme you was G, and I'm like, oh, I don't know if I was like disrespectful. He was very cool with that, but yeah, I hope he was.
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and having this chat. You were so fantastic and you're so full of life and I can't wait to watch to see what you do with this opportunity, because I think you'll do an amazing job.