Alex Williams - WARNIE- Actor

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast part Deep Maline. Welcome back, guys to TV Reload. As you may know, my name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment, and yet very little is known about how our favorite shows get made.

Thanks, mate, how are you?

I've watched the first two episodes, so I kind of feel like I'm talking to Warning a little bit.

You've seen it all there, and you've seen it all.

You know, the series has been so widely anticipated. Are you excited for audiences to finally see it?

Yeah, I'm really excited for people to see it. Sometimes the general fame of someone becomes sort of bigger than all the individual little things. But it's kind of cool to go back and see it and get a bit of nostalgia.

Growing up. What was your relationship with Shane warn test?

Cricket for me was sort of you know, the sound of summer really, you know, we would just sort of had the cricket on in the background, like a lot of Australian families, and you know, I sort of remember people kind of going one of my brothers or my dad sort of yelling out every now and again, you know, Warning's on, and then everyone had come in and watch those overs and then when he went off, everyone else went off and did whatever they.

Were doing again.

So that's kind of my first memory of Shane Warn as a cricketer primarily, well.

For me, it was more. I went to Doncaster High in Melbourne and I remember there was three boys that had the haircut and that was not an accident.

You know, they have the earring as well, or just the.

Just the one in particular. And I'm hoping that he's listening to this podcast because he will know you think about him. But he literally it felt like he was coming to school in costume every day.

That's interesting.

I love that you what did you learn about him that you didn't know before shooting this series?

You know, I learned a lot, to be honest. I knew him as a cricketer, and I know, you.

Know, some of the indiscretions that had gone on throughout his career, but more of the sort of the intricacies of how it went down with Cricket Australia and you know more about.

The pills he took as well, the diet pills, and.

I kind of didn't know that much about those scandal you know, I kind of had seen because it sort of got splashed all over newspapers and such that the stuff about the women and the family and stuff like that, but not not as much about kind of you know, the year he took off. The funny thing is, as soon as I got down to Melbourne, and you know, people knew I was playing Shane. You know, I heard about it a hundred stories. You know, everyone in Melbourne seems to have a story, a Shane Warren story.

So that was that was pretty fun.

Did you ever meet him in the flesh? Did you see a game?

Like?

What was the closest you ever got to an interaction?

I didn't know. I never met him.

It's funny, isn't that When you see someone all the time and he then on commentary, you know, such a fantastic broadcaster.

That person's transported into your living room. You kind of feel like you know them in a way.

I think, you know, you realize, Yeah, no, never met him, never even got close to meeting him.

I don't think you.

Mentioned something there because like wanting to get himself into a fair amount of trouble, you know, over the years, I mean, he's still had the world's admiration all the time. Why do you think that he was so popular even though he went through all of these scandals, the ups and downs. Do you think that maybe there's an underdog element that gave him mass appeal regardless.

Yeah, I would say it's more like ownership.

You know, he made mistakes, he made serially mistakes, but he owned them. He didn't shirk responsibility of his actions.

He didn't try and hide away from it.

He sort of came out and said, yep, I've done the wrong thing here, sorry, and then kind of, you know, you know, tried to move on from that, which you know is everyone in a way.

You know, everyone makes mistakes and.

You learn to apologize for them and try and become a better person.

And I think that's, you know, that's what he spent his life doing.

Did people ever say, you know, over your life, did you look like him?

I think just because I had, you know, blonde hair, I had a mullet when I was a kid.

I did get a bit of that, not not heaps, but like enough that it was kind of like when the audition came up, I definitely circled it.

And when this is certainly achievable just on a look.

I mean to take someone on as iconic as Warning, Did that feel like a lot of pressure? I mean, if someone said to me, can you play Warning, I'd say no. And it would be even if I look like him, I'd still say no because I'd be just so worried about the relationship that audiences already have with him. You know, what was your initial response to taking on someone as iconic as Shane Warn.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I love challenges, and especially I didn't really get into acting to sort of shirt again, you know, sort of challenges you want to see how good you can be, and you want to see if you can make something work.

And also so there was that, but also, you.

Know, you kind of think given his competitive spirit, there's no way he would have.

Turned it down, you know what I mean, Like it sort of had that.

I had sort of that feeling about it, sort of a rise.

To the challenge kind of feeling.

And I also kind of, you know, I looked around and went, you know, if it's not me, it's you know, it'll be it'll be someone else. And I genuinely thought that I was the best person for the role. I thought I knew as much as anyone, if not more.

How closely did you want to take this characterization? There must have been conversations of, oh, you know, is this going to feel like an impersonation or you know what were those conversations, Like, you're not there.

To do a character, sure, You're there to create a three dimensional person who has a moral compass and you know, makes mistakes and gets better.

And or doesn't or keeps making mistakes, so.

Whatever it is, you're there to sort of create, not just a few idiosyncrasies at a mullet. You're there to show a picture of, you know, a full human being. And look, I think there's some scenes in.

The show that really highlight that.

Working with someone like Marnie Kennedy was an absolute delight. She brought a lot to the show and was fantastic, So so you don't take it lightly, but it was a good experience.

What about some of these techniques, because you hear about some very famous people like Nicole Kidman when she would put on the nose when she was Virginia Wolf that helped her get into character. Did you use any kind of techniques to all of a sudden become him when they said action?

I mean, I use sort of phrases and lines to get into the voice and the energy of the character and physical kind of you know, resets to get more in his sort of gait than mine.

But a lot of that work is your prep.

You know, like I put on sort of seven or eight kilos just to sort of feel stronger and heavier throughout.

The trunk and you know, just sort of look a bit more like him.

And so I worked a lot with costume as well, sort of make sure that you know, in the periods that he was a bit bigger, and that.

Was part of the plot.

I looked a bit bigger, and we accentuated certain things and took things away. And then when he's skinnier and slimmer and tanned and all that kind of stuff, that we sort of did that, and then you've just got to let your performance and all the work you've done setting and just be in the moment.

I just kept thinking the whole time through watching. I watched it all in one go, so I watched episode one and two. Very lucky to do it that way. But I was going to say, I just was like, I can't wait to talk to Alex about how good you were at cricket yourself. You know, how did you try and practice the spin? Did you get real cricketers to come in and try and get that authenticity?

Yeah, how did you think it looked?

I mean, you probably could pick this up for me, but I'm a Philly camp man and I don't watch a lot of sport. I'm just going to tell you right now that I don't know cricket that well. But for me, it seemed pretty good.

That's good.

Well, I think if you're if you're a cricketing savant, you'd pick up maybe a few things that I was doing wrong. But I worked really hard on that because you know, whenever I'm a big sports fan, and whenever I watch TV or films about a sport and you see someone that's just nowhere knew it, it can take you out of the world you kind of lose is that suspension of disbelief and it just bothers you, it nags you.

And I knew I wasn't going to be able to do.

It, you know, obviously exactly like Shane, because otherwise I'd be playing in the ashes coming up. But I worked really hard on that and it was really important to me, and I made that very clear to production that I wanted, you know, people to train me.

I wanted professionals to train me.

So I had Steve O'Keefe helped me up in Sydney, and then once it goes down to Melbourne, I had Bryce McGain who had trained with Shane and TJ for a long time and he was an invaluable resource. Like he just he was fantastic, not only with the cricket stuff. He really got me rowling well and on target, but the mentality that Shane would bring to the field, you know, which is quite aggressive, let's say.

So it's just those little stories and that feeling.

It's one thing to get that trigger action happening and coming out of the back of your hand in the right way, and you know, it's this disposition for this ball and this for this ball but then also have that thing of going at the top of his mark. He would just stare down the batsman. You know, these sort of little things that really pected the performance with what I thought was some authenticity.

The one thing I feel like you're going to get asked a lot about making this particular show is do you think it's too soon? I think that's what most people seem to be talking about, because this went into productions that are six months after he passed away. How is all of that landing with you?

Yeah, well, when I first read the script that Matt Ford had been writing for seven years, it's pretty clear to me that it's a celebration. It was clear to me at the time that it was a celebration of the man, and that's something that I wanted to celebrate. So I understand the sensitivities around it. But you know, different people process, you know, things at different rates and at different times. So I understand if people, you know, I don't want to watch for that for that reason.

Well, it'll be interesting because I think it is going to rate. I think people will tune in to see it because he is a part of our history. You know, we started off this conversation about talking about how iconic he is, and you even mentioned learning along the way. What about audiences though, do you think audiences watching this is going to walk away learning new things about it worth them tuning to watch the show one?

As much as you know people will think that they know everything about him, they don't, and they will learn something, you know, the longer they tune in for so you know, I'll look forward to that. They might bring up a few uncomfortable things, but that's that's that's life, that's drama.

So I feel like it's a fair representation.

Well, the success of this series for me was that I really enjoyed the highs. I really enjoyed those moments where he was picked to be on the team, And you know, it must have been kind of phenomenal in a weird way to vicariously live through this man and recreate those moments. How was that feeling where you are having to act and live through some of those really important highs that he had in his career.

It's kind of a fun experience.

I mean, like that first scene is one of my favorite scenes when he when when he gets picked for the squad in the first time and he sort of tells his family that you know, he's going, and then he just streams dad, you know, because obvious.

Fantastic. Yeah, because I just had.

That thing of going like someone's missing, you know, and just screaming dads sprinting out.

Especially after the rejection of security.

You know, he thought his dream was of being a professional sportsman was Oliver, you know, and his true love for AFL was over. And then you know that feeling of like getting off the team pass and everyone wanting your signature and yelling, you know, warning, warning him. I mean that's something that I will probably almost definitely never experience.

So at the same time, though, recreating those moments, there must have been some satisfaction in that as well, just to even get as close to what it must have felt like to be hum in some of those moments. You know, yeah, yeah, it was.

You know, it makes it easier as a performer when it is built like that and you're just responding quite, you know, naturally at the time. And the thing is, you know, there's a famous quote about him. I can't remember exactly. I'll probably butcher it. But Shane took to fame like a duckt toward it, you know, like some people find it very difficult.

Being famous and notoriety.

I don't think that that was his initial reaction to it.

I want to know when you're watching this when it goes to air, will you be dressed as him? At home watching it with your friends and family. How are you planning on watching this show?

I don't know yet, is the truth. My family will live in Hurts, so it won't it won't be with them. Look, I might have a couple of mates over and crack a few tins and watch it, and we'll we'll have to see it.

I remember a friend of mine was playing someone. I don't want to say his name because you'll hate this, but I'm so nervous about recreating this person that he went for a very long run. So he was running the whole time it was playing on television, just because social media could be so brutal that he just didn't want to be on social media to see any kind

It's an interesting thing.

Like you know, when I did The Sun a long time ago, it's sort of it felt like that and I, you know, had some friends over and I was on Twitter and excited.

And you know, you're right though, like this, this.

Probably won't you know, it's a it's going to be a polarizing show potentially, so.

Yeah, it probably won't be sitting on Twitter. I'll tell you that much.

Free stay away from Also, I said this all the time. I think it's a good quote from Sandra Bullock. Never read the comments section ever. Right before you go. But the last question I want to ask is the same question I ask everyone who joins the pod, and that is, what is something from behind the scene, something that we won't see on the show, but kind of like a bit of a you know, behind the scene secret for you while you're making warning one.

Weekend because we've shot for two weeks and you know you're doing these massive days and because basically in every scene and I just really don't have any time to practice cricket. And I knew that I had some massive, actual cricketing days coming up.

So I asked Bryce if I could go, you know, do a.

Net session with him, and he was like, yeah, I may just pop down to the MCG. I was like, okay, So I went and trained with him at the MCG. After he was commentating the Shield Cricket. I was sort of leaving afterwards, you know in the nets that he trained with with with Shane and TJ, which is prove really special moment.

And then I was sort of leaving.

And there was this Yeah, there was this lovely couple who are clearly on you know, on a holiday, and were you know, the mtgym and it's quiet, there's no one around.

You know, it's a Sunday afternoon. There is no one around.

Except this this couple, young couple, and they were in front of the statue of Shane warn and she was taking a photo of him and I sort of was walking past them and you know, wearing a hat and stuff. But you know, it was like, you guys want me to take a photo of the two of you, you know, in front of the statues.

I just sit there and took a photo of this.

Young couple you know, who clearly loved Shane Warn in front of his statue, and I just felt like it was a really nice moment.

Did they know? Did they know that it was you?

No? Absolutely, I had no idea. No, why would they? Yeah? Yeah.

I hope that this plant past gets out to a wider audience so that those people work it out.

Yeah. Maybe.

Well. I just want to say thank you so much for your generosity with talking about this, and I hope people absorb it. And for those people that don't, you know, you can't win them all.

Thanks mate, I appreciate I appreciate you watching the whole thing and and uh and and and saying such naze things.

Enjoy chatting to the media about this, you know, and and enjoy this experience. I think it's a fan it's you know, it's a once in a life from opportunity to play a role. So you know, it's a bit in time for you.

Thanks mate, I appreciate it.