DYNAMIC DUO STATHI AND MATT TALK HUNTED!

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week. Thereby welcome back guys to TV Reload. My name's 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, plus the talent that we see on our screens.

It's actually an accurate reflection of reality.

Eighteen ordinary Australians.

Who are these people?

What do we know?

Not?

Everyone you know necessarily fits into stereotypical boxes, relentlessly pursue by an elite team of hunters.

But like everything in life, there were some people who weren't willing to help.

I will throw an hundible set of our resources for like, sure, the police people don't.

Like it your extraction that due to the editing process. Obviously the country, everything that we did.

And capture, you've been hunted down.

Why would you go somewhere where you go every year, like it's so predictable. Of course the hunters are going to be there.

Hey, boys, how are you good impressing?

Yeah, just like embracing and processing and yeah, alive.

Or congratulations on winning Hunted. This is such an amazing achievement. How do you feel.

It still hasn't sunk in. It's been like barely a week and we're just catching up with family and friends and all the love that the community and people are throwing you away. Yeah.

I think it's been an amazing experience just to even.

Watch it back, catching up with the other fugitives, because this is such a shared experience that you only have with them, and we were the only fugues who were operating in complete uncertainty. So that's like a lifeline, lifetime bond.

What about the hunters? Do you have you become friends with them, the people that were trying to track you down. Nah, Now we.

Love the hunters too.

I'm still trying to find Michelle on social media, the one who caught me.

I can't find her anywhere. She's just disappeared off the face of the earth.

Well, if you could track her down, what would you say.

To her probably saying my elbow is doing okay, you'll ask her for some dead oleids.

Has this all set up any competitive issues between the two of you, you know, because as we know, Matt, you were caught and you managed to win. Has that been hard between the friendship?

Unpossible because we won and this is a recurring theme that pops up a lot. But we entered as team s and m Britney can do nothing without Rihanna and vice versa. So we made it there at the end of the team because there is no way I could guarantee I would have made it at the endipoint started as a solo competitor.

I think, yeah, it's one of those unique experiences where I think you go into it, you think you know what you're getting into, but you've got like one hundred times like it's a hundred times more real once you actually get on there and just being having someone else there to help you through the hard times and bounce ideas off and.

All that kind of stuff.

And those last few days I may not have physically had Matt there, but I was constantly thinking what would Matt do, what's Matt's perspective here? And that's something that our friendship has built over the last twenty odd years, where I never pursue anything in life without really bouncing ideas off Matt. He's like the best mate and a brother.

And I was seeing in a hotel room just rocking, crossing my fingers.

That's starting. Made it to the end.

But surely Stafi has tried to laud it over you a little bit right.

I bought him a coffee. Should be happy.

So tell me what was the application process like for you both? You know, was one of you wanting to do this more than the other?

This is where it also gets interesting. Legitimately, we had no idea about this show. If you'd spoke to us eight months ago, did a no hunt? It existed until a colleague of ours, a mutual friend, contacted us saying this sounds like your cup of tea. Boys, She said, adult Hide and Seek applications closed in ten hours. We started, and we got our applications in within ten hours and the rest is history.

But then, what happens after you apply for something like this? Do they call you and have like a phone call or a zoom chat like there? Do they get you to play hide and Seek in a hotel room before you know.

Now they saved the hide and Seek for the real thing.

We literally got a call like the next day.

Wow, yeah, just sort of sussing us out and seeing, you know, why I wanted to do the show and things like that.

It's important to kind of like, yeah, test that chemistry and the relationships. You don't want eight best mates in the show. You need to have a little bit of diversity. And that's where they did brilliantly, not just the diversity of cast in a demographic sense, but even the reasons why different people were doing it. Matt and I had the gay flag that we wanted to hold with pride.

But do they have to take your word for it then that you are good at height and see you any good?

Everyone was good at I love them all.

We've been running away from relationships with third five years. Surely these cars can get us somewhere.

Has both of you becoming overnight reality TV stares? How's that helping in the relationship front?

Every second Grinder message is can you tell Matt to respond to my message?

Please?

Well, my DMS. I was excited about this prospect of DMS. I didn't have Instagram eight months ago. All social media world's new to me, my DMS. Can you tell Matt to respond to my messages? It's like starty exists.

So you've become like his pimp.

Great, take a commission twenty five grand, Matt, I.

Gotta get the money back somehow. So when you got the call that you were going to be a part of the show, so how confident were you that you could win this?

Look, there were we had strengths that we knew, but we also got the call at the eleventh hour. So I like to think of us as a bit of the queer wild Cards and were underdogs. Were the underdogs and seeing all the other competitors on day one when you exit the van, you don't get interaction with them, but that micro second of just that visual you start creating profiles and you're like, whoa, these are pretty fit people. Look at the cars on them. They look like they've

Yeah, I think it's just being in that situation and not knowing anyone's background. Everyone was feeling pretty tight lipped, the producers for keeping use alves pretty separate throughout the day, and yeah, it was just kind of trying to suss out people with energy and just trying to read them. And I guess, yeah, make up your own stories about them.

I'll never forget just jumping out of that then and seeing Grace and Sunny Joe in their beekeeper outfits and I was like, fuck, they are competition. They know a decoy better than us, and that disguises killer.

But you're both I know that this is great for LGBTI visibility, but you both aren't that camp. And so when you guys made the joke about band camp, I was like, do they have to remind us that they're gay because you're not really stereotypical gay books.

But I love that we went there to defy some stereotypes but also reinforce some because the beauty of our community is it's such a broad spectrum. We have feminine elements. We have masculine elements. You don't have to be one or the other if you choose to, absolutely, But what we want to represent is that we enjoy a drag show, We enjoy the arts. You enjoy the creative spaces, but we don't. We're not defined by that. We also like camping, we like roughing it, and I.

Think, yeah, that was the whole point of you know, I mean, apart from playing hide and Seek and possibly winning the prize, it was just kind of getting out there and showing maybe a different side of the Quick community that maybe hasn't necessarily been shown that much on mainstream TV before, and just showing everyone that, you know, everyone in their own skin, does what they enjoy, are who they are, act how they want and all that kind of stuff, and that not everyone, you know, necessarily

And when we excel, like we usually generally excel in the creative and arts, and it's like seeing two gay men excel in an operational gameplay strategy like that doesn't have as much visibility as it probably should because there's a lot of gays out there that love rough and hiking and engage in different kind of activities, which a show like Hunted really gave us that opportunity to showcase.

It's interesting because I think we have come a long way in wanting to be ourselves and I think that's something that was really quite beautiful about your time on the show, was that you guys were being authentically yourself. And I always think with reality shows, regardless as to what or how the competition is gauged or ranked, the most genuine people usually win.

Do you know what, I don't think we really had a lot of time to worry about acting a certain way or Yeah, I think the pressure and the intensity of being on a show like Hunted, when you're literally not necessarily worried for your safety, but you're worried that the hunters are going to jump out, You're worried that you're going to get caught. You're always trying to think, think, so like not being your authentic self would just take that much more extra energy.

You don't have time for it. Yeah. I don't want mean to draw the comparison, but maybe in a concept like Big Brother, where there's a bit more downtime, you have opportunities to think oh, how can I play this? How can I work this narrative? Play that or say

But disappointed that they were disappointed of them.

That wasn't called. He ran towards there can't catch me boys.

So that's how we got comed. Do you think the fact that you guys are both from Melbourne and they chose to shoot it in Victoria do you reckon that was an advantage for the two of you.

I think there's pros and cons to it.

I think the advantages obviously, when you know you're in the back of this blacked out van and being dropped somewhere you have no idea where you're going to be.

That really helped kind of you jump out the van, you.

Start running, You're like, oh, I'm at fed Square and you know sort of where you're headed.

Then all the lane ways and all those type little spots in Melbourne that we're familiar with. We like a lot of the issues or the things that always come up in conversation about hunted. Everything's like a double edged sword, because yes, it was advantages knowing the state, but it was also a disadvantage because we have a footprint all over the state. We have a support network all over the state, so it gives the hunters more in order

Sword goes both ways. You know, how did you go watching it back? Did you enjoy watching it back?

I really did.

It was I mean, I think due to the editing process of it is the country everything that we did and so that was like maybe a little bit sad because you do want to see everything we did again, but I think the parts that we did get to see, yeah, were amazing, and we got to watch it together.

We organized viewing parties every night, so with our friends with our family. The final night we hosted at Molly's, which was amazing, So we had fugues from interstate and it was just such a great viewing experience. Again just going back to the format, where as a viewer, I was scared that the intensity and all that wasn't going to get captured. But not only was it captured, we knew the outcome and we were still on the edge.

Of our seats, were like, yeah, we were sitting there watching started running across the beach to that alicopter and it went to the ad break and just turned around and everyone was just like on the edge of their seat.

Because so how many people really knew.

So I had this unique strategy. I had told every single person in my immediate social circle, so my Greek family that's seven hundred and just a couple of people. I told everyone a uniquely different outcome. So I told some people that was out day one, some people that we were out in the middle, the different scenarios. Because then when news came back to me and someone said, hey, I heard you got out day one, I was like, Fasula has been talking.

Oh wow, this is how you won, this is how it all works out. No one's pulling the ball over your eyes. And then what was your impression of the other teams, you know, watching it back? I mean, were you very critical of other people or were you kind of empathetic to what was going on because you kind of understood it.

Absolutely, there was a lot of empathy, but there was a lot of like like complete admiration for some of the strategies and gameplays that the others were playing, Like seeing Grays and Sunny Joe just completely disappear. I was like, I knew you were competition and you were bringing it. And then seeing like Nick and Leavinya just go off the grid and rough it, which was a big part of our strategy as well. And Rob's talent in the

Was it a week that you wore at one point that made you look a bit like mister.

G oh, look when Chris Lily wants to do some of heights College on available.

Was it hard for you to set up alliances? We saw you have an alliance with Deana Curry Frock Hudson. Was it easy to get people to say yes to Bang on the show, because it was reported somewhere in the media that some people had difficulty presetting up those alliances because people didn't want to do it.

I think the thing with this topic issue is it's actually an accurate reflection of reality. In reality, some people want to help, some people don't want to help. And yes, there were a lot of amazing people out there that we are so humbled by their support because they went above and beyond. But like everything in life, there were some people who weren't willing to help. And then with our support network that we had on the show, some

I mean some of them did freak out a little bit and some of them were just completely stonefaced. But I think like even yeah, just random members of the public as we went along, like, well, those.

Two people at the end rhyme, had you met on.

The did you meet on the Japanese Angel?

Yeah? I know, but I did you. Let's just let's be real here. You knew those two women.

Ryan I knew her two seconds after I met her, which was on the final day, and I had no real plan going into that other than I just need to navigate inland. I can't be on the main strip. So I was hiking from Cape Pattison the day before and coming across these two hikers and when I approached and I said I need help, she goes, I'm a hiker. I know all the streets. I'm like, wait what, and she goes. And every day I wake up, I've been

She was amazing, she really was. And the inclusion of chill Out, I thought was really great for LGBTI inclusion, but it also was like you know in those Mission Impossible movies where all of a sudden they're in Mexico and they're all of the Day of the Dead and there's lots of masks and it makes it spectacular movie experience. And then this made it an amazing TV experience because there was all of the drag queens and the color of the LGBTI community. It was a great way to

We've been going to Chili for forever for such an important moment for us, and we discussed it on the show.

Yeah, I mean, it's just it's one of those things that I think we look forward to every year. We get to spend a long weekend with our friends. We get to see old friends and meet new friends and you know, actually chill out a bit as well, have a bit of a relax and just have.

So warm and hospitable and every person we've met there has just been so gracious and so lovely, and it's so different to our expectation. We hadn't gone to Mardi Gras or big parties or the people travel the world doing all the circuit parties, so chill out was our first real big gay party and just to have that experience there. So we were contemplating do we go, don't we go. It's something we've gone to every year, and it is risky, but when you're on the run, every

It was the opportunity to be able to maybe see some friends or see a familiar face when you've spent so much time on the run and you've basically cut off from your family and friends. That opportunity just to kind of give you a bit of an energy boost and exactly take you over the last few days. Finish line that was I guess the main idea behind.

It and showing chill out on National Talivision. Oh yeah, we could be their ambassadors.

I think Dan R. Crow'd be upset if he missed out on for reality TV aple to come and stand. I don't think you'd be happy. Everyone wants to know about this whole Do they have a full camera crew following your round? Now? I spoke to the chief about this and he was explaining technology these days is a little bit easier, so it's not heaps of people there.

I like felt we're just so preoccupied with staying off the grid avoiding capture. You do forget that they're there, You forget the cameras are there, and you don't even have time to really like process that. And it is something again that comes up regularly. But if they're close enough to see a cameraman, you've already been hunted for reasons unrelated to the genre man. So we could be wearing hot air balloons on our heads on the Great Ocean Road and they're in Melbourne. They're not going to

I think.

Yeah, but spending that much time with someone for you know, three weeks, basically you do you do former connection with them?

And are you friends with this person?

Now? Yeah, they came to me's a bridal party.

Am I getting married to him?

The grinder?

Who was was it a boy or a girl that was with you? As your sort of third teammate. It was a guy was a guy and you're married now great.

I don't think his partner will be too happy, Madam and I are still fighting over So he's a.

Looker, so he should have been on camera. You know, from what we saw and from what you've watched, how aligned was the experience? I mean, was do you feel like that that's a really accurate portrayal of what we saw?

I cried every second day, So yes.

What about you know where there? Because they would get footage right, so like you know, someone would turn up at a caravan park and they'd be like the hunters would be like, get the footage from the caravan park. Surely that kind of stuff? I mean, how could the hunters ascertain footage like that? Were there some elements though that have to be TVM. I don't know what it is, but was there times where the producers are like, this is TV magic.

Well, they're replicating powers of the state that would ordinarily be available. So at no points throughout our run did they replicate any powers that wouldn't be available if you were in the bush, not surrounded by CCTV cameras or any electronic devices. They couldn't feed that information to the hunters because that's not something that would ordinarily be available

When you're money out of an ATM, like when.

You engage with risk, that creates those opportunities, And that's what some viewers weren't fully comprehending.

But then like said, God, to an ATM, do they say, did you say to this third person, this hot man that you're hanging out with, do you say that you're going to go over to the ATM? And they then set up a camera on the top of the ATM, Like is in how is that kind of stuff happening?

You'd use your ATM card and just like ordinary kind of bank transactions that would pop up automatically to.

A this is someone going and setting up in an additional camera, is what I'm saying.

Well, they have to replicate it so they can't actually contact the bank and say, hey, hey, CCTV.

That's what I want to open.

I thought there was a tooth ferry.

There was because there weren't these things that people kept asking if you're on social media, which I'm guessing you boys were reading about everything that was people were saying. There was always these questions. There was one question that I read even today, which was there was also a publicity shot of you guys at Federation Square all together,

Can I see it? Do I look cute?

Have you not seen that photo?

No?

It was I Ryan Gosling.

Or let's go with yes and I will.

It was taken fifteen years ago when I was assiced thirty two waists.

I could show you the photo now, but I just don't want to waste the rest of the podcast if you're either too happy with the photo or all you're upset about it. A question I have was why was the other guy in the helicopter cheering you on to get in the helicopter? Didn't he Wasn't he aware that if you get into the helicopter, he's going to have the money. Like if that was me, I or to push you out of the helicopter.

Tring me on? He was shouting go away. He threw stand in my face and closed the door.

I thought he was saying go.

Away away, like he was telling the pilot that he was five past one. He was like, girl, get your watch right, I was watching that like joking.

He was so supportive.

He was, And yeah, that's the other that bond with someone that you shared that experience with has also been special when also considering what Rob wants to do with the money as well, he has his own fatherhood journey that he's pursuing. We joke about it all the time that he locked the door, that he was they were trying to fly off, but he was like, welcome me with open arms.

He was so supportive.

I think it's one of those things when you've had even though we had completely different experiences on the run, we also had a shared experience in that we felt those feelings you know, of terror and anxiety and we'll get caught today and all of that. And I think reaching the end, yeah, you know, you would be happy with anyone who got into helicopter because it was just like, wow, we made it.

It was exciting.

One thing, actually, I literally just had this epiphany, now I saw your capture so I knew I was flying solo in the chopper. Rob had no idea that Jake had been caught, so up until that moment, he was potentially thinking Jake could run across at any moment, right and the moment he saw me with my big gut and my flabby tits, he was like that, ain't Jake. He is like, where is Jake?

Oh no, So he.

Would have had that moment right then he would have been like, bloody hell. Up until this point, I thought it could have been my teammate meeting me in the chopper, and now he's like this ranger Greek dudes here and.

Both Isn't that amazing? Was that both of you, both of those two people you've been one of them, have this journey of wanting to be a parent, and that was the ambition behind, you know, wanting to win. Was that surreal that you both had that ambition? Yes, but you now not both get together and have a child.

Though I've been trying that with all my boyfriends, just never worked. I think I might have fertility issues. I've been a spum downer since I was very young, so I know.

That there's got to be something out there.

Yeah, there's some ginger Greeks out there, but I like, I want to be a father, want to raise a child, and I want to give them the emotional blackmail that my parents did for the last thirty five years. Come on, the next generation. It's time the trauma come.

You need you need to pass it on. Interestingly enough, I was talking to Pam Moranda for the podcast this morning and she was saying talking about Ala Brandy, and she was saying, you know what's really sad was the good room in all the Greeks and Italians houses with all the plastic on the furniture. She was like, that's stopped. Now they're not doing it as much. She's like, we need She was like, I want more good rooms.

Who can afford a spare room in their house? I've need be forty square in meters.

Pr Now that you've been through this experience, what would you do differently?

Nothing? That's a very very easy response.

Yeah, I've been asked this question as well.

Will you probably feel different about it? Right?

Well, I mean I would wear runners in Dallas for it was the first day that I put my cons on. And let's just say I can't run as fast in cons as I can runners.

And your skinny leg jeans. He was there to impress the boys, which worked.

Well apparently, But no, I was, I guess just trying to dress to fit in, you know, with the crowd in chill out, and you know, we wore running shorts and runners for the best part of three weeks and the one day that I chose not to wear that is the day that I got caught. So but I mean, apart from that, yeah, I don't. You know, some people are like, oh my god, they're idiots going to Dalsford, Like why would you go somewhere where you go every year,

And with such believers in like the butterfly effect, if you change anything over the course of those twenty one days, you'd compromise the ending and we might have both been caught and be fifty thousand dollars poorer.

Are you have you spent any of the money? Is the money in your banking.

I've got his tit stuff. I got my knees done this.

Much because I didn't have done myself.

I reckon they're bigger, and they've just got bigger over COVID.

You know how you get a new haircut, you have a little bit of extra confidence. You know they say when you get the short back in sides, you go out that night, you'll pick up. Does winning a reality TV show help you with picking up? Have you guys got fresh back and sides confidence going on?

I don't get blocked as much on grinder. That's pretty cool.

Do they just want to They want to talk to you about one hundred year and.

Then they just want Matt's number. I can pull up the messages.

People of saying that season two is definitely happening.

Do you guys know that confirmed? They've already opened up casting, and I think my family have already applied, including Dean. I think that's what is busy doing tonight. Yeah, Frock Hudson season two. Heard it here first.

For rock Hudson, he would be loving it. I'm surprised he hasn't done reality TV. I feel like back in the day, very few people would know someone you know, who'd been on Big Brother or Idol or something like that. These days, it's like, oh, yeah, my milkman.

Yeah.

Again, it's actually quite funny that that that is the case. But I guess the thing that people would be listening to this for with casting now being open is what is your advice to getting picked on the show? And then we'll get into it, but you know, what is your advice for not getting caught? Well, let's start with the application process. How do you get noticed?

I think getting picked, my advice is to just be yourself. And I mean it sounds simple, maybe a bit cliche, but I think that's the reason we got picked, just because we had that band, so we had that energy.

You know, you can't really.

Easily replicate a friendship of twenty plus years, so I think being yourself is probably and also just having a bit of a good game plan, like.

One hundred percent. Yeah, if you don't have a strategy for you've eating capture that's not going to work really well, and it's also not going to be too entertaining, or maybe it's really entertaining, so it just like walks out and takes a seat and then it's like damn, well just sits in the van. They're like, I ain't leaving.

You do have very good chemistry, like I. You know, I often interview people and you can see it. Maybe I don't interview people together, so this is you know, it's usually one on one, but it's you can feel it.

It's all that that night in Cambodia, Matt, remember on the bus after that we bonded.

Did you make a par Have you ever been together either if you tried?

I was holding his hair whilst he was ducking in the cold.

The best of it, and then the advice to not getting court because you know, interestingly enough, having a season two means that you can watch the first series and learn from your mistakes. I actually think series two is going to be more exciting because it's the people are going to know more, They're going to know how to do things better.

The hunters are really going to have to up their game, so they're going to have to up their strategy. Change their strategy. Part of that is recruiting Jake and I's Foxy fox Trot. So Jake and I will come back as Hunters, and two.

How do they write you both into a series too? They've got to make that happen somehow.

Well, that's also good on his feet, so he's going to be running. Rod can be doing like the decoy makeup for the Hunters, because if the Hunters are elevating this strategy, imagine a Hunter in drag running down the street.

Well, look, you know, you've got to just keep your finger in the pies until they do an all stars version of where they bring back their favorites. Do you think that? Do you both think that series two will be more exciting?

I don't because we won't be there.

Okay, I think it'll be interesting though to see, you know, sort of strategies and stuff that people come up with and kind of you know, I don't know whether it's going to be filmed in Melbourne and Victoria again or whether it will be somewhere else.

The format just has so much opportunity and potential in the UK, in the US, all these countries where it's been done. They mix it up with geography, they mix it up with contestants, they do celebrity versions, so there's so much potential there to keep the format exciting. And it comes down to casting as well. You get good people that give you an interesting mix. And we had

Might imagine playing Hunted as a celebrity.

Yeah, there are some seasons out there. And it was like, that would be the hardest game ever.

I think, I think it does it. I mean that's why they've done it in the UK. And I was speaking to the chief about, you know, who would he want to track down? And he was saying, Oh, what's the guy's name from SAS? This is terrible, Oh the scary man that yells at everyone, terrible gas, terrible gays. You can't remember any other show except the ones that we're on. It is hilarious. The most annoying question for me was always what are you going to spend the

The most annoying question I get is what's Matt's number.

Did you give it out?

No, it depends on much pay me.

But he sent me a screenshow the other night and it was just a faceless grinder profile, and I like, absolutely not.

Do you take like a headles shot of yourself and send it to him and see whether he says anything good or bad?

No, I've got photos of Mat or use.

I just want to say, you guys were so fantastic on this show, and you know it was great television. Nine episodes is not a lot of episodes that think they could have it longer next time round, But congratulations on that. Also, what's something from behind the scenes, something that we didn't say that we would love to know from your experience on Hunted?

Oh there was this night I got terrible, terrible food poisoning. I couldn't stop vomiting after drinking six bottles of wine. Was really bad?

Was it true? Is such a true story?

The good poisoning was eating a used nugget on the floor.

Did you get food poisonings? Okay, so none of that's have you got something from behind.

The second we did eat a nugget that was someone's leftover.

But Matt, being my bestie, he cut around the bite. Mark smamy. Oh that's so nice, You're so sweet. But then we realized that what I was eating was the part that would have had their grubby fingers on it.

And let's face it, you've both put worse things in your mouth. Oh.

We did also do a bit of Oh we did a reveal. So on day one when we left, we had our black shorts and black T shirt and we've watched fifty three seasons of Drag Race this year and we learned the art of reveal. So those black shorts and T shirts came right off and we had a rainbow jersey underneath. So we prays through the CBD escape from the.

Top on the tram and off we went into the sunsets.

See, we define stereotypes where you reinforce some others.

It's like reclaiming things like puff tuffs, Like no one would wanted to be called the puff back in the day, but now we love being a and we have a club for it. Guys, what a joy it has been to have the people who have won unpacked the show. And I think this would be great for people who watched it, but also great for people that want to take part in it, so congratulations having amazing