It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast a week They're.
Right, Hey, guys, welcome back to TV Reload. I want to thank you for clicking and downloading on today's episode with Jesse Spencer and Ruder Mitchell to very iconic Australian actors who are currently featured in the Disney Plus series
The Last Days of the Space Age. Jesse is actually an old friend of mine that I've lost touch with, so I don't think he knew that I was going to be chatting with him today, So it was kind of nice that he remembered me and didn't think, oh god, this guy you know what I mean, or forgotten who
I was. You know, with these big press junkets, they do so many of them and you only get allocated like eight minutes, so you start off by sort of saying your name and where you're from, and that's sort of where you can hear Jesse realize that it's weird old me again on the other end of the microphone.
But today we are talking about this new series set in Australia in nineteen seventy nine, where a power strike threatens to plunge a western Australian town into Darkness, where the city is also hosting the Miss Universe pageant and a US space station, Skylab, also crashes just beyond the city suburbs. It's a tapestry of characters and I really do hope you guys check it out because it's actually, you know, very Disney and very fun to watch with
the family. I will ask about Writer and Jesse's relationship with Disney and what it's like to actually make a Disney show. You will hear a little bit about their upbringing as well, and if their parents ever encourage them to go to space or have very ambitious dreams. Rather, we'll talk about how far we've come in terms of
equality between men and women. Plus you will even find out about their accents and if their time spent overseas, particularly in the case for Jesse, who's been in the US now for twenty years, did that make it hard to sound authentically Australian? Again, There is so much to unpack with these guys. It's very short and sweet, but there's still some fantastic secrets along the way. So sit back and relax as we unpack the last days of the space Age. Amazing Benjamin Norris and Hi Jesse, how
so how are you? I didn't even like about fifteen years so.
Yeah, I think we had a friend in common or something.
Yeah, Brett blewet Bred.
Blow down the line.
Serious, Yeah, yeah, it's like a movie.
No, he was, he was on Neighbors for a while.
Yeah right right, okay, yeah, so it was.
Back back in the day.
Yeah. All I remember, Jesse was that you used to I went for like a roast. You used to do like a Sunday roast at your place and have lamb because did I?
I did lamb for Americans with Americans?
Yeah, because Americans didn't want to eat the lamb like.
I was trying to introduce them to week Classic.
No, it's just that lamb is not They're like Turkey and Lamb's a little exotic.
Yeah. It was went down like a yeah, a sack of bricks, didn't it.
Well, it depended because there was often sort of Aussie expats in Australia there that you'd sort of into your house. Anyway, we're going off on a answership. People listening to this podcast, they're going to be like, I don't care that is.
About Jesse's lamb roast.
Anyways, you know, guys, I loved the character of your daughter Tilly and her ambition to be an astronaut in this, and I wondered about the two of you, if your parents encourage you both to have ambitious dreams growing up in you know, late seventies, early eighties.
Well, I've got a daughter now who's three, and I sort of really relate to this because, you know, thinking ahead, and you know humanities, you know, wants to go the space races are back on to some degree, and you know, we want to go to Mars and can we go beyond?
And I was sort of like I told my wife, I was like, I would love my daughter to be the first woman on Mars. And she was like, you're not sending her to Mars.
But I sort of really like understood that passion because you know, Tilly has you know, she believes.
In it, you know, and it's such a i mean, big crazy dream, but why not?
And I understand that.
You know, to sort of validate and encourage someone's dream like that.
So yeah, I loved it too.
A friend of mine he actually was raising his daughter to go to Mars, but turns out she just wants to be a dentist.
So I'm big dreams for your kids. Yeah, but it doesn't seem that like impossible actually these days. I mean, that's going to be one way you're heading.
I don't want to go to space. That's like terrified. Like I wouldn't even have a friend Elon Musk because I'd be afraid he'd ask me.
On the ground us we'll going, mate, you have to, can't.
What I thought was compelling about this series was the way in which it addresses the power dynamics between men and women in Australia. Was surprising to play this role and notice how far we've come with equality in this country.
I think there were women in the seventies who were a little in advance of where Judy's at when the
story begins, in terms of working in the workforce. But that seems to be a journey that we're all on culturally, and we're all in different chapters and different parts of that, but ultimately it's about emancipation and people being able to take control of their own lives, and certainly that's the journey for Judy, and then the sort of things you lose in that and the conflict around that and in the dynamic of a relationship, the sort of sense of
betrayal about it and the confusion about it was really interesting to track and really to understand the perspective of both parties.
I think the show really kind of demonstrated that.
I mean, I think it was surprising to me because whilst it is a long time ago, it's just still a short period to see how far we've come in so many different ways. And I thought some of the conversations between you and Jesse and your characters was just so fascinating.
In those terms of like the gender roles and yeah.
Just filling into those gender roles.
They felt very traditional, you know, very traditional even for the seventies.
And I think it's because that's the perth reality as well.
That things were very traditional, traditional to what I guess to kind of you know, the culture of our ancestors.
Yeah, it was interesting to sit of tract that personally.
I was reading this book that my grandmother had given me in the eighties that I'd never read, called Women's Power Handbook, and it was written by Joan Kerner, who obviously was you know, in politics in that era and had this sort of experience of you know, battling men and you know, trying to move things forward as an activist, as a politician.
So it was interesting just to.
Read that book as a kind of a legacy that my grandmother had left to me that I'd never paid attention to, and look at that in relationship to say Judy's Journey and just the kind of issues that women were facing in that era and you know to today.
As you say, I was interested because you know, the Disney, the House of Mouse is just such a recognizable company and we all grew up with it here in Australia, you know, watching Sunday Night Disney or Saturday Morning Disney. Did you both grow up watching a lot of Disney as it's strange to now be making a series.
Well Disney is like what's Disney? Disney is this huge thing.
A whole bunch of Yeah, I mean the Disney I think we watched was.
We started with Mickey Mouse.
Yeah, Well, I was watching like Mary Poppins and the Sound of.
Which I've gone back to watching now they have a daughter, so I'm going back and watching.
Some of the classics that I've never seen. I don't think I've ever seen Pinocchio. I don't think like some of.
These older ones, and it spans such a long time, you know, and I mean there's.
Something very innocent about them. And yeah, I love.
They have maintained that that sort of ethos and what they represent. You know, it's hard to do on such a grand scale, but they really do create quality content that's sort of family friendly, and I felt, I guess is a.
Way to put it.
I just hope that, you know, families watch this show together, you know, like we would have the TV rolled into the kitchen. I mean, obviously they don't do that anymore. They'll be on the tablet. But you know, when I grew up in the eighties, like Sunday night, we would get a good meal and they wheel the TV in and we could watch something as a family. I think when I was watching this show, my partner was watching Monsters,
and I was like, I can't watch that show. But watching this is such a beautiful story and it's so well made. I just hope that families can watch it.
Multi generational, like you could watch it with your grandma, you can watch it with your child, you know, and everybody.
Everybody can relate to one of the characters in the story.
There's something very very broad about the possible audience for sure.
Yeah, universal themes and like a variety of characters from all walks of life that create this wonderful tapestry in a neat, quirky time in Perth. You know, it's sort of it's a strange little ethereal vignette that that was just really fun to make and a great cast of characters and really fun writing.
So we had a great time making it.
It's a good task start out for a family.
You guys are global actors and it's quite amazing because you guys have made so much content all around the world. Just you know, you lived in the UK and been in America and I just think coming home and making something like this, I was curious about whether all the other accents that you've been having to do over the years would sneak back in.
So that was the we had to do, sort of like how do we speak because.
Obviously we're married, so we must have had something from the same place and we've.
So many places, Like what is it to be Australian? And that was that was a conversation. Bizarre conversation, it was.
And if you've been doing there are certain you know, dialect, and we've both been doing an American dialect for quite a long time, and you you know, you work so hard to sort of get to a certain place with that and needs to have to undo it, or it was more it felt more daunting.
Than it actually was.
I think it actually came pretty organically after being back in Australia, and it's such a good Aussie story. I think we didn't want to overthink it, but you do have to think about it a little bit.
Well, guys, you know, with these junkets, you kind of just get quickly cut off, so I didn't get a chance to answer or ask my I should say my last question, which as everyone knows, is what is something from behind the scenes. I thought i'd give you something. There's a bit of a secret or fact about Jesse Spencer that you guys might find interesting. Did you know that in two thousand Jesse auditioned to play Anakin Skywalker in the Attack of the Clones. It was actually a
role that went to Hayden Christensen. But pretty amazing that at the time, you know, Jesse had really only been known for being Billy Kennedy on Neighbors, so yes, he's gone on to do some amazing things with shows like House and Chicago Fire. But a little fun fact there. Actually, I will also tell you something quite interesting. Jesse was the person who taught me to not to tell people you don't know too much about yourself, which was actually
because of this hilarious story that happened to us. One day while we were in the US. We had tickets to go and see Missy Higgins, who was playing in America, playing in la and we went to go and see this show. But I'd randomly told this cashier at Whole Foods that I was going out. And I guess, if you know me, and you know me well enough, do you know that this is something I would do. But I told this cashier that I'm friends with Jesse Spencer
and we're going to see Missy Higgins. Anyway, this chick, this cashier ends up turning up at the gig and it was just really really awkward, and basically Jesse said to me, don't tell people anything because they will actually follow you. In the US, very common for people to do that kind of bonkers things. And Jesse was very famous at the time. He was shooting House and it was sort of in that, you know, the heyday of all of that. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the chat
with the guys. Go and check out the Last Days of the Space Age. It's really fun and it's on Disney Class. I look forward to catching up with you guys soon