Kate Box & Madeleine Sami - DEADLOCH - Actors

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload, the podcast Past Detailine.

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

Good? Thank you? How are you well?

I'm very well, thank you and so excited to have you both here today. You know, I'd heard a lot about this project since it started, as I have a friend who auditioned and does have a small role in the series. But I've been lucky enough to see it all and I want to say to you both it keeps getting better as it goes along.

Ah, thank you, thank you the whole thing.

Yes, I've seen it all and I might as well be wearing a T shirt because I'm a big fan. But Madeline, the series balances quirky humor with a murder mystery. How did this project come about for you? And how does it feel trying to blend those two elements together.

Well, I was.

Actually involved in the writing process, so I worked on episode five of Deadlock, so I lived with the story for a long time and the kind of different places the Cakes were taking it and trying it, and then when I got asked to audition, I thought it was I thought the Cakes were doing a joke on me.

I thought they were doing a brank and yeah, it was kinite.

It was kind of weird because I had sort of had when you're writing, you sort of have an idea of the character in your head, and it definitely didn't look like me, and.

So you look like this.

But I was aware, of course along the way, that the idea was to subvert a lot of these.

Kind of crime genre tropes to ccenter women and then also to kind of blend comedy and the crime. And I always, as a writer thought, how are we going to do this, How we're going to balance this, How is this going to feel, you know right like tonally?

How where is this going to sit?

And so it's been really fun to kind of see the finished product now and be like, ah, you know, it does have a really balanced it's balanced all those elements really well, you know you laugh, But you're also still compel to.

Kind of solve the crime with us as well.

So I think the Kates have done a really clever job of blending those two genres.

Yeah, they've really navigated that well. Because it feels and looks like Mayor of East Town, but it has the laughs of Kate and Kate's usual work. Are you excited for audiences globally to explore this world that you've been able to create.

Yeah. Absolutely, it feels like it's got a real universal language to it. But also I think because it is so specifically Australian as well, it's kind of very grounded in our home and I think that's going.

To be exciting for international audiences to watch as well.

It's I think something that I've always felt like as a writer and a performer. Well, I always feel like if something is specific enough, and you always see this with like an Irish drama or you know, like when it's so specific and when it nails all the nuance of that of that culture, I feel like it makes it more universal, do you know what I mean?

Because people, it's like you just recognize it.

It's so well realized that you recognize it and you see your family and those people or your friends or whatever, even though they're Irish or Swedish and speaking different language that they kind of know.

I think that's what the Caps have achieved.

I reckon, you know, I want to talk about Taz in a little bit. But you know, I grew up watching murder mysteries and that probably helps me understand my love of true crime. But which murder mystery shows did you grow up watching?

Kin, Yeah, I grew up with a lot of Angela lant.

Me too. I was obsessed with me, she wrote same.

I was a real kind of like like Nancy Drew detective novels kind of thing that was more my world.

I was. I was into that.

I think we were only really allowed to watch in half an hour of TV a day, and I think I spent that on either Inspector Gadget or a country practice. So I didn't necessarily watch heaps of murder mysteries, but I did. I used to read them a lot. And remember when those Choose your Own Adventure books first came in, I actually thought they were magical. I'm like, how is this all held in this one book? And I can go this way? Yeah, So I was quite obsessed with that kind of.

Like you're really putting, you're really wearing your nerd on your sleep.

I was the same.

I loved I loved them a lot of it. I mean I watched a lot of comedy growing up.

I loved a lot of sketch comedy and things like that, and but like yeah Murder she wrote with big Also Magnum p I. I have a really early memory of where my sister, seven years younger than me, being born and my grandma looking after us and being up and because mum and dad were in the hospital, I got to stay up and watch Magnum p I, like at nine o'clock. And it was like one of my early memories of being like, this is what it's like being a grown up?

Is it?

I like what I see? Like what I see. I'm past, I'm up past night, I'm watching Magnum Pi. There's some saucy probably there's probably someone in a bikini. At some point I was like, there's some BOMs life.

I'm never going to hear that Magnum p I theme song the same way again. I mean, I'm only going to think about your sister being born.

Me being seven. Be you allowed to stay up late?

O Kate, you're playing it's straight, well not exactly straight, but up against a lot of Madeline's comedy. Was that hard not to break character?

Yeah?

Look, I mean Darls, he's got a fairly massive internal life going on that she has to stray in pretty tight. I we corpsed a lot, you know, particularly early on. There were some takes where we were just like, this is so stupid, man, I don't know how to keep this together. There was absolutely those yours and then pulling yourself back in from that.

I mean, for me, the thing I've.

Always got in trouble with my whole life is not being able to stop laughing. Like that's what would get kicked me, you know, would kick me out of class my whole life, through primary school, high school, you know, into universities like and so I did have to kind of learn pretty hard that, you know, you've got to get a certain number of minutes shot every day, and so you do have to hold it in at some point.

You know, there's a point where dults just start it's like enough enough.

And I think once I got like I was able to kind of get into that brain, get that headspace, I found it easier to like hold into Dulcie and just find the whirlwind that was happening around me more and more infuriating. But in the early weeks of shooting that was nearly impossible.

Also, I think also like in the first few episodes when it's like Eddie is just like does not want to be in the town.

Things, you know, like things keep happening. Once we sort of started to.

Actually, you know, once Dy and Dulcie start to work together, and you know, people will see this when they watch the show, but it does, you know, it starts to take on a sort of deeper, darker tone.

I think the shows as it goes on, I feel like it must have been easier then when we were kind of yeah.

It's easier that it was definitely.

Definitely in the first definitely in the first few episodes when it's like when pretty much I was given license to absolutely torment tatee box, Yeah, it must have been hard.

Was that on the page? Because was there a lot of ad libbing to your character to have it as large as what it is, especially in the early few episodes, I mean, or was that ad libbed the green room?

Yeah, just like just before the take, after the take.

TV the location, she'd rock up at my house.

Stepping on the window. I've got a line I want to change.

Yeah, how much of Kate McCartney and Kate mcclennan's work had you both seen before starting this project? Sorry, Madeline, I know you said that you collaborated with some of the writing, but maybe, Kate, what had you seen before taking on this role.

I'd already seen a lot of I think I've kind of known their work for quite a long time.

I just think that they're, you know, a couple of geniuses.

So I've always been drawn to their comedy because I think it really shakes up our community in a way that we really need. I think they've worked, They've known how to tread this line, you know, and they've just gotten better and better at it. I don't know, I can't think of a time where they weren't brilliant at it actually, but I think, you know, putting it within this crime Jon has just allowed it to grow into

At every turn, You're like, what.

They're pretty and you know, like, what's impressive being part of that writing team as well was that they taught.

Themselves, how to do it, who done it, and they've done it so good and like they're just they are.

I don't use that word lightly, but I do think the Kate's genius is and I think we need to we need to say that more because yeah, again, like I was familiar with their work, and you know, even in those small you know that their attention to detail and those and those you know in the catering show and the small little jokes here and there, and you kind of what's what's so nice to see that be given the platform it's been given with Deadlock is so

And like the Ksey last night, now, Q and I, they cut most of the ed lib.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, without that, mate, there are a couple of lines in there that I got on for sure.

But I think as well that it's also about creating an atmosphere, and it's great that they gave you that license to add live a little bit, because I guess it's up to then in the editors suite to try and pull those performances together and make sure that they're coming off the way that they were intended very much.

I mean the generosity of those two people that it was so important to them that we felt like we owned Dulcy and Eddie, that everybody, all the characters in this show felt like that they owned their character. And so for people who were as hard working and as little sleeping as those two were, their door was constantly open to you know, for any kind of question or

And you both were in Tasmania for six months, which I would say is a long time to give up your life and to commit to a role. Is that a long shoot for a TV series being made in Australia?

It was the longest day.

It was a long no, yeah, I think it went was was nine months, but that was not as intense. But yeah, it was a long shoot. I think it's mad and I I mean maybe had a day off.

Yeah, we were just about in every scene and you know it's still a it's a cop show. So the physically it was very demanding as well. It's definitely the longest shoot I've done and the most demanding probably. I mean, you know, there's a lot of you know, Kate did a lot of stunt driving. I don't know if the world knows this, but Kate is a very good stunt driver. I always felt safe in that.

Car with you.

I feel like Kate has just balanced out, you know, all of that nerdy reading that we have accused her of earlier with you know, some amazing stunt.

Driving important to bring equilibrium back.

She is very good.

I just want to put that out there because you know, I remember that first time we shot in the car and you had to kind of scared and make the dust kind of flyfe and I was like, yeah, pretty much pretty hot.

But yeah, it was it was pretty intense.

I mean I think it was one week where you know, I do it like all my stunts, massive stunts, and then I had I had a I had a couple of.

Massusas and Tazzy that I'd go to the local.

I just like booked myself in every weekend because I just knew, especially as the as the shoot went on and the more grueling it got, I just it was going to have to do what I could do to survive.

Tom cruise to the whole thing.

I did pretty much until the second to last night, and there was like it was dark and there was a paddock that we had to run across and our stunty was like, John was like, do you want to get the stundy in for this one?

I was like, yeah, why not?

Yeah it looks pretty uneven. I don't want to roll my ankle. And so she had a run under the only time.

They say not to work with animals because they can be hard.

How much of that she did work with me?

Yes, she did have a tough time.

But the reason why I was asking you that because how much of that seal that we'd wore A seal was real?

Always real.

It's a real seal, the real deal seal. We're gonna is it like a magician about Yeah, we allowed to talk about the seal. I feel like I feel like the Greyhound.

The Greyhound was very real.

I just wanted to know because I kept looking at that seal and wanting to know how much of it was real.

Ok, it's so amazing, Benches director extraordinary.

I mean, there was an exhaustive process auditioning the seal. We we went to many oceans. Yeah, all the oceans, all the big oceans, submitted.

Yeah, doing a chemistry read with the.

Yeah. Yeah, but we we landed on the right seal with just the right amount of just the right lack of animation.

Yeah right. They didn't mind getting tranquilized. Yeah, beautiful.

Just Kevin tune out.

I can't remember if Kevin turns up again and again he does, surely he's another he can't remember.

I can't remember the show. I can't wait to watch it. It's out today Prime Video.

You know, the show has really strong LGBTI themes, but it also doesn't feel like it's hitting you over the face with that either. Have we come a long way with telling LGBTI stories.

I mean, yes, yes we have. I think so.

I think you just get creatives at the center that you know, you know, have moved along talking about and also have deep empathy and love for the community that they're talking about. Also, I'm in the top four kind of first four on the call sheet in this job.

We're all queer like. It's just I think it's just about us making it really.

But it's also about you know, I think we've moved We're at a pointland.

There's a lot of.

We're laughing at the community as well as giving respect to the community. And I think definitely probably there was a time where there was a sensitivity around things or you know that it was just like a bunch of like coming out stories in everything, everything had to have trauma or whatever. And I feel like with Deadlock, like you say, it's it's we're able to take this and also be you know, like we're able to kind of be more playful with queerness in this show as well

The show opens with a sex scene between Kate and your character's partner, but after watching the show for a few episodes, I just didn't think of this as being a gay story.

We're living within it, like we're not kind of presenting it.

It's just life from within this so and I think obviously there is a as we get further and further into the series and it gets darker and darker, you know, there's it deals with some pretty yeah, massive questions in our society about you know, various communities and how we how we treat various communities.

And I just think that.

That that despite the fact that it is this wild, you know, wild seering comedy, there has always just been this real need to keep it anchored in these people's voices as well, because as we get further and further into the drama, I think I've.

Lost my train of thought.

But you know, as we get further and further with you, you.

You soundedlike you were just getting very deep.

Yeah, to never get the ships and giggles too much, you know, to always kind of have these very very strong voices held up throughout the whole thing.

The supporting cast is also amazing. You've got Tom Ballard, Pamela Raye, Alicia Gardner, and Susie Yusuf. They're all very funny, very accomplished actors. The buzz from the set was that everyone was having a bloody good time. Is having a fun vibe on set imperative to making good content?

I think so.

I mean I've always felt like that, Like I feel like, you know, and and again it comes back down to like the atmosphere that Andy at guesswork and the Kate set from the top, you know, like they like Kate Sie before, they made it feel like it was ours. They the scripts are so good, so you're excited to

Is so great.

There's all this lovely detail in the writing, I think. And you know, yeah, when you get to come in as a character like that and you have something really fun and interesting to play with, I.

Think everyone felt like their character was like a.

Gift and you know, enjoyed that and then like getting to kind of bounce off each other in these big scenes, and you know there is it does create this kind of atmosphere of fun and you know, you're you're kind of all buzzing on the chemistry that we're creating together, and you know, it's.

A courageous atmosphere I reckon as well, Like, yeah, we all felt so incredibly supported, which means that you have the courage to to be better, like to kind of yeah, have make bigger choices and to throw more stuff out because you don't have to fire if it's going to fall on its face. But because you supported and trusted, I think, yeah, the level of avery and everyone's performance was really high because yeah, yeah.

We had that we had a beautiful crew to like, you know, they were all just you know, term and lighting and our directors and Katie and Millwright and Simon, like.

You know, we we we could see.

That they were creating something beautiful and they all gave us the space to kind of play and tolerated our bullshit as well. But you know, like it felt like it was throughout every kind of department. So we had this like and we were all kind of stuck on this island together, like no one could leave, so we sort of created like a little little family really, which, yeah, it was nice.

It was just like going to work and hanging out with your mates and having a lass.

I could honestly talk to you both all day and night. You're both so funny and the series is so much fun. But before you go, I want to ask, what is something from behind the scenes, something that we won't see, but kind of like a behind the scenes secret of making Deadlock.

There was a lot of thermals under everything. Yeah, layers and layers.

By the end of By the end of the shoot, so many heat so.

Many heat packs, leggings. Yeah, I think I.

Maxed out at maybe like four layers I could sit under at one point, but and then with strategic heat packs like maybe six or so and still then cold.

And a hot water bottom, which we but if you keep like right between your thighs right at the top there, you know in that software that's kind of got the most spread throughout your whole body.

So you go, yeah, were you filming Deadlock or were you filming alone?

Yeah? Yeah, yeah, alone with heaps of people.

Yeah, I mean thermals have come along because like last night I was out for dinner, with my best friend. And she announced that, you know, after an hour, that she was wearing thermal wear as evening wear.

It was an evening termal it is my formal filmal germal.

The two of you, it's like a race to the joke. You're both so quick anyway, Thank you so much both for your time today. You're both so fantastic in it. I should let you go.

Thank you so much, your friend in it.

Ben Evie Jones.

I love eb we love me me.

I've been saying for a very long time about how funny it is that people know her from like goggle Box or I'm a celebrity and now she's like a fantastic presenter. But I think she's a born actress.

Heaven.

He took me out for a beer because I was just been I was just here for two months shooting at another TV show, and we went out for a beer.

She took me to like an old man pub. We had like a beer at a parmy.

And then she's been so cute sending me because she's got screeners obviously, so she's singing messages all the time. But she's watching it and like sending me messages about little little and sending me little clips and cackling in the background like she's such a lovely Yeah.

Anyway, enjoy yourselves. I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future, and good luck with chatting with the media today. Thank you, bye guys.