Welcome back to TV Reload. My name's Benjamin Norris, and on this podcast, I'll be going behind the scenes with the biggest players in television. I wanted to quickly say thank you to the people who've been kind enough to share the podcast. I had some international listeners who said they really enjoyed the deep dive into documentary filmmaking with Aaron Sedman. If you missed that episode, feel free to
jump back and check it out. I thoroughly enjoyed our chat and the tea that he's built on Paris Hilton was extraordinary. Speaking of extraordinary, I was listening to best Mates with Blake Francis this week. He's a fellow Ossie and a friend of mine. His podcast has just launched, which is hilarious because he has never actually listened to a podcast before and is just giving friends slabs of beer to open up and tell their deepest secrets. You
should check it out. It's quite fun. This week, I've been watching Channel nine Celebrity Apprentice, which has been a real lift from the previous seasons. I'm living for the Veronica's meltdowns on and off the show, and I can't wait to see this week's Cliffhanger on Big Brother on Channel seven is getting down to the pointy end, and people are getting really fired up about that on social media. But it was Halstrom on Netflix that I binge watch
and saw all five episodes over two nights. Ewan McGregor plays the title role and the real life fashion designer. And let me tell you, this program is so addictive you will smash it in two days. Let me tell you also, if you loved Mayor of Eastown and the actress who played Mayor's mum, Jeane Smart, She's got a new series on Binge which is called Hacks, and it's a comedy. And while it's quite light, it's very funny and I guarantee you'll get some belly laughs out of
that one. Now today's guest is smoking hot. I have the talented Joel Jackson. You may have heard me swooning over him a couple of weeks back after attending a screening of the new series of Missus Fish's Modern Murder Mysteries, which launches on Acorn TV on the seventh of June. He plays Missus Fisher's partner in more ways than one.
But today he talks about his career which has included award winning turns in Deadline, Gallipoli and Not the Boy next Door, the latter having Joel play the iconic role of Peter Allen. He studied at NIDER and now he's one of Australia's most sought after actors. Joel's upbringing is quite fascinating when you hear about his origins for equality and storytelling. His parents seem absolutely amazing, and we'll get into that as the podcast unfolds. I know you will
love this chat. He's very charming and intelligent, not to mention ridiculously good looking. So let's get started. I'd like to welcome you and Joel Jackson to the podcast.
I grew up in a small town of Albany in southwestern Australia. Actor Wood goes to Joel Jackson and I do think that some of my best stuff was in Deadline.
Joel Jackson stars as the adult Peter Allen.
I think if you can do the right things for an audience, they'll keep coming back.
This Fish is modern murder mysteries.
This series is something that you can put on and you'll immediately fall in love with your Franny Fish's Nie Paragonfish act.
If you've loved your murder mysteries, you will love this This young lady giving you trouble detective.
Meet your heroes, because sometimes they actually are heroes.
Get a mate.
How are you, dude?
I'm well, I am really really well. How's your day so good?
You know?
And I'm so excited to be chatting with you on TV reload as we met a few weeks ago at the Miss Fisher launch and I was hoping that we would have a chance to have this chat before Miss Fisher launched, which, by the way, Yes, Fisher Modern Murder Mystery Series two will be available for the public on Acorn streaming service on June seventh. I want to ask, though, was it strange watching that first episode in a cinema full of the media.
Yeah, I mean the best thing is that you guys are also friendly anyway. It's part of the job description of media to kind of go like be friendly with this, and then all of a sudden, you guys get to ask all the really hard hitting questions. So in a way it was really lovely because you could also get to hear and see people's reactions that otherwise you wouldn't.
Get to see.
At home because it's not in a cinema and you're not surrounded by people. So and what's best about it was that you were with.
The other cast members.
So if I felt awkward, I was like, well, they're feeling awkward too, so let's share this awkwardness together.
So it was easier.
Well, I'm still getting over those nineteen sixties bathers in that widescreen shot with you emerging from the water. You know, how scary is it to be exposed like that? And did you not eat for a bit?
Yeah? I remember the meal afterwards.
I think I had about four different sides of carbohydrates, and the two days beforehand, I didn't really have much to eat apart from like a big glass of wine, a red wine the night before. Apparently that really works. That's taken from Hugh Jackman's kind of diet plan. But yeah, it's a bit of a time capsule those moments. I was joking about it with dad. Dad and I are very competitive, and not only for zekee but fitness. He's sixty four and he's kind of more jacked than I am.
It's a little bit insane, but so this is my challenge to him, if you may and it's on national TV. So the challenge for him is to get to that place and then get on national TV. And until he does, I'm considered the man of the house, so I can deal with that. But what was more intimidating, What has been more not intimidating, encouraging, might I say, is Ben,
you recently posted it up on your Facebook page. There was a screenshot of the trailer that had come off of YouTube or someone's fine or whatever, and I think underneath it was written to see I caught him out now he.
Was on the back foot.
It was pown embarrassing, it was written.
It was something that was written about it being like who else would want to be rescued by Joel Jackson? And there was all these fantastic comments, and it was like one of them had even written something like yeah that and I'd fain I needed I needed mouth to mouth or something like yes like the wreck of Hesperus. So the best thing is I'm being encouraged to do more and I'm taking it. I'm taking it his encouragement, and I hope I can please the masses with more
first traps. But I mean, what will be daunting is when It's like, my mates watch it and I'm and you know, I'm coming over for dinner the next day, and they're just like wow.
So like, what is it you? Did?
You have a body double? My girlfriend's like, that's not you, that's a body double. I've never seen that man before. Where's he Can I talk to him?
As embarrassed as I am that you've managed to see my Facebook post. I did put this question in there at the start of this podcast because seeing you come out of the water like that is a vision that people will have to search because podcast is audio, so they're listening to this and they'll be like, what the hell are they talking about? And then I know once they see the photo of you coming out of the water, they will be compelled to watch this series from start to finish.
Well, I hope you do. I hope you see that, and I hope you go, ah, can you put on some clothes? And then you realize that I put on a lot of clothes in the show, so then they'll stay. And I actually have a voice and talk and have scenes where I discuss things, and it was all of those things where I got to do it and Geraldine Haykwall was like, how fantastic for you to be ejectified, and I went, yeah, it's kind of a massive smile.
Was like, it's all a bit of fun. And I do hope that regardless whatever floats you, but whatever brings you to the show, I hope that makes you stay. Literally, I pull a sunken boat out of the river, so hey, look boat or sunken boat, I can fix you.
Well. Raised in northern Western Australia, you really owe your mom forgetting you started and acting. Was there a backup plan if this all went to shit?
No?
No, she was just a very pushy individual. No, she was a mum's done everything under the sun. And I think when her son came back from being away in Brazil for a year with three very random tattoos and no idea of what he wanted to do apart from dig holes as a landscaper, she got very scared and wanted him to do something more with his life, so suggested that I audition for Wapper and either. But I didn't really have a backup plan. I've never really had
a backup plan really for a lot of things. I think that's one of the gifts that I inherited from my mother and father is that they've both just been massive risk takers, and not in the sense of ever endangering life or whatever, but just going. You know, I have a thought and a dream and a passion. I'll just go for Dad wanted to surf for the rest of his life and be professional sportsman, and he played state basketball and then coached and captained with Luke Longley
before he went to the Chicago Bulls. My mum absolutely has done every job under the sun and continues to do so, like you can't keep him down. So there's never been a backup plan. But there's also never been an actual really family discussion around the dinner table, going Joel, this is very difficult and financially stressful and a bit oad of ordinary, and so in that it just feels like I'm doing a nine to five in a very
odd ball kind of way. So I feel very lucky to have a supportive family and people that keep going, Oh, that was fun. What's the next story you're telling?
So's it's good?
Well, your dad was and probably still is an indigenous educator. Has that given you a passion to help get indigenous storytelling up on the small and big screen?
One hundred percent.
I mean, so my father is an Indigenous educator and works predominantly or has worked predominantly in Nyalamar and Injiabati country, which is the Pilbro northwestern Australia, so near Caratha and Dampier in those areas. And you know, the reason why he got involved in that is because our heritage is nong where from the taunder Up nation down south in southwestern Australia. So that awareness of knowing that you're part of a song line or part of a history that
is based in storytelling. It's the oldest surviving culture in the world and that only survived through storytelling, through sharing song lines, through sharing artwork, through sharing songs like It's something that I can am continually trying to connect more with but also learning now that it's more about me listening rather than doing talking and engaging with elders and engaging with young Indigenous kids or other Indigenous performers and writers, actors and directors.
You know.
Reaching out to Bunya Production and being involved in Mystery Road Too was a massive gift to work with Wayne Blair Orck Thornton and Jada Alberts and Dude the guy who is Aaron Patterson.
You know that guy. It's it's unbelievable.
So whenever you go home, there's a massive focus on well, what are you doing in the community, what are you being a part of with your community, and how are you empowering other voices And so that that led me to do a big performance with the Muddich Mob, which is a group of young Indigenous performers and dancers from Wesley College and Perth And if you want to see that, that's on YouTube.
We did the.
Dead Heart by Midnight Oil at Telethon and it was the biggest performance of Indigenous kids and Indigenous performers in Telethon's history.
We know, serve your country, You don't.
Serve your know yours No speak your time?
Why man came to everyone?
To be a part of that stuff is really wonderful. But also to know that you're empowering other future Indigenous artists to be leaders and to be passionate about their stories and identities is awesome. So the more I can, as a very talkative young man, shut up and listen and learn is a gift and I hope that we continue all to do that, whether it's Indigenous voices or other minorities inside of Australia. I think it's really important we get those stories seen and heard.
Well, how important is it to you to make shows that reflect astray and culture broadly, not just about the Indigenous community, but just who we are as Australians.
It's massively important. It's pretty much the main criteria for everything I do. Everything I do has to meet that idea of are you telling something that speaks to the Australian psyche? Now, I mean Deadline Gallipoli was created and was set to roll out for the hundredth anniversary of Anzak, But it was the idea of everyone's heard the story of Anzac, so how do you reinterpret it in a
way that's actually going to address the psyche? And that came through the guise of it being about the journalists and about speaking to false news or how reporting he's filtrated and kind of weaned down and the impact of media. So that was a really wonderful story. And then telling Peter's story and being a part of Peter Allen is what I'm referring to. But whenever we get a chance to tell something or be involved in a project, that we know is going to be seen by potentially and
hopefully millions and millions of people. It's our job, whether you're a leading cast member or a supporting cast is to continually ask are we talking to the Australian psyche now? And are we seeing Australian voices and faces of now? Regardless of it being in the sixties, regardless of where it's coming from or what it is. The world is more than capable of blind casting. I mean, the queen in Bridgington is of Ethin, Like, It's not who we would expect to be playing a queen, and nor are
any of the other roles inside of that realm. And it's so wonderful to see people be like, I'll accept it because it's beautiful acting and it's a beautiful story. So the more we can share what's truthful to the now is a big part of our job. Something I'm very passionate about.
Were you influenced by fellow Western Australia Heath Ledger growing up? Did that make you believe that you could go on and have this career that you're having.
Yeah, it did.
And in saying that too, I think what is also sometimes hard to fathom in those elements is like the idea of them is wonderful, but they're so detached from who you actually are or your own journey, and everything has changed since then, and so for me, I tend not to try to draw inspiration from other actors or entertainers.
I actually take it from the people who I'm working with or who I'm telling the stories for, or two Like I get so much inspiration from a little kid coming up and saying, you know, I really enjoyed that, or I saw your song the other day or I heard it on the radio, or you know, when you go and do a sixty person show in Albany in the six degrees at like this tiny pub and you've got everybody singing or people clapping to your own songs and saying I love that.
Thanks that made my day.
You go, yeah, cool, that's okay, I'm on the right track. I've got to keep doing that. So I think in that way, or when you meet someone from like Chile in Early Beach and they go, you're from that show, and it's yeah, Like, it's not about necessarily being recognized or lauded.
It's just about.
Knowing that your story is impacting people and making a difference. Yeah, connecting, And that to me is that's why I was a muso when I was fifteen years old, was because I loved it. I loved seeing four hundred people in a pub get very messy in dance and have a great time. And it hasn't changed. I mean, don't get mess in your launder and watching Miss Fisher, but have a great time.
That depends on who.
Cares in your living room.
Yeah, too many, Bailey, I'd be in Melbourne. You might be your second lockdown. You might just want to get loose, but you know who cares.
I'm fascinated with this one question, which is how do you loan your lines? You know, what's the best technique for you? You know, I know you went to neither and they can be quite specific or can work with people on an individual basis, But how do you loan your lines?
Yeah, it's hyper specific to every role. So and it's not a form of method acting. It's more a form of me cementing it in a different part out of my sight.
So it's like.
Engaging our brain functions on electricity And oh wow, anyone who's listening, who's like a neuros, like just turn off for a brain surgeon because I don't know what I'm talking about. But the idea being that myle and our passageways only expanded the more we use them, and we can connect a different part of our brains, and we
only really use like a little part of it. So for each role, I try to engage a different part of it, whether it's physically or creatively, and try to lock into something that I haven't done before, which scares the hell out of me but also empowers me to
continue discovery. So, for instance, with Charles Bean, that was very He was a very didactic and practical guy, almost on the spectrum, and so therefore I was balancing a tennis ball on every piece of syntax or punctuation, sorry, and learning the rhythm of it that way, and learning the staccato delivery and almost succinctness of his speech, like he didn't mess with work. It was direct, so there
was no flourishes, there was just delivery. Whereas for Peter all and I sang everything and would try to find what key it was in or if it was a ballad or a pop song or a love song, whatever, and I would write that down as my little kind of theme for the scene. And then that was how I played into that, and I remembered it with that sing song quality, and it gave me that brevity that Peter Allen has.
You know, I was always a performer.
So yeah, he was always performing. And then what's more with Miss Fisher, which is really fun for me now is everything. Seventy percent of what I do is interrogation. In this series, I asked a lot of questions or I'm dumbfounded by Peregrine. You know, was it an ongoing relationship? Oh, of course not.
He was a married mat.
So while we're still sending him love letters.
That's not what this is.
So my answer is continuously in the other character. And all I have to do is remember what the point of the scene is, whether it's ask about the murder weapon or ask why did you do the I didn't like? Why did you do the thing I said not to do? And the really fun thing is to get close to learning the lines.
And I'll do it.
You know, I'll have eight scenes over fourteen hours in a day and I won't forget a line, I won't drop lines. I don't take my script with me to work, but I'll have it all within me, but I'll intentionally forget whatever's going on and know that as long as I keep asking the questions or following the seeds they drop, I'll somehow come across that beautiful house in the woods.
You know.
Like that's the fun thing, is doing all the homework forgetting everything and then walking around like some lost idiot, like it's in you, you direct me where am I going? It scares year co stars and especially people who are there for a day or whatever, like what is this guy doing?
But in that it's so.
Much more playful because it can become didactic or too fast or you know, lacking creativity, so it changes every time.
We talked really briefly before about Mystery Road, which is another show for Acorn TV, which I haven't actually seen yet, but you know, I watched the two trailers of those two seasons and it looks absolutely incredible. How hard is it to get these shows seen with so much competition in the streaming space?
Oh, look, it's it's really difficult. It's one of those.
Things where people will come back and continually come back to shows, either because of the style, the actors, the direction, the way it made them feel we're animals. We like going back to the things that make us comfortable or that remind us of ourselves. And I think we're getting
better in Australia. We've always been amazing at it like that takes away from decades, you know, decades and decades of TV and storytelling, but we're getting much better at kind of playing to our audience but challenging our audience. And I hope that this series that we made for Miss Fisher, it changed the format from the last series. So the last series was telemovies, you know, for telemovies.
But the great thing now is that the format is like forty five minutes and it's racy, it's really sexy. It's a lot of fun, it's a lot of tongue in cheek. It's so much more jiv it's so much more sixties and sassy. And I hope that that pleases an audience so that not even just in Australia, but internationally people go, that was really fun. I want that to come back. I want to continue to watch that.
So I think if you can do the right things for an audience, they'll keep coming back, which is why A Mystery Road has been going for three films and two seasons. You know, like it ticks all the boxes. It does the right thing. So if you make content with your audience in mind, your audience will find you, regardless of the platforms and how much stuff there is. I've got faith in the Australian people and the people of Acorn.
You know.
Brian Walsh was on this podcast a few weeks back from Foxtel and he claims, your best work is on Deadline Gallipoli. He's very proud of the fact that he was very instrumental in getting you cast on that. But what's your proudest achievement? And acting?
Definitely with you know, with ex girlfriends, in cooking, like being like wow, that tastes fantastic delicious. No, I'm kidding, I think, And thanks to Onsh too, because he did get me my first job. And I do think that some of my best stuff was in Deadline because I wasn't conscious. I was so unaware of the machine. I was so I was twenty two, I turned twenty three on set, Like I had a night with Hugh Dancy and Sam Worthington on set and our scene had no dialogue.
It was just sitting around a campfire, you know, and then Charles Dance took me to dinner and you know you're sitting there with Now I know who he is because I've finally seen Game of Thrones, but he was just a bad guy from Last Action Hero opposite, you know, watching that game.
I always think of Charles Dance being an alien three And then I'm like, I wonder if if you have a moment where you because I mean, imagine what it would be like to be an actor and to be killed by the iconic alien from the Aliens film as a part of your career. You know, That's what I'd be like, Charles Dance, talk to me about what it was like to be killed.
By the alien. No, it's not like Seawan mean, you know, like he dies for a living. I never I don't think any other actor has been killed more on film or TV. But that's it, Matt, Like when he fell out onto the dish in Double O seven that was awesome, or the yeah, the arrt. Sorry, let's not talk about Sean Ben because I can go on forever. No, what I'm most proud of, you know that kid that started in Deadline Gallipoli and had no idea and was completely fearless,
but was a sponge. And I'm really grateful for the people cast and cru Crue specifically, who gave me the time of day and answered my questions. And you know, I take notebooks to lunch and sit down with someone like a different head of department every day for the entirety of the shoot and ask them what they did and why they did it, What made a good actor in their eyes, what made a good performer, what made a good team member?
What makes a good show? Like, what do you look for?
That's special? And I want to have a chat to that kid. Yeah he's got some secrets, but yeah, most proud of that stuff. I think that was That was a pretty special moment in time.
Well, miss Fisher. The brand of this as well is such an iconic show. You know, there's been so many different incarnations. Did you go back and watch all the other versions as a part of the learning process slipping into this character?
Never?
My thing is like, even when doing Peter Allen, people were like, oh, did you know did you watch Hughes version or did you go back and talk to Todd McKenney or anything. I'm like, no, of course, not and not out of respect, but more out of respect for the material, like more out of respect for what we wanted to do. And it doesn't come from arrogance. It comes from a place of knowing that I'm such an EmPATH and I'm such a listener that if I do watch something, I'll just steal a kind of yeah, and
by degrees of empathy, yeah, to steal it. I stayed away from it, and not out of disrespect, more out of like kind of like wanting to do our one justice. And I think we did. I think we really got here with the second season. I think this one is for fans. I think this one if you've loved your murder mysteries, you will love this. This is something that's all together refreshing and all together new.
It's a lot of fun.
It's a lot of fun to make. It's very cheeky. But I definitely kind of stayed away. But there's like a there's a Chinese Missfish and modern murder mysteries.
Now I know I only found this same It's everywhere. It's great that it's found its home in different incarnations. I think that's really important as well. You know you said that you watched a lot of Clint Eastwood to get some inspector inspiration. Ah, what murder mystery shows did you watch growing up? Are you surprised? Are you surprised me?
I just like every time someone goes because I say, Cleinia stood a lot, and then like you hear it and you go, oh, man, that's so like you just hear yourself, Like I'm the ultimate little cowboy kid. I'm that little milky bar boy. And so when people are like, oh yeah, cliniast like I'm so lame.
I think it's a good one. I think that's good inspector inspiration.
And even acting.
A lot of my stuff comes from He's so good, Like he does so much with so little and in so many different ways, like Million Dollar Baby in his relationship with his family, like Mystic River, his creation of that with those three characters.
He played all the music on Mister Grigabat.
If you've never seen it, go back and listen to it. He composed the music. He's like our Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin would write the film, direct the film, act in the film, and then write the music for the film.
Some might call that controlling. Some might call that talent, And I think that's really aspirational quality is to be like know yourself so well that you can really stretch your boundaries to a point where you are coming up against things that are very new, which is why Clint is still ninety one years old and making.
The best movie.
Yeah.
Man, you can see Clint Eastwood's name now. I mean when people ask me it's Sunday afternoon, they need a good Sunday movie, I just literally now go to Clint Eastwoods directing and he's back CATALOGO. Yeah, everything is like just so good. But I mean going back to the question though, was the what murder mystery shows did you watch growing up?
No, because I never really watched murder mysteries. I'm not necessarily a fan of the genre.
Geraldine is.
So when you sit there and chat to Geraldine about this, what I say is blasphemy. It's like you you shouldn't be here.
You're you know, you're you're a fake.
She wrote, she'd be listing all of these classics.
Yeah, but to me, it's like, my I do love Alfred Hitchcock, but I more love his like you know, the Kerry Grant and How to Catch a Thief I love that romance. I love that old school Adam's rib. I love bringing up Baby with hat Burn and all these kind of things where it was really playing on the idea of what it means to be male and what it means to be female in that time and at a time where you know, her wearing like a suit was the coolest thing in the world because it
just broke all these kind of stigmas and ideas. So those things have been my inspiration for this. But you know, those that John Wayne kind of thing, and Robert Mitcham and all that kind of stuff, that really old school kind of masculinity that was, and Humphrey Boger and that
kind of stuff. That's They've probably been more of an influence on me than any kind of modern sense of acting or modern sense of performance, because there's something timeless in that and something so completely universal inside of that.
It's you know, at a time where.
Cinema was this big and there was only probably being you know, a bunch of movies being made every year, but somehow those movies are still around. Everything gets made these days, and who knows if something's going to be watchable in the next twenty years.
It'll disappear.
So I try to put my finger on what it is that made those guys really special and those stories really special, And that is my influence. That's my kind of card that's up my sleeve. It's like I want to connect to that.
When did you shoot the series? Because how did COVID affect the production?
Oh?
We shot of October to February of last year and this year. So we had a break for Christmas, which was good because everybody needed it. But we got lucky in Melbourney. We had the chance to get it done in Melbourne, and we all were wearing masks to set
every day. And then when we couldn't because the girls had this beautiful makeup and stuff on, you can't wear a mask, they had a plastic shield in front of their face that they'd carry around on a stick that we called the Tilda Swinton because she had it at carn I think. So we got inspiration from that. Yeah, and then someone in the studio was like building them every day, Like one of the runners were.
Like, what are you doing? Are you building? Like? Are we playing lacrosse? Like what is this? Like? No, that's for your falls to my face.
Yeah, So We were very lucky and hats off to our crew and production a team that made it possible. So we were probably one of the lucky productions in the world to still be able to shoot. So it was a good time to be an actor.
Was there any heritage on the show for you and Geraldine? I mean, I guess you'd have to try and protect certain elements. I can imagine being such a long standing character that there must have been some elements that you could not touch or change or were you allowed to sort of explore.
Really good question. I think it's why I also, I wanted to do this series in the first place. I wanted to do something that I was revisiting. I wanted to be involved in Miss Fisher because of the idea of it being recurring and learning how to do that. Everything I've done was a movie or a limited series, so this is a whole other ballgame, And there was
a lot of it where in this series. If you liked James but couldn't really connect to him, this is your series to go, oh, this is where this guy's from, and this is who he is and what initially happened was my byline, like your character intro was like, you know, not to take away from the writers at all, a very busy job. But for the first series, it was like a paragraph and everybody else at this beautiful, you know,
half a page or a page. And so I went away and wrote like three to five pages of this guy's life and who he was and where he came from. And then we got the script for the second series, and a lot of that had been reflected inside of the guy, and.
I was so proud.
I was so proud of writers, the production and ourselves of creating something where it was growing. And so the heritage itself was blossoming, like we were deepening the veins of these characters and giving them full three hundred and sixty degree perspectives for an audience look at it was like a three D drawing. The first one was almost, you know, a bit of a beautiful like Sunday in the Park with George two D thing, and then this
was like walking around in Avatar, you know. So I think we were aware of the heritage, but we also were fearless in creating what will become hopefully the bedrock of more series and more of the story.
Why do you think people should watch the series? Because if people listening to this now and they haven't seen, you know, the first sort of telemovie versions of it, and then now coming into the second series, in your mind, if you can pitch to the people like, why do you think people should watch it?
People need escapism, And I used to think that was really a silly thing to do as a storyteller. And then when no, life is so damn precious and life is so damn fun and frivolous, and all too often we get stuck in that kind of bubble of just doing whatever we do. And this series is something that you can put on and you'll immediately fall.
In love with.
You'll fall in love with the characters and the way they clumsily move through their love life, the way they passionately go after the things they want, the way they figure things out. This is a really mature show, and I think it's a really fun thing to also have a bit of tongue in cheek.
So I hope that if you do.
Watch it and you find a little thing to click onto and you really fall in love with.
It, fall hard, because it'll.
Reward you in times to come. This show only gets better as the episodes go on and you know, we'd be doing cast reads and going, whoa, I thought the last block was good's really good, so you know, and that's coming from Catherine McClements and Greg Stone and people who have been making TV for and theater and film
for years. And our guest is that were coming on are some of the best guest is in Australia because everyone was home during COVID and wanted to act, and so we've got the best ensemble cast a. We looking at the TV going, oh, that's their chick from you know so and you'll get a blast out of it. So tune in, get some popcorn, get loose in your house. I don't mind, and wait for whatever episode I get my kid off, enjoy yourself.
Who is this girl? Men?
Fisher your fronty, Fisher's net.
I need a good detective right now.
I'm more than happy to give it a while.
There's just so much that I could talk to you about. I mean, I just watched the short film Stranger, but I've downloaded HS for Happiness, which I'm now going to watch with my partner as soon as we finish this interview. But the list is endless of the shows and you seem to bring something unique to every single role. It's actually quite crazy. If you're in the IMDb zeigeist of Joel Jackson, what role do you get asked the most about? Though?
You know, what is that? What's that role that people ask you the most questions about?
Well, firstly, thanks for saying that. I think that's like, that's exactly what I'm talking about. That is exactly the reason why I want to keep making stories is because I think we're all multifaceted people, and the more we share, the more other people are less fearful to share. And the more we connect and the more we expand, the more we expand, the better we are as a civil That's our point. But the thing that I get most asked about, I think is it's always Peter.
People are always.
Going did you sing or you know, did you play piano? Or was your hair really that, you know, really that thin? Did they was that shaved bald patches or did you have those board patches? Now I'm taking the mickey, but a lot of that stuff, like we I sung all of it, and though I can't play piano, I fought really hard to get that stuff done and to be able to sing live on the show and in the moments, and yeah, but that's that's probably the most asked about.
I think I said this to you when I saw you a couple of weeks ago. My partner and I watched it twice. We'd absolutely loved that Peter Allen mini series on Channel seven. It was so phenomenal. But I want to know, do you find yourself singing Peter Allen's tennor Phil Sadler, like you know, when you're in the shower and mowing the lawn, Like I can imagine that's just more of it these days.
I'm more like, I'm a massive fan of really heavy rock, so Royal Blood, Queens at the Stone Age, Metallica.
That's not Peter Allen. Go to Peter.
Peter Allen even songwriting, and I love all of my music. If you want to listen to my stuff, my stuff's on Spotify under Joel Jackson. I've got an EP and there's more singles coming out soon. I've written or produced one with Joe cortermain from Eskimo Joe, so that's coming out soon. So there's a brand new EP, a three song EP, and we'll release two singles first and a couple of videos. So I'm working really hard on those things at the moment, which is a ton of fun.
How amazing that you literally have been able to collaborate, whether it's through acting or whether it's through music. You look at the list of people that you've collaborated with, it's just it's crazy. Like Daniel Radcliffe, you know, you think, Wow, you're working with Harry Potter, which is just iconic. I mean, do you ever bring did you bring Harry Potter up with Daniel Radcliffe at any any point while you're on set with him?
Yeah, and only like only a couple of times.
Because I wasn't a massive I was a massive fan of the books, but I didn't necessarily watch the movies. I kind of grew up before I could be a massive fan of them. And I'll go back and watch them and be like, wow, Ray Fines doesn't have a nose. There's I remember walking through the jungle and I used to always be like Daniel, He's like, yeah, I was like, dude, I think I found it. He's like found what. I'm like, pull up a stick. I'd be like, my wand you're a fucking idiot.
Imagine being Daniel Radcliffe and getting that all the time. Every day.
He'd be like, that's why I think he's done. The more I think about all the crazy projects he's done, it's like he's done that to further himself, like to get away from Harry Potter, but also because he's got Harry Potter and he's got such clout, Like he's bringing all these stories what we talked about, he's bringing all these stories that would otherwise go unseen to the main stage. He's doing such a crazy job in what he did
with Swiss Army Man. It was so cool him and Paul Danno, Like he's a dead body that gets used as like a catapult and like a breathing apparatus and all this cool stuff. And it's about loneliness and dealing with men's men, mental health and all these other kind of aspects, and it would go undiscovered were it not
for this guy. But that was a massive lesson in humility because we would roll into towns in Colombia in the middle of nowhere at you know, four o'clock in the morning or whatever to shoot the next day, and there'd be kids wearing like the black rug off the floor their Granddad's glasses and holding it stick and like have like a pen mark of the lightning bolt on
their head all around the area. Like didn't know where we were going, just knew that Daniel was coming, and we'd be driving through and Daniel would get out and stop and go and say hi.
It was amazing.
Oh, man, meet your heroes, because sometimes they actually are heroes.
That man is so special, just a real humility, which I think is so important to ground yourself with, you know, no matter whether or not you are the actor that facilitates the role of Harry Potter or so important to maintain that sense of reality.
You know, Yeah, reality is a good one. My mum is very good at maintaining that sense of reality. My sisters all so we're very good at that.
They're very good.
When the kids were growing up, I've got I've got a niece and three nephews, and when they were all growing up from two sisters, two older sisters, beautiful girls. And when they were when the kids were growing up, it was a thing of like hey, uncle Charles here, like hey, kid's word's up and they're like, here's a baby with shit in their pants.
It was like, ah, you may have won a logi an actor, and you might have won all these awards, but do.
You know where they hit?
I had with the logan, the logo, the logan, the logi and the actor and the yeah whatever, we had them like. I didn't have anywhere put them because I'm always on the road, so there's no point in me putting it up in a house. I haven't been in a house permanently for like ten years, so I had nowhere to put them. I put him in a box and then my mum heard about that was like, no,
you can't do that. So I took them home to Caratha and gave them to Mum and I was like, okay, well you can put them somewhere then, like you can, you know, do whatever you want. She's like, oh, I will, thank you very much.
That's good.
I'm was like right, cool, whatever, and then left. There's lots more of conversation. We don't just talk like that in our family. But then I came back the next Christmas and Mum I was was sitting there watching the Telly, watching a footy game or something.
I'm like, where's the been there for a week.
And I haven't spotted them I'm like, where are they. I was like, where's what, like the you know, the shiny awards, like yeah, those things. She's like, oh, they're behind the things.
And I'm like what.
And I looked and the photos of my nieces and nephews were being propped up by my awards, like they were almost picture holders.
You couldn't see them.
For the for the photo of like my nephew with like a cat or something. It was it was so humbling.
It was so like wow, I would say that for awards on the way. So what happens is award holds up nephew photo and then there's another award which holds up school photos you know, you know, graduation photos with the nephews.
When you get your emmy on the back of the wings, you can like stab the photo onto the back of it, you know, like it becomes it becomes more of a holder.
No, but I think that's.
Really special, Like I'm more proud that that's home and I've got photos of like, you know, my niece and nephew holding it and they're like two and five, And that's really cool. That's so social because it's yeah, and because they've got so much pride in what I do, and that is really special.
I think.
I think too, if you can ever connect something outside of yourself, and yes, I've got the reasons why I want to do what I do, but if you go back and to its core, to be a part of your community is exactly what we all want to be a part of. And I think seeing that makes me be like, yeah, okay, cool, you know, I'll keep doing this. As I said before about escapism, it's kind of our deal,
it's kind of our thing. We wear makeup and costumes for a living, so it's kind of lovely to have other people celebrate those worlds and want to be a part of it.
My last question for you, my friend, is I always ask my guests before they go, what is an amazing story from behind the scenes that an audience member or people in your audience might have shaped that they might not know something that happened behind the scenes.
Okay, oh man, Okay.
So, because we're doing all of our script readings via zoom, right, we couldn't all be in the same room to do blocks and blocks of like two episodes at a time, So we'd read the next block and in advance of us filming it what we're getting all these wonderful people and to.
Help us read.
And because of that, you're also working with people of very different age gaps and generations. So some people know how to work zoom, some people don't. And someone left their zoom on and they went to the next room and just proceeded to go to the bathroom, and we're all sitting there with our ears on, going.
Who's going to tell this guy?
And I'm like, I'm not going to tell him, Like, well you have to them, Like I'm not going to tell him. You tell him, so I can't tell him. And now it got to the point where no one could tell him. And he came back and.
You see him going through a toilet.
Ok, you couldn't see him, no, no, no, it was like down the hall and whatever. But like you could even hear him talking to himself afterwards and kind of been like good job, mate, and then walking back and all of us are like, we have another hour with you, like and then someone said it within about five minutes of everyone coming back and said, oh, I think you had that microphone turned on, mate, just make sure it's turned off next time. He goes, oh, no, no, no, that's okay.
I knew and so he knew that he was doing it.
Oh he's that guy.
He was intentionally like, good job, mate, check it out, and then came back and was like, you're all a part of this. This is a collaboration. This was a team effort. So I mean, that was the one that stuck with us.
We just walk arounds.
Soon as you did a great scene or you messed something up on set, it was good job, mate.
Thanks well, thank you so much for being able to join me and telling that story. It is definitely one of the best ones so far. I just feel like I've been so lucky to chat with you, and I'm sure you will be snapped up by the Marvel or DC universe. I can tell you that much. With that body coming out of that water, that's not an audition to be a Marvel superhero. I don't know what this is. So I expect to see you as Aquaman's brother or you know, aquaman runt brother.
I'll be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I.
Think he's gonna have a run for his money. I think he definitely is gonna have a run for his money if you end up.
In that No, look enjoy the show, and thank you for the chat, and thank you to for the very kind words. And if you are interested, check out the show, join Acorn. I think they have like a preview schedule where you can kind of test it out. Yeah, so get involved and check it because there's a lot of great stuff there, not just us. So June seventh, I love this show and I hope that you do too.
So man, thanks for the chat, and if.
You get a chance to tune in, because we'd love you to see it.
Well, there's so much more to come for you, my friend, and I will always be in your audience for that.
Thanks dude, thanks for having me.