WAS DREW THE BIG BROTHER VILLAIN?

It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last week, Neyline.

Welcome back 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. TV Reload reloads the shows that you were currently watching and gives you a better insight at our television industry and streaming

I've always said that I would never go back.

We've been through a lot together, haven't we.

Tully served no purpose to my game.

This year, it's my twenty first birthday.

I got slammed for that conversation that I have with Joel, and I've.

Invited housemaids both new and legendary.

A few of the crusty OG's and like, no, this wasn't how it was back in mind?

Will experience be enough to take on the next generation of housemaids?

Drew from Big Brother exists from whenever I entered the house to whenever I exited.

This is Big Brother.

Hi, Drew, how are you?

You know?

I haven't heard boo from you since the show started, actually since the show was recorded. You know, you don't have to call me every day. But yeah, it's more reclusive even for you.

I mean when I got out of the house, I jumped straight back into work and we've got a lot a lot going on. And I mean even after after the last season, when there was lots of social media attention and you know, I tried my hand at making the money and all that sort of thing. It was just it's just not my sort of thing. I don't particularly like social media. I like marketing myself on it. Yeah, I'm not. I didn't try and gain anything from going

I'd worried because you know, knowing you as well as I do, I worried that you were nervous about Australia watching your return to Big Brother for some reason. Am I onto something there?

Look it it's kind of annoying, Like I've really enjoyed the last couple of weeks of watching myself since I came back from the main frame. I guess the first the first four weeks or so pretty much just shows Sam and I or you know, Sam having dramas with Tim or just anything kind of couple related, which is not just not well, that wasn't my whole experience in there.

Well, I was really surprised.

I mean when I heard the people going back, I mean, you were easily one of my favorite Big Brother players of all time. I mean, that's my personal experience with watching you on the twenty thirteen series. But any conversation I never had about Big Brother, you'd really shut it down and said that you'd never go back if they did it.

You know what made you change your mind?

Yeah? I did. I've always said that I would never go back. I guess there's a few things. There's a few factors. It was COVID when this film, so it was a chance of a holiday. Lisa FARTI was the one that called me. She's very persuasive. I loved working with her different format as well, so I knew it wasn't going to be the same as last time. And I guess it is still quite an honor to be

If for some reason Australia has really invested in you and invested in Tully's so to speak, so you know, if we want to return to people's storylines or characters and find it what they're up to, I mean, you and Tully are at the top of the tree as as far as I'm concerned.

Why people still come up to me and might not remember where I'm from straight away, but then when their mine clicks, the first thing they ask me generally is like, oh, you used to be Tully, or you're still with that girl, or like it is like we're a package deal. It seems.

I love it. People don't remember me from Big Brother.

They just think I work at their price line or you know, they can't we get out.

Of all to day they got such a commercially appealing base.

Of course, I'm still a celebrity in my own mind, as my partner likes to say to me. But when they come up to here and they say, did I see you at my doctor's waiting room or you know, it's very funny. I guess as well. I barely recognized the Anthony Drew that I know. I know, fans couldn't stop talking about how much you'd changed since the twenty thirteen series.

You were all the villain of the series.

Yeah, look, it's there's a lot to compress into three episodes a night each week. I saw three episodes a week, and yeah I did. I did make some really big, like self preserving moves, Like I went against the Ogs for a number of reasons. One if I if I didn't align myself with the newbies, I was, I was going home, like, look at how many times I'm up for aviction. That wouldn't have gone so long because I wouldn't have had the support that I get from the newbies,

Well naughty you were.

I mean the first episode that you entered the house, you were like right away having this thing with Alisha, and I just was like, who is that man?

Yeah, she's looking at me, she's at the table. I've just gotten in, all right, so I've just done however long in you know, like the lockdown before you know, was they warm me up for the show that you'd remember just done that and then got in. I've lived three days in that bloody sewer where the lights never turned off, the sound of dripping never stopped, it was freezing.

What the heck? Man?

I felt you were a bit upset, like no.

Shock, it's so out of the cannon. I've never seen that side of you. I remember Tully and you had a fight once. I think you're at my house and I think Tully said to me, you don't know him, he's got a short temper. And I looked at you at the time, I mean you were wearing an old pair of my leather pants at the time that i'd costume draw.

I don't know if you remember this, but and I just looked at you. I just thought, you know, you just to me.

Are so placid and so thoughtful. I don't know, like I didn't believe her. But then now I'm seeing this other side. I'm like, who is the real Drew or the real Anthony Drew? Now I'm starting to call you.

Maybe I'm bittering my old age.

Ben. We all are, we all are.

Did you know that Tully was going to be in there, because I imagine you getting asked to be on a show like this, and you're a smart guy.

Did you text her? Did you call her? Or did you just think if it happens, it happens.

No. Look, I was I was instructed not to tell anyone that I'd got the call, and I honor that. But you know Tully and I, as you said, I harves some intelligence. If I knew that if I'd been asked, Tully definitely would have been asked, and I knew she would always want to do this again. So yeah, I didn't. I didn't know. There was no there was no confirmation, but I was surprised not to see her when I entered the house.

I mean, I love her as a person.

I think she's great, and I you know, I go on a rollercoaster with her with her emotions and how she is in the real world, and I feel like you are a bit the same.

But you know, Tully seemed to be more loyal to you than.

You reciprocated, and now she is calling you old mate in the media, and is so pissed off with you, you know, for taking part in sending her home. Is she and her right to be pissed off with you to this extent.

Yeah. Look, I've spoken to Tully even just recently. She's not happy that I was there in the first place. She said, she give me. She gave me a bit of a spray in her podcast, which is fine. She's got a little platform to go off, but she wasn't happy that I was there. She wanted her short demption to be seen in another light than would. She said the one mistake she made nine years ago, and I

You know, we all do this, and we're all capable of it.

We kind of rewrite things in our own mind the further we get away from an experience, and so we then think we can control what had happened, or we can tell people that it could have been different, or

Way you look at it.

And I like the way I conducted myself was in the constructs and the confines of game, like I don't do'n't know how I behave in real life, And if people want to believe that or not, I don't care because they're not the people in my life I've got. I've got mates, Like yeah, it's not you, and like, yeah, it's not me. Like I'm trying to win a game like personality alone is not going to get you through.

I agree with you so wholeheartedly, because you know, I got slaughtered for years by being called a bully on that show, and I.

Was like, yes, I was ruthless.

I worked out who the strongest players were and I disarmed them as fast as I could so that I could win two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which I did. And then Ye're telling me that I'm an asshole because I did everything to undermine people that were going to win.

It's a competition.

No, No, that's right, Like like I got slammed for that. The conversation about that, I have the Joel about take care of my dirty business. To my dirty work, I'll take care of yours.

I am completely shocked by drew behavior because I really thought that he and Sam were going very strong, and now makes me question him as a person. I think anyone who wants to do the dirty on a girl like that, it shows a lot about their character, and to me, it shows a huge part of how he's playing his game now, Like.

That conversation was one conversation in hundreds, like about gameplay and undermining and I get it, like he was romantically involved with it. It shouldn't like you shouldn't be shouldn't be doing that's that's too low, but like what's what's the lowest? Like there's there's no rules in there. And also Sam met me within the confines of the game, and from what I've heard, like in other podcasts, she'd seen me in the hotel before she got in there,

Yeah.

I think the difficult thing though, is now that Sam's story is I mean, there's continuous reports that your relationship with Sam was set up.

You know that there is more to that story.

You know, we've heard Josh's version, We've heard Sam's version, we've heard housemates versions, and then we're also squashed by what the network and what the production company obviously went out for the viewers to know. I guess at this stage the best thing to do is to live up to the contracts that have been put in place, and

In the house. She said that when I was working at the Saint she asked for a number. I was in a relationship at that point, and I like shut her down. We laughed about it.

And do you think she saw you in the hotel room.

I don't know. Like I was, I was the only smoker in the house, so I would annoy the chaperones many times a day. But I'm so bored over ceare Otte, and there's lots of moving moving parts. I don't know. It would be pretty difficult. But I mean, I never met Josh, so I don't know I know where he's going with that.

We'll get back into Sam in a second, but just to finish off on Tully, you know, I've heard from so many people about the fighting that we didn't see that there was The housemates inside the house were frustrated by this clash that you two had. You know what was the main issue. I mean, she's kind of alluded to the fact that you picked on her the whole way through the show. You know, what's your truth to the situation?

I mean Tully being a massive EmPATH and kind of she's like a feelings police I suppose, which we need but we don't always need. And she is just very sensitive. But I guess I'm like, maybe she's oversensitive. I'm undersensitive. She would just pull me up on me being myself and kind of try and try and get others like you. She would explain it just constantly trying to make me look bad or heartless or my gameplay was wrong and

Well, can I offer you something I've been in a relationship with Ben as you know for twelve years now. For people listening to this podcast, I don't know. I'm not talking about myself in third person. My partner is also named Ben, and I have the highest expectation of him, and we've worked out that he has.

A high expectation of me.

So we are so critical and we have to be careful with that because it's so easy to have this huge expectation on someone you love and have an idea of how they need to behave and we at times in our relationship have slipped into being too critical of the other person. And that's where the clash comes from. And knowing Tully as well as I do her love and admiration and friendship that she has with you, she puts the amount of pressure on you that she puts

I mean, I wish I'd had those words to say before you, But I mean that is a really good perspective, potentially a part truth. But yeah, I mean things did settle down after the first couple of weeks, Like we had a big, a big chat and like an apology and it was fine from them.

But then you went and I think the way that she sees it now is that you then I think she probably did feel like the relationship had mended, but then you evicted her.

I mean, yeah I did, because she she was I mean, what do you do in a game of elimination and you can't know for sure where your allies are and aren't, but then someone exposes them saying well, I'm coming for you. And at that point in the game, she was a pretty easy target. She was grating on a lot of the newbies, like that's just easy pickings, and you always want to be right. Do you watch one of the biggest master minds of the game being Tim You watch

Put that in a card and I think, send that to this to Australia. I think you probably will think twice about returning for Big Brother in twenty thirty two or twenty thirty three.

Imagine I was rubbish at the challenges. Now imagine how.

Forty maybe your social game would be different, you know the next time. I don't know, Mate.

The relationship between you and Sam to me seemed to be very one sided. I have some background knowledge of seeing you in I've met you with different people, and I did not see the spark that I've seen in your eyes with Sam. I really didn't. When did you honestly start looking for the door? Because I think you genuinely liked her at the start, but then as it went on to me, it seemed like it was a bit one sided.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Yeah, look at the start, like Sam, Sam is a very calming person, and I think just getting into the house straight away, there was your eyes on. I think people thought I was going to be a challenge base and they were mistaken. But yeah, there were people gunning for me, and it was it was very frustrating to come into a very different format, like I just wasn't ready always on the kind of the defensive, so she was. She was really good, calming sort of person. And then

Conversion of friendship from Big Brother to reality is also very interesting for people to understand because you know that environment does change the way in which you interact with people in a normal life. And some people I loved in my Big Brother experience that I don't really see anymore. And it's not because I dis like them. I still love them and would have them over for dinner. But you know, the conversion should.

Say you should see the group chat now, oh my god, people that have left the chat. There's it all like side chats going on. There's people that you like see in the house like friends, and they are not friends.

Now I've been reading between the lines, and I also have to inform you because unfortunately or fortunately for you, I know that you aren't sitting there googling yourself or reading all the comments online.

Have you ever been on behind Big Brother?

So no, Well Tarrass has joined that now and it's almost like there's a competition going on with Taras and Tally and Estelle on there. It's like that, it's like a Hunger Games on popularity contest.

Are they competing against each other?

Yeah, they want everyone on the website to side with them.

See that is such a time consuming and like mindless activity that I do not have time for. Drew from Big Brother exists from whenever I entered the house to whenever I exited, my personal gain, my personal life, everything, all those sort of details. That sort of bullshit is not included with Drew from Big Brother. Like I am, I have no interest in any of that. And it's so it's so toxic, it's poisonous and you can spiral out of control. I've read some horrible comments about me.

That's the appeal though.

But just like I've caught myself, especially early on this season, I could say die down a lot, I think because people get over picking on the mean ones or the villains or whatever you want to be called, because it's entertaining. Like if there was no pot stirring in there, fuck me, it'd be a boring show, Like there'd be nothing going on.

No.

I've spiraled one or two nights reading those comments, and they are so damaging and like it exists back in the day when those newspapers, someone would write a trash piece about someone, you'd discuss it with your friends. Now you can discuss it with the whole world, and you get to see those conversations that would never meant for your ears. So I don't care if I get trashed. It's great not to read about it, though. I think that's very scary.

Well, I had a tipping point, and you were around at the time. For my tipping point was that I used to read the comments. I used to take them really seriously. And then one night I drank some cooking wine because there was no warre wine left at home, and I was very out of control drunk. I think you're starting to remember where this goes. And I harassed him at the logis on the red carpet and with

The horrible things that I said.

And the funny thing is I was talking to him the other day and I finally get to apologize and he's a good bloke. But I never met him before and just got drunk and harassed him at the logies.

Oh good story. Though it's not like you just like parked up at the part and just gave him an evel. You had just got trashed on cooking wine.

I was Ben woke up and you know my partner Ben, and Ben woke up and I had the phone across the dining room table from me, and I was so I was like a good two meters away from it, and I looked so stressed with the cooking wine, red lips from the red wine, and he just looked at me and said, what have you done, because like the face was And he then was frantically deleting the tweets because he was reading it. He goes, you wrote what, he goes, This one doesn't even make any sense.

Delete, delete, delete. But by that stage they'd.

Screen grabbed it and put it in the press and I was like, yeah, and it's still there.

People can google it. So this ends up in the podcast.

If it's left in the edit, feel free to google some horrendous behavior from myself. But yes, I think it's important not to read the comments. I think it's important not to live and die by what other people say about you. I think it's important to stay connected to the truth of who we are. And that might sound a bit oprah, a bit wanky, but it's a survival tactic that you need if you're going to be on television.

Yeah it is, and it's like you've got to really even My tactic, essentially, as you've seen, is staying off social media because that's not where my life, that's not where my life exists, and it's not that I'm too busy or anything, say I don't like I panic, like I don't know what photo to take and what caption to put, Like it's all a bit like I've even I've copped it in relationships before, like you don't post us on social media enough, And it's just not not

Can I just say, like, to be anchoring to yourself and to you and your relationship.

You know you would want to celebrate that. I mean, it is a bit of a hurdle that you've had to jump.

You know, no one in normal life gets to go back and watch Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind basically on a previous relationship.

It's it's not normal, like you know, a normal yeah, normal regulated person understands and accepts that someone most likely has xcellence. But yeah, you don't. You don't get to watch it, and you shouldn't. You shouldn't ever have to or need to. Like, there's there's no there's no positives, trust me, there's no positives that comes from that.

You know how that at the moment we're fascinated with this multiple realities, like there's all these the spider Verse or whatever. What reality TV does to everyone is this is the truth. You pop your champagne with the truth behind it that you were celebrating a hurdle that you wanted to jump and now you're over it. And that's fair enough. But the multiverse has told us that you're a savage who has huge animosity with Sam and that you hate each other, and then you're an asshole.

You know, it's a more exciting headline. It's a more exciting story, and I get that, Like I've clicked on those stories and I've gone what an asshole? Like them? Like mass I'm following mass hard, like I love all the drama post show that like that is it's the best, like just trash food for your brain. But yeah, it's not true.

It's not the reality.

I mean, it's so funny when you say this, though, But it's so funny that what you said before makes sense to me that previously you don't put up posts about celebrating your relationship, you know, with the lovey dovey stuff, But then we got to see a post of you.

Celebrating the death of a relationship. You know, it probably didn't. It probably just didn't land the best.

Oh and get it doesn't let it was, but you know it wasn't supposed to land publicly. That was just supposed to be to becas close friends and obviously you don't know who, but someone's not so close. And look, that's that's just that's life. I guess, like we got over it. We laugh about it now. I got her some flowers to celebrate our first trash article, hopefully the last. We made a joke out of it, like it's not going to stop us.

But talking about those maps, people, how do you feel about your next career on OnlyFans? Are you going to follow them down that path?

Jeez? You know what I thought about it, Like late one night at work after we knocked off, we were we thought about just starting one up, having no content and there's just driving hype and take in like I don't know, even if you've got thirty subscribers, tim bucks each, you've got you know your back. No, Look, I've decided to stay on the straight and narrow.

Well, your parents are still a live thankfully, so they don't need to know about that.

I'll be pare.

Yeah, I said I'd always I'd never want to embarrass them, and I've come really close, so I don't want to push the envelope.

Moving away from that.

You know, we saw less genuine friendship with Tim this time around compared to twenty thirteen. How would you say your relationship has changed with Tim Dormer over the last nine years.

Look, Tim and I have on and off messaged, like you stayed at my house, you know, years ago when

You know, in some ways you and Tim could have been a power couple, and at some point of the game, I guess that was probably more accurate than you and Sam voting the same way.

You know what I mean. Yeah, well, we did stretch out quite a lot.

I'll tell you.

What's really funny, though, is the way that you interacted with a Stell. Actually, and when I just want to clarify this because I'm gonna get in so much trouble. But I don't mean funny as in like in making fun of someone and laughing at their expense. I mean, funny is in strange. But the way you interacted with a Stell was really triggering for me, as I felt like I was watching my season all over again because you seem to represent the frustration with her that the

I talked to her, I saw it at the logis we had a laugh. But what bothered you so much about her in the house.

Look, Stell and I knew each other. I met I met Stelle after my season in twenty thirteen. Yeah, we'd hung out a few times, but in the house just this, as soon as I voted, not even against the OG's, just not in use with them for the head of house, I was, I was labeled like this betrayal and I constantly got pulled up for being inconsiderate or we have

Well you've met Michael Beveridge and Josh More, and like Michael, Josh Stacey and Layla, we all just got along, like really we clicked, and we all just were quite similar in our humor and what made us laugh, and you know, what we thought was embarrassing or what we thought was weird.

You know, we're all very similar.

So it's really hard for us that if she was pretending to ride an imaginary horse, or talking as in a with an American accent for half the day, or doing really strange things that that we didn't.

All look, I couldn't have handled it.

We were like And also I've said this to Estelle, and I feel really bad about it.

I was thirty two, but I was and you.

Know me, I'm immature, Like I'm an immature person at the best of times, but I just was.

I got the line's share of the edit. Everyone was as bad as I was.

I can honestly say about the treatment of her and about the way we reacted with her, we were all horrible.

But I've apologized to her.

Because she was only twenty three, and because she was the odd one out, we probably shouldn't have been so non inclusive or.

I don't know.

I feel bad ownership over it is that, Yes, she was treated not like everybody else, but everyone was kind of allergic to her and it was really hard to connect with her every day.

I think we're both very true agree because there's there's multiple times that we tried to co parley and it's it's it's it was only on little things like you watch us in the in the last challenge that I do, except the second last challenge where where we've got the balls on the little planks with the pulleys, were we were fine and you watch like she she sides with me like it's just real life things that we kind of that we would never talk about usually never have

I think the dynamics of putting people together in any situation, conflict and I don't know, struggle happens.

And that's why they make this show. That's what Big Brother is exactly.

If everyone got along, my god, I wouldn't have even watch myself if yeah, if i'd if I'd seen myself accepting that I don't.

Usually accept and just watch myself just be a watered down, numb version. I'd be so disappointed in how I'd played because I watch, I watch real moments of people, you know, even Terrass. Now he's starting to get a little bit more screen time in the dining room, like watch him, like he watched his plan start to unfold. And that's that's what's exciting to me into a lot of people, like it's the excitement like every good movie, every good TV series, every good book has a villain and has

I mean?

Also, I think that she gets cast in shows like this because she's an antagonist. You know, she's placed there on purpose to challenge people, because that's who she is in her real life.

And you watch me like, I buy it quick nearly every time. It doesn't matter who it is that is, that is me. I'm easily. I'm a very placid person. But yeah, if you know how to push like, you'll get me in a heartbeat.

Before we go, I've got to ask you these top ten fireball questions. But I guess that before I do that, I just I didn't plan to ask you this. But which season did you end up enjoying more? Did you enjoy your twenty thirteen series or the twenty twenty.

Two I'd have to say twenty thirteen.

Was it because your hair was better back then?

Fuck?

It was, wasn't it?

You know when we started this and we were talking about my hair because I've grown my hair, and I said to you that you're my hair inspiration. I'm actually not joking, but twenty thirteen Drew hair is my inspiration.

So this is awkward.

I'm so bad. Starts with a big bowl cut for me.

Yeah, but it grew into success. It was so good.

But yeah, I grew into it. I grow into it.

And do you know I'm really good friends with David Graham Farmer Dave to everyone that's listening, Oh yeah, And I and he's got the really long hair as well, and I just want to cut it to the length that was when his.

Hair is blushious. He's like closest thing I've got to Brad Pitt a gorgeous human.

Yeah he is. He looks to me.

He is a cross between and he's going to hate me for this across between brad Pant and the Lion from the Wizard of Oz.

Yeah, he needs to keep the beard though. When he loses the bed, he kind of like he loses five percent of his authority. There's a lot held in that bed.

A gorgeous, gorgeous man.

Now, to celebrate twenty one years of Big Brother, I have these Gretel Colleen questions from back in the day. You would have been twelve, I think when Big Brother was on TV. But here we go, Ready for the rapid fire questions. Ready, what did you miss the most while you're inside the Big Brother House?

My bed?

Who was your favorite person inside the house?

Between Gabby and Johnson?

We'll pick one. There's only you can only pick one.

Gabby's gonna hate me.

Johnson, well, you're gonna hate this. Who was your least favorite person?

My least favorite in the house.

Yeah, not in real not in real world, not.

In real life. This is not real life. Least favorite person in the house.

Was Lara, who had the most annoying habit.

Tully was still had the most annoying habit, and that was trying to guess and trying to ruin the surprise of what was coming up. What when Brie brother was going to announce something.

Who was the funniest person in the house, Johnson, who was the laziest person in the house. What was your greatest regret?

Not not building personal relationships earlier? Because yeah, I should have should have understood the structure of the game. Yeah, not making friends quicker.

Who do you think will be out next? Not what you know, but like, who did you think would be eliminated next?

I think Gabby because she was kind of on board with me, So I was kind of kind of like tying yourself to the Titanic.

Which, as we know, not for Reggie in the reference that she remembered Titanic because that was hilarious. I've forgotten that till I saw that Titanic sunk. Reggie.

Anyway, who do you think is going to win Big Brother twenty twenty two Reggie Okay. Something that asked every single person who joins the podcast, what is something from behind the scenes, something of a secret of you know, the making of Big Brother, something that we as an audience didn't see that we would love to know. What's an interesting behind the scenes secret that we might appreciate.

They chop up conversations. They might take a single word from a sentence and do that multiple times to make an entirely fabricated sentence. I've seen it with my face. I'll be talking to someone with my back to camera and you can hear it as if it's typed in my lower case and upper case. I want to evict.

If you can't see it their faces while they're talking, they're not saying it the way you think they are. Which I said this to Tully, and I'll say this to you if in my mind, and I'm sure you would understand this. I've been dreaming of an all stars of people going back into that show for a very long time, and at the top of my list was the excitement of seeing you back in the show and seeing you do it all again. And whilst I was disappointed not to be asked to come and do the show.

Than the person. I think we would have had fun. I wish you were in it, to be honest,