Interview with Andrew Denton

Is there a more loved TV actor than Rebecca Gibney? One of our most enduring screen presences, she’s a surprise packet of a human being, a woman secure enough to be open about her anxieties and her challenging background. In this revealing episode of Interview, she tells Andrew, all about meeting Michael Jackson, why she’s a demon driver, what it was like to be Hugh Jackman’s first onscreen kiss, how she uses her love of dancing to embarrass her teenage son and why she and her husband Richard go together like “arse and undies”.

 

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This interview caused an international stir for an early, offhand comment about Kevin Spacey, but the real fascination comes when Guy Pearce explains the breakdown of his 18 year marriage, his subsequent mental darkness and what happened next - unexpected fatherhood and a reconciliation with the memory of his father, killed in a place crash when Guy was eight years old.

 

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What could possibly be left to say about Jimmy Barnes that he hasn’t already said himself? For three years now, Jimmy’s has been in full confession mode, through two bestselling memoirs (Working Class Boy and Working Class Man), a feature length documentary and two song-and-story tours. Yet, if you ask the man, he’ll tell you he left out as many stories as he put in along the way. In this podcast, we’re going to hear some of them and find out whether what doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

 

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After struggling with a malformed and painful leg through her childhood and early 20s, Priscilla Sutton chose to have her dysfunctional limb cut off. In a frank and surprisingly funny interview, the ebullient Priscilla talks Andrew through the process of convincing medicos to let her do it, what to do with a leg once it has been detached by surgeons (cremate it, obviously!), and how to embrace your disability as an art project.

 

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TV and newspapers tend to overuse the phrase “every parent’s nightmare”. This is a story that, sadly, really earns that label. Ralph and Kathy Kelly lost their teenage sons, Thomas and Stuart, in devastating circumstances. In 2012, Thomas was killed in a random one-punch attack in Kings Cross. Three and a half years later, Stuart took his own life. Both boys were 18. The Kellys were twice hit by lightning. This was not grief. It was grief squared. And though it’s hard enough to keep their fragile family together under such stresses, they’re working to create something positive from their pain.

 

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Some people’s lives have to be heard to be believed. And even then, they sound like they’re made up. Were you, like Denise Scott, part of a hippie nudist commune? Were you a teacher who smoked in class? Did you make your living as a clown? Did your nurse mother drug you to get you to sleep? Hands down the funniest interview in season one.

 

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Andrew sits down with two absolute comedy legends, Steve Martin and Martin Short. The long-time best friends, who met decades ago on The Three Amigos, now make a joyous living insulting each other on stage in their show, Now You See Them, Soon You Won’t, which also features songs, skits, childhood reminiscences and some virtuosic banjo playing. The pair discuss comedy, music and life, raking through their movie experiences and their friendship (two words: “colonoscopy parties”). They also play a Logie-worthy game show Andrew invents called Which Martin Is That?

 

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Rebecca Sharrock may well be the most amazing human we’ll ever have on the show. This Brisbane woman has HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory) a condition which means she can recall pretty much every day of her life. She’s joined by her mother Janet Barnes, matriarch of what might be Australia’s most challenging family.

 

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At 63, an age when many would be contemplating retirement, Jacki broke into Hollywood on the back of her extraordinary performance in Animal Kingdom. In the nine years since, she’s made 26 films and appeared in a bunch of TV shows as well. This interview covers her incredible third act and brings us up to date with a 71 year old squeezing every drop out of life.

 

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Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped and held hostage by Somali criminals for 15 harrowing months. This powerful interview charts her journey through Hell and back. It’s a story of resilience and rebuilding that will make you proud to be human.

 

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