Latest / The You Project / #1800 The High-Level Problem Solver - Leila Sweeney-McDougall (Part 2)

Transcript

#1800 The High-Level Problem Solver - Leila Sweeney-McDougall (Part 2) · The You Project

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good a team. Welcome back to part two of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Conversation with the Lovely Leila and I. If you haven't
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: listened to part one, you might want to go back
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and do that, or you could just jump in. Of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: course they're different, they're different subjects, but probably this to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: part one and then this hope you enjoy it? Ready,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: set go, all right, let's let's open another door. Tell
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: us about farmer once a while? Do you get sick of?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Do you get sick of? Like when I read all
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the shit that you've done, I'm like, how do I
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: make this not the same?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: How?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Like? Oh, so you know, tell us about your experience
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: on like whatever you want to tell us or not
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: tell us. I guess we can't talk to you. We
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: can't have a chat with at least mentioning that because
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: my audience is going to want to know a little bit.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Did you love it? Did you hate it? Was it
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: a fucking nightmare? How do you reflect upon it now?
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: It was? It was a really freaking weird experience. Like
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: and I was a baby when I was on it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: I was twenty one, like I've had you know, my
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: emotional intelligence was shitz.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: How old are you now?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: I'm thirty six.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Okay, wow, that was a while ago.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, it was a while ago. And I went
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: on it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: My dad said he disowned me if I went on it,
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: which is hilarious. And I really thought, oh shit, I
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: shouldn't do it. But my nan was the one that
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: actually convinced me to do it, and she's been, you know,
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: a huge role model in my life. But she said,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: what's the best lesson you're ever going to get in life?
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Experience?
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: So why not go and do it and experience and
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: you'll you'll learn from it. So I was like, oh, okay, Radio,
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: I'll go do it.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: And it was Yeah.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: I think it was probably one of the most emotional
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: traumatizing experiences of my life.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Really, ah good. I'm glad I opened the door.
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: How so well because I was just so impressionable, like
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: and I just remember the first time because I didn't
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: my best.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Friend nominated me for it, put me in for it.
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: So my same best friend that I grew up through
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: school and she's on the Australian story with me, like
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: we've been best friend since.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I one that facilitated your cheating. Let's be honest.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: No, it wasn't cheating. She just put my name down.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: No, No, I mean the one at school who used
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to the answer.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Sorry, oh that kind of cheating.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Ah h yeah, that kind of cheating. Yeah, she Yeah.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: So I thought I'll go on it.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: And I remember seeing the person who i'd been matched with,
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: the farmer, walking down the stairs. That's the first time
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I'd ever seen him, and like, I just thought to
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: myself instantly, my inter like your intuition just said to me,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: you don't like him, like he's.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Not for you.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: But somehow the whole experience, they convinced me that I
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: did because they'd already pre constructed a story for the show,
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: because we were going to be like a kind of
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: happily ever after couple.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Hang on, how on? How on? So are you telling
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: me that they choreographed that and that's got to be
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the outcome?
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Basically yeah, yeah.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: And you know, I don't know if that's how they
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: still do it now or whatever, but it's Saint God,
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: it wasn't before, like it was all before social media
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: for me, because like we would have been eaten alive
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: really because he picks me at the end. But we
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: were never we were never a couple, Like I went
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: and hung out with him for a week or so
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: between to see, you know what, you know, if we
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: were compatible, and we.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Just clearly weren't. We were never going to be anything.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Like he was a really party, party kind of guy,
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: and and I just, yeah, am not like I don't
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: get me wrong, I love a good time, but I wasn't.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: I couldn't keep up with his level.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Of partying, right, and.
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and then I was just you know, he was
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: he's not a farmer now, Like he grew up on
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: a farm and we were. It was on his parents' farm, right,
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: I mean his sisters and her partner actually are the
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: you know, ones that run the farm. So a lot
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: of these farmers that are on Farmer Wants a Wife,
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: they're not actually farmers. They've they're probably using someone else's
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: farm or Yeah, it's kind of a bit you so interesting.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, calling back to Curtains, so many disappointed people.
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: No, like on a few episodes ago or seasons ago,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: he was a builder and he wasn't he They just
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: put him on a farm and made him look like
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: a farmer. So like, I think they need to kind
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: of change the title to country Boy Wants a wife,
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  Speaker 4: not farmer, just like getting country boys that aren't you know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: they can and some.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: Of them have even like that have ended up together.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: They've actually stopped working in agriculture and they've moved to
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: the city to be with the person that they've ended
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: up with. So yeah, and they took all of our
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: phones off as while we were filming, so I couldn't
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: really contact anyone to sort of run what was going
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: through my head with someone else, to sort.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Of clarify what I was feeling was relevant or a
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: different thing. So yeah, it was a very very interesting experience.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: But then had I not gone on it, I wouldn't
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: have then gone home the day after we wrapped and
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: had our you know, rap party and everything and met
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: my now husband.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: So from all things, something good comes.
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: And I made some really good friends out of it,
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Like I ended up living with one of the other
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: like a contestant on the film after in Geelong and
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: different things. So yeah, some great things have come out
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: of it.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: It seems like it's sure and your husband, isn't it. Yeah,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: you and him are really different, really different, and I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: think that's maybe that's part, not all, but part of
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the magic.
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Yeah, like he's he's quite happy being here
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: on the farm, and you know, he's sixth generation here
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: and he doesn't mind me going and living and.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Traveling the world and doing things.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: And he's just you know, he's played at the same
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: footy club his whole life. And yeah, so we're very different.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: He doesn't say a lot, and I say too much.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I was surprised to hear. Now, we can cut any
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of this out, but let's just keep rolling. But I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: was surprised to hear. Was I surprised, not majorly, but
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a little bit surprised here because you're so happy, go lucky,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: so you know, cheerful. You're probably not a complete extrovert,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: but you seem like you are. That you suffered from
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: anxiety and depression or you do periodically, and you were
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you were or still are medicated.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And tell us as much or as little as you
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: want to about that, Leila, because I think that's kind
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: of broadly relevant, broadly relevant.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I guess I'm probably an introvert disguised as
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: an extrovert, Like you really know me. I actually I
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: probably like I shouldn't say it, but like I hate people,
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: I like my own company. I like my horses. That's
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: my meditation time. But I don't find it hard to
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: match other people's energy, you know. And I don't drink,
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: so I don't. I haven't drank for probably seven years now.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Wow, I reckon, you're I reckon. You're an ambivert. Have
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: you ever heard of that? No?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: What's that?
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: An ambivert is someone who can I reckon. That's me
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: as well. It's like I can do both. I can
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: do what we're doing. I can talk to you, I
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: can or I can stay for three days in my
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: house by myself and just write shit and study and
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: go out and get a coffee, come home. I don't
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: need to talk to anyone. It's like you can do both.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: But you're probably leaning. You know. The funny thing about
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: introversion extraversion, it's really a scale and it's not like
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: most people are clearly an introvert or clearly an extrovert.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: But I think you, yeah, you're probably closer. Especially I
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was listening to the when you won that award. You
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: were terrified to go up and accept like apparently you
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: were terrified of public speaking. Well that's that's introversion.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, And I sort of a way that I
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: pushed myself to get over that that terrified of being
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: a being in public and people looking at me. And
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: if he's like I was just sort of kid that
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: would walk into a shop and if I couldn't find something,
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: I'd rather walk out.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Thank some arks for where it was.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Wow.
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  Speaker 4: So when I moved to Sydney for UNI, I knew
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: how to get to UNI the shop, like the grocery store,
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: work and home, and that was it. I didn't go
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: off that path for like six months because it was
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: that was my comfort zone. And then I thought, I'm
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: not going to get anywhere doing this. How do I
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: really throw it? And I'm one of those crazy people
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: now because I just got such a thrill out of it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Throwing myself in the deep end.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: And I wouldn't suggest this be for everyone because it's
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: kind of like a bit frowned upon now. But I
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: got into modeling and particularly sports and bikini modeling.
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  Speaker 1: Wow wow.
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  Speaker 4: And if I could get up on stage in front
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: of people and beauty pageants, if I could get up
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: on stage in front of people and walk around and
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: start to just forget about the fact that people were
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: looking at me, I was like I can do anything.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: And that's how I broke down that barrier of just
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: being so terrified of people seeing me and looking at me.
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: It was just going, okay, well, if I can't get
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: up on stage and talk about people, I'm going to
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: go like to the.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: Extreme and I'm going to be on stage in a bikini.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Wow. When did you now? I know? Correct me if
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I'm wrong, because I'm recalling I think two thy and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: seventeen y one Missus Australia. Firstly, what is missus Australia.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, no, that's funny.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: So I'd done a few pageants with friends before that
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: when I was in Sydney, because it's just fun. Everyone
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: loves to get dressed up and get in address and
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: wear makeup and look pretty like we're all doing it.
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: It was like, it's kind of thing at my girlfriend's
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and I do just because we could.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: It was just too But that's just Saturdays. But we'll
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: get to it later.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah. But yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Then when I started the my husband, I started our
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: non for profit. We're trying to work out ways of
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: getting it into the media and promoting mental health in
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: farming communities, and I thought this is good of a
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: platform as any I know how to speak now, like
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: I've done it before, how can we do it? So
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: I entered missus Australia and like I'd never won anything
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: before because I'm not as poised and as professional as
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: all the other girls. And yeah, probably accidentally drop the
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: F bomb in a speech somewhere.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you probably shouldn't wear those RM Williams on stage.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if that's going to be a handicap.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Well yeah, but then it was very Australian and that's
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: why they picked me because I was what they see
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: the quin Central Australia.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: My accent paid off for once.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Excuse my ignorance, But is it What I was going
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: to say, is that a beauty pageant is what is
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: it judged on? That's a much better question.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: So it's more judged on your platform that you speak
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: on behalf and how well you promote it and how
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: well you advocate for it, because they want to help.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: It's a platform to try and get attention for your platform.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: And I think again it comes back to authenticity, Like
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: I just didn't go and pick a charity because I
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: wanted to do the competition. I had my cause and
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: went and did the competition because I need I wanted
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: to promote what we were doing.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: So yell us about that. What is You're not for profit?
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: So it's called Live Rural And it kind of all
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: just started when we wanted to run an event to
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: bring people together in our little farming community. So we
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: started an event called Mellow in the Yellow. Hence I
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: love yellow. It's my favorite color since I.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Saw that great, big, that big square where everyone, yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: in the middle of all of that what are those
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Excuse my ignorance, what are those yellow flowers called? Again? Well,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that's fucking that image. When I was looking at them,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, what is that? And II lean and I went,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: how gorgeous is that?
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: And like, so explain to people what I'm talking about.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: So it's like we growkenola on the farm or in
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: this district we have it, so it's on a different
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: farm every year, and it's quite a lot of planning
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: because whoever's going to host it, they've got to make
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: a square in the middle of their canola crop where
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: we're going to have a lawn. And when the canole
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: in flower in October, we put a marquee in the
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: middle of it. We get a band, we bust everyone
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: to and from the event. It's free drinks and food
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: for the day, and we have a guest speaker come
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: and speak about mental health and the importance of you know,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: looking after our mental health in farming communities because it's
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: such a busy, you know, labor intensive, demanding lifestyle, and
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: a not a lot of farmers have time to sort
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: of take time and in that time, like we're in now,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: we're in drought, Like my husband's gone at five o'clock
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: in the morning and doesn't come into like eleven twelve
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: at night. They're the times when we need they need help,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: but not necessarily help because they're suffering mentally. It's just
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: the fatigue that then has a flow on effect to
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: your mental health, or even just the financial pressure that
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: then flows onto your mental health. So getting them all
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: off farm in one place to enjoy themselves and celebrate
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: the amazing work that farmers do while kind of also
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: reminding them, you know, take a little bit of time
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: to look after your mental health as well.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: This is maybe a weird question, but what is the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: attraction like from the outside, Like I grew up in
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the country, not on a farm but near farm, so
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: I kind of get it. And my mum literally grew
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: up on a farm, so I'm a little bit more
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: familiar with it. But what's the attraction because it just
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: seems like being a farmer just seems like yeah, I know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: like fuck, it's so hard and like what you just discribe.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: My husband leaves at five, gets home sometimes at midnight.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Well that's seventeen hours. Some people do that in a week.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I've like, you know, I've always thought, you know,
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: it's an identity, You're born to be a farmer, all
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: that sort of thing. And it's so now that I've
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: got a son, and my son is just it is
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: in his DNA, Like I can't I can't explain it
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: the way he knows things that at nine year old
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: shouldn't know like it should but it's just instinctively give
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: me an ex so like just how to like when
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: we're getting the sheep in, he just knows where to.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Move, how to move around them.
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: Or is just he's like even just with his toys,
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: like he doesn't play with any other toys except farm toys,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: and he's setting up his own farm with toys, and
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: he knows where he systematically knows where he's got to
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: put everything so it economically works properly.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And it's just all he thinks, dreams does.
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: Like, it's just you're like, wow, okay, it's in his
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: DNA to be a fan.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Well, isn't your husband a sixth generation farmer?
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, so my husbands I'm pretty.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Sure he's going to be generation seven.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. And like if you were doing if you
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: were a farmer, for the money, you you you just
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: wouldn't do it. There's no money in it. You do
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: it because they love it and it's their identity.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: And I think that's what a lot of older farmers
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: struggle with is when the son comes home takes on
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: the farm, It's like, what is their identity now? Because
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: they've always they'd rather a dead farmer than be a
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: human being not farming.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Wow. Wow, that is a profound they'd rather be a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: dead farmer than not a farmer or what So when
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you've grown up, obviously you had your own. By the way,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: are you still good to keep going for a while?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Are you ghausted? Are you sick of me?
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: I'm good? How long we've been here?
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: We've been here an hour?
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Good?
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Good, we're gone, all right, We're going all right. You
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: got those good bloody country jeans. Energy. So when you're
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: grown up as a kid, I mean there were peaks
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: and troughs, there were good days and bad days, there
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: were struggles.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: And we were talking about yeah, my medication.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Well, no, I want to know in terms of now
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: you're a mum, now you've got your own kids, do
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: you do you have a particular parenting style or does
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: the way that you experience life as a kid does
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that influence how much you lean in and how much
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: you get out of the way with your kids development?
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess I want my kids to grow up
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: being kids, Like I don't want to expose them to
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: the world that you know, kids grow up in now
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: too much. I just want them to be able to
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: play and be innocent. And we're very lucky where we
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: live that with like we'd called what you call a
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: bush school. It's still a normal primary school, but it's
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: a bush school. There's only like twenty eight in the
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: whole primary school, and we're you know, they're out of town.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: All the kids know each other, they all play together,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: They've got chucks and you know, all these other things
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: they play in the sandpit like the year six kids
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: are still kids. They you know, Santa Claus hasn't been
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: ruined for my kids because the bigger kids know that.
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: You know, we all we all believe in Santa like
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: to be a nine year old and still fully believe
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: those little elves are real. Like it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: Not only nine year olds still believe that those little
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: elves are real. I want them to just be like,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: you know, we we don't. My kids don't have an
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: iPad each. We've got like their school tablet, but that
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: when they get home from school, Like, that's not They're
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: allowed an hour on the TV a day.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Other than that, they've got to be outside playing or
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: helping us, or in their room playing Like I just
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: don't like this whole idea of devices. And you know,
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: some people say, oh, you're putting your kids at a
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: disadvantage because they're not, you know, learning how to use
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: the devices. Trust me, when they want to use it,
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: they'll they'll learn it pretty quick.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Really, people say that that you that is such a
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: fucking weird perspective to say that you are disadvantaging your
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: kid when you have a look at the evidence for
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: what's going on with mental health and screen addiction and
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: fuck and hell, there's so much there's so much tough
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: stuff going on at the minute with kids, and.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: And just knowing that mental health is in my family
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: and my husband's side of the family genetically, that we
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: need to be more aware of it with our kids.
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: So that like, and that's where I was really lucky
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: that my dad was really open about his mental health
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: when we were kids. Like I remember going to horse
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: events in the truck, and you know, we'd be sitting
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: in the truck with dad driving, and we'd just talk
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: about the world and you know, all these the questions
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: we'd fire at my dad, like you know, about the
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: universe and oh there are aliens. And we'd have deep
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: philosophical conversations with my dad, and then he'd talk about,
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: you know, his mental health and how you know, he'd
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: like he ran away when he was twenty one because
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: he just couldn't handle the pressure of life and he
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: just one day just got on a bus and just
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: went to wa to clear his head.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: And how he just always.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Said, you've got to look after your head because in
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: like his era, it was you were crazy if you
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: had something, you know he had and he was just
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: and I think he's just problem was that he was
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: just so self aware and people around him weren't.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Now, am I right? And remembering your dad has bipolar
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and got diagnosed a while ago, Am I right?
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but he's a height like I guess he's been
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: like that's what they've labeled him as. But he's a
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: highly functioning, normal person. Like if you met him, it's
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: like me, you think I'm like a happy, bubbly person,
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: Like no one would ever know Dad's the same. No
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: one would ever Like, I think no one really knew
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: until the Australian story came out in our hometown why
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: dad stopped drinking at age thirty five.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: They just thought he just made his random decision to
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: stop drinking.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: But he seems really good now. See he's like on
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: the Austrains, seemed great, like switched on, Like, yeah, you're right,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you would not have a clue.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: No.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: What I loved about your dad is he goes, yeah,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: I reckon, I'm I'm about ninety eight percent right, I'm
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: about about ninety eight percent good, And I'm like, yeah,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: yeah good. I wish I wish my number was that.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: High God who knows. My dad just thought that was
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: a piss because they're like, you're about fifty percent ching.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Like yeah, yeah, you're getting ahead of yourself chair absent.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: But you tell the world that if you want to.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: But yeah, and.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: What about what about you now? Because I mean, you
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: have to be a mum, you have to be a
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: business woman, you have to be a wife, you have
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: to be a daughter, You've got to be this you know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: business person. How do you like, what do you need
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to do for you to manage you to look after
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: you mentally, emotionally, physically.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and sometimes I probably don't manage it the best,
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: like I sort of you know, Dad always said to us,
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: you know, if you've got to play sport, because that's
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: how your release a like that was my dad's answer.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: Just sport, play sport, physical, get it all out and
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: keep your brain, keep your brain busy, because when your
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: brain's not busy, that's when you start to go down
• 20:56
  Speaker 4: a hole and think about things and not you know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: logically start going what's my purpose?
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Like what am I doing with my life? So to
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: keep busy was his answer.
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: And sometimes I don't manage that very well because I
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: do get myself too busy, and I can kind of
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: get to a point of like I need a rest,
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: I'm burning out. But I do need to be busy
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: and have something happening all the time. It's just I've
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: got to get better at managing how busy and asking
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: for help from people to come in and help me.
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: So now I'm actually starting to build a team of
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: people around me that I can be like, Okay, I
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: can't do everything, can you do this job for me now,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: or you know, instead of just thinking I can do
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: everything on my own. But yeah, keeping that busy, but
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: I do need my time away from everything, and that's
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: my horses. And as you know, cliches that might sound
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: like they're my meditation, because when I'm riding a horse,
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: I can't have any other distractions. I can't be on
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: my phone when I'm riding a horse, I can't be
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: thinking about something else. I've just got to be with
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: that horse present in that moment because it has its
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: own brain as well, and I have to be ready
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: for whatever it throws at me at the same time.
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: So that's just my sort of switch off time, and
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: I you know, in an ideal world, i'd love to
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: ride every day, but at the moment, I'm just a
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: bit too busy, So I try and get two or
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: three rides in a week, Right, I can go. And
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: I guess that's what meditation is for some people, and
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: that's where they get their time.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: I've heard people say dancing. They go and dance.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: Because that's a time when they've got to move their body.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: They can't be on the phone, they can't be doing anything.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: They're only thinking about what they're doing in that moment
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: while they're dancing.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: And I guess that's what sport is as well.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And it's funny because like different things work
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: for different people. You know, some people get on a
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: horse and it's like, oh my god, it's like therapy,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: it's like connection. It's like all of a sudden, your
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: parasympathetic nervous system, you know, the calm. Other people would
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: be terrified to get on a horse.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's something got to do from you know,
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: a young age to feel safe doing it too. It's
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: not like you just go, oh, thirty.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: Six and I'm going to go and ride a horse.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: It's funny I talk about I talk about motorbikes because
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I grew up on motorbikes and I ride more than
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: I drive, right, So I've got four motorbikes, and if
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: I've got to go most of the time, if I'm
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: commuting anywhere, it's on a bike, like eighty percent of
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the time bike, twenty per cent car. It's funny because
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: when I'm on a bike, which it seems like stupid,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: but I'm relaxed. Yeah, it's like, yeah, but you're on
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: a motorbike and it's Melbourne and it's traffic, and I go, yeah,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: can't explain it, but like I feel, all is that one.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, I'm still aware and alert and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: I'm still careful, but I endure. Like when I get
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: in a car, it's just a thing that takes me
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: from A to B and it's it's good and I'm grateful,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: but I don't go, oh fuck, yeah, I'm in the car.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Oh god, this is so good. In the car, I'm like, yeah,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: it's just a car. But when I'm on a bike,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: even I've got like a shitty little bike, and I've
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: got some great bikes, but even if I'm on the
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: shitty crappy bike, have the best fucking time ever. Now
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just realizing that we haven't even spoken about your film,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: which is probably the biggest thing, or one of the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: biggest thing that you've done, other than crank out a
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: couple of kids and marry a good bloke and you know,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: I mean there's that too. So you made a film
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: called Just a Farmer, and you have no right to
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: make a film. No, no, I don't think you understand
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: how hard it is to make a film and to
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: take that idea and turn it into a reality. I
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: think one of the people on your doco or the
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Australian Story said one in seven trillion, which was the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: name of your show. The show was called, the movie
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: was called Just a Farmer, tell us how the fuck
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: that happened and tell us a little bit about that journey.
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and it is quite just one of those things
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: where people say, like, how did it happen. I'm like
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: sometimes I'm like, I don't even fucking know how it happened,
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: but anyway, it happened.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And by the way, everyone, it's not a documentary, it's
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: a move. It's a movie.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, it's a drama.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I guess for me growing up, you know,
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: I it is it is my identity and I come
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: back to it a lot, and I don't know if
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: it annoys people, but yeah, but growing up and I
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: still am dyslexic, movies were what I connected to the
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: world through. Like, I loved movies. I love watching them.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: I love going on the emotional rollercoasters that they gave me.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: And some people have that with books, but I just
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: never got that opportunity. So, you know, that's how I
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: learned about the world and how I got introduced to
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: different cultures or ideas or things outside of my little
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: community and group and comfort zone was through movies.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: Like I'd walk down to.
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: The video store every every sad day, get my video
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: and come home with my chocolate paddle pop and watch it.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they were fifty cents back then too.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Well, videos pos pattle pops. You have to sell a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: kidney to get a paddle pop those days. Yeah, they're
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: not giving that shit away.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And they're getting smaller.
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: But anyway, so that's where like I've always come on
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: streets do better.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, just been a massive movie lover.
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: And then we're during COVID, we were watching you know,
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: everyone was watching series movies. That's where we were getting
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: our human connection, Like it was a topic of conversation
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: like some of the TV series that got traction during
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: COVID You're like, what was wrong with us all? Like
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: what were we thinking? Like Tiger King, like how we
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: all had to watch it? Right?
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: But it was so ridiculous. It was stupid. If it
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: came out now, no one could watch it.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: That's very true. That was very fucking random, that thing.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: And that was not only did people watch it, it
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: was the biggest thing on Netflix for a while, Like
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that was massive.
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you just kind of got addicted to the ridiculousness
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: of it, Like it was, yeah, we gave this psychopath
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: traction anyway.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: So you went, if they can get exposure.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, and then we found that like the Jeremy
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: Clarkson Clarkson's Farm and my son were watching that, and
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: my son loved it because it was the first show
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: he'd seen on TV where his job was being celebrated,
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: like what he loves doing was also being celebrated. And
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: I said, my husband, this is the only farming show
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: I've ever watched that is kind of close to what
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: farming is actually really like like he was just blunt,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: you know, was so honest about not having any idea
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: of what it was like to farm. He was, you know,
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: honest with his profits, Like he's like, I made forty
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: five dollars this year or forty five pounds this year.
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: If I wasn't a millionaire backing it, I'd have nothing,
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: you know, so fluntly honest.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: And I said, that's it.
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: That's how we can penetrate a different audience and stop
• 27:51
  Speaker 4: constantly preaching to the converted through a movie. And I said, like,
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: being a school teacher, you say to kids, do you
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: want to watch a documentary a movie? They're going to
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: want to watch a movie, Like to me, like, there
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: are some really good docos out there, but for me,
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: they're personally a bit boring. They don't take me on
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: an emotional journey. So I was like, we have to
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: create a story and subconsciously have the message in it.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: So that's where we're like. And then I was like,
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: we're going to make a movie.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: And my husband's like, oh, yeah, whatever, off you go.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's sort of and my stupid idea of
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: like learning how to make a movie was to go
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: to acting school. Like that was yeah, that was a
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: bit of a all.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Right, hang on, like I talk to people all the
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: time about setting goals, create a plan, create a timeline.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: You know, what are your KPIs, what are your resources?
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's a credit to you. It's fucking amazing.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you realize, but to sit at home,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: like when did you have this idea? Where did you
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: have the idea? When did you have it? When was that?
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: What year was at?
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: Like was it twenty twenty one?
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: We're in COVID, just sitting on the couch in there
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: watching and I was like, that's it, that's how we
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: do it.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: This is twenty one. The woman who's never acted goes,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: I want to make a movie twenty twenty four, the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: movies out and released in cinemas, and you're acting in it?
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Bit nuts? Actually, I mean.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: We don't have time, but give us a little bit
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: of the between the conceptualization and the and now he's
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: our movie.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: Well, I guess like I thought, I was a bit
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: like what's his name Tarantino, Like when he first wanted
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: to get into movies, he just thought he had to
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: be an actor because that's all he's seen on the
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: TV screen. But then when he went and did acting,
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: he worked out. He hated acting, and he wanted to
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: make movies because he couldn't be what he couldn't see.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: So when he's seen that there was people behind the
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: scenes making them, he was like, that's what I want
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: to do it.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: I don't want to be And he's pretty rubbish atted anyway, so.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: Or acting in them acting him, he's pretty good at
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: making them, but yeah, rubbish out.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So that's what I thought. I was like, I'll
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: go and learn how to be an actor.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: So I like looked up all these you know, acting schools,
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: and it had to suit my lifestyle and so you've
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: got your nighters and all those but that's full time.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: I couldn't do that where I was.
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: So I found this place that had a short course
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: and everyone said that Damian Welsh Howling's the best acting
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: coach in Melbourne. So I was like, well, I got
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: to get into his class and he does advanced acting
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: for advanced actors. And I was like, well, I don't
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: have time to start at the bottom. I've got to
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: go straight into that one.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: How do I? She did? Of course she did, Yeah,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: did you go. Look, I've never acted. I don't know, Dick,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: but I'm here you're welcome. Yeah.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: Basically, well, I rang up and said did they have
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: a spot because it was starting in a few days,
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: and they said, oh, yeah, we'll send through your resume.
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: We'll need to check that you've got the experience and
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: blah blah blah, and if we've got a spot, will
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: put you in. And so I just made up a
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: resume like as you do fraud. Isn't that what they
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: call it?
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well I don't think you're a but I think
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: we could just call it fibbing.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Again, that's it fibbing.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: And then they're like, oh, you need to send in
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: a show reel, and I was like, what the fuck's
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: a show real? So I just I was having like
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: technical issues and whatever, and then they just said, okay,
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: we've got a spot.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: We'll let you in.
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: So I was like, gosh, shit, that was a bit easy.
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: And then you turned up and then I realized I
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: was like, shit, I'm in over my head, Like these
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: people are all real actors, you know, going around the
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: circle and they're all doing the actor thing. They introduced
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: themselves and what they've done, and.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I'm going they've done some really, like they've done stuff.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Did you go farmer, wance a wife, You're welcome.
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: Well, I just it got to me and I kind
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: of panicked and I went, I've done nothing.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: And are they like how did you get in here? Yeah?
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Well Damien was like how did you get here?
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: And I was like, oh, I just just put in
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: a like resume and they said that a spot.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: So they let me in.
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: But now we got along really well because in his words,
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: he just goes Leela's good at acting because she gives
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: zero f about everything, and that's like the thing I didn't.
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: He said, I had no bad habits for him to fix,
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: so he was just like play and b and But
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: then I worked out there's a whole lot more to
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: films than just the actors. So I, you know, had
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: the script and I had a few people that read
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: over it for me and helped me work out how
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: you format it.
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: Like the first time I wrote the script, it was
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: just in a word doc.
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: Didn't even know that there was a way you had
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: to put a script together and all these programs and
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: stuff that you can use.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: So now they made life a bit easier.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: And you know, some people reading my script were really like,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: I don't even know how Sometimes like I got a
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: really high profile going in Hollywood to read it, and
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: he just tore my like script to pieces. It was
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: soul destroying, and he did what they call a pass
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: on it and he wrote his version of the story.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: And I remember the first time reading it back and
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: I just cried. I'm like, he's massacred my story. He's
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: written it like he's lives in Malibu his whole life
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: life and he's trying to write a story about an
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: Australian farmer. I was like, it's got no idea, Like
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: he had dying dogs at the end and all like
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: it was just so melodramatic. And I just thought, nah,
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: like he may be a Hollywood like in one oscars
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: for writing and things, but I was like, he doesn't
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: know my story.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: I've got to stick to my guns. So that's what
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: the other thing.
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: I had to believe in the story and our mission
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: and what we were trying to do. And got some
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: other people to read it, and you take the good
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: and the bad. Like some of the feedback you get
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: you're like, oh whatever, and then some feedback you're like, yeah,
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: that's that really makes sense, Like that will make my
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: script better. So you've got to be good at taking
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: criticism and actually taking it on board and changing it
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: for the better.
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: And that is a really good point, right, because I
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: think like people, everyone says they want feedback until they
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: get feedback that and want and they're like fuck you.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So yeah, well okay, well you don't want feedback then
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: you just want praise and accolades and endorsement.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: And I had a mentor who at the very start,
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: and she's a.
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: Novel writer. She's not a scriptwriter, but she was.
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: She knew more than me about writing scripts anyway.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: And she said to me, you're making a film.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: It's the most collaborative creative project that you're ever gonna do.
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: If you don't want to collaborate and take on people's
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: ideas and opinions and their creative creative perspective of the film,
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: she's like.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Write a book, right.
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: And every time I didn't agree with someone in their perspective,
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: I came back to that and thought, no, this is
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: a collaborative project.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: They want what's best.
• 34:38
  Speaker 4: For the film as well, like we all want it
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: to be really good. Yes, my opinion's not always the
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: best opinion, So go away for a couple of hours,
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: and think on it and see their side of their
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: perspective and work out what's best for the film. Because
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: at the end of the day, that's what every decision
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: came back to. It was what was best for the
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: film and the message that we were trying to portray.
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: And I I think that's why we ended up with
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: such a beautiful film because there was no egos involved.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: It was all about the message and the film. Like
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: even when we interviewed people to come and work on
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: the film, we were just straight up we just said,
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: this isn't a career climbing venture, like we don't even
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: know if it's going to make anything. You need to
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: be on board for the message and have some type
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: of personal reason for wanting to be involved. And yeah,
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: I think that's why we were able to create something
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: because everyone wanted it to be something beautiful.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: But I think I think with that ownership thing too,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: like either write a book or do a film, like
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: it's collaboration and it's not yours. It's ours.
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, our.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Film, not your film. Then the moment that you start
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: to become possessive, you kind of push people out because
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: you want people to buy into your vision. But yeah,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: you're telling everybody they can't have any input. Then it's
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: not how can they buy into the vision if it's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's all you. So that makes complete sense.
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and like and I was just so lucky, like
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: Simon Lindon, who's the director of the film, because you know,
• 36:11
  Speaker 4: at the start, I thought I was going to do everything.
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: I was even going to direct it at one point
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: as well. I was just going to do everything. But
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: I needed to find a director that understood the film
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: and the message and what the people were going through.
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: And I went through a few directors like it was,
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: you know, they wanted it to be melodramatic, or they
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: added all these scenes in there, or just you know,
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: they just didn't get the people. And just randomly it
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: was in col Rain helping because a friend of mine sat, oh,
• 36:39
  Speaker 4: they're doing this little shoot down here, come down here
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: and help out, and so you can see what it's
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: like to be on a set.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: And I went down and a randomly met Simon.
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: I had no idea who he was at the time,
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: and like he probably wasn't in his best state of
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: mind when I met him either, and I asked him
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: to read the script and he just got it because
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: he'd been through his own own journey with mental health
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: and it's and you know, to this day, he's still
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: still going through it.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: He's a recovering addict.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: And he's quite open about that. His knees quite Yeah.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he's good for him. Yeah. So yeah, three
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: years with a heroin addiction.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: So he's and he's been cleaned for fifteen years now,
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: but he struggles most days, he says, but there's a
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: beautiful soul in there.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: And that made me think so.
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: Differently of addiction as well as in getting to know
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: Simon and what he goes through. Like I just you know,
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: like he probably was a bit naive because I've never
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: been addicted to anything, like saying, oh, you know, just stop,
• 37:42
  Speaker 4: like how can But getting to know Simon and his journey,
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, Like it's a it's a totally different
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: experience for that person. And yeah, like I have a
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: whole different perspective on it now. But yeah, meeting him
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: was sort of very random. Yes, I've been other directors
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: and he was just helping me on the script and
• 38:02
  Speaker 4: giving me ideas at the time, and then one day
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: I just sort of thought like Simon didn't anything. He
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: hadn't been anything for a long while, and I just thought,
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: you know what, he's the only person that gets it
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: in this industry that I've spoke to, as like on
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: a creative level. I'm just going to ask him to
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: direct it. And it was so beautiful. I asked him,
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: and he just goes my heart says yes.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: So he came and lived with us for a few
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: months on the farm to sort of get an understanding
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: and meet the locals. And then when he said he
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: got here and he met everyone, he's like, I understand
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: it even more now, Like I understand because he found
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: the farmer to be quite a victim when he first
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: read it, like, you know, oh, poor him, like he's
• 38:43
  Speaker 4: being he's been a bit of a silk. But when
• 38:46
  Speaker 4: he met my husband, he's like, I get it now,
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: Like you know, when he read the script and he says, oh,
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: I'm tired, and you know I've been working and blah
• 38:55
  Speaker 4: blah blah, he thaught it. He sounded like I felt
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: like the farmer was winging. But when he met Sean
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: and he's Shan talk, He's not winging. It's just a
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: matter of fact. This is the fact I'm tired, I
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: haven't had sleep, blah blah blah. Yeah, working, So it
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: was great that he came and did that, and then.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: We just put it down to synchronicity.
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Like I can't even explain how we found all the
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: other people that came on and everything, but it just
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: sort of everyone just sort of came in out of
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: the universe at us. We had no like, I can't
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: even explain it. It's kind of sometimes a miracle, I think,
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: because yeah.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: It's bloody incredible. I'm not going to feb and say
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: I've watched it because I only discovered yesterday. But it's
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: my weekend viewing. Is your movie, So I'm going to
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: send you a message after I watch it. But where
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: can people watch it? It's on Apple, isn't it.
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's on Apple.
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: So we've just recently had it up on Apple because
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: that was a whole new side of filmmaking that I
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: had no idea about. Once you actually making the films
• 39:55
  Speaker 4: the easy part. It's the distribution that's the hard party.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: It's like writing a book. I've written a books. It's like,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: oh I wrote a book, Great, how the fuck do
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I sell it? Now?
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, how do you get people to see it,
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: read it, appreciate it all these You're like, oh, that's
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: the hard part.
• 40:10
  Speaker 4: And in Australia there's so many people that think they
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: hold the key to doing that, and I had to
• 40:17
  Speaker 4: work out how to get around those people and then
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: do it myself because they're like, no one wants to
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: watch a film about farmers or mental health.
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: Okay, thank you for that.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks for your feedback. That's super nice, yer.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: Yeah, next, when you I mean, I'm sure you saw
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: bits and pieces of the film as it was under
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: construction for one of a better term.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Do you remember when you sat down the first time
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and just watched the finished products start to finish.
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So it was a bit like I was a
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: very involved producer, so like I'd be in the edit
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: probably once or twice a week watching everything. Simon would
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: always double check and he was very respectful of the
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: story and it was a big collaborative project making sure
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: everything was really authentic and what we wanted it to look.
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: Like, which was amazing.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: And yeah, I learned like the editor is probably the
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: most important person in putting a film together because they
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: understand timing. You know, when something's taking too long, And
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: I think that's where a few Australian films go wrong,
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: is they're too long, like they sit in one like
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: you need to keep progressing the story.
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: Forward all the time. And I do worry sometimes that
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: our film starts.
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: A bit too slow because I hate like I personally
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: was like, I don't want my film to be one
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: of those films where people are sitting there going shit,
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: like what's going to happen next? But like you want
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: it to keep moving forward, and that's the editor's job.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: So if if movie moves and keeps going really well
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: and you engage the whole way through, the editor has
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: a really good understanding of people's attentions and then progressing forward,
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: the director's kind of the artistic person to make sure
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: everyone's performance is a good or everything looks good and
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: different things and they've got to have a good team,
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: be a good team. And then me being the producer
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: coming in like I had to then you know, sign
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: off on things and make sure it was all good.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: So but I do remember sitting down for the first time,
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: we all watched like we'd watched scenes everywhere, like scenes
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: cut together in like a zoo in different ways, but
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: watching the whole film in one go. I kind of
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: actually had a little bit of a mental breakdown afterwards,
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: which was really interesting, and I.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: Couldn't work out what the hell was going on.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: So I rang Damien and I was like, I can't
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: stop crying, Like what's wrong? Like I don't know what's
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: going on. I'm not sad, I just can't stop crying.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: And he literally said to me, did you watch the
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: film for the first time today?
• 42:51
  Speaker 3: Start to finish? And I said yeah.
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: And he's like, you are now processing all the feelings
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: of Alison that you didn't deal with while you were filming.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: And he's like, your subconscious doesn't know the difference between
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: what's real and what's not and what you experienced as
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: your character if you really live it.
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: And I did some.
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: Of those scenes I blacked out in and I don't
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: remember filming them. He said, your subconscious is now dealing
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: with those emotions.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: And I was like, holy shit, Okay.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Now I'm walking about that, Damien.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: Sorry, Damien Welsh howling. So he was my right, right,
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: right right.
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: Sorry, yep, yep, yep, yep.
• 43:31
  Speaker 2: That's yeah, But did you know what what was dawning
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: on me is like, here's the here's the year nine
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: girl who couldn't read a fucking sentence, who wrote a
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: fucking film?
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: I know?
• 43:46
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: Like if any of girls I go to went to
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: school with ever thought of me writing a full script
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: like something over one page, they'd be.
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: Like, what the fuck exactly?
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: You wrote something?
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Do you know what else? I'm proud of you? Or
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: we've opened the swearing door and you've come running through
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: it with all of your own fucks. I couldn't be prouder.
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: I dare say you're never going to do anything ever
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: again in media where you swear so much? I feel
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: like I've empowered you. Are you going to do? Are
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: you going to do another movie ever?
• 44:19
  Speaker 4: I would love to, but I can't fund it the
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: way I funded this one?
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: Would you find other people to help me?
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: I mean the bits and pieces that I saw of
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: the movie again, I would if I didn't think, if
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't believe what I'm about to say, I just
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mention it.
• 44:36
  Speaker 3: Okay, but you like.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: A real deal actor, dude like you like it? When
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: I saw it, I went, how's this going to be?
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: Because oh no, it's great?
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: Because everyone goes in with low expectations, like even my mentor,
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: David Gregory, who is a beautiful man, and when he
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: first watched it, he admitted to me, He's like, when
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: you contacted me and asked me to watch this movie,
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is going to be a bit shit,
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: isn't it? Like ah, And then he goes but it
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: wasn't shit. I'm like, that's great because everyone goes in
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: with low expectations and then they're just they're sweetly surprised,
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: which is quite nice.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: You could write, you could use that in the reviews.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: It wasn't shit.
• 45:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't shit.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: It wasn't shit. Hey, I could talk to you forever.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: I'm so pleased that I've met you and that my
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: audience has met you. You're genuinely amazing. Thanks for taking
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: an hour and a half out of your life before
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: we go. What do you want to promote or share
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: with people? I've got a fair few listeners, So is
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: there anything that you where do people find you or
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: connect with you? Or do you want to steer my
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: audience towards you're not for profit? Or I'll give you
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: the mic for a minute.
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: Oh okay, Well I guess I just love people to
• 45:51
  Speaker 4: watch the film and experience it, like it isn't experience,
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: it is going It's designed to take you on a journey,
• 45:58
  Speaker 4: like so so prepared for that, and like if you
• 46:01
  Speaker 4: don't feel something, then you're weird.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: And if you don't have a cry.
• 46:06
  Speaker 4: I don't want to say it too much, but if
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: you don't cry, then you're made of ice.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: What is wrong? What is wrong?
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: What is wrong with you?
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: But that's the point, And to build empathy. I think
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: we lack empathy in the world. So for people to
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: cry and feel what that family is going through, it's creating.
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: A natural empathy in people. And then at the end,
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: like there.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: Is hope and you hopefully have a good laugh too,
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: because Rob Taylor is hilarious. He plays oh and the
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: old character in the film, and he's a bit of
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: Half of his lines is made up and they're the
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: funniest ones. But yeah, to go on watch it. It's
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: on Apple. You can just type in just a farmer
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: in Apple and it'll come up.
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: And after you've.
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: Watched it, oh, you get your friends to watch it,
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: catch up with your friends a few days afterwards, and
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: actually talk about the themes in the film and how
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: it made you feel and white it made you feel
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: that way, because I think that reflects is really important afterwards,
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: because it's designed to open conversations with among families and
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: friends and then share with us what you thought too.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be doing that. Don't worry about that, Leila.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for connecting with us, and thanks
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: for coming on the You project. I really appreciate the chat.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: This is I've done eighteen hundred plus. This is one
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: of my favorites. It's going in my top ten straight up,
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much. We say goodbye off air,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: but for the moment, Thanks for your time, and thanks
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: for being so open and vulnerable and super clever.
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: No, thank you for having me