00:00And I love that as an audience member.
00:01I love going, oh, Tim, no, it's like a jigsaw puzzle.
00:05You want to guess it.
00:06And I like to be right, so I'm always like, oh, that one.
00:10Aaron?
00:11Alice?
00:12Thank God, can you hear me?
00:13Are you OK?
00:14Daniel knows.
00:17Congrats to you both on the new film.
00:19It is pretty amazing.
00:21So we've got prospective murder, disappearances, a trip to the jungle.
00:24This movie really has a little bit of everything.
00:26What was it like for you, Eric, to kind of step back into the role of Aaron Paul?
00:30Oh, look, it felt like a bit of a cheat, really,
00:32because you never get a chance to reprise roles in films, really.
00:36So to step into the shoes of someone I already knew
00:40and had done some development on was great.
00:43But then the fresh challenge was, well, where does he go from here
00:45and how does this story evolve?
00:48And, yes, it was a lot of fun.
00:50Now, Jane Harper, who, of course, wrote the book,
00:53has this amazing ability to kind of make the scenery and the landscapes
00:56almost like a character of all of their own.
00:58Deborah Lee, what was it like for you to step into that literary jungle?
01:01Brutal.
01:02Brutal?
01:02Yeah.
01:03It was exactly that.
01:05But, I mean, as an actor, I mean, I don't have to pretend
01:07that I'm in this environment.
01:09I was really there with the leeches, with the rain,
01:12with the trees hitting in the face, with the falling in the ground
01:16and freezing cold, so no acting required.
01:19It felt like, yeah, watching it, you can kind of see that it's so dark
01:22and it's so grim.
01:23It really was.
01:24And you mentioned the leeches and things like that.
01:26Oh, yeah, well, yeah, we just mentioned Eric and I,
01:28the only ones that didn't get leeches, but everyone else did.
01:30Well, it is one of those films that feels really dark,
01:32but one thing that I loved about it was it's such a different landscape
01:35than we're used to seeing Australia on film.
01:38Yeah, exactly.
01:38Completely different.
01:39Yeah.
01:39So what was it like for you guys to step into that role
01:42and for it to be completely different than every other Australian production
01:45I feel like we've ever seen?
01:46It was really exciting.
01:47I mean, we gifted that through Jane Harper.
01:49You know, her landscapes are so evocative and she really gets
01:53to the essence of what they're like to be in.
01:55So when you read the books, you feel like you're there.
01:58So the challenge for Rob and I was to try and find this world
02:00and make sure that the audience felt that it was true to the book
02:03and, again, that it's uniquely Australian,
02:06that it's not caricature, that it's not what we normally see.
02:09And then hopefully that will help the film travel
02:11in the way that The Dry did because overseas audiences
02:13just love to be immersed in that.
02:15Do you feel like if you keep making movies about people dying in Australia
02:18that maybe you'll undo some of Tourism Australia's good work?
02:21No, I think it can work the other way.
02:23I think people go, I want a piece of that.
02:25No, of course.
02:25It was such a successful film the first time around.
02:27I feel like the second time it's going to be just as great.
02:29Deborah Lee, one thing I wanted to ask you is,
02:31with the exception of Eric, it feels like it really was
02:34an amazing ensemble, female-led cast.
02:36What was it like for you to work with all these amazing Australian actors?
02:39Well, they're all incredibly talented
02:40and what I loved was that not only were all the characters very different,
02:44we as people were all very different.
02:46So it was a great sort of chemistry and alchemy
02:52that we were all sort of brought together
02:53to deal with our differences and the challenge of the environment
02:58and then you've got the script.
02:59So it was, you know, it was exciting.
03:03It was an exciting challenge.
03:04Now it is kind of a classic whodunit,
03:05keeps you guessing all the way to the end.
03:07I'd love to hear from your opinion,
03:09what makes a great murder mystery?
03:12I think when, if you've read the source material,
03:16that when you're presented with the film,
03:17at some point you forget who did it
03:20and that you're completely either confused
03:24or misdirected in a great way.
03:25And Jane is great at misdirection.
03:27A lot of that comes from the way that she casts
03:30her individual characters to be so very, very different.
03:33But I think that's the key.
03:35I think even in this case, you could have read the script
03:37and watched the film like, oh, maybe,
03:40oh, no, it is that person or it isn't that person.
03:41So I think that's the trick.
03:43It's a challenge as well.
03:44And I love that as an audience member.
03:46I love going, oh, Tim, no, it's her.
03:48It's like a jigsaw puzzle.
03:50You want to guess it.
03:51And I like to be right.
03:52So I'm always, I don't know, it's that one.
03:53So even if you've read the source material,
03:55you still feel like you're guessing all the way.
03:57Yeah.
03:58Amazing.
03:58Well, thank you so much, guys.
03:59I really appreciate your time.
04:00It's been fantastic chatting with you.
04:06Nature holds us all to account.
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