This week, the former President of the United States, Barack Obama touched down in Sydney, in what everyone anticipates is just a decoy trip before heading to the jungle.
A brand-new season of I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! is set to premiere this Sunday at 7.30pm on 10 and 10 Play, and what sort of award-winning internal publication would we be if we didn’t nab an exclusive chat with the hosts, Chris and Julia before launch night?
IAC has given us some of the most outrageous moments of Australian television. When you look back on all the seasons, which moment stands out to you the most?
Chris: Series 2 with Shane Warne in the jungle. It’s incredible we had Warney, this man who oozes charisma, bravado, his incredible storytelling. But the moment that flawed everyone was seeing the fragility and vulnerability of Warnie when he had to hold a spider. And not just any spider, a baboon spider, this enormous, big as the palm of his hand. And to see him just go to water, and be shaking and sweating and see all the group come around him and help him get through that moment was incredibly powerful.
Julia: For me, it was the magnificent Maureen McCormack swimming through a vat of poo-poo. I thought ‘What is this show we’re making??’. It also gave us a personal theme for the show which is ‘You’ve got to swim through the shit to get to the stars’.
Which celebrities did you underestimate the most?
Julia: Long standing celebrities, people who’ve been around for many, many years have learnt how to adjust to changes in the industry and those are the ones who respond well to the changes in the jungle.
Chris: Laurina Fleure was one who was easy to underestimate. I think she ended up breaking the world record for the number of trials she competed in! Everyone surprises you in different ways.
Julia: I think celebrities surprise themselves most of all. I don’t think they have any idea of the resilience they have until they get into that environment.
If the tables turned and you had the opportunity to be a contestant, would you do it or have you seen far too much??
Julia: I’m not sure it’s for me. I haven’t slept on a camp bed since 1973.
Chris: We always go into every single series wondering if they’d ever turn the tables on us. Would they ever lock the gates when we go in?
Julia: I’ve thought of it many times and how I would emotionally let it flow through me and think ‘Get out of your own road, and get on with it’.
Chris: I always look at the crew’s faces when I bring it up every year, just to see if there’s any sideways glances from them, thinking someone must have told us the plan!
While IAC can make us squirm in our seats, there is also a lot of heart to the show that has shown us a really raw and vulnerable side of a lot of our celebrities. Which of these moments took you by surprise the most?
Chris: I don’t like to see us as being a show all about redemption stories but there is something very compelling about people revealing those controversial moments or moments where they’ve not made the best choices and somehow come through the other side. Fev was probably one of the first that we had on that arc to explain a lot of things. And once you know the cheekiness and the honesty and transparency of a beautiful soul like Fev, you realise that we’re all human and we all make mistakes. I think we’re all still surprised that we managed to convince Steve Price to do aqua-aerobics.
Who are you desperate to see enter the jungle this year?
Julia: Dr Chris!
Chris: We’ll both be going into the jungle!
