The Chaser Report - Inside the AACTA Actors Studio

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Potentially AACTA award-nominated actor Charles Firth delivers a masterclass in method acting that will undoubtedly make Russell Crowe and Meryl Streep take note. We get the inside scoop from Charles and Dom on Australia’s screen award night of nights from years past.Order the 2025 CHASER ANNUAL: https://chasershop.com/products/the-chaser-and-the-shovel-annual-2025-preorderListen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Today, a treat for me and a treat for all listeners to the Chaser Report and what I'm sure will be the most downloaded episode of all time. Because today, I'm going to put you, Charles, with no notice, but you don't need it. I want you to take us on an acting master class. as an actor award nominee for optics.

What was the category you were nominated in again? No, I've been meaning to clear this up with you. I'm not nominated yet. What? I'm not nominated. You know how I sent around all those images of me that made it look totally like I was nominated for the actor award? Oh, this is so much better than I hope.

They are in fact, and they're issued by the actor, Right, I don't know, association, whatever it is, the actors guild. I don't know what it is. It used to be called the AFI and everyone knew what the AFI was. And they changed the name to actor, which is actually a thing in the world. It's a very foolish renaming and it cheapens the AFI Awards at the Chaser of one in the past. But anyway, do you know who influenced that decision to change the names? Not you.

Me? I did. I once gate crashed, very drunk, I gate crashed an AFI board meeting. This is like 15 years ago. And I went around and I said, you can't call them the AFIs. You can't call them the AFIs. That's just like so confusing with America.

You've got to have your own identity, right. And then my other idea was that they should split out all the boring awards from the acting awards and have them on two separate nights. They did that as well. Yeah, yeah. But they also changed the name. And I actually said, you should only just have one. You should have just one award for the whole night, right?

Yeah, which might have been a bit of a bit of a tip off to the board that you weren't entirely Composementis, anyway. But they then, for some reason, decided to sort of go with my convincing drunkenness. The Thirth vision. And then they renamed it, and it was a terrible idea. To be fair to them, they didn't do what you said, which was to get your own identity. Instead, they've renamed the awards to the generic term for anyone who does what that thing is. Let's just take some ads and ponder.

I think someone else needs to gate crash the board of the actors and point out that their name is deeply stupid. Anyway, I mean, look, very prestigious if you win one, though. Yes. Now, and so just to clarify, yeah, I'm not nominated for an actor award. What they do is they send around these things. I'm a contender. Right, you're a potential nominee.

What you're supposed to do is send them out on social media and it's like for your consideration. And then the industry votes for you. Yes. That closed a couple of days ago. To be honest, I actually forgot to vote. So I'm not sure if I'll be nominated. That's how treasure the actors are.

Yeah, no. The Oscars, everyone knows what the Oscars are. It's a succinct word. And even Logies, to be fair to the Logies, everyone knows what that is. There's no ambiguity there. Yeah. Thank you, Graham Kennedy. He came up with that.

And the other thing is, they used to be, I don't know whether you remember, Dom, but SBS used to host them. We actually, as the Chaser, once did the. red carpet, or at least I did. Like, yeah, no, I think we all did the red carpet. We are actually part of the sort of TV production. Oh, I can't remember that. But, yeah, that does sound like something we would have done back in the day when people

cared about the chaser. Yeah, and, but I went to one, like, a couple of years ago now, and it was, it was sort of like in a dendie cinema. It was very. It wasn't, like, I think, you know, I think everyone, I mean, I think the nominations come out in the next day or two. I think everyone's got their fingers crossed, hoping that they don't get. nominated so they don't have to go to the awards night but you know like maybe you know in charles i was

there when the rot seed in i don't know if this was when you were in america but i think it was the same one it may be in the same ceremony where we won best comedy andrew hanson won best comedy actor or something like that so i don't want it cheap in those achievements but there was a year when they went really large on it and they held it at the new docklands facility down in melbourne that it only just opened there was a lot of fuss and excitement maybe it was on channel 9 I think at the time it was a very especially a very big deal and here's the deal that they made in order to get

it up and to try and get it on channel 9 and to build its profile. They hired Russell Crow to host the whole thing at the peak of his Hollywood fame. That's right and there was a threat that he was going to do his poetry wasn't it? No no no it was his

band. It was his band the Faustian pact that you have when you get Russell Crow to host something like you don't just get Russell Crow, he throws in the ordinary fear of God, or whatever it was called, but 30 odd foot of grunt, Tofog, whatever it was. Yes, you're right.

And so all the AFI members had to see, I remember, because it was in a, it wasn't like a dining room tables, it was like in a theatre. You could not escape. Yeah, it was kind of a giant, it was seated. It was, yeah, tiered seating. And so you couldn't,

I think in Russell's rider, the contract was that the doors were locked during the performance. Yeah, it was like. Maybe that is why there's been such a decline in acting and just the influence of Australian film in the last 10, 15 years. Because everyone's just traumatised by that one experience. It's quite possible. It's the point where the famous chant, go Russ, go Russ.

Turns into actually something we're imploring. Go away, Russ. Go away. Just go, please. Go, Russ. And look, to be fair, I don't, I mean, they weren't. terrible, like it wasn't as though we were sitting there going, oh my gosh, this man can't sing in tune, because that would have been entertaining. If he'd been absolutely dreadful,

everyone would have been absolutely enthralled to see someone so good at acting, failing so spectacularly or something else. It was just like a pub band at the point where they stopped doing K San and then go, he's one of the originals. We wrote this one for you. It was sort of the longest four and a half minutes of. It was sort of the longest four and a half minutes of our lives. Yeah, like if he'd done KSAN or something, I think everyone would have been like, Go Russ, sincerely.

Go Russ! Yeah, you're right. That's right. The Chaser Report, now asbestos free. So anyway, Charles, thank you for clarifying that you're actually not nominated. It just looks like you were in all your social media. But to get back to the main point, what does it take to become an almost actor award nominated actor or a potentially actor award?

What's your secret? How do you master the craft? Because as is widely known in the chaser, it's not a forte of mine. Yeah, look, Dom, it is a craft, and you've got to be method. Really? This is my thing. Yeah. I think the whole point is, you know, people will say, oh, you know, you can just turn up, say the lines, go home.

This comes across watching optics, actually. But no, no, that's not how it works. You've got to embody the character. You've got to ask it. You've got interrogate. interrogate the character. I really, what is driving this character?

What are my motivations as a character? I mean, in many ways you haven't stopped being Ian since, have you? I understand you went home from the set and your family were kind of like, oh my gosh,

what did they do with Charles and replace him with this mediocre middle management white guy who's got big ideas about himself? I mean, they wouldn't have been astonished by the difference in the character you created,

wouldn't they? Oh, they were. Whenever they came to set, they'd go, who's that? They'd go, Mommy, who's that? Even though they were 17 years old. Mommy, who's that? I can't recognize that. And it's because I was so in character that it's sort of like, even though the face and the features and the look was the same, just the way I carried myself was so different.

I didn't recognize you in that first episode. No, exactly. I watched it at your house. And I mean, the thought was, Charles, weren't you supposed to be in this? Yes. And then the magician revealed the trick. Yeah. Ian, one of the major characters, that was actually me.

Yeah. And everyone went, oh my gosh, we're in the presence of mastery. Exactly. That was the feeling of the room. It's sort of like when Dustin Hoffman was in the graduate, you know, one of the first movies he was ever in. And people just, it just sent a bolt of electricity throughout the acting. world. Yeah, or I'm thinking back at the moment in Mrs. Doubtfire, when people realised that Euphigenia doubtfire was actually Robin Williams. And it's just, oh, the penny dropped. It was just

an extraordinary giveaway. You're right. No one saw that coming at all. Yes. It's sort of almost more of a plot twist than the sixth sense. Sixth six cents. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Look, I mean, full credit to you. I felt you were robbed in the Silver Logie nominations. It's a bit Orquid, Vic and Jenna, your co-stars, co-writers, both got nominations. Nominated, yeah. Perhaps it's because your craft was so subtle that they didn't realise you were performing,

that you were actually acting up there. That's right. We'd love to nominate Ian, but we don't know who played him because he's just Ian. That's right. That's right. It's Ian. And Vic and Jenna was playing a just stylised version

of their sort of stage persona, whereas, you know, I felt there was great naturalism in your flailing around for a, for a life of career. I think, yeah, because in some, yeah, a sort of privileged, mediocre, middle-aged white man, it was a challenging role. But with utter self-belief. Yeah.

Unshakeable self-belief. Yeah. Self-belief of those of us who've known you since you were 13 saw then in Ian slash Charles or whatever you call yourself now. Yes, yes, that's right, yes. So, anyway, the point is if this whole wankanomics things goes poor, and I've got to find a new career. Yeah.

I would have thought that acting coaching surely is my calling. That's, yeah, that's pretty good. You know, because I kind of feel like, like you look at sort of the actors of today. And I'm talking about people like, like Merrill Streep, for example. Yes, yes, that's right. And you go, she's good. Don't get me wrong. She's good.

But I could probably give her a few steers about how to be better. I think, I think, yeah, I think when, I mean, When Optics goes to the US and she sees Ian, I mean, she'll contact you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't think you'll need to do anything to get this career going. Yeah. Well, the only risk is that they think that it's a documentary. Oh, yeah.

So realistic. That's true. You know, they'll look at Ian and go, well, it's not an actor. All the cases, the scenarios are very realistic in optics. That's one of the great things about it. It actually is only slightly removed from the truth. Charles, I'm just wondering, though, I mean, you have so many career options at this point. obviously podcast of being chief among them,

but all the other things you've got going on, have you thought of Shakespeare? I can just see... Yes. I've never seen a hamlet done in the style of Ian. Maybe I need to give Shakespeare some pointers in how to write better plays. That's right.

That's right. I can just imagine, I mean, if Ian would have said, to be or not to be, that is the question. Not only would he imbue that line with such pathos and feeling, but it'd have a PowerPoint slide as well,

I imagine, to call back. to a chaser stage show. Yeah, we could, Mark Anthony could come out and list all the reasons why Julius Caesar got murdered. Oh, Richard, yes, Richard the third. I think you could do Richard the third as Ian,

particularly if you were sort of thought of Vic and Jenner is the prince is in the tower who need to be gotten rid of. Yeah, although actually... Isn't I Henry the 4th? I'm Henry the 4th. Ian was Henry the 4th. And Ian was Henry the 4th. It was how.

And then sort of a band. abandoning his, you know, Sir Andrew A.U.T. Well, no, was Sir Andrew A. U.T. in Henry IV? Was that? No, that was 12th night. That was 12th night, right? Yeah. Well, you know, all the sort of little common people who are in.

Yes, the common folk. Oh, he has to leave them behind. That's right. His old... And then he had to leave them behind. I can't remember the name of his old companion that he has to. He's drinking, buddy. Was that full stuff?

Maybe it's full stuff. Yeah, full stuff. So, in some ways, that's actually a bit like me in real life, isn't it? Yeah. At the point in my career where I'm sort of a sense. ending the throne. You are. You've left the chaser behind.

That's right. Within, you know, in six months time, Dom, if you pass me in the street, you know, and you wave to me, I won't even, I'll just blank you, completely blank here. Yeah, but not least because I'll be saying Charles and you'll only answer to Ian by that point. Yes. We shouldn't take away from the fact that it is genuinely. I mean, we should, success comes so rarely in this business and lives of ours, Charles, that we should acknowledge that it's a, it's a, it's a.

genuine achievement to even be in the mix for this. And when you inevitably win the actor award, I just want you to use that opportunity to plug the podcast. That's what I'm really getting at. Yes, okay. Well, I promise. On SBS 2, wherever it is. If I win the actor award for best comedy performer,

I will give a speech entirely about the Chaser Report. That will be my speech. Very good. I promise. And look, that will be very helpful. The only thing I could think of that might actually be even more helpful to publicise this project. Do you think Russell Crowe would write a song about it?

Oh, yes. That's a great idea. There were some blokes with a podcast. I don't know. We'll reach out to his people. And we could threaten, we get him to write it. We threaten to play it on this podcast if people don't listen to the podcast. And then people will be forced to listen to the podcast so that we don't.

broadcast Russell Crowe song on it. See, it's just genius. I think we should potentially see if AI can produce a Russell Crow song about the podcast. You know how to use those tools. Yeah, yeah. We'll get on that. If Charles manages to cobble it together with AI, we'll append it to the end of this episode for your listening torture. There we go.

Well, Charles, thank you for that master class. I didn't feel that I learnt much about acting, but I did feel that you were a worthy winner of whatever the thing is. No, I embodied somebody who was being interviewed about acting. You did, actually. Yeah. Yeah. I've interviewed quite a lot of actors in all sincerity.

Is it a matter? Yeah, I've interviewed quite a lot of actors about their craft. And I had the same sensation of just wishing that they'd stop about 30 seconds into the answer that I have had with some of the great actors of our time when I've interviewed them. Thank you. Well done. That's really, that means a lot.

Thank you. Worthy winner. Okay. We're part of the Oconiclass Network. Catch you to tomorrow if I decide to turn up. Stay tuned for potentially the AI Russell Crow song about The Chase Report. The chaser report my deadly delight laughs so hard I lose my appetite.

Oh, the chaser, they're my flavor. Everyone, I want a savor. And all in short, I wear it proud. Turn it up. Let's get loud.