Latest news with #ChrisLilley
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
It was the TV series that took Australia by storm. But now, one of the child stars reveals the heartbreaking reality of Summer Heights High
Child actor Jansen Andre has opened up about the heartbreaking reality of his role on iconic Australian comedy series Summer Heights High. The mockumentary series, created by Chris Lilley, followed the goings on of the titular fictional high school. Appearing on the Mind Your Head podcast, Jansen revealed his turn in the popular series only served to exacerbate bullying he was already experiencing in high school. In the series, Jansen played Sebastian - a year seven student who begins a relationship with Year 11 student Ja'mie King, played by creator Lilley. 'My mum had a talent agency - I grew up a child model. 'I was always in the limelight and kids were always hanging s*** on me,' Jansen explained. 'The biggest one for me, I was in a show called Summer Heights High when I was 11 years old. 'That came out Year seven - first year of high school. My role in that was Sebastian. I was dating Ja'mie who's Chris Lilley in real life, who is actually a guy but was playing a girl.' 'I went to an all boys private school, so you can just imagine what I was copping. All of the terms.' Jansen added that it wasn't just taunts and jibes he was subjected to, but also physical violence. 'School is already a hard time for everyone so for them to have something to grab on to - they'd bash me for it,' he shockingly admitted. 'I would do anything to push those comments away so I could feel like I was part of the group.' Despite only appearing in two episodes of Summer Heights High, Jansen admitted the role haunted him long after its airing. 'I was always the one that was bullied,' he said. 'I had money extorted from he, I was bashed a few times when I was 13 or 14. I got myself into the wrong circles, they turned and we had fights and stuff.' Appearing on the Mind Your Head podcast, Jansen revealed his turn in the popular series only served to exacerbate bullying he was already experiencing in high school Despite his ordeal, Jansen said that he did not resent being cast in the series. 'I don't know if I resented it but it was just fuel to the fire for why I was getting picked on even more,' he said. 'I never look back and wish it never happened. 'I've grown from being that little scared boy that was constantly bullied and pining for validation into the man that I am today and I would never change it.' Jansen's admission comes after Chris Lilley recently revealed the comeback of beloved Summer Heights High character Mr G. The comedian took to Instagram in April to share a clip of himself as the iconic teacher he plays in the series In the video, Chris could be seen crossing his foot, straightening his tie, folding his arms and, of course, awkwardly bouncing on his pink yoga ball. The clip then cut to a grey background where 'Mr G is back' popped up on the screen in red, confirming rumours the Aussie funnyman was bringing his hilarious alter ego back to the screen In July 2021, four of his television shows were removed from Netflix due to concerns over 'blackface' portrayals. It was announced Jonah from Tonga, Angry Boys, Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes would be removed from Netflix in Australia and New Zealand. The shows raised questions about racial discrimination, as several characters were depicted using blackface and brownface.
The Guardian
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Mr G is back, this time in a podcast. The world has moved on – so why hasn't Chris Lilley?
I f your television career has gone to the dogs, never fear: you can always start your own podcast. This appears to be the logic embraced by Chris Lilley, the once sensationally popular Australian comedian best-known for chameleonic performances in sitcoms such as Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes. Lilley would surely prefer it if his new podcast, Mr G's Room, were a full-blown TV series. But things went awfully quiet in Lilley town following Netflix's decision in 2020 to remove four of his shows from its library in response to a debate about his use of blackface, brownface and yellowface in Summer Heights High, Angry Boys, We Can be Heroes and Jonah from Tonga. Lunatics is nasty and grotesque. Chris Lilley's career is shot If that was a nail in the coffin, Mr G's Room reveals Lilley is still inside the pine box, screaming to be heard. His high school drama teacher Greg Gregson, AKA Mr G, who first appeared in Summer Heights High in 2007, now gets his turn at a podcast. And much like Ja'mie King – another famous Lilley creation who also returned in podcast form a few years ago – Mr G feels like a zombie: neither alive nor dead. The premise of the podcast is that Mr G, a delusional narcissist, has launched a 'tell-all' show to expose how he was 'edited to look bad' and 'manipulated by the producers' of Summer Heights High (a show that, by the way, is almost 20 years old; does anybody still care?). Introducing himself as Australia's leading 'high school drama teacher slash entertainment industry professional' because ha ha, he's delusional, Mr G promises to divulge 'juicy behind-the-scenes goss' and ominously declares he'll be 'making it up as I go along'. I tried to keep an open mind, I really did. But 13 or so minutes in, when Mr G began his acting 'masterclass' – a terribly unfunny segment about how to put on an American accent – I could feel my cheeks burning in embarrassment as a voice inside me screamed: 'Make it stop!' There are various aural assaults, including an excruciating theme song (the lyrics: 'Welcome to Mr G's Room, G's Room, G's Room … '), a track from Mr G's production Ikea: The Musical and, in episode two, the equally intolerable There's No Way it's Love Dude. This is a song about a computer who falls in love with a man, which begins with a rhyme that, of course, holds its own against anything by TS Eliot or Bob Dylan: 'I'm sure I turned you off, before I had my shower / Dad said if you're on all night, he'll disconnect the power.' Comedically, Lilley is insulated. Mr G is supposed to be awful: a hack who believes he's brilliant. But that hardly makes the podcast more enjoyable. Unlike in Lilley's TV shows, there's no other characters to encounter, and thus no reprieve. Summer Heights High has significant issues (including Jonah, a highly problematic Tongan character) – but at the time, at least Lilley's shapeshifting performance really did feel like a dazzling magic trick rollercoastering in and out of skins, forming and reforming realities. But by the time 2019's Lunatics arrived, most of us had had enough. Lilley gave the impression of never learning anything from his many controversies; even then, his shtick was looking more than a little old. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion The $64,000 question is: why? Why did Lilley decide to make Mr G's Room? It's possible he just needs the money (episodes of Mr G's Room are being released first to subscribers who chose to pay $4.99 a month). But while recovering from the two episodes that are available for free so far, a more charitable thought came to me. My mind recalled a New York Times profile of Gerald Murnane, which described the celebrated Australian author's 'Antipodean Archive' – essentially a cabinet drawer filled with invented details about a fictitious horse-racing game and the fictitious countries where it takes place. Murnane never told anybody about it, even his wife: it was an alternate history – an alternate world – just for him. Perhaps this is what Lilley has spent the last few years doing – imagining his characters' worlds and histories, letting them run wild in his mind and accumulating details. Maybe Mr G's Room is simply a misjudged personal exercise by a person devoted to keeping his creations alive, even when everybody else has moved on. If this is true, perhaps, like Murnane, he should keep them to himself. Lilley was never great at killing his darlings, but his desire to keep his old characters alive through any means possible now feels weird and a little desperate.
