Chris Lilley » Articles

New heights
TV Week | 2008

Summer Heights High's Chris Lilley chats to TV WEEK about his next big move

After all your success, are you recognised a lot more when you're out and about?
Yeah. I went over to London before the show started in the UK and I had a lot of recognition over there just from people who'd seen the DVD or YouTube. I thought I'd be quite anonymous there, but I was at a train station and had a guy yell out, "Jonah!" It was bizarre.

After the success of Mr G's single "Naughty Girl", can we expect a Ja'mie single?
The Mr G single was very fun, but it was a one-off thing. I'm not planning any more SHH spin-offs again. I could spend the next year doing those sorts of things, but I'd rather spend my time working on new projects.

Are there any celebrities you'd like to work with?
I prefer working with real people. In the last two shows, I cast real people who weren't actually actors and I find them much more interesting. That's how the shows work. Often the people I've met doing research have ended up being cast. I never actually work with any actors.

Would you like to follow in the footsteps of other comedic actors and try your hand at drama?
I really love doing comedy and, at the moment, I can't see beyond wanting to do that, but I could imagine that sometime in the future, it might be a nice thing to do. But I'm obsessed with writing my own stuff. As great as it is to pick up someone else's script, I just wouldn't be as excited.

Where do you keep your Logies?
On a shelf at home. I had them out on display for a while and then I put them away because I thought it was a bit embarrassing. And then I decided to rejoice in it and had them on either side of the TV for a while. They've been around. They go on visits to people.

Do they go on tour?
Yeah. My mum's had a good go of the Logies. But she came to visit me and she wanted to take a Logie to the airport to see it off. She pulled it out of her bag and was running with it and whacked it into a handrail and chipped it. She claims she didn't do it, but I heard the noise.

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