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Split Personality
TV Week | July 2005

Chris Lilley takes on the five lead roles in a new comedy series

We first got to know him as accident-prone skateboarder Extreme Darren in sketch comedy show Big Bite. Now we're about to be introduced to the five new faces of comedian Chris Lilley: a private schoolgirl, an Asian university student, a beatboxing country kid, a retired police officer and a middleaged housewife with one leg shorter than the other.

Chris, who plays all five of these characters in new mockumentary series We Can Be Heroes, says he had to do a bit of research.

"I went out to private girls' schools and got them to assemble the high-achieving girls in the school,' he explains. "And I went out to a Chinese acting agency and spoke to all these young aspiring actors.'

But when it came to the housewife, his inspiration came from closer to home. "There probably is a bit of my mum in her;' Chris admits.

The series follows the five characters, all of whom have been fictionally nominated for Australian of the Year, in the lead-up to the announcement of the award.

But although the idea sounds comical, the supporting actors play it completely straight - and, to add to the serious tone, respected journalist Jennifer Byrne does the narration.

"She took a while to think about it, because she was like, 'Well, who is this guy?'" Chris reveals. "Her partner is Andrew Denton and he'd seen some little things that I'd done, and he said, 'Yeah, give it a go: I think he talked her into it'