Everyone’s favourite jungle-themed celebrity-led reality TV show is set to hit our screens this January. And Julia Morris is back to helm I’m A Celeb… for her twelfth season.
“It feels like you are going away to the camp where you know there’s going to be orienteering and you know you’re not fit enough for it,” Julia says as we chat ahead of the latest season.
“This is my favourite, favourite, possibly job of my lifetime. We literally spend all year just waiting to go back.”
But it’s not without its sacrifices, notably, the jet lag travelling from the South African jungle back to Australia.
“It’s all feeling quite discombobulated,” she says. “Jet lag… It’s a brutality. You’re tired by 3 p,m and it’s like, oh my god, I can’t get up. But look, you’ve got to sacrifice yourself for your art, right?”
This year, I’m a Celeb is changing up its format a bit. Instead of relying on live shows, audience interaction, and voting, celebrities will be choosing amongst themselves to put each other up for a challenge. A little like Australian Survivor or Lord of the Flies, I ask?
“Absolutely. It’s the Lord of the Spitting Cobras,” Julia responds.
“I think it generates a series of super interesting moments where if you have to choose someone at work for a job that’s not as nice, how does that make them feel? Why’d you choose me?”
Deciding who to vote on is particularly interesting, as then the celebrities have to deal with the fallout of the decisions.
“From paranoia to elation to so many different feelings when you have to sit side by side with someone, and they just put you in a trial that, you know, they know you don’t want to do.”
But Julia says the new format will generate great moments.
“Everybody is cheeky, but this particular collection of celebrities, each person is bringing such a very different slice of society, I think. And lots of different ideas sitting side by side. And, you know, we get to see great cohesion.
“We get to see what people are made of when they go into an incredibly high-pressure situation.”
In previous seasons, a lot of the celebrities had very deep emotional revelations or admissions. For viewers at home, it was like listening in on a therapy session, jungle therapy.
“I always think anyone who’s done therapy beforehand does really well in the jungle because they’ve already dealt with their demons,” Julia says; however, they all go through the ringer and not with the bush tucker trials.
“But what is a big shock, I think, for every celebrity that goes in there is the absolute tech detox, communication detox, any of the little devices that we have in our life, like at the end of a really hard day, there’s that one mate you’ll text saying, you know, this person’s a knuckle. You’re not able to do that; you can only rely emotionally on those around you and yourself. [You’re] not being able to contact family.”
Sitting with yourself in stillness is not natural for many Australian celebrities, even Julia herself she admits.
“Most Australian celebrities will be hustlers, you know, hustling for work. It doesn’t matter what age you are; I’m 58, still hustling for work. So when you have the hustle taken away, and you have to sit with yourself, I think it’s a really fascinating observation in what the human being does when things actually calm down.”
But would Julia put herself in a jungle detox?
“I think I would like to, but I’m not sure that the… I’m not sure I can regulate my emotions enough to do several days in a row.” Not with her “constant bedfellow”: ADHD.
“My spectrum stuff has me eating a lot of the same stuff most days,” so bush tucker trials wouldn’t be her strong suit.
“I honestly get a little bit jealous of them through the series where I’m like, “Oh, you’re lucky ducks, my phone’s been nonstop.”
But we probably won’t get Julia in the jungle anytime soon.
“I know the UK has sort of sniffed around a few times, and I admire our celebrities going in. I wonder if I would have that fortitude,” she takes a beat. “Maybe I would just go as I did with The Celebrity Apprentice all those years ago, I just go and hope to last.”
“Maybe I should make my home its own jungle, and each day I should do a trial or a challenge to empty the dishwasher. It’s going to be exciting.”
But the crux of it, the slight envy, is time and comfort.
“The older you get, the more you realise that time is the greatest commodity,” she says. “We shape our lives for the maximum comfort that we can provide. And so, all of a sudden, you’re going to zero comforts. You don’t even have a mattress on that bed. Oh, the whinging I would do, my God, it would be out of this world.”
And Julia is unapologetic when it comes to ensuring her comfort – without sacrificing style. She made a huge impact at the TV WEEK Logie Awards when she revealed that, unlike her counterparts on the red carpet, she opted for trainers instead of high heels.
“I have the same designer each year who kindly makes me either a gown, a suit, or just something amazing. He’s a very old friend, and I love him. When he says to me, “What shoes this year?” And I say, “trainers” his face drops, but then he also accepts it, which is the most beautiful moment. He’s like, “Right, let’s take this to the floor.’”
And her fellow celebrities were perhaps a bit envious.
“Every single woman that passes me on the carpet was like, “How come you get to wear that?”
Poh Ling Yeow had the best response.
“She said I had the luckiest feet of the night!”
“I was like, you have no idea. I was so comfy. And also allows you to run around. I feel like there’s a lot of different sides of the [fashion] industry getting involved to make positive changes. So, women can get away. Like, has there been a better shoe design than the high heel for women not to be able to get away?”
“We want to run when we’re ready, so the time is nigh.”
And still look fabulous while wearing trainers.
“And I don’t want to look younger, but I feel like it just gives me a slightly younger edge. What it does make me feel is that I look a bit groovier than just a standard sexy secretary. Here I am in heels and a nice straight skirt, which also looks beautiful. But [in trainers] you’re grounded, closer to the ground.
And then of course, [heels] are just not sustainable in countries like… the River Canyon. When I’m standing next to my beloved 21-year-old co-host. I don’t know, it just looks a bit like, “Hi, your grandma’s taking everybody out for an outing.”
Speaking of her co-host, Robert Irwin, he’s coming back for his third time on the show.
“I think that he’s better than me,” Julia says Robert’s hosting. “I am so, so, so deeply in love on every single level except for the sexy level. Like, he is such an incredible human.”
And he’s presenting right off the back of winning Dancing with the Stars in the United States.
“So, he won the ball. They went to New York to do all their interviews. After all those interviews were done, he lifted his wheels directly to Africa. And then we started work the next day. Everyone was super conscious that he would be broken, but in true Robert form, he was just like, no, this is a job my heart’s been waiting to get back to. He was just ready like Freddie”
And I’m a Celeb has already been incorporating Robert’s newfound dancing skills in the promos and, Julia teases, on set as well.
“I reignited the body roll,” she shares. “There was a lot more dance moves on the set this year.”
And happy hosts having a good time can only translate to the audience and the celebrities, she says.
“I think once the hosts are having genuine fun, that just bleeds out through everyone. Every time we got to cross paths with our celebrities, they came with a really different attitude this year. They came with, “Oh my God, good to see you guys”. In years gone by, [celebrities have said], “Oh, you’re going to punish us.” There was none of the you against us. It felt like we were all making an incredibly special show together, which sounds a bit like peace, love and understanding. It’s not meant to, but when you’ve worked on a show for 11 years, to have the 12 feel so different, that’s been, yeah, really exciting.”
And right now, we all need a show we can all come together and enjoy with one another. In the wake of bushfires, floods, and the tragic terror attack at Bondi, laughter can bring us together.
“From Bondi to the fires to the floods to people desperately trying to put two cents together, the very least we can expect is some great laughter that we can sit down with our families to watch,” Julia says.
“I think it does bring everybody together. It’s just before the school year goes back. It’s before everyone gets solidly back into the psycho side of their work.”
Even Julia watches with her family.
“I would sit down with the girls and the girls [would] not be either embarrassed or say “that’s too far”. This is a show where we sit, and we can laugh hard together. At a minimum, more laughs every day are going to improve this planet.”
“I’ve got to get it on a tea towel.”
Tune into I’m A Celebrity Get me out of Here Australia on Channel 10 and 10Play.
