Have you ever wanted to know exactly how rich your favourite celebrity is? To interrogate an A-lister on their romantic history? Or maybe just spend 45 minutes asking the prime minister anything you want?
The Assembly, a new show on the ABC, puts this power in the hands of 15 journalism students with autism. Based on a popular French format, the series follows students from Macquarie University’s autism-friendly journalism course and their mentor, Leigh Sales. Each week the group interviews some of Australia’s biggest names: figures like Sam Neill, Hamish Blake, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Delta Goodrem, Adam Goodes and Amanda Keller.
The rules are simple – no subjects are out of bounds, no questions are off the table – and the result is a heartwarming, thought-provoking and highly entertaining show that challenges preconceptions of neurodiverse people and shows another side of their interview subjects.
We sat down with Sales to talk about what drew her to the show, stepping into a new role as a mentor, convincing the PM to commit to a no-holds-barred interview in an election year, and the student who tried to set her up with Sam Neill.
Tell me about your involvement with The Assembly.
The ABC approached me last year and said, “We think we’re going to get the rights to this French format – we’d love for you to be involved. Here’s a link to the French version with President Emmanuel Macron.”
There were a couple of things that resonated with me when I saw it. When I was finishing up at 7.30, one of the reasons I felt like it was time for me to go was that it was really hard to get politicians to bust out of the spin ... And when I watched this show, I felt like it makes it really difficult for people not to engage on an authentic level, because the questions are so unique and because the people asking them are so sincere. There’s never any agenda, so it’s really difficult for the other party not to just engage like a normal human.
One of the things I told the ABC when I came back after 7.30 was that I wanted to spend less time on-air so I have more time to mentor and work with younger reporters who are now stepping into on-air roles … [I wanted] to pass on some of what I’ve learned, and this seemed like a way to do that. I’ve found it really satisfying and rewarding to combine an on-air role with [mentoring].
You were such a great mentor to the students. Were there any aspects of interviewing that you thought came more naturally to the students because they were neurodivergent?
One of the main things you want to do in a celebrity interview is to come up with questions they haven’t been asked before that they might find engaging … The students were really adept at coming up with original, imaginative and unexpected questions, which means the talent is going to be more engaged.
It also seemed like all of the interviews were approached without any sort of agenda in mind.
Hamish [Blake] made such an astute observation. Dylan asked him, “How much money do you have in dollars and cents?” And, you know, there’d be a million journalists who would want to know how much money Hamish and Zoë [Foster Blake] have. As Hamish said, “If a journalist asked me that, you’d just know there was an agenda, but Dylan said it with just genuine curiosity.”
A journalist would have couched it like, “Obviously you’ve been very successful, but how successful are we talking? Millions? Tens of millions?” And the thing I respected about Hamish was that after he joked around a bit he said, “I’ll just be honest – I’ve got millions. I have been very lucky.” He didn’t attempt to hide the fact that he’s very wealthy. He’s very talented and he’s worked super hard, so I was impressed that he owned that and was just honest about it. He answered in the spirit in which the question was asked.
On the French show, Les Rencontres du Papotin, there’s a great moment where they ask President Emmanuel Macron about marrying his teacher.
That was absolute gold. One of the moments that persuaded me to do the show was when the guy sitting next to [Macron] called him out for giving a spin answer, saying, “She’s not my real teacher, she’s a drama teacher.”
There’s another great one in the British version where the actor Michael Sheen is asked about the fact that his girlfriend is about the same age as his daughter, and they ask him really bluntly.
The participants on the original French show are the staff of a magazine run by autistic journalists. Is that something you’d like to see your students take on, or would you like to see them better integrated into existing institutions?
Both would be fantastic. With The Assembly, what we’ve done is work to get the 15 participants paid internships in the ABC. We toured them around the ABC to see which departments they gravitated towards and give them a pathway to integrate into existing workplaces.
And the reality is not everyone who has dipped a toe in this water is going to want to end up working in the media. Some of them will have viewed it as just a fun thing to do – although all 15 have taken advantage of the paid internships. But I think it would be awesome if the show goes to season two with a different group of people and other media organisations were open to incorporating the participants into their teams too.
There was such a great bond between you and the students. They even tried to set you up with Sam Neill!
That was Dale just dropping that out there! They’re meant to run the questions by me [beforehand], and then he dropped that one in. And, of course, for weeks after they were like, “Have you gone on a date with Sam yet? What’s happened with your date with Sam?”
How did you go about picking interviewees? Was it difficult to convince them to sign up for such a no-holds-barred interview?
I feel like I absolutely owe the prime minister one, because you can imagine how that pitch is : “We’re going to have 15 neurodiverse people, they’ll all be in a room, they can ask anything they like and I’ll have limited control over what happens. How about it?” In an election year!
And that was the same for everyone, because nobody’s seen the format. It was a big ask for people. I spoke to a number of them personally and said, “Look, I’ve seen it, I’m involved with it. I wouldn’t be a part of it if I didn’t think it was going to be amazing.”
We had a wish list of guests, and we just ran through it. The participants all wanted Chris Hemsworth! They were desperate for Chris Hemsworth, who unfortunately we couldn’t land, but they seemed really happy with the people that we did.
One of the students asked Hamish Blake, “You’ve interviewed so many people. What answer most changed your perspective on life?” Was there a question on this show that similarly changed your perspective?
There was one I wrote down to steal and use myself later. Silas asked Hamish Blake, “Have you ever told a joke that you’ve regretted?” That is such a good question for any long-term comedian, like a Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle, Steve Martin – any big celebrity comedian who’s been around a long time. It’s a really interesting question about self-reflection, and it opens up a whole potential line of conversation about cancel culture and what’s acceptable to say and so on. I just thought it was cracker, so I banked that to use later.
Amanda Keller was asked an amazing question, also by Silas, which is, “What is the last sound you’d like to hear before you die?” … On several occasions I’ve interviewed people who’ve been close to the end of their lives, and I feel like that that’s a very evocative question.
The whole thing reminded me of the power of asking people something they haven’t been asked before, because it engages them, and also [the power of] sincerity. If you’re genuinely curious, you can pretty much ask anything and people will respond in good faith.
What else will you take away from the show?
Just reminders of things that we all kind of know, but that are easy to forget. Like, I know this sounds so cliche, but the classic “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Like Dylan – if you didn’t have a conversation with him, you might think he has a cognitive impairment or something like that. When we were prepping for the Delta Goodrem interview, he said he wanted to ask her “What does it feel like to be confident?” And it just absolutely smashed me. I could hardly speak I was so emotional. I thought, “Oh my god, imagine going through life and not knowing the feeling of confidence because you’ve never felt confident ever.” It reminded me that there’s a lot more going on in Dylan’s head, and you don’t want to make an assumption about what people are like and what their capabilities are.
The most rewarding thing by far was watching the way the students evolved over the course of the project. At the start, people were quite shy and introverted and anxious, but they all got on really well and supported each other. They just blossomed and their confidence grew so much. That made me so happy, because I felt like even if none of them decide they wanted to work in the media, surely they could take that experience and go, “Wow! I did something that was really out of my comfort zone, and it was great.”
The Assembly premiers on Tuesday August 20 at 8.30pm on ABC TV, with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview
