Jesse Spencer

I have no idea who Jesse Spencer is, so this is fun. I love these mysteries.

Is he an actor? Writer? Politician? Murderer?

Well.....

This Jesse Spencer is kind of handsome. He's a bit adorable. Lord Wiki has photographs of him. So while I do my research, I can sit here and stare.

In all honesty, though, I only find him appealing in the top photo. The other photos don't excite me much.

Spencer is on House. I've watched that a few times, so I may have seen him. He's also known for being Billy Kennedy on Neighbours.

Spencer isn't a doctor. He just plays one on TV. But it looks like all his siblings are in the medical field...for real. One brother is an orthopaedic registrar. I've never heard of that. I'm thinking it's an Australian term. Well, I know it must have something to do with bones. I got that. Then the other brother is an oculoplastic surgeon. I had to look that up. It's a plastic surgeon who does work around the eyes.

I don't want to jinx myself by saying this....but this might be a fascinating day of research.

Daddy and Mommy Spencer have founded their own political party. What is it? Australians Against Further Immigration. Wow. And yeah. There are rumors that it's racist. Well, it's kind of gone now. Lord Wiki says it ceased to exist in 2008.

I'm hoping that Jesse Spencer doesn't support his parent's ideology, because well....didn't he kind of immigrate to America? That would be a bit hypocritical. Although maybe they support temporary residency. Maybe Spencer plans to return to Australia.

Anyway....

Spencer was born in Melbourne, on 12 February 1979.

He went to Canterbury Primary School, Malvern Central School, and Scotch College. I wonder which school he was attending when his parents started the political party. Did his classmates know about it? What about kids who were immigrants? I wonder how they felt about it. Although maybe the party wasn't against people who had already immigrated. As they say in their name, they're against FUTURE immigrants. Maybe if you already immigrated, they're fine with you.

Okay. I'm not going to be able to move on until I read more about this.

This blogger pretty much says what I just said. Spencer's parents have said they're proud of their son, and his career. Yet, he's done the exact thing that they've said they're against. How can you be against immigration but then support your child being an immigrant to another country? Is it because he's white?

Lord Wiki says that Australians Against Immigration weren't just against immigrants. They were against multiculturalism. In my experience, when someone says they're against multiculturalism, it usually means they're against including cultures that belong to people with darker skin. They usually don't have problems with German, Swedish, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, and French cultures. I could be wrong.

This website says that Australians Against Further Immigration claimed to be Eco-Nationalist. As Tim Flannery tells us....too many people is not good for Australia. And there's a lot of truth to that. We have to slow down on population growth....EVERYWHERE. But that's not just about immigration. It's also about slowing down the birth rate. Did Mrs. and Mr. Spencer promote that? If they're all into keeping the population of Australia low, why did they have four children? Those children might end up having children. How many descendants might that be?

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All right. Let's get back to the son of those politicians. I'll go to IMDb for his career.

His first screen appearance was, in 1994, as a guest star in an American TV show filmed in Australia. This was Time Trax Spencer would have been about fifteen then.

YouTube actually has a clip. I didn't expect that. He speaks a weird alien language, well because he's an alien. Isn't that like an immigrant? Although it looks like he's more accidentally visiting.

Also in 1994, Spencer began working on Neighbours. I'm not sure what came first, that or Time Trax.

I'm still watching the clip from Time Trax. This woman is giving a little lesson about Spencer's alien people. They don't age as humans do. They develop in spurts. It's like the Sims.

Spencer was on Neighbours until 2000. I guess he got popular towards the end. In 1998 and 1999, he was nominated for a Logie.

I'm going to read about Billy Kennedy on my favorite Neighbours website.

When Billy first moved to the neighborhood, he found a girlfriend. But she dumped him when Billy's friend Hannah had jealousy issues.

Next, Billy had a thing for an older woman—his violin teacher.

Billy had asthma. In order to improve his health, he took up swimming. One day, he took a swim right before a date. Oh no! Guess what happened. His hair turned green. But that's okay. The girl had been using him. She was really after Billy's brother.

Ah. This is awesome. I love it. This girl (Olivia) actually liked the green hair, and it made her become truly interested in Billy. Now she saw him as some kind of wild thing.

Later, Spencer dated Melissa. He read her diary. I don't think she liked that.

Spencer had dyslexia and was being tutored by a teacher who happened to be gay. Melissa was a bit homophobic, so that caused problems in their relationship. This video has Spencer trying to dump Melissa.

They broke up. Melissa started dating one of Billy's friends, Toadfish.. This kind of messed up the Toadfish-Billy friendship. But then Melissa and Billy found their way back to each other's arms. And Billy and Toadfish patched up their friendship.

Eventually, though, the Melissa and Billy relationship came to an end.

Billy next fell in love with Anne. It sounds like maybe they were some kind of super couple. Of course, when a soap opera has a super couple, the ex has to return to mess things up. I'm not sure if Melissa purposely caused problems. But the Neighbours website says that Billy made an unfortunate name error. It's like Ross on Friends, when he said Rachel instead of Emily.

I guess Billy worked through his confusion. It sounds like he and Anne had some happy times together. Some of those fun times brought them some embarrassment. Billy worked at the pool, and took advantage of this to have some romantic evening hours alone with Anne. They kissed, and it was recorded on the security camera. Then, somehow, tapes got confused, and their kissing was shown to a classroom of kids.

Uh....you know, that sounds like something from Friends as well. Remember, when Ross and Rachel had that romantic evening where Ross worked....the museum. They didn't end up being watched on video, but I think, in the morning, they were discovered by young museum visitors.

I can't help but wonder if one show was inspired by the other.

It looks like Billy had a thing about reading girl's diaries. In this video, he angers Anne by doing it. Although maybe the Neighbour's website got confused, and was thinking this was Melissa. I don't know.

Here's a happier moment between the two. This might be that pool scene.

Anne's half brother's sister came into town. This was Caitlin. Billy and Caitlin started spending some time together. This caused some problems.

Oh wait. There's talk about the diary here. I guess he did read both! He didn't learn his lesson the first time.

I'm not going to go on and on. Basically, Billy and Anne were very on again-off again. Eventually, they obtained happily ever after. This was done by leaving the show. It's the only way to do it in soap opera land. If you want a happy and healthy relationship, you gotta leave.

Let's get back to Billy's alter-ego.

It looks like Spencer didn't do much other acting work while he was on Neighbours. Well, at least not screen work. He did do some do some theatre stuff in the UK. Lord Wiki says he played Peter Pan, and Jack from Jack in the Beanstalk. I guess he had some time off from the soap opera.

In 2000, Spencer appeared in a British TV movie called Lorna Doone. In America, we have Lorna Doone cookies. For some reason, I associate them with my sister being in the hospital. Maybe one of her nurses ate them? Or maybe we had a nurse named Lorna, and we thought of the cookies?

The Lorna Doone, in the miniseries, is not a cookie. She's part of an out-law family, created by author R.D Blackmore. Lord Wiki says he's heard rumors that Lorna Doone was the favorite book of Ned Kelly.

In 2001, Spencer was in an American horror TV movie called Curse of the Talisman. It was filmed in Australia. An IMDb user says, this movie has a somewhat intriguing storyline pretty much ruined by actors doing bizarre American accents (Is that a Canadian, British or Australian accent lurking below?) and many not-so-terrific line readings, unfortunately, mostly by the lead actors, who range from passable to really awful.

I think it's pretty hard to mess up an American accent. There's so many different ones! If I hear an American sounding a bit...different, I just assume he's from a part of the country I don't often hear from. That being said, I have seen videos of Australian students playing Americans in school plays. This taught me that although it's hard to screw up on an American accent, it's not impossible.

The IMDb goofs page says that a character is shown reading The Australian. That would be okay, except the movie's supposed to take place in America. Australian newspapers aren't readily available here. Who knows, though. Maybe the character is an American like me...very interested in Australia. I bet he could get his hands on a Aussie newspaper, if he tried hard enough.

Also in 2001, Spencer did an Olson twin movie; Winning London.

Here's a video. I think it's fan-made. Spencer appears at :13. His British accent is cute. It looks like it's a sweet fun family movie.

In 2002, Spencer did another American TV movie; Stranded. This one was filmed in Thailand. It's a Swiss Family Robinson story. In fact, the family's last name is Robinson. Spencer plays Fritz Robinson. I think that's a character in the original story. We used to have a Swiss Family Robinson computer game, and I'm remembering that name.

Yeah. This website confirms it. The character names come from the original novel.

You know, we never managed to win and save the family. They always ended up starving.

I remember seeing a bit of a Swiss Family Robinson TV movie. I wonder if this was it.

Here's a scene from the movie. That one didn't have much of Spencer in it. Let me try for
another. Here's the trailer. I think they're sort of making reference to Lost at the end. And here's a scene that shows more of Spencer. He doesn't do much talking. It's more of a swimming/kissing scene. At least this kiss didn't get video-taped and shown to a class.

Spencer did more swimming in 2003. He starred in an Australian biopic called Swimming Upstream.

Ah! I thought it sounded familar. This is the movie with Geoffrey Rush.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this the last time I wrote about the movie. The swimmer, Tony Fingleton, went on to become a screenwriter. He wrote Drop Dead Fred.

Here's the trailer for Swimming Upstream. I'm sure I've watched it before, but I'll watch it again. It looks good but sad....painful.

In 2003, Spencer was in that Brittany Murphy movie; Uptown Girls. This is the one where Murphy babysits Dakota Fanning. Speaking of Fanning, I saw her recently in New Moon. I was impressed. She does well at playing evil.

Here's the trailer. It looks a bit like the Nanny Diaries. Okay, I have to admit it. That trailer gave me a little tear. It was the end when Murphy says, I don't see any grown-ups around here, and Fanning says, I do.

Hey, I have another Friends reference. Do you remember when Dakota Fanning was on the show? She played a child that Joey meets while they're looking at a house. Here's her scene. And then I think there's a joke where one of the other friends tell Joey that there was no little girl living at the house, making him think she was a ghost.

Also in 2003, Spencer did another British TV movie; Death in Holy Orders. This is a Scotland Yard mystery thing. A Jesse Spencer fan has compiled some clips from the movie. At 1:57 you can see Spencer naked.

The video might have some spoilers, so don't watch it if you don't want to be exposed to that.

In 2004, Spencer started working on House. The trivia page says that Spencer's character is an Intensivist, which is a doctor that specializes in intensive care. It's not a common position in America, but it is in Australia.

I'm going to get back to that show in a few minutes. First I want to finish up the filmography, and other IMDb stuff.

In 2006, Spencer was in the movie Flourish. His House co-star, Jennifer Morrison was in this. The two were engaged for awhile but then they broke up.

Here's the trailer for Flourish. It looks really awful. Am I missing something here?

Spencer has an official website. Here's his bio page. It's written in first-person. I wonder if he wrote it himself. He doesn't mention that his parents were the founders of the Australians Against Future Immigration Party.

He does say he was in the Australian Boys Choir.

Let's get back to House. Spencer plays Robert Chase. Lord Wiki says that Dr. Chase is Australian. I wasn't sure about that. Yeah. It's sad. Despite the fact that I have this whole Australia blog, I still sometimes can't tell British accents from Australian ones. There's very-British, and Very-Australian. Then there's that in-between that completely confuses me.

Dr. Chase has had a romance going on with Dr. Allison Cameron. She's played by Spencer's ex-fiance. I can imagine it's hard to play romance scenes when the real-life romance has ended.

Dr. Chase was a former seminary student. As a doctor, he has a strong tendency to go with whatever House thinks is the right thing to do. I'm not sure if this is a brown-nosing thing or a lack of assertiveness. But, in later seasons, he becomes more assertive. In fact, he speaks up and gets himself fired.

Dr. Chase has a thing against substance-abusers...probably because his mother was one.

Lord Wiki says Chase is very secretive about his life, and his biographical information is gradually revealed on the show.

Wow. Now here's an intense storyline. Dr. Chase murders a patient. He does this by purposely misdiagnosing him, so he would get treatment guaranteed to kill him. Dr. Chase does this, because the patient is an African dictator who planned on doing an ethnic cleansing. Dr. Chase prevented this. He says he wants to keep it quiet, because if people know the dictator was murdered, they'll turn him into a martyr.

Lord Wiki says Dr. Chase was originally supposed to be American, but then they changed it to British. Spencer convinced them to make it an Australian character, since there aren't many Australian characters on TV. Are there any other Australian characters on American TV right now? Oh yeah. Claire. How could I forget her? Any others?

I'm going to watch some Robert Chase videos now. There's a lot of fan stuff here. I'll try to find one with a song I like.

Most fan videos don't impress me much, but I saw Lost ones yesterday that I really liked. They're done by a YouTube user named RenoWeHaveToGoBack. He does more than just stick clips together, and slap on a soundtrack. His YouTube page is a bit of a mess, though. I'm not sure if that's his fault or YouTube's. Here's his trailer for season six.

Oh yeah. Back to Robert Chase.....

I'm trying to find something where there is dialogue mixed in with the music. I like that. This is what I usually did when I made videos.

I think I'll skip the fan videos, and just watch part of an episode. Here's one in which a guy can't get rid of his erection.

I like Hugh Laurie.

I'm waiting to see Spencer. Maybe he's not in this video.

Here we go. Finally. He's at 7:25.

Here's part of that African-dictator episodes. The African Dictator is Darth Vader!

This is interesting. I should watch more of that show...or maybe not. Medical shows get me all paranoid.

Here's Spencer on some American morning talk show. They talk about how his Dad and siblings are all doctors. I doubt he'll mention their political stuff. I want him to.

Spencer jokes that he's more qualified than all of his family. Then they talk about how in reality his family calls him after watching the show to nitpick. Spencer says that they like to outdiagnose House.

Now he's going to play the didgeridoo. That's pretty cool.

Here's a clip from a 60 minutes interview with Spencer. He says it can be strange playing an Australian on American TV because of phrasing issues. He uses the word math for example. He say Australians don't say that. Really? I didn't know that. What do they say instead?

Anyway, he could just explain this to the writers. But on the other hand, the character is living in America. It would make sense that he'd pick up American phrases.

The interview shows Spencer at a shooting range. This is probably stereotyping, but that does fit in well with the whole right-wing political party stuff.

Spencer says he has a Visa. It's the entertainment one. And on the visa, it says, Alien with extraordinary ability. Maybe I'm in a silly mood, but that really cracked me up.

Spencer jokes that us yanks are going to wise up to the fact that all these Australians are taking jobs from American actors. It might be the type of thing his mother would say regarding immigrants in Australia.

I know I'm being harsh. And immigration does cause problems. The world would be a much easier place if we had a very low population, and the only ones who lived in our country were ones that shared our culture. Immigrants use up our resources. They take our jobs. And as we've learned from toddlers, it's HARD to share. And it's also hard to cooperate with people who seem so different from us.

But there are two realities that put me in opposition to Mr. and Mrs. Spencer's political beliefs.

A) The whole world is overcrowded. If all the paranoid global warming people are correct, it may get worse. Oceans may rise and cover land. There will be more tsunami's and hurricanes. Refugees will need new places to live. It may be best for countries like America and Australia to slam their door shut. But it's NOT what's best for the world...and for humanity.

B) White Americans and Australians came to countries already owned and occupied by others. They arrogantly took over this land, and caused ecological havoc. They have no right to complain about future immigrants.

You know what I'm thinking about? A movie theater.

If you go to a movie on a Wednesday night, and you see something that's been out for awhile....you can expect to have a lot of personal space. You and your companions can probably get a whole row to yourselves. And you won't likely have anyone sitting in front of you. Things will be nice and quiet. I think that's how Mr. and Mrs. Spencer would like Australia to be....quiet and peaceful.

But our world is now much more like Friday night at the movies...when something huge has just premiered. If you want a decent seat, you have to show up early. And even then, it's likely some tall person is going to sit in front of you. There are people all around. Some of them don't smell so good. Some people talk too much. There are parts of the movie you can't hear. It's really hard to get up, and go the bathroom. You have to squish past all these legs.

I like my analogy, although it's kind of depressing. I'm not anti-immigrant, but I do dislike crowds. It's scary to think that things are going to get even more crowded. We should really push forward with the colonizing other planets agenda.

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