Ian Meadows

Today I'm going to learn about the actor Ian Meadows. He plays Dan Moody on A Moody Christmas, and also on The Moody's.  He's probably been in other stuff as well and hopefully, I'll read about that today.

On A Moody Christmas, Dan Moody is a photographer living in London. He returns home to Australia to spend Christmas with his family. The series has six episodes, and each episode is another year and another Christmas. The main storyline for Dan is that he's in love with his cousin's girlfriend.

I feel like my writing is really blah today.

I hope it gets better.

I usually plan to write a short introduction before diving into IMDb. Then I end up writing paragraphs upon paragraphs. I blab on and on. Today, that's not happening.

Maybe it's a good thing.

Let's go to the bio on IMDb.

Ian Meadows was born in Western Australia in 1983.  That means he's probably 31 now.

He's a fan of Heartbreak High, and he got to work with Callan Mulvey who was one of the stars. It might be fun to work with someone from a show you love. Or it could end up being really disappointing.

Like me, Meadows is a middle child. He has a mixed family, though—a brother and a sister. In my family, we're all girls.

Before Meadows became an actor, he wished to play in the AFL. I wonder if he had talent in that. Or was it just wishful thinking type stuff?

Now I'm going to go have a look at the Ian Meadows IMDb filmography.

I see here that he's done some writing and one of the things he wrote was an episode of Offspring.

It was season 2, episode 5. Do I have that on iTunes? Let me go check....

I have it.

I'm going to skim through it.

Mick and Billie are talking about making a baby with Andrew. Nina is struggling with Fraser issues. That's the guy who was working under her and then they had some romance. Fraser performed badly at work, and Nina is struggling to figure out how to deal with someone's work issues when you also have a personal relationship with them. Patrick is there, but he and Nina aren't dating yet.

The episode is lovely, so kudos to Meadows for that.

Meadow's first screen thing was in 2003. He was in a short film with a long name: John 'Rocky' Robinson: Roll with the Punches. It's available on YouTube, so I'll try to watch it later.

Then Meadow appeared in The Shark Net— the Robert Drewe story about the Western Australia serial killer. Meadows played Richie. I don't think his role was big in the film.

According to these Penguin notes, in the book, Richie is Robert Drew's friend who tragically drowns.

I read the book, but it's been awhile. I don't remember much about it.

I'm going to watch the trailer. I don't know if Meadows is in it. I'm just curious. I'm hoping it sparks my memory a bit.

Since Meadow played a friend of Robert, he might be in this scene at :33. There are three male friends at the beach together. I'm thinking Meadows might be the guy on the right. Though I can't say he looks a lot like Dan Moody. There's maybe a slight resemblance.

Dan Wylie is in the movie. I think he's the killer.

I'm starting to feel I've written about this before.

Between 2003 and 2005, Meadows was in two other short films. I can't find them online, so I'm going to skip talking about them.

In 2006, Meadows appeared in the 18th episode of the 9th season of All Saints. I'm still watching the first season of that.  I'm looking at Meadow's episode—the cast list. The only actor leftover from season one is Judith McGrath.

On the episode, Meadows played Jeff Weiss.

I was looking for information about the episode on this Australian Television website. They have photos and I ran across one of Alex Cook who played the unfortunate Lou on Love My Way. She doesn't look too healthy on All Saints either.  The description says, there's something fishy about a little girl's illness. I'm betting it's a Munchausen by Proxy type storyline.

Anyway....

I should get back to Ian Meadows.

Well, the description of the 18th episode doesn't mention a Jeff Weiss. There's mention of a young man who's gotten a new liver. Maybe this is Weiss.

Actually, the episode is on YouTube. I shall skim through and see if I can find Meadows.

I found him. He's at 15:34, and he IS the liver transplant patient.

It seems maybe the Australian television website had it wrong. It's a kidney the guy received not a liver.

Also in 2006, Meadows was in the short film Iron Bird. I can't find the entire film online, but I did find a trailer. I'm going to watch that now.

No, never mind. It's not a trailer. It's a scene.

Meadows wasn't there.

Meadows appeared in three episodes of a British-Australian series called Tripping Over. It's an adventure show about traveling.

Lord Wiki says it involves young adults from London and Sydney who decide to visit each other's countries. Their parents know each other, but they don't. All the friends meet at a stopover in Thailand. Something bad happens.

Meadows isn't listed in the main cast, so he might have had a small role.

From 2006-2007. Meadows was on sixteen episodes of Home and Away!  He played Rocco Cooper.

Here's Rocco Cooper's biography on the Back to the Bay site.

Rocco Cooper was an ex-gang member. Ah! It turns out Sally Fletcher became a deputy principal. I didn't know that.

So anyway, Sally Fletcher gave permission for Rocco to attend the school even though the principal wasn't keen on the idea.

Oh! You know what. I think I've read this storyline before. It's with a gang member who wants his brother to get back in the gang. I think the brother was Callan Mulvey. So this is what IMDb was talking about when they said Meadows got the chance to work with Mulvey.

There's a movie here in 2007, but I can't find much info on it. So I'm going to skip it. I pretty much skip anything if the only information I can find on it is from IMDb.

In 2009, Meadows was in a short film called Water. It's available on Vimeo, so I'll watch it later.

Also in 2009, Meadows appeared in a TV movie called 3 Acts of Murder.  It's based on a true story and looks pretty interesting. It's about a crime writer in 1929 who shows his murder story plot to some friends. Then one of the friends puts the idea to real life use. Oops.

Here's the trailer.  From the trailer, I get the idea that maybe I'm wrong about the friend thing. It might have been more like an acquaintance who was eavesdropping.

I just asked Lord Wiki about Meadow's character in the film. This is someone named George Lloyd. All Lord Wiki says is that George Lloyd was a guy seen with Snowy Rowles, the murderer.

Meadows appeared in the Bruce Beresford movie Mao's Last Dancer.  I have vague memories of this film.

I'm looking at the cast. It's long. Kyle McLachlan is in it! I didn't know that.

Meadow's plays a character without a name. He's the WTC Backstage manager. What is WTC? The first word that comes to my mind for those initials is the World Trade Center. Could that be it? I'm kind of doubting it.

Well, it looks like it actually is. Here's a website about the World Trade Center in movies, and they have Mao's Last Dancer on their list.

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In 2010, Meadows appeared in that American miniseries filmed in Australia. The Pacific. He was in the 2nd episode of the 1st season. According to Lord Wiki's cousin, Meadows played a minor character named Cecil Evans.

In 2011, Meadows was in the TV movie Underbelly Files: The Man Who Got Away. I think I wrote about the movie when I wrote about Clair Van Der Boom.  It's about a drug smuggler. Meadows plays a sergeant named Tim Fry.

Here's a trailer for the movie. I'm doubting Meadows will be in it. But I'm going to watch just in case.

No! I'm wrong. He's in the trailer. He's there at around :29.

Oh crap. I have to rewind. I missed something on the filmography from 2010. Like usual, IMDb has managed to confuse me.

So...in 2010, Meadows was in the 3rd season of Rush. He played James Vincent in five episodes.

I can't find anything about James Vincent on the Australian television website.

Wait. I found it.

It's the son of Kerry. He has some kind of addiction. I think I might know who Kerry is. She's maybe the one played by the actress who was also in Tangle and The Secret Life of Us. What's her name again?

Catherine McClements. Thank you, IMDb. And I'm right. She's Kerry. I watched the first season, and I remember her talking about her son. I think they were estranged.

Back to 2011....

Meadows appeared in the miniseries Paper Giants.  He played Andrew Cowell.

This podcast has an interview with Andrew Cowell. If anyone is interested....

Cowell was the launch publisher of a magazine called FHM.

Here's the trailer for the series.

It says that Australia reads more magazines than any other country. Per capita? I assume that would be the case. Otherwise, I'd say Australians have some kind of magazine addiction.

The story takes place in the 1980's. I read a lot of magazines back then. Not that I'm trying to compete with Australians....

At 1:09...Is that Eloise from Offspring? I'll have to check when the trailer is done.

I didn't see Tim Meadows being Andrew Cowell.

I wonder if Andrew Cowell is related to Brendan Cowell.

I just looked up Eloise. She's played by Caren Pistorius. And Pistorius was in Paper Giants. Cool! I got something right.

And it says here that Pistorius is going to be in the movie version of A Light Between Oceans. I didn't even know they were turning it into a movie.

Back to Meadows.....

He appeared in one episode of a TV show in 2011, but I'm not  going to talk about it, because I don't watch that show. I usually skip over one times appearances in shows I don't watch.

There's also some short films I'm skipping, because I can't find them online.

So then we get to 2012. This is the year Meadows was in A Moody Christmas.  He's the main star of that. Since I don't think he's been the main star of anything else big. I'm thinking this show was his big break.

Here's a trailer for the show.  I think I watched and linked to it in a post from my recent past.  I don't think it does a good job representing the show; meaning I think the show is better than the trailer.

This year (2014) Meadows played Paul Wendon in four episodes of the 3rd season of Rake.

This blogger has reviews of episodes of Rake. I've been searching for mentions of Paul Wendon. I'm failing to find it. But I did find a Tikki Wendon. He's a media tycoon. I'm guessing that maybe Paul is his son.

Also, this year, Meadows was in The Moody's.

Have I watched a trailer for that yet? I think I have. But I don't remember it. I'll watch one again.

Yeah. I've watched this before. Now I remember it.

The last thing on Meadow's filmography is Parer's War. I should know it, because Mathew Le Nevez is the star. I should have written about it when I did a post on him. Yet I don't remember it.

Maybe it wasn't on IMDb yet. More likely...it was on IMDb. I read and wrote about it; then I forgot it all.

I just found the trailer. Now I remember it. It's about a war photographer.

Maybe that's Meadows at :31. I'm not sure.

I just went to consult Lord Wiki about Ian Meadows. He says Meadows is he grandson of a guy named Paul Ritter. Since they have different last names, I would guess that Ritter was Meadow's maternal grandfather.

Ritter was a Jewish man from Prague, so now I know that Meadows has Jewish and Czech roots. And he was a city planner for Perth. He's known for helping to preserve historical buildings in Perth. He's also known for going to jail for a few years. It was a fraud thing.

Meadows was born in Collie, Western Australia. I'm going to find it on Google Maps.

It's about two hours south of Perth, and a little to the east. It's away from the coast. Another way of looking at it is, it's about 40 minutes east of Bunbury.

Meadows didn't attend NIDA like many other actors. Instead he went to WAAPA, which is the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

Lord Wiki just reminded me that Hugh Jackman went to that school as well.

I just noticed that Lord Wiki provides Meadow's birthday. It's February 4.

On a whim, I Googled the date.  It's the day that Karen Carpenter died of anorexia. It looks like that was the biggest news on that day.

I wonder who died on the day that I was born.

Now I'm getting all morbid here.

A Hungarian pianist named Imre Ungar died on my birthday. And also...the mother of Andy Warhol.

I probably have told this story, but I'll tell it again.

My younger sister has often been proud of the fact that she shares a birthday with Gandhi. Later, we came to realize that her husband shares his death date.

Then with Tim and I: I was born on the death date of JFK. Then on Tim's 32nd birthday, JFK's son was killed.

I should one day figure out if my older sister and her husband have any weird coincidence like that.

Anyway....I'm totally going off track here.

Here's an interview with Ian Meadows from Timeout Sydney. It's not about Ian Meadows as an actor. It's about Ian Meadows as writer. He wrote a play called Between Two Waves.

Wait. I got it wrong. It IS about Ian Meadows as an actor, because he also acts in the play.

It's about climate changes. Meadows plays a climate scientist who's very nervous about the future. He ends up with a woman who's very casual about the whole thing—lives in the present.

Here's a radio interview with Meadows. I'm going to listen to some of it. Maybe all of it.  If I have time.  I'll see what I can get done before dinner, because after that, we have a date with Doctor Who and American Horror Story.

There are very loud crows outside. I just wanted to mention that.

The interview was done around the time of Meadow's birthday. The radio woman sings happy birthday to him.

Meadows gives a compliment followed by an insult. He says the woman sings beautifully. When the radioman says this isn't true, Meadows gives a disclaimer to his compliment. He has low standards. Yikes.

I wonder how I'd feel if someone told me I sang good and then explained that they have low standards. I guess I'd respond with something like, Thanks...uh...okay?

 The oddest insult I've received about my singing lately came from a father. For some reason he brought up his daughter's singing. Or I brought it up? I don't know. Somehow we got into the conversation. Then he said something like, she sings like the rest of you guys...if you know what I mean. I forgot his exact words, but he conveyed somehow that he thinks the rest of us (including me) AND his daughter were bad singers.

I was offended by his insult, though I pretended not to care. And I was also bothered by a father saying negative things about his daughter's singing...especially since I think she has some singing talent.

Crap. I'm totally off on a tangent again. It's funny since this morning I felt like a failure for NOT going off on a tangent.

I'm nuts.

The radio people and Ian Meadows are talking about The Moody's.  Meadows explains that Dan Moody has moved back to Australia from London.

Meadows has a cute Aussie accent.

They talk about how Meadows was nominated for a theater award. He lost to a woman who was to later star on Orange is the New Black. And Meadows seems to see that as an honor—losing to this other actress. Or at least he's okay with losing, because he lost to someone who has done well. I'm not explaining this right. But I will say Meadows is pretty awesome and generous in that he spends a fair portion of his interview promoting this other actress.

Here's another interview with Meadows. It's another thing about his climate play.

I'm at the library now. It's been so long since I've done work at a library...probably not since my college days. Or actually...once I visited Tim in NYC, and I worked on some school work there.

Anyway...let me get back to the interview.

I like the premise of the play. The climate change stuff is interesting, but I especially like the conflict between two different personalities. It reminds me a little bit of Tim and me. I'm very neurotic and uptight...also picky. He's very relaxed. For example. Food. I have food phobias and food dislikes. Tim will eat almost anything. And he has to put up with my food fears. He's tolerant usually, which is nice.

That's not a really good example. Because I'm totally in the bad and Tim isn't really. In Meadow's play, there's bad and good in both sides.

So, here's another example. Illness. I worry a lot about germs. I'm very picky about washing hands, taking vitamins to prevent illness, getting vaccines, making sure proper protocol is practiced when it comes to food handling, etc. My side is bad because I can be a bit uptight and over the top. But if Tim didn't have me around, he'd probably have much more contact with germs. And although a lot of germs are relatively harmless, there are a few nasty ones out there.

Meadows says his story started as a screenplay. Later he wrote it as a play. I've done that before—written something in different forms. I think usually it's novel to screenplay. You know what...maybe one day if I'm bored, I'll turn my The Dead Are Online into a screenplay. I think that might be fun.

Meadows says he was partly inspired by Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.  I saw some of that, and it scared me. Now I've pretty much forgotten it. I'm not a climate change denier. But I've become a climate-change...pretend-it's-not-happening person. I do some decent things like take a shower every other day instead of every day. And most of the time I use a reusable water bottle. But it's more now out of habit than fear.

I should watch or read something to make me afraid again.

It's like in elementary school where about once a year the school would show us this graphic scary educational film about a bus accident.  On the ride home, after seeing the film, most of us kids would exhibit unusually good and safe behavior. I think that lasted a ride or two. Then we'd be back to behaving dangerously.

This recent article says that Meadows is involved in a play called Blue/Orange. It's about mental illness. I need to read more to see if he wrote the play. Or is he acting in it? Maybe both?

Well, he didn't write it. The play is by a British writer.

I think I'd like it. It questions the difference between mental illness and eccentricity. That is one of my most favorite subject matters and also the one that drives me nuts. (don't pardon the pun).

It's like when Robin Williams died and all these people used it as a platform to talk about mental illness.  And maybe he did have mental illness. But how do (or did) they know that? Is it not possible for someone to kill themselves because their life isn't going well, and they're incredibly unhappy? Life really sucks sometimes, and if you're unfortunately smart enough to realize this, why are you automatically labeled as mentally ill?

Blue/Orange isn't about depression, though. It's about schizophrenia. Meadows talks about how it is not dealt with in the media as much as other things...like Bipolar disorder. I think that's true.

I feel bipolar disorder has been pretty much normalized. I remember, years ago, a friend telling me she had it. It was like this huge revelation. I think I was slightly scandalized by the whole thing but also honored that she told me. If someone told me the same thing today, I don't think it would phase me at all.  It's just like homosexuality coming outs used to be thrilling. Now it's just a mild...oh really? Same with being on the autism spectrum.

And I remember telling my family that I was more pagan than Jewish. I saw it as such a huge deal. Now it all seems so mild.

But schizophrenia...that still has some bite.

It's tragic but also fascinating. And with someone like me, I start thinking along the lines of, Is he hearing voices that are not there. Or is he hearing voices that ARE there but the rest of us can't hear it?

I don't think I have schizophrenia. But I do have delusional fantasies. Some people might say this is a sign of illness and/or disfunction. I say it makes my life more interesting and entertaining.

Maybe the difference, though, is that my delusions are positive and don't interfere with my life.  It's not so good if you're having paranoid delusions. And sometimes I have those as well. But I think everyone does to some degree. I think we all have those days where we feel people or the world in general is working against us.

I'm home now. I just took my shower, and I had very deep thoughts while in the shower. Hopefully I can get them out of my head and onto this post. And NOT go on and on for five thousand words.

Anyway...

I concluded that in most cases I don't see people as having mental illness. I'm not a big believer in the concept. What other people label as mental illness, I label as being human.  But that's not to say if someone is having trouble, that I don't think they need and deserve help. This help might be in the form of a friend, a therapist, medication, etc. Some people and their problems can be lulled with a hot fudge sundae. Other people and their problems require much more than that.

Then, in the shower, I thought of schizophrenia. Let's say someone writes to me and tells me they're very upset. They think they're schizophrenic. They've been hearing voices and the voices are telling them they're worthless and should jump out the window.

Let's say, because of my very active imagination, I decide they're not schizophrenic. I believe they're plagued by a demon. I don't need to tell my friend this. Nor do I need to lie and tell them I agree with their diagnosis. To be a decent friend, all I need to say is That's really scary. I'm sorry you're going through that. 

What should I NOT do?  Ignore their email, because I don't want to deal with it. Or write back to them, but pretend I didn't read the part about the scary voice. That's failing to be there for them, and that's just plain wrong.

Another bad thing would be to say something like, Actually, that's awesome. You're lucky you're hearing voices. It's a gift! Maybe one day God will talk to you, and maybe He he has a message for me that you can bring forth.

I COULD actually be totally right about all that. But still. When my friend's suffering with these voices, it's not the time to be positive and think about how it might benefit me.

I'm now trying to find Ian Meadows on Twitter and Instagram. I'm not finding him.

There is a Twitter account for an Aussie Ian Meadows. It could be him, but I can't see any evidence that it is.

In this Ian Meadow's account, his latest Tweet is offering a trade with the US. If we give them Obama, they'll give us Tony Abbott.

No, thank you,

This Ian Meadows is very political. It could be the actor/writer. I'd be impressed, because there is nothing self-promotional here.

I just found another Ian Meadows on Twitter. This is probably not the right one either. But I was skimming and found he has a funny Retweet from Bill Murray.

Well, no...it's actually not Bill Murray. It's a parody account of Bill Murray. Kind of strange to have a parody account of a comedian. But oh well. Anyway...he says, It’s been five minutes since Adobe asked me to install an update. I hope they didn’t go out of business or something.

Back to Ian Meadows. My brain keeps saying Tim Meadows, by the way.

What should I do next?

I can't come up with anything besides watching the short films. So I'll get onto that now.

I thought I had three to watch, but I have only two saved. That's fine. Two is enough.

First I shall watch John 'Rocky' Robinson: Roll With the Punches.

I like the music.

I think that's Meadows in the blue robe, but I'm not positive.

I like the story. Rocky is a boxer and he's in a wheelchair. They talk about how this is an advantage, because people are going to be nervous about hitting someone in a wheelchair.

I'm wondering how it works though. In boxing, don't you lose by falling down and not getting up. So to win, does the other person have to knock over the whole wheelchair?  Or do they have to push Rocky out of the wheelchair?

The fight's about to happen.

I'm really curious about how this is going to work. Although it might be that Rocky knocks his opponent down, and I'll never know if the opponent was required to knock down the whole wheelchair or not.

He knocked down the whole wheelchair! Although I guess if you're a strong boxer, that wouldn't be too hard.

The ending was wild. I'm trying to figure out what the message of this movie is. What happens is Rocky loses and decides to find a new sport. Then we see him in his wheelchair on a diving board.  It almost seems like it's mocking people in wheelchairs. Or maybe I'm totally wrong and there are divers who dive while in their wheelchairs.

It seems, though, that there are many sports that people lacking leg mobility can participate in, so why do something like diving with your wheelchair?

There was a lot of talk in the movie about being positive and never saying can't. I'm tempted to interpret the movie as mocking maybe not wheelchairs, but the attitude that we can do anything as long as we put our mind to it.

Yes, you can dive wheelchair and all that...maybe. But maybe it would be better to find something more suitable.  Or perhaps there's a way to dive but without the wheelchair.

Wait! Maybe I have it wrong. The film ends with Rocky on the diving board, rolling forward. I assumed he was going to jump wheelchair and all. And that seems a bit silly to me. But maybe he gets to the edge, parks his wheelchair, and then dives from there. Now THAT makes sense to me.

Here's an article about a woman who dives with her wheelchair—not diving board diving, but scuba diving.  That's awesome. And someone diving FROM their wheelchair seems awesome too. I just can't see the point of plunging off a diving board while in a wheelchair.

Well, maybe it would be fun. I don't know. It just seems scary to me.

I imagine the wheelchair would sink. And then how do you manage to get it up to the surface so you can get air and breath. Maybe that's the sport in it...surviving. And would you be buckled in? If not, might you fall out of the wheelchair while it was in the air?

I should watch the next movie.

This one is called Water. I wonder if there will be any diving.

Yesterday our Doctor Who episode involved water. Lots of water.

So far, this movie is a bit slow. It's one of those artsy things where there's a lot of film with nothing much happening. It's subtle. I'm too American to handle such things.

Ian Meadows appears at about 2:05.

There's a child and two men. I think maybe it's a gay dads family.

This movie, like the last one, is about disability. While the other movie had a guy boxing and diving off diving boards, this one has a man struggling to get food into his mouth.  He's very sad and frustrated, which makes me think he's not had this problem long. I suppose I assume if someone has limitations for a long time, they adjust to it. I'm not saying they'd be happy about it, but maybe they'd learn to accept it.

The movie is showing the child stressed by having to witness the ordeal.  I think it's hard enough for an adult to deal with it whether they're the disabled person or the carer.

It might not be two dads. It could be that one man is the dad, and the other is a friend or sibling. A cousin, perhaps?

Ian Meadows just told the child that his dad taught him how to surf. I think he was referring to the guy who's disabled. So yeah....I don't think Meadows is the other dad.

Well, no. I guess he could be the dad. If you have two fathers in a family, I suppose one father could refer to the other father as "your dad".

I just went to look at the description of the movie on IMDb. They say the man is mentally disabled. It doesn't look like a mental disability to me. It looks like something like motor neuron disease. That's not considered a mental disability. Right?

Maybe the man had a brain injury, and that could lead to both a mental disability and a physical one.

Yeah...I'm guessing brain injury.

That was a very depressing movie but touching as well. It's kind of like a Holocaust story. I watch it and feel depressed and horrified but at the same time amazed that people manage to endure it and survive.

My family dealt with a traumatic brain injury.  Fortunately, it had a happy outcome. But it's hard seeing someone you know and love regress to a much younger age and see them struggling with everyday skills that we take for granted. It's hard when this happens to your child or your sibling. But what if it's your parent, and you're a child? It's actually not something I've thought of before. I often think of children losing their parent to death. But I haven't thought of them sort of losing their parent to a brain injury.

And back to things like schizophrenia...Whether you believe someone is mentally ill, eccentric, possessed by demons, etc. If they're acting vastly different than before and not coping with everyday life, it would be incredibly hard on a child.

It's very sad.

There's death where our heart stops and our brains cease to function. But then there's also the kind of death where someone just vastly changes. We lose the person we used to love. I guess the light at the end of the tunnel is that SOMETIMES a new relationship can be formed with this new version of the person we loved. But still. Something has been lost, and there's going to be a lot of grief.  Bless the children and all the adults who have to endure this.


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