‘I’m going to Betty White this shit’: Julia Morris goes for the Gold Logie

Julia Morris is blunt about what her fourth Gold Logie nomination means, in real terms.

“Look, it doesn’t hurt to be one of the seven people up for the award,” she says. “I guess if it just keeps me on the television another 12 months – I definitely will be aging out of all of the formats. There’s no two ways about it.”

This Sunday, Morris will be in the running for the biggest prize in Australian television, the Gold Logie. She’s competing against a field of five talented women — Ally Langdon, Lisa Millar, Poh Ling Yeow, Sonia Kruger, and Lynne McGranger — and Hamish Blake, the sole male competitor.

“I didn’t think when I started out in this business, at 17 years old with Bert Newton, that at 57, I would just be hitting my stride,” she tells Mumbrella. “I mean, I’m going to Betty White this shit. I’m going to be around until I drop dead, which honestly, if I keep up this pace, shouldn’t be too far away.”

Julia Morris

Although she jokes “my time will come where I’m simply not required”, there’s no doubt that Morris’ career is going through a purple patch.

She first graced Australian screens forty years ago, on talent show New Faces, when she sang a Bonnie Tyler song and managed to tie for first place. By the mid-1990s she was part of the ensemble cast on Seven’s sketch comedy show Full Frontal, alongside Shaun Micallef and Eric Bana.

In 2000, she relocated to the UK, but was back on Australian screens by the end of the decade, cycling through a number of light entertainment programs, and even taking the time to win talent show It Takes Two — a throwback to her earlier singing success — and the Celebrity Apprentice Australia.

But it’s as co-host of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, which she has worked on since 2015, where she has seen her most sustained success. Last year, her longtime co-host Chris Brown defected to the Seven Network, with Robert Irwin taking his place. Morris and Irwin fell into a natural, easy on-screen rhythm that was quite removed from the comedically uneasy rapport she’d delivered with Brown.

“With Chris, we agreed on more of a flirting vibe, like a mad psycho flirting vibe. But with Robert, who is 21, that makes me feel very uncomfortable,” she laughs.

Last year, Irwin was the youngest ever nominee for the Gold Logie, at just 20. This year, he was snubbed – which Morris fails to explain.

“I can’t work it out. I think it’s a TV Week decision. So I wonder if they just felt it was time to showcase some of these women who have made a marked difference in our industry.”

Irwin and Morris

At any rate, Irwin will land on his feet. He is set to star in the US version of Dancing With The Stars in September — “willing to get ribbed and wound up for wearing his undies when he’s actually flipping it all on his head by putting the spotlight on conservation”, as Morris puts it — and has made contacts in high places.

“He’s friends with the King’s son [Prince William]. He’s going to be okay,” Morris reasons.

“I mean, he has surely surpassed the Logies, right? He’s just running the world.”

As for Morris, she is just following the work.

“The longevity and the choices in my career are certainly not through meticulous planning,” she notes. “They are through needing to eat. ”

The TV Week Logies, will be broadcast live on Channel 7 this Sunday night, from 7pm.