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Inherited

'I couldn't let dating Paris Hilton define my career' with Rob Mills

04 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 15.918 Ruby Hall

This episode of Inherited is brought to you by Pandora. Celebrate yourself with jewelry that tells your story. Rob Mills, welcome to Inherited. Millsy.

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16.058 - 17.339 Rob Mills

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

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17.759 - 29.271 Ruby Hall

Thank you. You are one of Australia's greatest performers. I was just saying this before we hit record. And, of course, after appearing on the inaugural season of Australian Idol in 2003, I was 10 years old when I watched you.

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30.212 - 31.213 Rob Mills

That's a long time ago.

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31.634 - 34.617 Ruby Hall

Yeah, you made it to the top five, and this really catapulted your career.

Chapter 2: How did Rob Mills rise to fame on Australian Idol?

34.657 - 40.943 Ruby Hall

You're a performer, actor, author, and congrats. It's recently been announced that you'll be starring as Dr. Pamata.

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41.263 - 41.884 Rob Mills

Pamata?

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41.864 - 49.436 Ruby Hall

Parmeter. Okay. I'm pronouncing it correct. In the Australian run of Waitress. It opens in May, runs to August. You're starting rehearsals next week.

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49.596 - 58.029 Rob Mills

Yeah. And then we go to Sydney. So we're in Melbourne and then we go to Sydney and then potentially, you know, there's the national tour after that. It's such a great show. Have you seen it?

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58.39 - 59.271 Ruby Hall

No, I never have.

59.431 - 68.125 Rob Mills

Oh my goodness. This show will, it's so funny and irreverent. The beautiful music of Sara Bareilles. Yes. And then the second act, it will

68.105 - 90.687 Ruby Hall

break your heart like a Sara Bareilles like heartbreak song like it's it's incredible have you wanted to be in this production for some time a goal of yours because I saw you on channel 10 it was an old YouTube clip while I was doing my research and you looked directly down the eyes of the camera when you were on the couch with the presenters and you said I want to be in Waitress get me in Waitress and I think that was like eight or nine years ago yeah

90.667 - 106.884 Rob Mills

I saw it on Broadway with the original cast. That must have been, yeah, eight or nine years ago. And then years later, my partner and I, we went and saw it in London. I got to see Sara Bareilles actually perform in the role of Jenna, which was amazing. So, yeah, I've been waiting a long time for this to come to Australia.

107.224 - 120.218 Rob Mills

It was meant to sort of be here 2021, I think, but COVID pushed everything around and, you know, it's finally here. And I think Australian audiences are going to love it. They're going to love a little bit of escapism

Chapter 3: What challenges did Rob face in reshaping his image?

364.715 - 366.038 Rob Mills

Yeah, we start rehearsals next week.

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366.819 - 371.027 Ruby Hall

And you even get nervous for the rehearsals too, yeah. But it's excitement mixed with the nerves.

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371.568 - 393.43 Rob Mills

Yeah, I think as soon as you stop being nervous, you don't really want to do it anymore. You only get nervous because you want to do well. I wholeheartedly believe in that. I heard this thing about Dame Judi Dench. First day of rehearsals, she leaves her bag at the front door just in case people find out that she's a fraud. She can just run away and grab her bag and run out of the door. Really?

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393.45 - 395.735 Rob Mills

Yeah, and she's, you know, one of the greatest actresses.

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395.775 - 407.312 Ruby Hall

That imposter syndrome. Yeah. I feel like a lot of people in this industry, media, arts, music, we all can be quite harsh on ourselves because we are deep thinkers and we can overthink our craft.

407.353 - 427.103 Rob Mills

Yeah, and also like we – this is great. Ira Glass quote talks about people that are creative, they have this taste. You have great taste but your ability is not as good and the only way to bridge the gap between your taste and your ability is to do the work. But for so many people, they're like, I'm just never going to get as good as, you know, you know what something great is. Yeah.

427.343 - 440.928 Rob Mills

But you're never going to get as good as that thing. But you can. You just have to keep doing it. There's no fast tracking it. You just have to do the work. So I think that imposter syndrome or whatever you call it, it's just pushing through that. I do suck. I'm just not as good as that person.

440.968 - 442.991 Ruby Hall

Yeah. You have to actually feel that failure.

443.011 - 443.111 Rob Mills

Yeah.

Chapter 4: How did Rob's relationship with his fiancée Georgie Tunny evolve?

529.199 - 534.685 Ruby Hall

Great. Absolute legend. But yeah, what is your go-to? And you inherited this from your mum.

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534.665 - 551.966 Rob Mills

Look, I owe a lot of my cooking skills to mum. She's not a chef, but she's definitely a cook. Mum has the innate ability to just whatever's in the cupboard to make it into something great. It'll taste good. It's probably just extra salt. I learnt that from Adam Liao when I did a cooking show with him.

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552.106 - 561.938 Rob Mills

He said, if you want something to taste like restaurant quality, more butter, more oil, more salt. That's it. That's how you make things taste great. But I think my go-to is...

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561.918 - 580.922 Rob Mills

I think it is, it's just whipping up whatever I can find in the cupboard and just turning it into anything, whether it's a pasta or a stir fry or even like I just had an old steak that was in the freezer and I found some rice and I just, and I was like, oh, I've got some honey and some garlic and soy. So I just made like...

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580.902 - 586.531 Rob Mills

Just a beautiful little dressing for the – a little marinade for the steak. And, yeah, I made that the other night.

586.551 - 591.238 Ruby Hall

I was like, this is amazing. That's a good – you're a good cook if you can just pull whatever's out of the fridge or the pantry and make it.

591.438 - 591.819 Rob Mills

Yeah.

591.839 - 594.282 Ruby Hall

Yeah. Good to give yourself some more credit.

594.382 - 604.598 Rob Mills

I think it came from – as I said, I think it came from mum. I mean, we didn't grow up with no money, but we didn't grow up with – like, we weren't poor, poor. But, like, there was definitely times mum was like, we have to eat whatever's in the cupboard. Yeah.

Chapter 5: What insights does Rob share about creativity and drinking?

1068.062 - 1081.307 Rob Mills

I'm like, no, no, I see my psych pretty regularly. So I'm good, but I'm glad that this exists. I'm really glad that there's the support that, There certainly wasn't when we were growing up, when we were kids, yeah.

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1081.527 - 1091.475 Ruby Hall

Yeah. You've spoken a lot about this in your – well, you've written about it, sorry, in your book, Putting on a Show, about masculinity, toxic, healthy, and what it means to be like an Aussie bloke. Yeah.

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1091.455 - 1099.69 Ruby Hall

And I know back then the media portrayed you as, like, you know, Oz Idol's heartthrob and there was so much noise around, like, your personal life and, like, where you were partying and, like, what you were doing.

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1100.491 - 1111.07 Ruby Hall

But instead of being put off by this period, I mean, you're saying right now, like, back then I had no idea what was going on, but you really just grew from it and made, like, such a successful career for yourself. So what do you think did keep you on track?

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1111.09 - 1117.135 Rob Mills

Spot. No, I think it was also, like, oh, I don't. I don't think that's who I am.

1117.176 - 1118.02 Unknown

Yeah.

1118.341 - 1134.409 Rob Mills

I think that's what it was. It was like people telling me this is who I am as a person. I was like, oh, no, that's... that's not who I am as well. I don't want to be known as that guy who just parties all the time. And I really, yeah, I really didn't like it. I was like, oh, I don't, that's not, that's not me. I don't mind a party still. I love it.

1134.87 - 1152.339 Rob Mills

But also I want to be known as the person who works really hard. I wanted the work ethic as well. So probably, I probably had, but it wasn't really shown. I think finding musical theatre really helped with that. Finding that discipline and doing that eight shows a week definitely helped. But I think it was a bit of like, oh, Yeah, a bit of spite.

1152.64 - 1174.197 Rob Mills

Like, oh, no, that's – you don't actually know who I am. You've never actually met me. Yeah, so I think I wanted to prove a lot of people wrong or prove them like – yeah, and then I would say I think just prove to myself that I was not just that guy. Like I had more to offer the world than just this guy who 15 minutes of fame on Australian Idol. So I was like, no, I've got –

Chapter 6: How has Rob dealt with mental health and depression?

1319.681 - 1327.894 Rob Mills

He's going to go off to New York and audition for some people over there and going to go to LA and have some meetings. Kind of like good luck.

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1328.174 - 1331.48 Ruby Hall

Good luck. Yeah. Maybe get signed with a US agent. Yeah.

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1331.68 - 1344.832 Rob Mills

Well, like good on this kid for like coming from Idol and getting into theatre. Absolutely. Like a lovely little piece. The person that interviewed me, Had never seen the show. Had never seen Wicked. So didn't even come and see the show before interviewing me.

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1345.353 - 1346.756 Ruby Hall

And it was particularly about Wicked.

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1346.957 - 1357.198 Rob Mills

Yeah. And the opening line was, Rob won't be catching up with Paris Hilton when he's in LA. That was the opening line. I was like, why have you done this?

1358.18 - 1359.703 Ruby Hall

Did you even talk about Paris? No.

1360.291 - 1368.101 Rob Mills

Right. He's like, are you going to catch up with Paris? I go, no. Why would I? No. Why would I catch up? What? And that was the only time.

1368.121 - 1374.673 Ruby Hall

Oh, my God. So many years later. And I was like. Like 10 years later from – people can't let go, can they, of some things.

1374.693 - 1399.562 Rob Mills

It made me so sad. I cried all morning when that thing came out in the paper. It was my last day at work. I cried so much in the morning. I was crying at the opening of the show. I was still crying. I was like, what the fuck? Because I was like, I've worked so hard for all this to sort of – I don't know. I'm more than just that guy, but maybe not. It just made me a bit –

Chapter 7: What does Rob believe about the need for more male pop stars in Australia?

2572.83 - 2574.352 Ruby Hall

Why is it so important to you?

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2574.372 - 2598.342 Rob Mills

I think it's just a really good rule for relationships in general. I think you can't let things fester. Resentment grows with things that are unsaid and it's It sucks. It just makes it worse. You've got to have those hard conversations. You never want to have the conversation because you don't want to hurt your partner's feelings.

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2598.762 - 2612.082 Rob Mills

And they don't want to say the things to you because they want to hurt your feelings. But I remember when I proposed to Georgie, I was like, look at the ring every time that you feel like you're going to hurt my feelings. Just look at it. I'm not going anywhere. Just say the things.

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2612.062 - 2613.283 Ruby Hall

Oh, that's so nice.

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2613.423 - 2633.725 Rob Mills

So we're now pretty good at saying the things. We had a lovely walk last night, had some friends over for dinner, and then I said, should we go for a walk? We've got half a bottle of wine left over. Do you want to put it in a keep cup? We went for a walk, and it was awesome. We said so many things, some of it hurtful, but some of it just stupidly joyful.

2634.086 - 2634.546 Unknown

Yes.

2634.566 - 2646.604 Rob Mills

And we stumbled upon... a group of people doing like capoeira just on the beach somewhere. I was like, what spontaneous awesome fun that we've just stumbled across because we chose to go for a walk tonight.

2646.624 - 2658.002 Ruby Hall

And when you're side by side, I feel sometimes it's much easier to like get your feelings out and share your feelings instead of sitting opposite each other or, I don't know, doing something in the home. Like you're actually being so present.

2658.022 - 2658.603 Rob Mills

100%.

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