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James Robert Woods

October 20, 2026 · 1 h 16 min

Show notes

James Robert Woods is a Sydney-based writer and director whose debut feature, The Birthday Trip, sends three couples on a birthday getaway in the NSW Southern Highlands.


He joins Angus Truskett for a conversation about the movies that shaped him, his sketch comedy beginnings and making his first feature.

We get into: Handheld camera sickness, why everyone has a Babe story, shooting Cronulla for Tatooine, discovering Kill Bill and Mulholland Drive, Ted the Stunt Bear, comedy as a coping mechanism, going viral in 2013, making sketch comedy look like TV, the origins of The Birthday Trip, the horror of making new friends, writing bad people, the camera as a character, finding the rhythm in dialogue, formalising filmmaking and the future of Badlands.


Music by Gab Strum.


Find James on Instagram.


Find Badlands on Instagram.

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