{"id":26363,"date":"2025-07-28T01:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T01:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26363\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T01:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T01:57:14","slug":"nazeem-mel-the-opposite-of-sexual-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/26363\/","title":{"rendered":"Nazeem & Mel, “the opposite of sexual tension.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe closing scene of their Great Australian Road Trip to the red centre may look like a romantic movie, but don’t expect Nazeem Hussain and Melissa Leong to oblige.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

When Nazeem Hussain and Melissa Leong finally sit down atop King\u2019s Canyon in Central Australia, after a very long drive and hike, it looks so photogenic it could be the end of a romantic movie.<\/p>\n

But like a question raised in When Harry Met Sally these two are just platonic friends. If the scene is screaming out for a pash, it isn\u2019t coming anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the opposite of sexual tension is, but that\u2019s what me and Mel have,\u201d Hussain tells TV Tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was tension about playlists to be honest, when I\u2019d run out of mine and there was no Wi Fi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hitting the road for new SBS series Great Australian Road Trips, the pals furst met in 2020 as guests on Hughesy We Have a Problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember she was the newly announced judge on MasterChef. She\u2019d done some SBS stuff, but was about to explode in Australia\u2019s mainstream screens. I think we took a cab to the airport together, or we were hanging out at the airport lounge in Sydney. We just got along real quick, a similar sense of humour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both felt like we somehow were the glitches in the matrix being on mainstream television as people of colour from SBS. Like, we had somehow broken through. Well, I felt like that anyway. Something happens when two people of colour from mainstream television meet. There\u2019s a bit of a head nod, like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re in here. So how\u2019d that happen?\u2019 But, she\u2019s just really fun and we just clicked straight away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never really had a proper chance to spend good time together. During covid, we used to go on lots of walks. She\u2019s met my family, we\u2019ve had sporadic catch ups here and there, but it\u2019s always been busy. So our friendship has been held back by our busy schedules which is why, when this show came across my table, I was like, \u2018Awesome. I finally get to actually hang out with Mel.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Smiling<\/a><\/p>\n

The series, sees them undetake 3 road trips including to Tasmania\u2019s western coast and Arnhem Land NT, while Bump\u2018s Claudia Karvan & Steph Tisdell tackle Great Barrier Reef Drive in northern Queensland, Kangaroo Island in South Australia and the iconic Grand Pacific Drive south of Sydney.<\/p>\n

Filming for Mint Pictures, the commitment became the most amount of time Hussain and Leong had\u00a0 ever spent together.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp until the point, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m pretty happy with this friendship,\u201d he admits. \u201cSo it was big risk deciding to travel with each other, I guess because we could have really stuffed the friendship. They say, if you want to know someone, travel with them or do business with them, then you really know what they\u2019re like.\u201d<\/p>\n

And you know, part of me was like the better to to, you know, to not trouble with her, in case we just hate each other.<\/p>\n

Travelling along the iconic Red Centre Way from Uluru through Arrernte Country to King\u2019s Canyon, shooting comprised about 10 hours per day, with a skeleton crew and stopping around every 2 hours.\u00a0 They visit Standley Chasm, a Desert Song Festival in Ormiston Gorge, Aboriginal community Hermannsburg (Ntaria) and undertake a camel ride.<\/p>\n

\"Couple<\/a><\/p>\n

Hussain admits he thought much of the trip would be cheated for the cameras, but it wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I did I\u2019m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here I actually thought it was going to be a very heavily produced TV jungle, where it\u2019s all just smoke and mirrors. And I thought the same sort of thing for this show, in a way. I was like, \u2018I will be driving around, but we\u2019re not going to be doing all the driving all the time,’\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut actually it was very much \u2018Here\u2019s where we\u2019re going, the cameras are set up. Go!\u2019 and then we\u2019d just talk for hours and stop whenever we wanted to stop. We\u2019d point out the window, distract each other. It was a genuine road trip. We\u2019d be reminded that we wer filming TV, when sometimes the GoPro would start beeping that it ran out of battery. Or they\u2019d talk to us on the two way radio and say, \u2018We\u2019ve been trying to tell you you\u2019ve taken the wrong turn!’\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/a><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before they let down their guard on the open road.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor that amount of time, it\u2019s too tiring to kind hold that up constantly be using a filter. So we kind of dropped it. I guess we just trusted the editors and probably ourselves that our real tired selves can come out and do without what you will. From what we\u2019ve seen, they\u2019ve done quite a good job with what they\u2019ve gotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the six part series showcases Australian landscapes, history and culture, the long road trip didn\u2019t implode the friendship between Hussain and Leong, nor make them decide to leave their respective partners either. Hussain reckons the friendship outweighs all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many people that you meet on a fleeting basis, but you don\u2019t actually have, a genuine, trusting friendship. It\u2019s kind of hard to know that you can rely on someone else, in this industry. It\u2019s pretty cut throat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great Australian Road Trips screens 7:30pm Thursday on SBS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The closing scene of their Great Australian Road Trip to the red centre may look like a romantic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-26363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}