As television’s most formidable quiz experts, Mara Lejins and Anne Hegerty have put their razor-sharp trivia skills to the test against everyday Australians for years on The Chase Australia.
When the pair sat down to chat with Woman’s Day, we were expecting a Clash Of The Titans-style trivia showdown from Mara and Anne, better known as The Smiling Assassin and The Governess, but instead, we got a glimpse into their unexpected friendship.
“I mean, I am competitive, but I get along well with all the Australian as well as the British Chasers,” Anne, 67, reveals.
“The Australian Chasers have a group chat where we’ll often share how we’re filming or how we went while filming an episode,” Mara, 30, tells.
“It’s really nice because it’s a very lonely job and no one else gets it like the other Chasers.”
Mara also reveals the Chasers use the group chat to keep each other in the loop with all the news and pop culture trends they think will become questions.
“When Australian surfer Molly Picklum was the world champion at the World Surfing League, the Chasers sent it around in a group chat, saying, ‘This may come up,’” says Mara. “And then I filmed an episode where it did!”
And with a new year of The Chase beginning, Anne and Mara are busy preparing to face a new set of hopeful contestants on the hit quiz show hosted by Larry Emdur.
SWEET FRIENDSHIP
When asked if they sleep with an encyclopaedia to brush up on their trivia skills, both Anne and Mara laugh before sharing their top tips.
“I do an awful lot of quizzes because I find that’s the best way of learning,” Anne reveals.
“I do a bit of quizzing as well, probably not as much as Anne,” Mara tells.
“In the weeks before [we film] a new season I’ll brush up on things that may come up, like periodic table abbreviations, capital cities, flags, or flashcards of Oscar and Grammy winners, sporting champions and new heads of state.”
While Anne and Mara, who joined the show in 2015 and 2022 respectively, share a sweet friendship off screen, both admit they wouldn’t want to go up against their fellow Chasers. “If I was on the Australian show, I’d probably want to play against myself, Anne says.
“Obviously we’re all pretty good, but our knowledge is completely different,” tells Mara. “But the Chaser I’d least like to go against is Brydon [Coverdale, aka The Shark], but that’s because he’s my polar opposite and he never gets rattled.”
As for celebrities they think could beat them on The Chase, Mara concedes science commentator Dr Karl Kruszelnicki would have a good chance.
“I’m not terribly good at naming Australian celebrities, but I’ve always said I’d love to play Stephen Fry because he just knows everything,” says Anne.
CELEBRATING VICTORY
As for other game shows they’d like to appear on, Mara says The Celebrity Traitors would be fun! “Brydon and I are really big fans of it, so at the [TV WEEK] Logies we’d follow Rodger Corser, who hosted it, hoping to end up on the show,” Mara laughs.
As for Anne, she reveals she might be talked into appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! “I did the British version in 2018 and I don’t think I’d be willing to do it again,” she says. “But, if the Australian version offered me a ridiculous amount of money to go to South Africa, I might think about it.”
During her time on UK I’m A Celeb, Anne nearly quit on her first day in the Queensland jungle, but chose to stay and eventually placed seventh.
Both Mara and Anne, who is regarded as the scariest Chaser, agree it can be frustrating to lose on the show but it’s nice watching contestants celebrate their victory over the experts.
And for anyone thinking of challenging them, their advice is: focusing on the question and speed are the keys to victory.
“I’ve had a couple of final chases where contestants have passed on a question they could’ve easily guessed… I reckon I guess 20 per cent of my answers in the final chases,” Mara reveals.
“What you have to do is not get yourself into a spiral,” Anne advises. “Sometimes when you get a question wrong, it can really bother you and it leads to you not quite listening to the next one, and then you just keep getting questions wrong.”
As for their trivia weak spots, neither Anne nor Mara find sports questions interesting.
“I’m not crazy about sports but there are certain things one has to keep up with, like knowing who’s won certain things,” Anne says.
Mara adds, “There are two categories of sports questions, the ones that are easy – like who won the premierships or Olympic medallists – and then the hard ones, where you can only know if you’re actually engaged with the sport on a deeper level.”
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