It was June in Australia this year. The country was on lockdown due to the COVID pandemic. Industries were shut down, temporarily halted, or operating under specific restrictions. Twentysomething actor Ilai Swindells had no idea what sort of repercussions this would have on his acting career. Some of his actor friends who had booked recent gigs before COVID, saw those projects indefinitely postponed or outright canceled.
But on that June day, Swindells received an email asking to put himself on tape after a Casting Networks submission came through. It was for a narrative comedy series about a group of friends communicating with one another in an online chatroom during the COVID shutdown. The six-episode show, titled Retrograde, was for Australia’s ABC public television network. The casting, shooting, and turnaround were going to be quick: Retrograde was scheduled to air the following month. It would be Australia’s first scripted series to air with the reality of the pandemic built into its premise while also adhering to the country’s strict COVID guidelines during shooting.
