Population: 11's Ben Feldman reveals odd encounter while filming in Australia: 'Loud psychos'

Stan's new series Population: 11 may be one of the Aussie streaming service's best shows. The black comedy is set in the fictional town of Bidgeegud and loosely based on the true crime story of Paddy Moriarty, who went missing from the town of Larrimah in 2017.

Starring American actor Ben Feldman (Superstore, Mad Men), as well as Aussie actors Perry Mooney, Stephen Curry, and more, Population: 11 tells the story of Andy (Feldman), who attempts to find his father Hugo (Darren Gilshenan) in the small Australian town of Bidgeegud, only to find that he's gone missing under mysterious circumstances.

Andy hasn't seen Hugo in 20 years but believes he has run off with $250,000 USD — money that he needs to pay back to some very bad people. Now that Hugo's missing, the town of Bidgeegud is home to just 11 people, but none of the townspeople seem all that keen on helping Andy find his father. Thankfully, he finds help from fellow outsider Cassie (Mooney), who has her own reasons for helping Andy.

In a town of only 11 people, Andy somehow finds himself in a lot of trouble as he tries to track Hugo down.

Ben Feldman reveals what it was really like working in rural Australia

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle, Ben Feldman reveals that while Andy doesn't have the best time in Bidgeegud, he had an "amazing time" in Derby, WA, the small town where the show was shot.

"It was different," he tells us. "I mean, when I went back to the States and said that I was in Australia, everyone's like, 'Oh, did you go to Tasmania? How was Sydney? Did you make it to Melbourne?' And it's like, no, no, I was in a tiny, tiny town in the northwest, multiple aeroplanes away from anywhere that you've ever heard of. Very remote."

"I loved it," he continues. "It took some getting used to, I am a city person through and through. But it was exactly the place that we needed to be to tell the story. And the people were great."

RELATED:

• Michelle Visage reveals her favourite Drag Race moments of all time

• Scrublands' Luke Arnold reveals surprising fear about bringing the book to life

• The Wiggles reveal 'crazy' scene that wasn't included in documentary

Andy has a lot of crazy things happen to him, including being bitten by a snake and chased by a massive crocodile, and Ben shares that he also had a lot of close encounters with Aussie wildlife.

"Yeah a crocodile I never got – well, I got close to them when they were in captivity, and I was on the other side of a fence from dozens and dozens of them," Ben says. "But in real life, I'd be on a bridge and it would be down in the water. [I saw] snakes, I saw bats, every kind of bug on Earth – they're all like the size of my head.

"Lot of cockatoos, which are like beautiful exotic birds that we keep as pets in America. And there they're like loud psychos that follow you around and scream at you."

Perry adds that some crocodiles got quite close to set, telling us, "There was one day on set, there was a croc that had emerged in the water somewhere and it was kind of like, 'Oh, we're not going to tell anyone that it's there until after the fact.'"

"That would be an [occupational health and safety] issue!" Stephen responded. "It's gotta be! Like, 'Don't tell anyone about the man eating crocodile that's like just literally around the corner from where you're shooting."

Ben 'went nuts' on the show

Perry and Stephen reveal that they enjoyed stitching up Ben during his time Down Under, making him believe that every type of Aussie critter was out to kill him.

"He was good, so Ben Feldman came in, fish out of water, gets plonked in the middle of like, it's not like plonking him in Melbourne in some coffee shop or something," Stephen tells us. "You plonk him out in Derby, and wind him up within an inch of his life. And basically make him think that he is about to be killed by any number of animals."

"Yeah, it was very much like, 'Oh that? Yeah that'll kill you,' 'Oh that? Don't even look at it,'" Perry adds cheekily.

"We sort of scared him so much that he ended up making best friends with a frog in his shower, Pico." Stephen explains. "Ben Feldman went a bit nuts and became best friends with a frog. Then he broke its back."

"On accident!" Perry adds hastily, saying that whatever happened to Pico is the "true mystery".

'I was devastated'

After hearing about Pico, we had to ask Ben what happened there, with the star jokingly explaining, "He lived in my shower and I would talk to him every day. He was my only friend. Things get really lonely when you're that far away from your family for that long."

However, things went south, with Ben adding, "I gave him a whole life and a backstory and then one day, I accidentally stepped on him, which is not my fault, he moved in to an area of the bathroom that he normally wasn't. And I was devastated, but he was fine."

'I could die'

Population: 11 is one of Perry's first acting projects and her first leading role. She hadn't met any of her cast members before landing in Derby to shoot the show, jokingly telling us that she thought it could have been an "elaborate murder".

"Working with Ben was amazing. I had no idea what he was going to be like, we'd never met before I actually got to Derby," she says. "So the day I flew in... I got to Derby and I was like, 'I could die! This could be an elaborate murder! This big journey has been planned for me to turn up in this town I've never been to and never seen anything about.'

SHOP:

• Afterpay Day Sales 2024: Don't miss out on deals on health, beauty and homewares

• The new TV technology that's designed to change your viewing experience

• Upgrade your cooking game with this revolutionary new appliance

"And then, you know, I'm presented with people from production coming to pick me up and I was like, 'Okay, fine, I'm okay.' And I met Ben that night. And I was like, Oh, thank God. He's not mean and rude and awful. He's probably thinking the same thing about me."

The hilarious and mysterious Stan Original Series Population: 11 is streaming now, only on Stan.

Want the latest celebrity news? Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.