By MATILDA BOSELEY

Ben Knight and Gordon Churchill come from very different walks of life.

Knight, in his 30s, is a former primary school teacher turned stand-up comedian from the Gold Coast. Churchill, only 18, is an aspiring football player from a remote indigenous community in the northwest Kimberley region. 

But they both share one thing – they have stepped in front of a camera for the first time to star in the ABC’s eagerly anticipated football comedy Warriors. 

Knight, playing the kind-hearted farm boy Scottie, and Churchill as Maki, a small town indigenous kid, are both thrust into the AFL spotlight, along with the scandals, pressures and temptations that accompany it.

Following the adventures of three rookies and a disgraced Brownlow Medallist in the worst team in the league, Warriors is a boisterous show that is filled with cocaine, on-field brawls and prosthetic penises. 

Knight’s character is at the forefront of many of the show’s more risqué moments. 

“I’m worried about my Nan seeing it,” he jokes with a tinge of genuine worry in his voice. “She has been plugging it at her retirement village ... I said, ‘Maybe watch it first, Nana’.”

However, between the laughs and bare bums, the show also delivers a surprisingly poignant exploration of what it means to be Aboriginal in modern Australia. 

Churchill's character Maki is from Warmun, which was chosen as it is his real life community.

In a case of art imitating life, actor and character have parallel adventures, leaving their remote community for the first time to be dropped into a high-profile life in Melbourne. 

From the northwest of Australia, Churchill is accustomed to warmer temperatures. Unfortunately for him, the show was filmed in a typical Melbourne spring. 

“It was lovely when I first came in, but they didn’t warn me, you know, that I was going to be freezing … It was a big change, you know, and I got straight into acting.” 

Despite the weather, Churchill has found things to love in the city.

“I like to go shopping at Melbourne Central.  And the MCG ...” He exhales in admiration, shaking his head just a little. “I just love walking on the ground.” 

He pauses for a second. “And Imax.”

The transition hasn’t always been easy for him. “You miss your family a heap, don’t you?” Knight says, looking over at him. 

Churchill sighs. “That was a hard one, yeah.”

“I do love Melbourne, I’m thinking of staying. It’s just that I’m just scared ... scared I’m going to be homesick again and too depressed.”

The young actor misses his grandfather most of all. 

“Back at home, me and him, we just go hunting, drive around, chase a kangaroo, take them down … go to watering holes, sit down, make a campfire, have tea, talk about the good old days and the bad days and the Dreamtime, telling me stories and stuff. He is like a brother to me.”

Knight says the conflict between home and the city is very real for his young co-star.

“He’s torn between staying home and giving it a crack. It’s funny because that mirrors his character as well … so it’s real. It’s real for him,” he says.

Luckily Churchill wasn’t the only one out of his comfort zone during the shoot. In the show’s seventh episode, the setting shifts from the MGC and Melbourne suburbs to outback Australia. The show’s protagonists are sent to Kimberly and the audience is given a glimpse of Maki’s (and Churchill's, of course) home town and former life.

Knight says it was quite a transition. “When Gordy first came down, he was a bit of a fish out of water … and then when we went up to Warmun, he was like a rockstar.”  

While the other boys were resting, only able to work in the morning and evenings due to the oppressive 45C heat, Churchill was out enjoying his newfound celebrity in the town. 

Churchill can’t quite hold back a smile as he tells of the town's reaction to his success. “Even around the community some of the shopkeepers and the workers are asking if I can get photos with them, telling me to keep it up, you know.”

Knight chimes in. “Remember when we tried to work out at the gym? About a hundred kids came crowding in … we started working out with the kids instead of the weights.” 

Knight, who has previously worked in a remote community as a teacher for two years, hopes this episode will help close the gap between indigenous communities and wider Australia.

“I really hope this show helps … it shows what life is like in those little communities, it really is like a different world," he says. "Hopefully this show can shine a bit of light on that as well, those issues. 

"It’s not just a show about footy.” 

Despite being a huge break in his fledgling career, this role holds a significant meaning for Churchill. He hopes that seeing an indigenous kid from a remote community on the screen will prove an inspiration to others in similar areas. 

“The kids, they look up at me now … and I just tell them, ‘you know you can be whatever you want … stay in school, you know, do AFL, put the community on the map’.”  

Warriors premieres on the ABC at 9.30pm on April 12 and the entire season will be available to watch on ABC iView. 

Ben Knight is performing stand up at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. His show Parent/Teacher Interview is running from April 11-23 at the European Bier Café.