Charlie Pickering: ‘We used to be able to just disagree. Social media has a lot to answer for’

Charlie Pickering has been a constant on Australian screens for much of this century: ‘I could just keep working and working … I love every minute of what I do.’ Photograph: Charlie Kinross/The Guardian

Sandwiched between the Arts Centre and Hamer Hall, in Melbourne’s arts precinct, is a sculpture of wave-like steel structures called Forward Surge.

On the day we walk past, it is hidden behind construction fencing, but Charlie Pickering has fond memories of the place. “As a teenager, I would almost every weekend get kicked out of here,” he says.