high school but I used to always make up excuses to miss drama class. And then I did this exercise, it was like an assessment and we did a piece on The Importance of Being Earnest, and I just sort of read the lines and did the performance and didn't really think much of it, but then afterwards I knew I loved it. I knew myself, I enjoyed doing it, but I was dead as well - like, I was quite nervous. And then, after that performance, my teacher came up to me and said, “You're actually really good at this, you should consider taking this more seriously.” And it was from then that I really started thinking that it could be a possibility for me.
I learnt how lucky I was. I learnt that even without words people can speak the same language. I learnt that a lot about myself too. You studied nursing before pursuing acting. Can you tell us about that? Pursuing nursing was purely for my parents. They wanted me to have a back-up plan, which in hindsight was incredibly smart and I'm glad that they pushed me to do that. The industry is so up and down, you really never know when the next job is going to be, or how long that job is going to last. So I was studying nursing for six months, and then I just stopped, even before I had gotten into drama school, because I knew that it wasn't for me. And that's when I went travelling and did some volunteer work in Kenya and Tanzania. And then I came back and auditioned for drama school the next day, and then got into the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), so it all happened really quickly. And then I was moving to Perth four weeks later. Can you tell us a bit more about your charity work in Africa? When I was 19, I quit studying nursing, packed my bags, and did two 46 The Beast | January 2018
months of volunteer work with an NGO in a school and orphanage in Mombasa, Kenya, followed by a safari. It was an extremely rewarding and eye-opening experience. What did you learn from that experience? A lot! I learnt how lucky I was. I learnt that even without words people can speak the same language. I learnt that a lot about myself too. It was the first trip I had done on my own and, as a 19 year-old, I had to look after myself. I really wanted to push myself and back myself. I had always been so interested in other cultures so learning about the African people, especially the Maasai culture, was very eye-opening. I think it taught me to be more patient, empathetic, and grateful, and it made me think more laterally, which has helped me with my career a lot. Do you have any aspirations today of getting into any other fields? I'm really interested in interior design - that's a big passion of mine - and the hobbies I do, like pottery and a bit of drawing. Were there any similarities between the character of Miranda in Wonderland and yourself? Yes, actually, there were a lot. Funnily enough, after I graduated from drama school I moved into a sunroom in Sydney, and that's exactly what happened to Miranda. I remember at the time finding it quite funny that it was basically exactly the same. Other similarities were also that she was a female in her mid-20s trying to find her fate and establish herself in Sydney, which is exactly what I was doing. Did you find that helpful, or would you prefer playing roles that are different to yourself? I think you have to find similarities and differences in every role that you play. I loved playing Miranda. Still to this day, I think there was definitely that similarity between the two of us. But playing roles that are different from you is also really fun and always interesting; they always open you up and make you look
at yourself from different angles. I think that, as an actor, it's your job to find parts in those characters that aren't like you within you. When you're playing a character that isn't like you, it's your job to access that inside you and blow that part up. And I think, as well, that is becoming more interesting for me and more complex as I'm experiencing life more. The more I'm growing and doing, the more I'm able to go, "Oh my gosh, I would've done this differently or that differently," because you just learn. I guess an example would be when I played this character in a play where she was a murderer. Obviously I'm not a murderer, but you've got to find parts of you that you can access that can make that character come alive. I think that is an example of a character that's different to me that I definitely had fun playing, but I find that every character is difficult to play. I don't know, maybe the characters that are more like me are more difficult because you have to look at yourself more. Have you done much theatre at all? Yes, I have. I just finished a play in New York on Broadway this year, which was at the Sydney Theatre Company in 2015, and the majority of the study that I have completed was theatre. How does your experience in theatre and then television work together to inform each other? I always say that ‘acting is acting’. What it is for me is a transferral of energy between the two characters in the scene, sort of like tennis or ping pong. I've said this before in another interview; you are hitting the ball back, but it's just on a different level. On screen, obviously, it's the same thing. You're getting something from your scene partner and you have to respond as truthfully as you can. It's just that the levels are different on each stage and screen. Also, I think that with screen it's much more out of your control because you don't really know what's going to happen in the edit