by Mia Wasikowska has spoken about her decision to step out of the Hollywood spotlight and return to her hometown of Sydney, Australia in the late 2010s.
The 33-year-old actress landed her breakthrough role in the lead role of Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland (2010) opposite Johnny Depp. She was 21 then.
The film’s box office success catapulted Wasikowska to stardom among Hollywood’s “it girls” of the time.
Her career continued to soar as she booked leading roles in films jane eyre (2011), heater (2013), Mrs. Bovary (2014) and Crimson Peak (2015).
But shortly after reprising her role as young Alice in Burton’s spin-off, Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) that she disappeared from the big screen.
“I want to do more things in life than sit in a trailer,” Wasikowska said recently IndieWire in a new interview. “I didn’t quite like the lifestyle of going back to back to back. I really felt disconnected from any larger community.”
“I’ve been doing this since I was 17, more like 15, but from 17 onwards I’ve been working really hard, I’ve spent 10 to 15 years doing it, a new city, a new country every three months and it’s like I go back to school every few months.”
She continued, “Especially when you’re younger, when you don’t have that base, I found that really hard. At the same time, maybe it’s okay if the payout is good and it makes you feel really good, but I haven’t done it, so I wanted to establish that for myself on a personal level and have more of a sense of where I don’t belong just to a movie set that ends every few weeks.”
Eventually, in the late 2010s, Wasikowska decided to move back home to Sydney, where she said she was still “pretty happy”.
The actress has since gone on hiatus, apart from occasional indie projects, which she has taken on to work with filmmakers she admires, including Mia Hansen-Løves 2021 Bergman Island.
It’s been some time since she has directed a film but she is now directing Robert Connolly’s latest title blueback.
Wasikowska portrays Abby, a woman whose activist mother inspires her to protect a wild, blue raptor she recently befriended.
On whether or not she could ever see herself in Hollywood full-time again, she said, “If I could have the best of both worlds, which is popping in and out occasionally, I’d be really happy.
“But I would never be in the place where I was just on a treadmill. I want to do more things in life than being in a trailer.”
blueback is now in cinemas.
