Times, They are a changing.
Why did you come to live in Toowoomba?
I was living in a small town that had no universities or Tafe and was about to graduate from high school, so I applied for and luckily was accepted into a theatre course here in Toowoomba at the university. 10 hours away from my home town.
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Where is your home town?
Barcaldine, it is a rural country town about an hour from another town in any direction and 10 hours from Toowoomba. I’m always comparing it to Longreach because everyone's heard of that town. It’s a fairly big difference between there and Toowoomba.
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Do you think growing up in a rural town was beneficial to you?
I don’t know. In Barcy you can go anywhere any time. Here I spend all my time figuring out bus schedules and how long its going to take me to get somewhere.
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Did you have any idea what uni would be like for you?
I knew it was going to be extremely challenging, the course I am doing in particular is pretty full on. I have classes every day usually ending by 6:00pm. Thankfully I live on campus so the long hours are pretty easy to manage.
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If you didn’t have a brain in your head what would you have instead?
hmm… A TV.
What made you want to pursue acting as a career?
Ever since I was a little I have loved movies and television. When I was younger I assumed all actors were from the US, until I saw Hugh Jackman in Wolverine and my dad tells me "He’s an Aussie". Which made me realise that maybe one day I could do the same thing for a living. Seeing Australian people in films and on television was really important in developing my passion for acting because it made me feel like the odds of becoming successful weren’t always stacked against me.
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Who are the biggest inspirations in your life when it comes to acting?
As sad as it is to say, Adam Sandler is probably my biggest inspiration; he just brought so much joy to my childhood. His films are a bit immature but so am I, I mean aren’t we all a bit immature? Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is another inspiration as well; for a guy from Winton to have had such a successful career really inspires me.
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Where do you think your creativity stems from?
Well pretty much all of my immediate family are creative in some way. My mum has written a few plays and books and my dad starred in her plays. My parents were in a children's band called ‘Duggy the Dung Beetle and Friends’, I wouldn’t say they were famous but there was a question about them on the 2007 NAPLAN test.
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Written By Rose O'Shannessy
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