THE LONG WAY HOME

Ahead of the release of the miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North, actor Olivia De Jonge opens up about reconnecting with her roots.

- WORDS HARRIET SIM

Somewhere along the path between budding actor and Hollywood starlet, Olivia De Jonge lost her way.

The actor, who turns 27 on April 30, has spent the past decade building momentum on the A-list circuit: from landing a role in the teen movie The Sisterhood of Night in 2014, to becoming Priscilla Presley in Baz Luhrmann's award-winning 2022 film Elvis. But despite riding the highs of film-star success, DeJonge admits she had fallen into a creative slump. “I remember working on a short film when I was 11 and being obsessed with creating this world within a world, and the very meta feeling of it. I don't know if it’s an age thing or becoming an adult, but [along the way] you lose that joy and that spark,” the actor says over Zoom from her home in Sydney.

Fortunately, a script landed in DeJonge’s lap that turned out to be the guiding force she needed: a screen adaptation of Richard Flanagan's 2013 Booker Prize-winning novel,