by Dov Kornits
After making appearances in local films like Lonesome and Salt Along the Tongue, rising young Aussie actress Liz Lin has now booked a role in the UK-shot The Julia Set.
So busy working abroad that her friends joke that she “lives in the sky”, young Australian actress Liz Lin is on a very steep upward career trajectory. After a handful of local short films (In Touch, Fruity, Perfect Boy Next Door, Free Money) and features (2022’s Lonesome, 2024’s Salt Along the Tongue), Lin has now snagged a role in the highly anticipated UK-shot coming-of-age drama The Julia Set. Directed by newcomer Niki Byrne and headlined by One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti, the film follows a young mathematician preparing for a challenging contest and also stars Jason Isaacs, Christopher Briney, Gillian Anderson, Nina Hoss and Carmen Ejogo.
How’d you get the acting bug?
“I’ve loved performing ever since I was a young kid. It’s that classic story of me and my brother putting on performances for my parents in our living room. I loved watching Chinese dramas with my dad growing up and I especially loved all the fun Wuxia dramas with their powerful female characters who dressed in gorgeous dresses and headpieces. I thought to myself, ‘I want to do that when I grow up.’ In school, I wasn’t actually a big drama kid or anything, but acting was something that still tugged at my mind. It wasn’t until I was in my final year of uni, doing two degrees completely unrelated to acting, that I decided I wanted to try acting.”
Is anyone else a performer in your family?
“Not at all. Everyone in my family is in STEM.”
What sort of training have you done?
“I feel like I’ve been a scavenger of sorts with my acting training. I didn’t go to drama school, so I wanted to learn as much as I could from as many different kinds of teachers. So, I’ve trained with many teachers and practitioners. I also feel like just working on set with amazing collaborators has been some of the best training I could get. I feel like I’m still learning about the craft and myself as an artist every day.”
Do you have a back-up plan in case acting doesn’t work out?
“Nope. So it better work out!”
How do you cope with all of the auditions and rejections that are par for the course for actors?
“I saw this really great quote the other day that said ‘If you knew you were 100 rejections away from your dream, think how excited you would be every time someone told you no.’ That’s a good way to look at it. Not every role is meant for you, and sometimes you can really want something, but it just isn’t yours for whatever reason. It’s tough, but I really believe that what’s meant for you won’t pass you by. There’s no point holding on to something that wasn’t ever yours to begin with. But sometimes it still does really suck, and I’ll have a little crash out about it first before moving on.”
Can you tell us more about The Juliet Set and your role?
“I can’t reveal much at this point, but I will say that I love this story, and I love the characters. I think it will resonate with a lot of people. Everyone who worked on this film is insanely talented, so I’m really excited for people to see it.”
How was the shoot on The Julia Set compared to the Australian productions you have been on?
“It was my first time working in London, so that was really cool. Everyone was flown in from all over and it was a first for me working with a largely American cast.”
Are you based in US now, and what do you hope for the future in terms of acting?
“I’m still living in Sydney, but I spend so much time overseas, whether that’s in the US or elsewhere, that my friends joke I live in the sky. My hope for the future is that I get to continue to work with talented people on really great stories and stretch and challenge myself as an artist.”
Main photo by Lachlan Harmer
