Sydney is home to one of Australia’s most iconic images: the striking skyline of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.
Sydney is also home to 48% of Australia’s feature film expenditure and 31% of the country’s TV drama. On the live performance front, the New South Wales capital generates roughly 35% of Australia’s total live performance revenue. All this to say, Sydney is one of the industry’s most thriving hubs.
We recently had the chance to sit down with Zimbabwean-Australian actor Ratidzo Mambo (Escape from Pretoria, The Gloaming, Glee) about her experience moving to the Eora Nation after long stints in Melbourne and Los Angeles.
Photo courtesy of Ratidzo Mambo.A unique introduction to Australia
I was born in Zimbabwe and started acting really young—from eight or nine. Like most people, I did the school plays, but I also did a feature film [Yellow Card]. It was a teenage movie—a massive, big-budget film—and I got to be on set for three months, do school on set, and work. That affirmed that acting was the thing I wanted to do.
Then I ended up applying for an exchange program with the Rotary Youth Exchange and got whisked away to Far North Queensland for a year. I like to say my story is exactly like Matthew McConaughey’s until that point because he did the same thing—he also did an exchange program with Rotary in Far North Queensland. I know a lot of people have read his book, but it really was like that.
I won’t lie: My first choice wasn’t Australia because I was doing French and German in school, so I wanted to go to France or Belgium or Berlin. Even Spain or Brazil were options. I just wanted to learn a language. But my mum was obsessed with Neighbours, and she felt that if I picked Australia as my first choice, she’d feel safe that I was in a safe country. No one ever got their first choice, so I put Australia as my first … and I got it. I got the “first choice” that I didn’t really want, but it ended up changing my life, and I loved it. And I actually ended up doing Neighbours later down the line, which was kind of a full-circle moment.
Sydney’s weather is a vibe.
I moved to Sydney because I loved the weather in L.A. I got used to the light and the whiteness of it. It just always felt positive.
I was also getting a lot of auditions in Sydney—seeing more casting offices for independent theatre, commercials, voiceover work. My agent, Sophie Jermyn, is in Sydney, so it’s nice having her here and working where my agent is so well plugged in.
[But] it was more about the energy, to be honest. I find that the weather is really good for my mental health. I always think about [life] in between gigs. In Sydney, when you’re not working, there are things you can do outdoors. You can pack yourself a picnic and take a book and sit in the park. I’m also writing and exploring creating my own content now, and I want to do that in a place where I can go for walks or to the beach and get lost in my thoughts in those places. I honestly find I’m more creative in Sydney.
But a community is harder to organically come by.
In both L.A. and Melbourne, I found that there was more of a sense of community. In Melbourne, you did one project, got to know one or two people, and those people invited you into spaces. I thought L.A. was going to be really hard [in terms of] community for me, but because I attended classes and the events planned and organized by Australians in Film (AiF), it was actually amazing. Sydney somehow feels so much more spread out.
I also got more exposed to my blackness and to my cultural stuff [in L.A. and Melbourne]. Melbourne is so diverse. You see every nationality on the main street. Same thing in L.A. In classes, I’d always have other people who were from different places around the world. Here, there are a lot of amazing, beautiful black and brown artists who are always putting stuff on and trying to get people in, but that’s all trying. … There was an organicness to Melbourne and California.
Sydney is a little bit like London or New York—there’s always a show somewhere.
And it’s theatre that takes a lot of risks. Kings Cross Theatre (KXT), Ensemble Theatre, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Hayes Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, the Seymour Centre … There’s quite a bit, and I’ve only named a few. If you’re young, ATYP [the Australian Theatre for Young People] is another great one.
Audition for as many of these independent theatre companies as you can. They have a beautiful open-door policy where, if you email them and find out when their audition seasons are, they do generals and they do auditions. They also take applications, so if you have a unique voice and have friends and want to put up theatre, I do think it’s a lot easier to get seen here.
That’s a wrap on Sydney!
I love exploring, and you can never get bored in Sydney. I sometimes just randomly take a ferry somewhere—to Kirribilli, to Drummoyne. I’ll have a book, go for a walk, find a cafe … That’s my number one thing.
And Cooper Park! Everyone has to go there. It’s my magical place. It has a waterfall. I like playing tennis a lot, so they’ve got tennis courts in the middle of this park that feels like a rainforest. It does not feel like you’re in Sydney.
Mambo also recently contributed to Casting Network’s ‘Behind the Curtain: Mental Health in the Entertainment Industry’ panel. You can find the highlights reel from this event here.
Are you looking for a fantastic role in the Sydney area? Check out our Sydney Casting Calls and Auditions and make the next big move in your acting career!
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