If actors are typically boisterous types, then Sibylla Budd stands apart from the rest. Softly spoken, sweet and self-effacing, she doesn’t fit the mould of someone who seeks out the spotlight and
bares their soul on cue. Yet the Canberra-bred, Sydney-based actress manages all this and more. She has worked gracefully across theatre, film and television roles in Australia for more than
10 years, which is no small feat in such a capricious industry. She also worked on a documentary about Tanzania for World Vision and scored a lead role in Baz Luhrmann’s breathtaking ‘Come Walkabout’ campaign for Tourism Australia in 2008. As we speak, Sibylla is in Brisbane rehearsing for Queensland Theatre Company’s season of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, opening September 6. While she still gets opening-night jitters, Sibylla says she feels free on stage because theatre is, after all, her first love.
Remember The Secret Life of Us? It was a bit gritty and a bit shocking, but also fun-loving and harmless all in the one breath. It was Australian drama like we’d never known it. Of the 1.4-million loyal viewers in its first year, most wanted to be best buddies with at least one (but preferably all) of the friends living together in their grungy St Kilda apartment. We wanted gold passes to that rooftop of an afternoon to lounge on sun chairs, swill beer and shoot the breeze with Evan and Alex about love, life, rejection and everything in between.
Sibylla Budd got to live the dream. As one of the lead characters – Gabrielle Kovitch, or Gaby to her friends – she had prime perch on that rooftop alongside Claudia Karvan, Deborah Mailman, Joel Edgerton, Samuel Johnson and other young guns. It was a fortuitous start to her acting career and she holds the memory in a soft spot in her heart. “It was an incredible experience,” Sibylla says wistfully, “… a great crew and it really fit its time. I had no idea what it was going to become.”
Sibylla explains her early acting days were a rollercoaster ride as she went straight from graduating from Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) in 1999 to filming the pilot of The Secret Life of Us, to starring opposite Anthony LaPaglia in the Aussie feature film, The Bank, and then onto the first series of Secret Life in 2001. “I had the most amazing first year out of uni. I just thought, ‘This is what it’s going to be like’,” she laughs at her naivety.
She played Gaby until 2003, after which time Secret Life’s popularity took a dive as audiences grieved over the loss of the entire original cast, or rather, their friends. Sibylla went on to star in other iconic Aussie TV dramas like All Saints, Sea Patrol, Something in the Air and Kath and Kim, as well as home-grown films like The Bet, by Mark Lee, for which she was nominated for an Australian Film Institute award for best supporting actress in 2007. Her love of theatre has seen her work solidly for Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B, Griffin Theatre,
and others.
When asked if she considers herself a success Sibylla audibly cringes down the phone line and almost whispers, “I guess so” – sounding like she would rather implode than come across as arrogant – but explains she measures her success by the fact she is still working. “For me, I’m happy that I can continue to work as an actor in this country. I feel very grateful.” Of the 28 students who enrolled in her drama degree at VCA, she recalls only eight graduated and she knows of only three still working.
Sibylla says the biggest challenge as an actor is the “down time” in between roles. “But as an artist the down time isn’t the fact that you’re strapped for cash but it’s that you miss being creative,” she explains. “You miss putting that energy somewhere. That’s the most challenging part of being an artist in this country. There’s not much work around so it’s knowing what to do with that creativity.” Her goal is to craft a piece from scratch one day – whether a film script, TV show or a play, perhaps as a collaboration with her filmmaker husband.
Sibylla’s childhood dream was to be either an archaeologist or a forensic scientist although she knew she wanted to be an actor when she starred in her first school play in grade four. The play was Oliver Twist and her role was as Fagin. “And I loved it,” she says. “I still remember the feeling of being on stage for the first time. I loved making people laugh. Actually they were probably laughing at me, not with me. They would have been thinking, ‘Who is that little 12-year-old girl with a moustache?!’”
Sibylla’s acting talents don’t run in the family. However, while she used to say her parents weren’t creative she now takes that back. “Mum has suddenly enrolled herself in art school as a painter,” Sibylla says. “Now, looking back, I can see that she was always creative; she just didn’t have time to explore it because she had four kids.” Sibylla is the second-eldest child and the only girl. Her three brothers share her creative streak; one is a journalist, another a screenwriter, and the eldest works for Opera Australia. As kids they expressed themselves like all kids do with dancing and dress ups. “And mum made us a puppet box and we would spend hours doing puppet shows.”
Her love for the stage – be it with puppets or pulling her own strings – has remained true throughout her career. “Theatre is my first love. There is something so electrifying about having an audience. You can get an instant reaction to your work and you can change people, move people and that’s really exhilarating … I feel free when I’m on stage.”
Sibylla’s advice for budding actors is to rise above the negativity; she clearly has concerns about the state of Australia’s film and television industry but diplomatically steers clear of being drawn into the debate. “If you really love acting and you know in your bones that it’s all you want to be doing, then just do it. There’s so much negativity around it. Yes, it’s hard but it’s also so rewarding. Just go for it. We need all the creative people we can get, I reckon.”
Interview by Frances Frangenheim
Photography by Stephen Henry
