Why ALICE IN WONDERLAND Star Left Hollywood: ‘I Felt Disconnected from Community’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress Mia Wasikowska recently shared why she left Hollywood for her native Australia.
“I didn’t entirely like the lifestyle of going back-to-back-to-back. I felt really disconnected from any greater community,” she said. “I want[ed] to do more things in life other than be in a trailer…it didn’t suit me as a person.”
Wasikowska got her first gig at age 15, and her career took off at 17. After more than 15 years in the industry and moving to a new city every couple of months, she wanted a place to put down roots.
“It’s like starting school again every few months,” she said, “especially when you’re younger, when you don’t have that base. I found that really hard.”
Throughout her career, Wasikowska starred in major films such as ALICE IN WONDERLAND, JANE EYRE, CRIMSON PEAK and ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. After she returned to Sydney, Australia, Wasikowska gave up these mainstream roles for independent projects, such as 2022’s BLUEBACK in which she plays an oceanographic advocate who fights against poachers.
While Wasikowska is content with her decision to leave the moviemaking grind, she’s not against returning to L.A. for more Hollywood movies.
“If I [could] have the best of both worlds, which is dip in and out of it occasionally, I’d be really happy. But I wouldn’t ever be in that place where I was just on a treadmill.”
Many other celebrities have left Hollywood to live a more normal life and to be available for their loved ones. Toward the end of 2022, Mark Wahlberg shared he would be leaving L.A. for Nevada for the sake of his family.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Mark Wahlberg is one of the many celebrities choosing to leave Hollywood and raise their families outside of the entertainment capital.
The action star recently revealed that he was selling his Los Angeles home and moving his family to Nevada in pursuit of a “better life.”
“I want to be able to work from home,” Wahlberg shared. “I moved to California many years ago to pursue acting, and I’ve only made a couple of movies in the entire time that I was there.
“So, to be able to give my kids a better life and follow and pursue their dreams whether it be my daughter as an equestrian, my son as a basketball player, my younger son as a golfer, this made a lot more sense for us,” the actor continued.
Wahlberg and his wife Rhea have four children: Ella, 18, Michael, 16, Brendan, 13, and Grace, 12.
“We came [to Nevada] to just kind of give ourselves a new look, a fresh start for the kids, and there’s a lot of opportunity here,” Wahlberg said. “I’m really excited about the future.”