Danielle MacDonald is the superstar Australia didn’t appreciate

SHE couldn’t even get an audition in Australia, but now Danielle MacDonald is killing it in Hollywood. Her new film looks seriously amazing.

DANIELLE MacDonald has taken Hollywood by storm with her breakout performance in Patti Cake$, getting rave reviews from the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.

But “Australia’s next big thing” couldn’t even book an audition back home.

“I had an agent for three years in Australia and I never had one audition! I had to move to America because I wasn’t getting the same opportunities back home,” the Sydney-born actress tells news.com.au.

“I came out to America just before I turned 19, got my first audition and booked it.” (It was a role in the TV Series Huge, which unfortunately never materialised due to visa issues.)

But now, with her titular role in Patti Cake$, as a rapper from a rough neighbourhood in New Jersey who also goes by the name Killa P, MacDonald’s career has happily forged ahead.

Danielle MacDonald in a scene from Patti Cake$.

While her parents were supportive of their daughter’s brave decision to follow her dreams, not everyone was as encouraging.

“I think in Australia it’s kind of a crazy thing to say, ‘I want to be an actor.’ People look at you weirdly. And when I said I was moving to LA, I remember people saying, ‘No. you shouldn’t. You’ll just come back disappointed’.”

She smiles. “But I’m good at shrugging that kind of thing off. I thought, ‘How am I going to know if I don’t try?’ If you want to do something and if you work hard at it, then you go and do it. So, I never really listened to any of that.”

Given Hollywood’s obsession with casting leading ladies who hover roughly between size zero and two, the plus-sized 25-year-old is a breath of fresh air who is happy to lead a charge towards more realistic portrayals of women on screen.

“As far as body image, I think it’s always been that way. People in big studios are like, ‘People want to see other people who are skinny, and happy and amazing.’ But I think nowadays, they are realising that what sells is real people from all different backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures and size. People want to see themselves represented on screen and it’s a real cool thing for everyone.

“It’s a lot more acceptable for men [to be heavier] in a strange way. Especially in film, women are pigeonholed into boxes. There is this idea that women have to be perfect,” she says.

“It was refreshing with a show like Girls, with these women who don’t give a f***. They are flawed and they own that. I like that because there are too many restrictions put on women.”

Danielle Macdonald in Patti Cake$.

Given the prevailing attitude in Hollywood, has she been advised to lose weight?

“People are always going to tell you to lose weight and they tell you how they feel about it. There are pressures always to be a certain weight, but you have to be who you are. And if you want to change, you have got to do it for you and not for what people want you to be.”

She laughs. “The funny thing is, in my life with my friends, my weight isn’t something that I talk about every day. It’s not like, ‘Oh, let’s make my entire life about that.’ I live my life normally.”

The film doesn’t make her size an issue which appealed to MacDonald. “Usually in a film, if they have a big girl her whole life is around her weight, and that’s not the reality.

“I love that this movie isn’t about that. It’s a coming of age story and the weight just happened to be a part of it which is more grounded in reality,” she says. “I was very excited to be able to represent that.”

Danielle Macdonald and Siddharth Dhananjay at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 26, 2017. Picture: Antony Jones/Getty Images

Interestingly, MacDonald’s journey to stardom isn’t unlike that of Rebel Wilson, who also didn’t find work in Australia until she became successful in Hollywood.

“She’s doing amazing,” says MacDonald. “She created her own content and paved her way which was really inspiring. It’s always a great thing to be compared to anyone like that,” she smiles.

“Actually, we met at an audition when I first moved to LA before Bridesmaids came out. She was really sweet.”

Now that she’s become a bona fide movie star herself, would she like to finally work in Australia?

“Of course! I’d love to go back to Australia and do a film. That would be so cool. I miss it.”

Originally published as Danielle MacDonald is the superstar Australia didn’t appreciate