‘Spiritual journey’: Lyndon Watts’ finds self-healing

It was a transfer of energy: the audience felt it, and Lyndon Watts channelled it as he appeared on stage in one of the most successful productions Australia has seen in decades, Hamilton.

Lyndon Watts’ journey to self-healing started when he was appearing on stage in one of the most successful productions Australia has seen in decades, Hamilton.

Playing Aaron Burr in the acclaimed musical through successive Covid lockdowns,

“I had started my spiritual journey,” Watts said in the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.

“I’d sort of gone within and started my yoga practice and going deeper with some of my trauma and different therapy modalities.

“I’m very inclined to give everything a go, you know, and see what sounds fantastic. Some people would think it’s all a bit kooky.”

But, as he points out, Watts is “not everyone”.

Actor Lyndon Watts is the latest guest on the Mental As Anyone podcast. Picture: Supplied

There is something truly unique about the rising Australian star, who is a graduate of the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), the same esteemed institution that Hugh Jackman is a graduate of.

Speaking more about self-healing, Watts continued on the podcast: “It all begins when you truly, deeply, profoundly accept and love all of you … the stuff that you feel is the good and the bad.”

When not on stage performing as Aaron Burr, Watts said he focused on his personal journey through the whole production.

“It was beautiful because it was paired with this show which was a huge challenge but also really empowering, so … I had people that were responding to the work in the show and I was channelling this beautiful light healing energy for myself and in turn that was coming out to the audience and that’s what has been felt.

“People still come up to me and say that they loved the show it’s like that’s they’re actually responding to that energy that was channelling through me.”

Watts recently appeared alongside Eddie Perfect in Opera Australia’s production of Candide.

He is working on countless personal projects, including music under an “anima persona”.

Actor Lyndon Watts is the latest guest on the Mental As Anyone podcast. Picture: Supplied

“I have come to the realisation and conclusion over the years that acting is so come and go and very hard,” he explained.

“It is very inconsistent and I’ve given eight years of back-to-back shows, theatre stuff, and I’m ready for a different kind of flow.

“Theatre and acting is I feel like it’s a part-time job, because that’s the schedule that it is telling me that it wants to be on.”

Eddie Perfect and Lyndon Watts perform in Candide by Opera Australia. Picture: Richard Dobson

Success, Watts explained, has not come easy.

There have been many detractors along the way.

“People never really saw it for me being a black queer, being who I was as a young person and growing up, people were very surprised when I would succeed or have these wins, but like I’ve always seen it for myself,” he said.

“I’ve always known. I’m not a package that often people imagine for their lead roles or for their projects or whatever, but I see it.”

— A new episode of Mental As Anyone is released each Tuesday morning.