‘I told my mum I had met my husband’: Emma Lung’s second chance at love

Actor Emma Lung has starred in films alongside some of the industry’s biggest names, including Hugo Weaving and Brian Cox. The 43-year-old, who stars opposite Asher Keddie in streaming series Strife, also discusses how she and her now husband had a second chance at love.

As a young actor, Emma Lung had to film love scenes with Hugo Weaving, who she describes as “kind and gentle”.Credit: Sam Bisso

My grandfather, James, was born in Guangzhou [China]. He moved to Papua New Guinea after he finished high school. From there, he moved to Sydney, where he met my grandmother, Colleen. Together, they had seven children.

I called my grandfather Yéye (Mandarin for paternal grandfather). I didn’t know him for a lot of my early life, as our family lived in Tokyo, where my father, Gary, and mother, Heather, taught English. But when we returned to Sydney, I knew him as a gentle and wise man.

I couldn’t ask for a more loving father. He’s been in my corner since day one and continues to be. There’s really nothing he wouldn’t do for me. Dad is gregarious, hilarious and impatient. He’s also an absolute cinephile, and so I grew up watching Woody Allen and Rob Reiner and all the films of the 1970s. From him, I’ve inherited my sense of curiosity, adventure and tenacity – probably my loudmouth tendencies, too.

My teenage celebrity crush was River Phoenix. I still can barely say his name without my heart missing a beat.

My first serious relationship came when I was 13. I’d met Thorald at [Sydney’s] Newtown School of Performing Arts. When I was 15, I managed to convince my parents to let me attend an acting school in New York for the last term of year 10, and so I moved there with Thorald and his mum.

When I came back, I sent a video audition to the Professional Performing Arts School of Manhattan. I got accepted, and so I completed my final year of drama school in New York. When Thorald and I came back to Australia, he wanted to return [to New York]. I wasn’t ready for that, and six months or so later, we split up. We’re still very much in touch. My 10-year-old son, Marlowe, and his first child were born six hours apart.

I was 19 when I appeared with Hugo Weaving in Peaches. The love scenes were really intense, but there was no sort of worry as Hugo is the most kind and gentle soul. Looking back, it would have been extremely hard for him, too, as he had a daughter around 10 years younger than me. But you’d be hard-pressed to find too many actors as professional as him.

Lung, in a scene with Hugo Weaving in the 2005 film Peaches.

When you act with Brian Cox [the pair co-starred in the 2012 miniseries The Straits], you are in a masterclass from beginning to end. You could tell that Brian genuinely loved the craft of acting so much, as he wanted to share that with every person on the set, especially with the younger ones. That experience with him was quite extraordinary.

The first time I met my husband, writer and director Henry Zalapa, I went weak at the knees. Nothing came of it, though, as we were both in relationships. Henry then moved to London and I moved to Los Angeles. I shared a house in Beachwood Canyon, under the Hollywood sign, with [Australian] journalist Peter Stefanovic, which was a really fun time.

Four years later, Henry and I were both single. He had returned to Sydney and I had also returned to shoot the [2009] film Triangle. Henry’s brother, who I knew, told Henry he was going to a warehouse party. At first, Henry declined to go, stating he was tired from shooting all day, but when he heard I was going, he grabbed his jacket. That night we hung out. We didn’t even kiss. I told my mum I had met my husband. We’ve never lived without each other since: that was 17 years ago.

I play Lucy, best friend of Evelyn [Asher Keddie], in the second series of Strife. Matt Day plays Jon, Evelyn’s ex-husband. Matt is such a brilliant, funny man. His character is grounded and calm and is like a metronome, while Evelyn is offbeat and erratic.

My husband and I are like that, too – I’m off the wall. I call Henry a metronome, but there’s also a kindness to that, in terms of our shared outlook on life.

Season two of Strife is streaming now on Binge.

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