Fairytale escape from an all too raw reality

ACTRESS Ursula Yovich has quit playing indigenous roles, saying she has been typecast because of her race.

Actress, Ursula Yovich

ACTRESS Ursula Yovich has quit playing indigenous roles, saying she has been typecast because of her race and that a career spent portraying the "tragic reality" of Aboriginal characters has left her emotionally drained.

Yovich's film credits include Australia and Jindabyne, and she is also a successful singer, having won a Helpmann Award in 2004 for her role in Capricornia.

She told The Australian she made the decision to walk away from Aboriginal stories following her role in Sydney Theatre Company's recent Yolngu-language production Bloodland.

"Aboriginal stories are very important, but sometimes they are just too close," she said. "My cousin died during that production (which deals with death, dysfunction, and conflict in a remote Aboriginal community) and one day I just said 'I can't do this any more'.

"If we are going to do these shows, we should have a psychologist talking to us after the show, to get our thoughts out there. For me, it was just too raw."

Yovich, who played Cherish in Wayne Blair's STC-Bangarra work that also toured to Brisbane in March, said she had spent her 15-year acting career being either targeted or overlooked for roles on account of her Aboriginality.

"I became very jaded," said Yovich. "The majority of times in my 15 years' acting I have been asked to do Aboriginal roles. The only auditions I'd get would be for Aboriginal roles.

"That's great, because these stories are important. But you start to doubt yourself as a performer.

"I began thinking: 'Am I really a performer, or am I just telling our stories? Is that all I can do?'

"So I said 'That's it. I quit. I'm giving the Aboriginal-content plays a rest'."

Yovich -- who grew up in far north Arnhem Land, the daughter of an Aboriginal mother and a Serbian father -- almost walked away from acting altogether but a phone call from Perth's Deckchair Theatre about a "colourblind" role changed her mind.

Yovich said The Magic Hour, a one-woman stage show by Vanessa Bates in which she plays seven non-race-specific women, has affirmed her decision to steer away from indigenous roles. She plays the "forgotten women of fairytales" -- Red Riding Hood's grandmother, Cinderella's ugly sister, the witch in Rapunzel, among others -- in the new work opening on Saturday in Perth.

"The thing that attracted me was that the characters are not Aboriginal," she said. "Yet they could be. They could be anyone. I'm telling the stories of forgotten (people)."