I’m ready now’: Victoria Morgan took a long time to find her feet – and the Aussie is grateful for it
Aussie actor Victoria Morgan — who moved to LA 10 years ago to study acting — is grateful she didn’t find her current fame too early in her career.
It has taken Victoria Morgan a long time to find her feet.
And the Aussie actor is grateful for the fact as she declares it has been her “best year yet”.
Morgan is currently starring on screen in hit US post-apocalyptic science fiction TV drama Earth Abides.
“Gaining success later on in life, later being not in my 20s, I think that I am way more prepared as opposed to my younger fragile self,” Morgan told Insider.
“Obviously young people, especially young people, see this success on social media and they want that but what I’ve realised is that you can only join the dots once you are looking back. I just don’t think I would have been prepared for that and I think I would have perhaps ruined my career, and maybe not even had a career, because I just don’t know if I would have handled it back then.”
Like so many aspiring actors, Morgan moved to Los Angeles full of hopes and dreams a decade ago.
There she honed her craft, taking acting classes but couldn’t work as she didn’t have the appropriate visa.
It has been a rollercoaster ride since that has seen the now 35-year-old live in multiple countries – Scotland, the US, and Canada, where she is now based in Vancouver.
At one point she returned to Australia to work a corporate job in management at Goldman Sachs.
“I realised that wasn’t the life for me,” she laughed, talking via Zoom with her beloved groodle Chaplin (after Charlie Chaplin) at her feet.
“I missed the arts. And so I still had time on my Canadian visa and I moved to Vancouver, aka Hollywood North – that’s what we call it up here.”
LA can be a tough place.
“If you have a certain expectation and haven’t done the groundwork on yourself and the industry, you really need a strong support system,” she said.
“There is a tonne of hard work and I think if you aren’t in love with the craft, there are so many other careers you can take because essentially you are the product and you are getting rejected everywhere. You have to have a thick skin.”
Her work in Australia before heading overseas at age 24 was limited to independent films.
She did, however, audition for Home and Away.
“I never really broke into the Australian industry,” she explained.
“I auditioned once for Home and Away, it was the same name as mine, Tori Morgan. I was just laughing that it was my name.”
That role went to Penny McNamee, who played Tori on the popular television soap from 2016 to 2021 and again this year.
“I just think if I had have gained success early on – it depends what you define as success, say it was fame – I just don’t know how I would have handled it. Gosh, I am so glad that my mistakes weren’t recorded or publicised, I was able to make mistakes in private essentially.”
Morgan grew up in Sydney’s Northern Beaches and spent her childhood competing in dance at Brent Street Performing Arts and the Tanya Pearson Academy.
Initially her dream was to one day be a professional ballerina. Later she studied a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Macquarie University.
Her acting credits include spots on TV series Supernatural, Surface, Missing Persons Unit, Alert and TV movie Signed, Sealed, Delivered: A Tale Of Three Letters.
In Earth Abides, she stars alongside Alexander Ludwig, of The Hunger Games fame, and Jessica Frances Dukes, known for playing Special Agent Maya Miller in Ozark.
Morgan’s character is Perry in the series that is based on George R. Stewart’s 1949 novel of the same name that tells the story of the fall of civilisation from a deadly disease.
Her on-screen partner, Charlie, is played by Broadway star and Tony Award-winner Aaron Tveit.
“It is very relevant to today,” she said.
“It is on an extreme level but I think that we were asking those same questions (during Covid), and we were able to relate because we didn’t know what was going to happen and we had the same fears of people.”
There is a hopeful tone to the series that explores and poses the question, who are we when we strip away all of the modern elements of life and society.
“A lot of these shows can be really dark and depressing,” she said.
“Even though it is a pretty depressing theme, there is a real kind of warmth to the show. It is about humanity, what kind of person do you want to be? And understanding that, to survive, we actually need each other. That was a big theme even during Covid is this isolation period and feeling like we are against each other when, in actual fact, if we want to move forward, we really do need community.”
Earth Abides was commissioned as a limited six-part series. Whether or not there will be more is yet to be determined.
“We haven’t been told anything,” she said.
“If people want to see more, I know there is probably a possibility but I can’t confirm that. I would love to return though, I love the people.”
Next up, Morgan will be seen in Firebug, another television series that this time stars Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollett, Greg Kinnear and John Leguizamo.
She’s also hopeful of spending more time in Australia.
“I miss the quality of life there,” she said.
“I would ultimately like to split my time between Sydney and somewhere else. Vancouver isn’t necessarily my forever place but I go where the work is and, for me, this is the most suitable place right now.”
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