Actor Michelle Lim Davidson is best known for her roles in TV shows such as Play School and The Newsreader, and her new play, Koreaboo.
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Davidson → know → School
Here, the 39-year-old talks about meeting her Korean birth parents, the end of her last relationship, and why she’s happily single for now.
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she → talk → relationship
I was adopted by my Australian parents from Seoul in 1987, and have lived in Australia since I was 4½ months old.
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I → adopt → Australia
My parents also adopted my Australian sister, who is five years younger than me.
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who → adopt → me
My father was born in Newcastle and raised in a working-class family.
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father → bear → family
He worked in sales for a confectionery company.
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He → work → company
He played guitar in a cover band most Saturday nights in Newcastle.
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He → play → Newcastle
While Dad’s day job was all about interacting with customers, he was quite an introverted person – very private, quiet and happy to potter around at home.
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he → interact → home
His father used to deliver bread and milk on a horse and cart through the streets of Carrington [NSW] and my mother’s father was a coalminer.
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father → use → Carrington
My parents never told me I was adopted, but it was pretty obvious.
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it → tell → me
I saw them a few months ago.
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I → see → them
When I first met them at the end of 2019, they were running a small convenience mart.
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they → meet → mart
They worked there for over 30 years from 6am to 11pm every day without taking a holiday.
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They → work → holiday
I first saw my birth father in an old black-and-white photo when he was quite young.
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he → see → photo
If you cut the photo in half, I have his eyes and eyebrows.
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I → cut → eyes
One of the first things he sent me was a YouTube link to a song that reminded him of me.
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that → send → me
We go from wistful and poetic to giving out facts quite quickly.
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We → go → facts
It’s a common experience to have a big relationship end in your early 30s.
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relationship → ’ → 30s
In year 11, at Hunter School of the Performing Arts, I was cast as the lead in Bye Bye Birdie.
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I → cast → Birdie
There was a guy in the play who was funny, charismatic, and the girls always crowded around him.
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girls → be → him
I remember we had our first kiss at the after-party – it took me by surprise.
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it → remember → surprise
We always talked and got along well, but I never thought he would entertain a closeness with me.
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he → talk → me
A couple of years later, after I left school, we ended up in a relationship together.
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we → leave → relationship
My teacher, Mr Carol, encouraged me to do drama as an elective.
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teacher → encourage → elective
He cast me in an adaptation of Waiting for Godot, where I played Lucky and won an award for outstanding performer.
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I → cast → performer
I remember Mr Carol saying, “See, you can act.”
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you → remember → ?
He’s the reason why I even entertained the idea of becoming an actor.
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I → ’ → actor
My celebrity crush growing up was John Farnham.
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crush → grow → ?
I really liked his voice and watching him perform on TV.
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him → like → TV
I had a boyfriend when I was 22 at WAAPA [Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts].
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I → have → Arts
We dated as professional actors and lived and worked in Sydney.
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We → date → Sydney
It’s a common experience to have a big relationship end in your early 30s.
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relationship → ’ → 30s
I had just met my Korean family; my biological clock was ticking.
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clock → meet → family
We broke up during this time.
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We → break → time
I realised we had loved each other for the right amount of time; there was no more love to grow.
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we → realise → time
I didn’t need anything from him or anyone else to fix me, and learned to love in a different way – that had come from connecting with my family in Korea.
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that → need → Korea
Michael Lucas brought me into the writers’ room to be part of a great creative collaborative process for [ABC-TV series] The Newsreader.
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Lucas → bring → series
I’d never had that experience before.
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I → have → experience
It meant I was able to build a character that felt true, because I was playing a Korean-Australian woman in the show.
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I → mean → show
I worked with Stephen Peacocke for three seasons of The Newsreader.
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I → work → Newsreader
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
