Maya Stange: introducing the next actress in the down under hit parade

Interview, Feb, 2003 by Michael Adams

Although Maya Stange laughs when asked if she's ever been involved in a threesome--for the record, she hasn't--the actress says the broader themes of her upcoming April film, the love triangle drama XX/XY, resonate with her own experiences. "It's about the difficulties people have in relationships," says the 28-year-old Australian. "People who love each other can have complete communication breakdowns."

Later this spring, soon after XX/XY hits theaters, comes Garage Days, a drama about struggling musicians in which Stange plays a poet. It's a fitting role: She's just finished a poetry course in pursuit of a literature degree at Murdoch University, located in her hometown of Perth. "I don't know what I'm studying for, exactly," says Stange, who, with recognition on both sides of the Pacific looming thanks to her onscreen warmth and intelligence, is unlikely to have to rely on a diploma anytime soon. What hitting the books provides the actress, though, is a grounding, and for us, an insight into the manner in which she approaches work and life: "Study is completely different from acting, an antidote to the self-obsession of the profession."

Michael Adams is the Sydney-based features editor of Empire magazine.