Mia Waskiowska left Hollywood because she felt "really disconnected" from any "greater community" and the lifestyle of being a major movie star "didn't suit" her.
The 33-year-old actress had her US onscreen debut in HBO's 'In Treatment' in 2008 then secured a number of big screen roles in the likes of 'Jane Eyre', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'The Kids Are All Right' and 'Crimson Peak', before dropping out of the spotlight not long after the release of 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'.
And Mia has now opened up about her decision to return to her native Australia, explaining she wanted to find a solid base for herself.
She told IndieWire: "I didn’t entirely like the lifestyle of going back to back to back. I felt really disconnected from any greater community.
“I was doing it since I had been 17, well more like 15, but really working a lot from 17, I spent 10 to 15 years, completely like, new city, new country, every three months, and it’s like starting school again every few months.
"Especially when you’re younger, when you don’t have that base, I found that really hard.
"At the same time, maybe if the payoff is good and you feel really great doing it, then that’s OK, but I didn’t, so I wanted to establish that for myself on a personal level and have more of a sense of somewhere I belong that’s not just on a film set that ends every few weeks.”
The 'Blueback' actress is "pretty content" with her life now and won't ever push her movie career as hard as she did back then.
Asked if she'd make a full-time return to Hollywood, she said: “I’m pretty content. If I can have the best of both worlds, which is dip in and out of it occasionally, I’d be really happy, but I wouldn’t ever be in that place where I was just on a treadmill.
"I want to do more things in life other than be in a trailer. It’s great, and there are lots of great things, [but] the perception of it is quite different from the reality and it didn’t suit me as a person.
"You can really lose perspective because you’re treated quite strangely. When that’s your only reality, it’s quite strange.”
