The New Dreaming Podcast

The Stage Matriarch: Acting Is A Vessel, Finding Your Voice, The Price of Passion!

• David Cook • Season 1 • Episode 1

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From Kangaroos hopping through the dusty camps of Roma to standing in the spotlight of Australia's most prestigious stages, veteran Indigenous actor Roxanne MacDonald takes us on an intimate journey through her remarkable life and career.

Roxanne's story begins with vivid childhood memories – collecting money for the pictures from her mother who worked at the School of Arts, learning from her grandmother how to find witchetty grubs and the profound cultural transition when her family moved to Brisbane. There, she experienced the harsh reality of racism in schools where Aboriginal families were scarce - forming the backdrop to her eventual discovery of acting at age 25.

With disarming vulnerability, Roxanne reveals the emotional battleground behind each performance. "You die a few deaths yourself because you give so much," she confesses - describing how fully embodying characters takes something from you while simultaneously filling your soul. Her breakthrough moment came with "You Came to My Country and You Didn't Turn Black," performing the poetry of Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Aunty Maureen Watson – a production her late mother considered her finest work across her three-decade career.

The conversation shifts to the changing landscape for today's actors, with Roxanne offering wisdom gained through years of discipline and sacrifice. She notes how young performers navigate new challenges in the age of social media, while producers increasingly value follower counts alongside talent. Despite these industry evolutions, her advice remains timeless: be prepared, be professional and understand that this demanding craft requires complete dedication.

What resonates most powerfully is Roxanne's profound gratitude for finding her purpose. "This industry has given me a confidence like I've never had... it's just made my soul sing because it's what I was meant to do". 

Her journey stands as testament to how storytelling can heal, transform and connect us to our deepest cultural roots.

Have you discovered what makes your soul sing? Listen to Roxanne's story and be inspired to find your own authentic voice.

David Cook: 0:00
Annie Roxy. Thank you so much for joining the podcast.

Roxanne McDonald: 0:03
Thank you for inviting me along, Dave.

David Cook: 0:05
Absolutely, you're a VIP. Hey, you're on that first list.

Roxanne McDonald: 0:08
Thank you. Am I the first one? No, am I?

David Cook: 0:10
Oh, look, you're on that first special list. Oh right, yeah, I'll take that. You can pay me that $20 later. Yeah, now let's get started. Let's full name mob and mob and sort of what you do.

Roxanne McDonald: 0:23
Okay, yeah, my name's Roxanne MacDonald, my mob are Wangan, central Queensland, claremont, durhamball, rockhampton. On my grandfather's side and my dad's side is Mandandangy, roma, and we've also got connections to Stradbroke Island just off Brisbane, there, wotton Bay, and I'm an actor.

David Cook: 0:48
Amazing. Thank you. Now let's start with Roma Growing up those sort of early 10 to 15 years. You've been in the acting industry a long time, so let's sort of talk about when you first discovered that passion for acting.

Roxanne McDonald: 1:14
Passion for acting started at a really young age. I remember the arts council came to our school. I was going to a school called white's hill, just down the road from where we lived, and they brought along a production called p and the Wolf and I saw it and I actually stayed back. After all, the class went in and I was talking to the actors and just asking all these questions and I don't know, I think at an early age it just sparked something in me. I was just in awe of it and I was I just, you know, thought, wow, you know, I probably didn't know then that this is what I wanted to do for a career or for the, you know, the time of most time of my life, but at that time I, you know I loved it yeah.

David Cook: 2:04
And tell me about your childhood. I know that you grew up sort of in Roma and then there was a transition, moved to Brisbane. Is that right?

Roxanne McDonald: 2:12
Yeah, that's right. I remember a lot out there. We only spent about the first seven years of my life there. I remember we lived on the outskirts of town, a place called Chinatown, and I heard just the other day my brother said we lived in a sawmill. There too, I said what he said. Yeah, we lived in the sawmill and I just remember kangaroos hopping through the camp and the big drums of fire going and just a lot of people coming there and talking and yarning and just us kids running off around the bush going down the creek, spent so much time down the creek and there were a lot of families that that when we did move to Brisbane, some of them sort of moved to Brisbane as well. So there was that Roma connection with some of the families.

David Cook: 3:21
So fond memories of Roma.

Roxanne McDonald: 3:22
Yeah, fond memories. I remember my mum and dad, or dad, used to do work out in the bush ring barking and mum used to work in the School of Arts doing the cleaning and some cooking I think she did there. I remember us as kids running there on what must have been a Saturday morning, going to get some money for the pictures.

David Cook: 3:47
How much were they back then?

Roxanne McDonald: 3:49
They were always about 20 cents, 10 cents, 20 cents.

David Cook: 3:54
That's one piece of popcorn nowadays. That's it, yeah just about.

Roxanne McDonald: 3:58
But I just remember those little things, little flashes, you know still come to me, Just fond memories, you know come to me just fond memories. You know just a lot of. You know wildlife around. You know more than I ever saw here in the city, yeah, but there was, you know porcupines and kangaroos and emus and you know we go out in the bush and my brother used to look. You know we'd get the witchetty grubs with granny and cook them up. So all those things, just little snapshots, would come up in my mind.

David Cook: 4:30
Now we moved to Brisbane. What happened there? How was that experience in comparison?

Roxanne McDonald: 4:38
We came out for I think it might have been a family member's funeral. I remember staying at my grandmother's over at Mount Gravatt there and and I remember bits of that, and then the next minute we didn't go back out. Mum said to dad I think we'll stay here, I think we'll stay here because the kids might have more opportunity here and we only had one big suitcase, so we were only coming out for like the couple of days for the funeral and just to stay and see some family and then head back out home. And then I heard some stories like oh, we couldn't afford to get back, so you know we had to stay. But yeah, it's funny how your life sort of changes. I had no say in the matter, we had to stay. So then we were in the same house that we got through housing commission and still in it. Oh yeah.

Roxanne McDonald: 5:42
Still have the house? Yeah, 57 odd years later, we didn't.

Roxanne McDonald: 5:47
I don't think I experienced much in what I thought was racism out there mum and dad had a lot of friends and, yeah, you know mob and you know any other mob. But since coming here to Brisbane school was wasn't the best time, there were a lot of a lot of kids there. We were probably only the very bare minority. Yeah, because there was only a couple of Aboriginal families you could probably count them on your pants. Yeah, copped a lot of it in the mornings and all through the day and it just became normal in a way.

Roxanne McDonald: 6:41
You know you just got called names every day. You know kids didn't want to sit with you or didn't want to, you know, be around to play with you. I mean, I had some friends. I did have friends who sort of stuck up for me and those sorts of things, but a lot of the time not a good time.

David Cook: 7:03
Do you feel a little isolated? Yeah. So you're a young girl, you're in Brisbane, this stuff's happening at school. Yes. Then you discover this acting thing, this performing thing. What changed within you after that day, when you found that?

Roxanne McDonald: 7:28
I didn't start till much later in life, around about 25, around the age of 25, we were told about a film course that was happening. So I did this film course and we finished and everything was deadly. And then I got another job at the university then, after this 10-year one that I had. So I got to work out there and that sort of opened my eyes a bit more to what was happening. You know, for us Aboriginal people you become involved in a lot of things in the community and you know. So you, you know, go off to march, we go off to marches, and you know things like that. And when the Opal Centre was running, there was always, you know, things happening there.

David Cook: 8:18
you know, in the political sphere, so you were forming an identity through those years, yeah, and then when I was at the university, so you were forming an identity through those years.

Roxanne McDonald: 8:27
Yes, yes, yeah. And then, when I was at the university, this flyer came across the desk because I was, you know, coordinator. I was working with the coordinator there. The flyer came across the desk and it was for a production at the Queensland Museum called you Came to my Country and you didn't turn black. And it was the poetry of Annie, would you ruin new knuckle nice and a cat Walker and Annie Maureen Watson. So two different styles of writing. And I said to myself I'm gonna audition for that amazing.

Roxanne McDonald: 9:04
So I had to. I had to find a poem because it was all poetry. The whole play was Aunty Ujuru Noonukul's poetry and Aunty Maureen Watson's poetry. So I went along and I auditioned and I got a call back. So I got called back, did a few other exercises with Sue and you know, some of the other cast that also got called back, and then I got it.

David Cook: 9:29
Wow, you're on stage. It's opening night, the first time speaking role. You've done all the prep, the play is complete and the cast come out and take a bow. Take me back there. How did that feel?

Roxanne McDonald: 9:50
Like something I've never felt before, that just, I don't know. It was a feeling of accomplishment. It was a feeling of because we were speaking these words, of these two, you know, like powerhouse women in the community who were, you know, in their time, were and still are remembered for the work that they did in the literary world, in the political space, as women. And I felt so, so honoured to have been speaking their words out into the universe and out into the space that I thought you know what. I think this is what I'm meant to do. I'm meant to do this. I'm meant to use whatever is in me to be a voice or I think one of my lovely young actors calls it a vessel to speak these words out and to tell these stories.

Roxanne McDonald: 11:08
And I think I've always been a storyteller but never, ever had the confidence, never had the opportunities. When I was younger Probably didn't think that it was at all possible. And tell you what, over my career, I was absolutely, you know, over my career, I was absolutely so afraid and so, you know, like when people see me on stage, they go. You know how do you do it. You get up there and you say all these lines.

Roxanne McDonald: 11:40
But I tell you what, inside it's like you're having a fight with yourself too, because you go through so much as a person when you're an actor too, because it it doesn't come easy, it doesn't happen like you can just walk out there and feel like, you know, I can just be, you know the, the, you know this confident, full of you, know this confident, full of you know, whatever charisma, whatever you need to tell this story. There was a lot going on for me in a lot of years within the industry, because I'd always doubt myself too and I'd think, oh no, I can't do it, and you'd, you know, you'd have just all these, you know, you know fights with yourself and um, and then, as I gradually got, you know, more and more work, and I, you know, started to feel like, hey, hang on, you know.

Roxanne McDonald: 12:40
Um, this is okay, I'm, I'm, I'm where I'm meant to be.

Roxanne McDonald: 12:46
This is what I'm meant to do and I sort of overcame a bit of it in a way. But it was hard and I remember lots of things. You miss out on so much, too, because you're working, you're constantly working and you get the work, which I, as actors, is just you don't get that opportunity and and to have constant work, like there were years and years that I had constant work and but then that meant you missed out on a lot of things too. You missed family. You know things. You missed things that you know. You, you, um, you know weddings and sometimes a funeral. You know things like that, you, you just weddings and sometimes a funeral. You know things like that. You just missed a lot of that stuff.

Roxanne McDonald: 13:34
It's like it's sort of, in a way, you sacrificed a lot of things and so it wasn't an easy road. It's very hard and you know people go oh you, you know you did great, you did well, but I tell you it's hard work.

David Cook: 13:54
You're being an artist, but it takes a toll. Yeah, it does Sacrifice emotionally relationships? Yes. And you've basically dedicated your life to the arts.

Roxanne McDonald: 14:08
Yes, pretty much.

David Cook: 14:10
You've got this show that you've committed to. You've signed the contract. Things at home have happened. How did you navigate that?

Roxanne McDonald: 14:21
I know you have to push through. You have to. Sometimes it's hard and I mean, you know I've lost family when I've been away or when I've been on stage and you just have to find the strength to get up and get on and do it. But I sort of say to myself it's out of my hands A lot of the time, it's out of your hands and you have to have that mindset of there's nothing I can do right now. I'll do all that after it. So I'll go and I'll prepare, because you have to mentally be prepared before you go on stage or whatever you're doing. You have to really try and put that to the side and then fall in a heap after it. So that's what you have to do. You know, a show could go for an hour and a half, a show could go for an hour, but then you have to just get on and do it.

David Cook: 15:39
So you've had a character. The show is over. You have to let go of that character, fall into a heap deal with life. But what if that character is so complex and it's hard to let go? You come back home a few weeks of normality. How did Roxanne cope there? What things did you use to help you get through when the character is still holding you? Yeah, but life needs you.

Roxanne McDonald: 16:13
Well, family helps Friends. Yeah, sometimes you just have to, you know, talk it out, talk things out. You talk things out, you talk things out with family, you go off and you do things that help you to sort of shed this character. I've had characters where they have been and I think that's why I got a lot of these gray hairs, because it's like you live, you're living in that, you in, in that, you embody that character and you you come across well, hopefully, you come across in the, in your play or, you know, film, that that is so believable that it's like you do.

Roxanne McDonald: 17:13
You die a few deaths yourself because you give so much of yourself and it does take a toll and it takes away a bit of you too. But I think you have to have a I don't know, you've got to have some. What do those Americans call it? You've got to have some chops. You know like mentally you have to be strong and I think that's what's helped me, because I have to talk myself around a lot of the time and to call on, you know, family and even my, you know, even to my ancestors and you know my family that have passed over.

Roxanne McDonald: 18:04
You know I talk and I, you know, I say I've got to go out here now and I, you know this is going on, but I'm going to go out here now and I'm, and I'm going to have you with me, you know. So it's all that self-belief that you know, we have our you know family behind us and they've got our backs and and our family and our friends and whoever we're working with at that particular time, we give each other strength too. Your fellow actors, your directors, whoever you're working with, we all have to band together to make this work. But I mean, I've had the best time, though, dave. I've done all different types of shows and a lot of Aboriginal stories and comedy and drama and musicals so what's one of the I'm sure you've got many.

David Cook: 19:11
What's one of the highlights? You know, maybe top two or three is there. Is there one that I've grabbed a hold of and I've ran with them?

Roxanne McDonald: 19:42
And I've given my all, as much as I can, to each of these roles and it's so hard to pin down any particular one. But you know, I'll use the words of my mum, who's you know, sadly she's not with us anymore. But she said to me I said, mum, I used to say to her you've seen nearly all of my shows. I said I said to her, which one do you you know? Which one do you like the best? Or which one did you think was the best? And she said you came to my country and you didn't turn black out of all the productions. And I mean I did. My mum was my staunch supporter there. She would come to every show I did, and probably in the last, because we lost her in 2012, and she was sick for the year leading up to her passing, so to 2011,. She saw every show I did. So I mean you came to my country and you didn't turn black was in the night.

Roxanne McDonald: 20:53
It was in 1990, so 21 years. I had my mum seeing all my shows till that time and that's the one she said. So I have to say that one too, because it was my first and it was so powerful. And when I honour the two amazing poets, yeah, yeah, yeah, and Sue Ryder gave me my first opportunity If it wasn't for her seeing whatever, she saw in me back then. I wouldn't be sitting here talking about this. I wouldn't be talking to you because I probably would have had a completely different life.

David Cook: 21:46
Is there something you could say to those women.

Roxanne McDonald: 21:53
Is there something you'd say? I would just say that I am so grateful and I am so honoured to have met you all and that I got to speak your words. I got to be directed and supported and led by you. That has made me the woman that I am today, because you know, you do you battle with a lot of things in your life, or you have, and I think this industry has taught me so much. This industry has taught me so much.

Roxanne McDonald: 22:59
It's given me a confidence like I've never had and it's given me a purpose it's given me. It's just made my soul sink because it's what I was meant to do, because I think some things in your life that happen in your life are healed. You find a healing and you find something at the end or I haven't gone to the end yet, but of how much you've done and how far you've come, yeah, in the arts industry and for all the audiences that have ever sat in a seat and seen what I've done. But it's given me a life that I know I needed and I know that I've had now. I know I needed and I know that I've had now and that I'll continue as long as I can step in front of a camera or step on a stage or, you know, do a voiceover on a in a studio. That you know that this of what I've learnt throughout my time and my career and that's not without you know all of the loving guidance, the people I've met along the way. They've all given me something and for that I'm truly grateful and I'm truly honoured and I'm truly blessed, I think, because there's not many people that can say you know, I love to go and do what I do and I love what I do and I get to turn up to a show and I get to play and I get paid for it. But I've learnt a lot about myself and I love.

Roxanne McDonald: 25:11
I love meeting people and I love working with people because there's nothing like people in this industry that that have got such an energy and such a such a, you know, optimistic outlook on what we do. And I mean, I know there's things going on in the world and there's lots of unrest and horrible stuff, but if we can do what we do and hopefully take someone out of their day or their, you know, a night, and just you know, for whatever purpose they come, to be entertained, to be inspired, to learn something, to be challenged in. However, they want to turn up and see a production that I feel like I've done my job or whoever I'm working with, have helped in that way or have done our part. I'm just an actor and I'm a working actor and I and I just love working with everyone because I'm like that, I'm something like a bit of a, you know there's so much more yeah and I know that everyone that's met you feels inspired by you.

David Cook: 27:01
When we first met, I remember just thinking, wow, and I'm speaking on behalf of all the. The artists in Queensland, like you are an inspiration. So the gift that was given to you thank you for passing that on oh. I'm so we're actors here we, we feel too much.

Roxanne McDonald: 27:26
We do, we do feel too much, we take on too much. Sometimes I think, and you know, you feel like, oh, you're up there, you're doing the strong roles and the tough roles, and you know. But I draw strength on my old people and my you know my aunties and my mum and my grandmothers and what they had to go through and what they had to live through, and I'd do that too for them.

David Cook: 28:02
So in 2025, now you're working with young actors social media pressure Is there anything you're noticing about the landscape of the arts and how it's changed?

Roxanne McDonald: 28:20
I think they are more. I wouldn't say, well, maybe they switched on a bit more, but I mean, they've got access to so much now, yeah, and they are becoming really, really savvy. Yes, and really you know they can speak and they're very forthright. So that's what I'm probably noticing a lot more. So that's what I'm probably noticing a lot more. But they say to me we love your presence because you have a calming presence. But I think that speaks to who you are as a person too, because I was never a person who got up and was very loud and spoke like that. It was more I'd sit back and I would watch and then I would speak.

Roxanne McDonald: 29:19
When I used to go to have some talks with some of the students and I'd tell them and I wouldn't paint an airy-fairy account of it yeah, acting's great and it's a great industry to get into and if you have that passion, you know that's what you truly want to do. I always say to them you're going to have to be prepared to be working extremely long hours, you're going to have to be punctual, you've got to be there. When they say you have to be there, sometimes I think they don't have a real understanding or how much it does require because, like I said, you're going to have to miss things. You're going to miss the maybe want to go out and have a party out somewhere or whatever. You've got to really discipline yourself because they're not going to put up with it.

Roxanne McDonald: 30:43
Directors or whoever you're working with, they're not going to put up with you coming late, you know coming. You know like, not ready, not prepared. You have to be in the game because they're not going to look at you again. Yes, they won't, because and the industry is so small word can get around to- oh yeah, that's it.

Roxanne McDonald: 31:09
Now that all know. I don't work with that one. Yeah, they, this is this you know. So I think, the more that you present yourself as prophet, you're professional, you have to be, you know fun, and because they won't put up with it.

David Cook: 31:27
You have to be careful what you post.

Roxanne McDonald: 31:29
That's it. Be careful what you post.

David Cook: 31:30
They're watching.

Roxanne McDonald: 31:31
That's it. Everyone's watching. You've got eyes everywhere.

David Cook: 31:35
I've sat with producers, loved an actor and they saw that their political voice it's not their beliefs, it's more. The production can't risk that political voice interfering with the production and an amazing actor has been put to the side and then maybe that actor got that no, and they felt down and I'm not good enough and they're going in a pit because this industry can beat you down yes and you know you've been fortunate enough to have some continual work.

David Cook: 32:13
But a lot of actors they're struggling, yeah, to get work and they get a bad audition and they think that I'm not a great artist. Sometimes a production it's, it's just about a look that's it and they say, oh, we'll just get an acting coach to work with them. This is coming from a film and television, or that person's got 350,000 followers. She's not that great, but we'll have an acting coach with her, but she has 375,000 followers these are the conversations that producers are having now.

David Cook: 32:45
So you're an amazing artist and you've put a great tape down. It's just not you, it's business.

Roxanne McDonald: 32:51
That's it.

David Cook: 32:52
It's terrible, it's heartbreaking, it is. I sat there and went whoa it is.

Roxanne McDonald: 32:55
That has to come down to that. Like you know, you might go for umpteen dozen auditions for all sorts of things and I say to myself to myself well, I'm not what they want, I'm not what they're looking for, and you know. Then you know, and it's up to you, it's up to you to find other. You know, go off, do some more. You know some more classes. Or go and you know, go and you know research a bit more, or you know, it's up to you too, ultimately, Take a risk.

David Cook: 33:28
Take a risk. That's it Now. 2025, the arts storytelling. You know so much discipline, sacrifice, passion. When you have downtime. What does Roxanne like to do when there's no plays? You've got X amount of time off.

Roxanne McDonald: 33:54
Binge TV. No, I'm terrible, I shouldn't say that. No, I well, I hopefully like to get around and you know, see family and go to the beach and you know, and do some walking. I haven't.

David Cook: 34:09
I should really do more reading but I don't know, I just You're absorbing scripts for a living. I know.

Roxanne McDonald: 34:14
I know I don't want to read another line do. I, you can be excused. Yes, I just like the thought of hey, whatever's meant to come this way will make its way, and if I do try anything else, well, it could be just a snap decision. I don't know. I just leave it open. I can't predict what I will be doing in the next five years, or you know I want to do a bit of travel do some travel and write.

Roxanne McDonald: 34:57
You know anything that might come out of that. My real idea of what I really want to do is be in a full-on comedy like a film or a series, because I think comedy is just the best and I just love it. I just love making people laugh and if I was given the opportunity in the next couple of years I would jump at it like you wouldn't believe, dave, amazing. Maybe I'll write some comedy. Maybe I'll write something for myself.

David Cook: 35:39
With Will Ferrell.

Roxanne McDonald: 35:40
Yes.

David Cook: 35:41
With Ferrell, exactly. Yeah, no, amazing Arnie, just thank you for your time.

Roxanne McDonald: 35:48
Thank you, Dave.

David Cook: 35:50
As an artist, your vulnerability.

Roxanne McDonald: 35:52
Yes.

David Cook: 35:54
For inspiring us and we'll be yarning. We'll stop recording here, but we'll keep yarning and keep working together and, yeah, thank you.

Roxanne McDonald: 36:05
Thank you, Dave.