Catherine Văn-Davies is an established Vietnamese-Australian stage and screen actor who has worked both nationally and internationally.
After graduating from the Queensland University of Technology with a BFA (Acting) in 2006, she has performed in various productions across Australia’s major theatre companies.
She plays May Le, the main protagonist in Hungry Ghosts, which premieres on Monday 24 August on SBS.
She sat down with SBS Vietnamese to talk about the show, the character she plays, and the need for greater representation of Asian people on Australian television.
SBS VIETNAMESE: Hi Catherine, in Hungry Ghosts, you play a young Vietnamese-Australian who has to deal with a ghost from the past of her family. Can you tell us more about your character?
Catherine Văn-Davies: So May Le who is the character that I play, in her storyline when we meet her, she kind of has lost everything in the sense of... all the material things in her life. She lost her business, she lost her business partner who’s also her romantic partner, and she has to move back in with her “ba ngoai”, whom she hasn’t lived with for a long time. She’s estranged from her mother, so her mother and her don’t really speak. There’s no mention of her father.
And so we meet May Le and then a tragedy kind of occurs in her life that forces her to understand her past more and I think, as a second-generation Vietnamese woman there’s a lot to relate to in that you can feel kind of between two worlds... in my case, my mother’s culture, and so your life essentially is kind of trying to reconnect the dots with that.
SBS VIETNAMESE: What brought you to the show?
Catherine Văn-Davies: I auditioned for the role. It was a standard auditioning process. My agent got contacted and I was so excited to finally be in a contemporary Vietnamese-Australian story that will be on primetime television, I think that we have such a beautiful culture to share and that people often can think of the Vietnamese story as one story, and in fact, it’s a very rich and diverse and complex story. And to see so many different characters dealing with one particular crisis, dealing with grief in many different ways.
SBS VIETNAMESE: Did you have any challenges or difficulties playing the role of May Le?
Catherine Văn-Davies: I think the material feels personal in a way that... you know, that’s great because you can bring a lot of yourself to it, but also it’s very difficult because the story is not exactly yours. And so it’s always finding that line and kind of protecting your family and your personal story, as well as sharing as much of it as you can.
My mum came over by boat, but I was born in Australia, so I don't have the same experience as hers, but I feel it. And so I think the hard part for me was really the responsibility of representing a community, which is a huge undertaking, and I feel really thankful of the amazing Vietnamese cast. Together we could show a varied representation as opposed to one version of the story.
And I feel, you know, May is very disconnected to her family, whereas I feel very connected to my family and I'm very close with my mom. So that, of course, is very different.
SBS VIETNAMESE: When did you decide to become an actor? And why?
Dr Ben Williams (Ryan Corr), May Le (Catherine Văn-Davies), Roxy Ling (Suzy Wrong) and Stella Le (Susan Ling) Source: SBS
Catherine Văn-Davies: I didn't know that I wanted to pursue acting until I started a business degree at university and was doing acting classes at night. And then I was like, you know, I think I'm really and with the encouragement of some other people that I was working with, decided to pursue it as a career. So I've been working for 16 years. I graduated from my acting degree in 2006.
And to me, being an actor, I'm not entirely comfortable being centre of attention, so it wasn't that kind of idea, but I was listening to an interview by a really amazing Vietnamese-American poet and novelist called Ocean Vuong, and he said something that really resonated with me. He said that you know, the first generation that comes through tend to, in wanting to be grateful for safety, to wanting to fit in, all that kind of things, tend to make themselves invisible. And then the second generation, in wanting to fit in, wants to make themselves visible.
That's a huge generalisation, obviously, that's not the same for everyone, but that really resonated with me. And I think it's true for me. The reason I'm in front of the camera, not behind the camera, is because I didn't grow up in Australia seeing many people who looked like me or had my life experienced, being mixed race, being Vietnamese. And I thought that if I can create a career where people see my face and a young Vietnamese girl or a mixed-race person sees me and sees a bit of themselves in me and feels more at home in the world, then that is my job done.
SBS VIETNAMESE: What do you think about Asian representation in Australian media and has it changed over the years?
MAY LE (Catherine Văn-Davies) Photo Credit: Sarah Enticknap Source: SBS
Catherine Văn-Davies: Well, it's changed. It's changed very slowly. I want to approach this with optimism, I've been doing this for a long time and so I have had perspective over a long time. Obviously, I think we're underrepresented. I want to see more Asian faces. What's so extraordinary about this show, similarly to something like The Family Law, is that very often you don't get to see more than one Asian-Australian person on screen at the same time. And to have, you know, this is a show that has over 30 Asian-Australian actors. And it's a gift. It's an absolute gift to walk on set and feel like you're not the only one, to feel like you have lots of people who understand you in a way that if you're not Asian-Australian, just little things that you may not get about growing up Asian-Australian in Australia.
I want to see more representation. I want to see lots of different stories. I think we need to show stories outside of the kind of model migrant, outside of just being... that we are also complex, diverse human beings. I want us to be seen as human beings in our stories and I want to see more and more Asian-Australian stories and Asian-Australian actors, directors, writers, crew, everything. And I hope that I can help support people who are part of that change with me and younger people. I want to support younger people.
And I'm right here behind you. Just give it a shot. You deserve to be heard. You deserve to be seen. And we want to see you. So go out there and do it and reach out to your community, reach out to people in the industry who you think might be able to help you because we want to help you.
SBS VIETNAMESE: What is your impressions when you first read the script of Hungry Ghosts?
Catherine Van-Davies and Suzy Wrong in SBS's Hungry Ghosts. Source: SBS
Catherine Văn-Davies: I felt very emotional for the reasons that, you know, how rare it is and also that there's a lot of amazing Vietnamese protagonists, and I really love that, because we're so used to other people telling our stories. And obviously this show itself is a collaboration of Anglo-Australian and Vietnamese-Australian creators. But it felt like we could be front in centre and tell it in a way that you see people, you don't see stereotypes.
There are certainly archetypes as there are in every story. I mean, May is kind of like a superhero, coming-of-age archetype, but she feels like someone you might know in the street. And same with the other characters, and you get the history, I think what's so beautiful as we look so much into the character’s history, which oftentimes when you just look at a show that just shows a stereotype or has Tom Cruise playing the central character [in The Last Samurai], you get the decoration, you don't get actual humanity. And I just don't want to see that anymore. I don't want to see us as decoration or a backdrop or something that makes it exotic and exciting. It's like we are exciting.
SBS VIETNAMESE: Thank you so much for the interview. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our audience?
Catherine Văn-Davies: I'm really excited for people to see this show. I think the quality of the production, the aesthetics, the content is new for Australian television, and I'm so excited. It shows what we're capable of and I hope it is a stepping stone for other stories. Of course, I want more Vietnamese stories to come forward and to enjoy that and to feel proud. And that it's very much a part of the Australian story as well. Yeah, I just can't wait for people to see it. And then I hope that we can talk about it after they have seen it because I think it's the start of the conversation.
Hungry Ghosts premieres 9:30pm Monday 24 August – Thursday 27 August on SBS. Episodes will be available at SBS On Demand each day at the same time as broadcast.
