The 42-year-old from Subiaco in Perth wanted a career in acting after watching her older sister Amy on stage in high school.
“She really inspired me, and so I decided to follow that path and I kept on going.”
“We’re just blown away,” says Amy of her little sister’s success. “We’ve been very grateful for all the support she’s had.”
Hales studied at Edith Cowan University’s Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and then with DADAA, an arts organisation that works with people with disabilities and mental illnesses.
Hales will only say she had “challenges” trying to get a break in the acting world and says she’s also received huge support from her family, including that of her mother, who died seven years ago, and one “annoying” younger brother.
She said she has also been supported by several women in the arts field, including Simone Flavelle, her mentor and “great friend” of 25 years, whom she first met at DADAA in 1995.
Nearly everyone Hales refers to feels familiar, as they essentially form her supporting cast in her show, which is about her life including her friends with Down syndrome, many of whom appear via film and or onstage, or who we learn about through her monologues.
The thread that weaves her life story is the TV soap Home & Away, the title of her show coming from the long-running Australian drama’s theme tune. Hales watched her first episode at age eight.
“Ever since I watched it, I just really wanted to be on it. I just thought it would be a good idea, as a first time, a woman with Down syndrome can be on Home & Away, so a larger audience can watch me all over the world,” she said.
Former artistic director of the Black Swan Theatre company Clare Watson (left) with Australian playwright and actress Julia Hales, who debuted her show about living with Down syndrome at the Edinburgh International Festival.Credit:Latika Bourke
Hales’ show, originally produced by Black Swan Theatre Company and co-written with Finn O’Branagain and Clare Watson, was first commissioned by Perth Festival and was listed by Edinburgh Festival as one of eight new compelling works to watch this year.
She says it’s always been her dream to perform and live in Sydney.
“I’ve been in Perth all my life, and all my family moved away and I thought for myself I can grow into a better independent woman, so I just thought it would be nice to live in Sydney to see what it’s like,” she said.
Hales’ own parents were supportive of this desire; they bought her an apartment which she moved into aged 21. The show opens with footage taking us around her meticulously tidy home.
“I’ve wanted people with Down syndrome to live independently, they can follow my example – get an apartment, make sure they do all the cleaning and pay all the bills on time.
“I can do whatever I want, I don’t have my Dad telling me not to watch TV,” she says.
Playwright and actress Julia Hales and the cast bow after the performance of You Know We Belong Together at London’s Southbank Centre.Credit:Latika Bourke
But her play explores other, more familiar desires too – the quest for love. Her singledom is a constant joke throughout.
“That’s one of my other dreams, to find a nice man, to be happy and settled and feel love again,” she says.
“I want people to see people with Down syndrome and how they can be on stage and on film and on screen. I’d like to encourage people to see people like us and what we can do.”
She is also critical of actors who do not have Down syndrome being cast to play people who do, saying that pretence is wrong and deprives actors with the condition of the chance to perform. In her show, she singles out Leonardo DiCaprio’s role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape as an example.
“I don’t want other actors pretending to have a disability because those disabilities – people really have them,” she said.
“I want people with Down syndrome to feel that they can play those roles; they’re so ready to play those roles.”
She is already working on her next project for when her Sydney run ends and wants to take her work abroad again to help people with disabilities share their stories and experiences.
“I’ve been on stage most of my life, I do want to retire for a year or two because I really want to be on Home & Away, but once I’m actually on Home & Away and doing great scenes I can still work in theatre for a second job, so I can work with other people with disabilities.”
You Know We Belong Together opens at the Sydney Opera House on September 6 and runs for five performances.