‘I told my mum I had met my husband': Emma Lung's second chance at love

The Age

17-05-2025

This story is part of the May 18 edition of Sunday Life. See all 14 stories.
Actor Emma Lung has starred in films alongside some of the industry's biggest names, including Hugo Weaving and Brian Cox. The 43-year-old, who stars opposite Asher Keddie in streaming series Strife, also discusses how she and her now husband had a second chance at love.
My grandfather, James, was born in Guangzhou [China]. He moved to Papua New Guinea after he finished high school. From there, he moved to Sydney, where he met my grandmother, Colleen. Together, they had seven children.
I called my grandfather Y éye (Mandarin for paternal grandfather). I didn't know him for a lot of my early life, as our family lived in Tokyo, where my father, Gary, and mother, Heather, taught English. But when we returned to Sydney, I knew him as a gentle and wise man.
I couldn't ask for a more loving father. He's been in my corner since day one and continues to be. There's really nothing he wouldn't do for me. Dad is gregarious, hilarious and impatient. He's also an absolute cinephile, and so I grew up watching Woody Allen and Rob Reiner and all the films of the 1970s. From him, I've inherited my sense of curiosity, adventure and tenacity – probably my loudmouth tendencies, too.
My teenage celebrity crush was River Phoenix. I still can barely say his name without my heart missing a beat.
My first serious relationship came when I was 13. I'd met Thorald at [Sydney's] Newtown School of Performing Arts. When I was 15, I managed to convince my parents to let me attend an acting school in New York for the last term of year 10, and so I moved there with Thorald and his mum.
When I came back, I sent a video audition to the Professional Performing Arts School of Manhattan. I got accepted, and so I completed my final year of drama school in New York. When Thorald and I came back to Australia, he wanted to return [to New York]. I wasn't ready for that, and six months or so later, we split up. We're still very much in touch. My 10-year-old son, Marlowe, and his first child were born six hours apart.
I was 19 when I appeared with Hugo Weaving in Peaches. The love scenes were really intense, but there was no sort of worry as Hugo is the most kind and gentle soul. Looking back, it would have been extremely hard for him, too, as he had a daughter around 10 years younger than me. But you'd be hard-pressed to find too many actors as professional as him.