Olivia DeJonge

The Perth Talent on Shyamalan's Radar

Olivia DeJonge didn't need to move to Los Angeles for Hollywood to come knocking at her door in Western Australia. She was only eight years old when she began voicing radio ads. But the real turning point came in 2014 with the shoot of The Visit. M. Night Shyamalan was looking for a presence untainted by the vices of the American child-acting industry.

And she found her in a teenager from Perth.

In 2015, the film grossed nearly $100 million worldwide. DeJonge played a young aspiring filmmaker trapped in a house with sinister grandparents. Critics praised her ability to sustain suspense without resorting to cheap screams. It marked the start of a phase defined by psychological thrillers, where her cool presence on camera became her greatest tool.

Because DeJonge understands that acting sometimes means doing nothing.

The Weight of Playing a Living Legend

During the shoot of Better Watch Out in 2016, she showed she could handle the slasher genre with dry irony. The industry often typecasts young actresses in roles as perpetual victims. But she chose projects that challenged that narrative rut. In 2019, she starred in The Society for Netflix, playing a reluctant leader in a world without adults.

The series was canceled after just one season due to logistical complications.

But in 2022 came the role that permanently redefined her career. Baz Luhrmann chose her to play Priscilla Presley in the film Elvis. It was no simple challenge. She had to embody a woman who is still alive and who is part of American popular mythology. DeJonge opted for a restrained, elegant performance that avoided caricature.

She moved away from cheap imitation to focus on the loneliness of a woman living in a gilded cage. She shared the screen with Austin Butler and made sure her presence was not overshadowed by Luhrmann's visual spectacle. The shoot in Queensland stretched on for months due to global health-related delays during that period.

Technical Rigor and a Future in Drama

In 2022, she also appeared in the HBO miniseries The Staircase. She worked alongside major names such as Toni Collette and Colin Firth in a meticulous recreation of a real crime that took place in North Carolina. Her role as Caitlin Atwater demanded constant emotional weight and a notable physical transformation across the plot's time jumps.

The actress keeps a cautious distance from the celebrity press.

She prefers to let her characters on screen do the talking. In 2024, her participation in Deliver Me was confirmed (a drama with thriller undertones, sharing the cast with Guy Pearce). Filming was mainly based in Australia. This technical decision reinforces her ties to the Australian industry despite her international status.

For the project The Trashers, directed by Cooper Raiff, the production set an initial estimated budget of $25 million.