"When I was in my final year of drama school, Hugh Jackman came to the school to hand out a scholarship – and I won it," Shalom Brune-Franklin tells us, smiling at the memory. "It was pretty life-changing. It really helped to kick-start my career and gave me the funds to be able to chase my dreams."
Her talent and dedication to her craft was clearly evident from a young age. The Australian actress has since gone on to play a string of complex female characters, from a tenacious police officer in Line of Duty, to her breakthrough role as a waitress with a dark secret in the mystery-thriller The Tourist, opposite Jamie Dornan. Her latest starring role is as Estella in the BBC’s forthcoming six-part adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations.
"The best piece of career advice I've ever been given is 'what's for you won't go by you'," she tells us, on the set of her February issue cover shoot. "It sounds a little bit cheesy, but there have been times where I've thought, that's it, it's over, that job [that I didn't get] was going to change everything. But now, looking back, I wouldn't change a thing."
But if all hadn't gone to plan, her dream job would be running a little café or restaurant with her father, who is a chef, because she also loves to cook. Clearly very family-oriented, the best gift that the actress has ever been given was a long-admired gold medallion that belonged to her grandmother (and which she actually tried to give back), while if she could, she'd like the ability to be reunited with her loved-ones at the click of her fingers.
"My superpower would be teleportation because my family lives all over [the world]," she explains. "So I would not only like to be the person that can teleport to a place, but I'd like to be able to create tunnels, so that people can come to you as well, wherever you are."
When it comes to self-care, Brune-Franklin likes to "keep it simple", prioritising sleep, hydration and being kinder to herself. She also advises "not getting stuck in a YouTube hole" and consequently buying unnecessary beauty products that you only use once.
"I feel most beautiful when I've had eight-and-a-half hours' sleep," she says, laughing. "It's rare, but when it happens I feel not only beautiful but pretty unstoppable."
From her favourite book, The Kite Runner (just don't read it in public, she advises), to her not-so-guilty gaming pleasure, discover what you don't yet know about Shalom Brune-Franklin in our exclusive video, above.
