Curiouser and curiouser

Alice played by Mia Wasikowska in Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Photo / Supplied

The red-head in the hat with the wild eyebrows is Johnny Depp, and that milky-white queen is the usually radiant Anne Hathaway. Tim Burton's lady Helena Bonham Carter is the haughty, heart-lipped queen with the piglet draped over her arm.

But who on earth is Alice?

Burton's remake of Lewis Carroll's bizarre tale - a visual feast of costume and 3D animation - will send the world swooning over young Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, our new Alice in Wonderland.

Dressed wrist to toe in a fitted black ensemble and carefully perched in the lounge of a slick Sydney hotel room, Wasikowska seems a world away from the images of Burton's wild set on the wall behind her. Her golden tresses have made way for a short, snappy, slightly spiky crop.

But her mysterious accent - a blend of Aussie, British, American and her Polish roots - and dainty features have a definite ethereal quality to them.

As do the vintage bone china teapot, cup and saucer on the table beside her, refilled regularly over the course of her interviews. This is not a hangover from the Wonderland tea party, or a prop, Wasikowska just drinks a lot of tea.

She was born in Canberra and is the middle of three children born to Polish parents, who are both photographers.

As a child she would sometimes act as her mother's photography assistant - standing about holding the flash or the reflector.

Now she enjoys taking her own pictures, documenting the many places her acting career has taken her.

One day she might study photography, or art history at university, but right now she is busy juggling her new, crazy lifestyle. Last week Sydney's local entertainment rag named her the hottest thing. No doubt Disney will soon roll out a line of look-alike dolls.

"It's so strange. It's so funny because it's so out of context. It's like, yeah it is me but it's not really at all," she laughs.

Wasikowska followed in her older sister Jess' footsteps as a dancer until she was 15, which was when the interest in acting took over.

She landed a recurring role in Australian medical drama All Saints at 14, and was awarded Best Young Actor by the Australian Film Institute for her double feature Suburban Mayhemm. Acclaimed performances in Lens Love Story, September and Greg McLean's horror film Rogue followed. Meanwhile she had signed with an agent in Los Angeles, and started getting work there - most notably she stars as the pretty young pilot in Amelia alongside Hillary Swank.

Wasikowska found out about the Alice in Wonderland remake in February 2008 and sent an audition tape to the British casting director. It wasn't until June that she had a response, and was asked to go to London to audition. She was called back four times before being cast - Burton says he found an "old soul" quality in her.

Wasikowska says she felt a lot of pressure playing such an iconic character so beloved by so many generations.

"Everyone has their own idea of what she's like and how they perceive her, so the challenge was just making her my own I think."

While Burton's version includes all the favourite Wonderland characters, it follows a 19-year-old Alice who runs away after a marriage proposal from a decent but lustreless man and finds herself tumbling back in the Wonderland she had visited as a child.

At the time of filming Wasikowska was 18, almost the same age as Burton's Alice.

"I definitely understood who she was and where she was coming from and what she was dealing with. I think a lot of young woman face a similar thing to what Alice is facing. All of a sudden you are, like, 19 and an adult now and society sort of expects things of you, or people expect things of you that you aren't comfortable with. So I identified with that and how much you sacrifice yourself to please other people and how much you do what makes you happy as opposed to what is the norm."

That theme is an undercurrent to the wacky story - which is widely accepted to have been spurred by Carroll's heavy use of illicit substances.

Wasikowska says the warped, hallucinations of the author's mind do come through in the film, even though the liquid in the "Drink Me" bottle Alice drinks was just purple Gatorade.

"All of the characters are a little bit off. Even the good characters, there's something just not right about them."

Then again, Wonderland characters are everywhere in real life, she says.

"Everyone's kind of mad, everyone's kind of crazy. And so it's really just like people you meet in real life, who seem a little bit off."

People would say Burton, who has directed surreal films about dual worlds and outsiders like Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is off-beat too.

"He's wonderful, I love Tim," Wasikowska says.

"He just has this energy that's going all the time and he just channels that into his film-making and as an actor I felt a lot of trust from him which was great. Especially as it's the kind of film when for so much of it you really have no idea what is going on, you really need to trust that the director will give you direction in terms of everything you don't see."

Many of the scenes were shot against a green screen so Wasikowska had no idea what was going on. She says it felt quite appropriate as it almost emulated the confusion Alice would have felt in Wonderland.

"It was a bizarre way to film. You use a lot more of your imagination and you also have to bring double the energy. We filmed out of sequence, so much of it didn't make sense. It was so weird and bizarre and I think that's kind of what it would be like to be in Wonderland anyway."

Meanwhile, she was goggling at working alongside the famously mad Johnny Depp and Tim Burton duo.

"Seeing them together is just so cool. They have this great energy together and they bounce ideas off each other creatively. They just really complement each other. And they have such a deep history and deep friendship that they speak their own language on set, it's really cool to witness that."

"I was a huge fan of both of them. Tim because he had created almost a whole new language. Like, the way that he articulates his feelings and experiences visually that is so identifiable to so many people. I think I empathise with that feeling that he portrays. And then I think Johnny is just so great in everything he's done. He's so bold and strong and confident and he also just really enjoys his job."

Wasikowska says her favourite characters in the film are the animated Tweedles and the elusive Cheshire Cat, but her perceptions of the tale are always changing.

"I read the book as a kid and then read it again before we started filming and just saw this whole new side to it that I didn't pick up on as a child. It's so unique because at all these different ages you see all these different sides to it, and it keeps revealing things to you, it keeps surprising you no matter how many times you read it."

Burton takes the audiences on a more profound journey than a literal translation of the book and the 1951 animated movie. It could be seen to show how little Western society has matured since Carroll penned his book in 1865, despite the liberation movement.

"We're a lot more liberated in this time, we are able to do so much more as women - back then it was really to get married and have children. And the Alice in our story really wants to go beyond that. I think women now also feel, not so much pressured, as it's definitely not those times, but expected to go to university or follow certain paths that are more common. But it's really important to please yourself or do you what you want," Wasikowska says.

She is fortunate to be doing what she wants. Following Alice, she filmed an untitled Gus Van Sant film in Portland, Oregon.

Wasikowska plays Annabelle, one of two teenagers who are both affected by death - the film is their love story.

"It's a really wonderful script so I'm really excited for that to come out. I love Gus' work so it was like working with one of my idols," she says.

She was also awarded the lead in a Jane Eyre remake, which is due for release next year.

Wasikowska insists she could sit on a film set for hours, observing great directors and their creative processes.

"I would just love to keep doing really interesting pieces and stories, things that open my mind up to something else and hopefully does the same for the audience," she says.

And as for becoming a Disney commodity?

"Well, I hope to go beyond it in a way, hopefully I won't always be Alice."

LOWDOWN

Who: Mia Wasikowska

Key roles: Amelia, In Treatment, All Saints

Latest: Plays Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

When: released March 4

Also: Myspace is holding a free live stream of the Alice in Wonderland ultimate fan event today at 2pm. It will feature musical acts from the upcoming album Almost Alice and director Tim Burton will introduce select members of the cast as well as preview film footage. Visit www.myspace.com/wonderland