Liana Werner-Gray on her new film, getting dirty and physical and being a beauty queen

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Unlike a lot of young Australian actresses, Liana Werner-Gray didn't grow up pretending to be Marilyn Monroe. In fact, the 22-year-old Alice Springs native grew up in government housing and made pocket money by delivering newspapers "I loved the outback, and growing up in an indigenous rich town. I always wanted to be black, and it took me a while to accept my whiteness." Werner-Gray laughs.

Just after high school graduation, Werner-Gray moved from the bush to the buildings - Brisbane.  "I wanted to act, to be creative. I started off in theatre and did quite a few shows at The Judith Wright Center of Contemporary Arts". Now she's starring in the adventure thriller film "The Man In The Maze" being filmed in Alabama, USA in which she plays a character with few similarities to herself. "My character is a beauty queen who doesn't handle herself so well in the woods." she says. "In real life, I have been a beauty queen, and I never wear makeup, and I actually love the outdoors, getting dirty and being physical." Werner-Gray continues to talk about her experience in the Miss Earth Australia beauty pageant besting 42 contestants from all over Australia for the title Miss Earth Australia People's Choice where she also took out Best In Environmental Speech, Green Achievers Award and Innovators Award for her work with her organization I Love Earth. "With no disrespect to the organization, people must get confused sometimes, or forget, because one night the organizers of this pageant had arranged for hummers to pick us up. I refused to get in."

Werner-Gray continues to work with I Love Earth, a organization she created herself designed to educate school children worldwide on reducing their carbon footprints and living a sustainable lifestyle. When I ask Werner-Gray what's next, her eyes light up, "Well I just scored a contract with Lass by Leila Sweeney who is an amazing and very inspiring Australian fashion designer who creates environmentally friendly fashion, I Love Earth will be taking a team over to India in September to build a school for impoverished children, my book The Earth Diet will be published later this year, which is about eating foods that are naturally provided from the earth, and I will be enjoying shooting The Man In The Maze in the woods of Alabama".

Looks like newspaper deliveries is starting to pay off.


Gary Bingle