Phoebe Redirected

Gone is the teen drama star who has enraptured us since the age of 16. In her place: a y confident actor-turned-director, fashion icon and eco activist PHOEBE TONKIN has started her thirties with daring new personal and career ambitions

- Rachel Sharp

It’s Tuesday night in Chinatown, the hustle-bustling Lower Manhattan enclave sandwiched between trendy Tribeca and the bar-filled Lower East Side.

Here, ensconced in her new apartment, in her new city, newly 30-year-old Phoebe Tonkin, the girl with the anime eyes, is embarking on a new life of sorts.

It also happens to be where she’s stretched out talking to me for this interview. “I’ve always loved New York and wanted to live here,” she explains of quitting actors’ mecca Los Angeles after eight years. “I guess I’m more of a city girl.” Coinciding with the July 12 birthday that heralded her fourth decade of life, Tonkin’s choice of habitation means more than just a new postcode. In California, she lived with close friend and fellow Australian actor Bella Heathcote. In Manhattan, however, she lives alone in a typically compact but lovely apartment she intends to transform into a makeshift movie-editing suite throughout August. “There’s a lot of change, but it’s good change,” says Tonkin of her chic new digs, personal situation and career tangent.