Isabel Lucas’ hair colour is not the only change the young starlet has made recently, writes Sophia Browne.

Spend time with Far Northern beauty Isabel Lucas and you’ll discover she’s much more than a bronzed blonde from Summer Bay. The 22 year old rides a bright, blue bicycle, takes belly dancing lessons and knows how to build an elephant trough in the African desert. And she’s now a brunette. These days Isabel is working with some of the best names in Australian and international cinema, but she shies away from pretensions of celebrity. When asked how she felt about being named Australia’s sexiest woman by men’s magazine FHM earlier this year, Isabel was unfazed. “I don’t feel much actually. It’s kind of flattering, but it’s pretty unhealthy to wrap yourself up in that world,” she says

But it’s a world the former St Monica’s schoolgirl could have to venture further into, recently scoring a role in futuristic vampire film Daybreakers. Isabel left Cairns in 2003, while she was still at high school, after being “discovered” by agent Sharron Meissner at Port Douglas. “My partner and I were on a much-deserved holiday in Port Douglas,” Sharron says. “On our first day out and about we were at the local markets and Isabel walked right by us. I followed her around for a few minutes to get a closer look at her. She was breathtaking in a way that is hard to explain. “She is not just a pretty face – she will always be one of those ageless beauties, in the sense her look will never date, like Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn.” A short while later Isabel was auditioning for cult Australian TV show Home and Away. Although she missed out on the original role she auditioned for because she was too young, the producers weren’t about to let her get away. They created the character Tasha Andrews just for her.

But after several years on the show, including winning a Logie award for best new talent in 2004, Isabel has decided it’s time for a change. “I’m not planning on going back to Home and Away at the moment,’’ she says. “I’m just trying all dif­ferent things really – now I have the opportunity. I was really straight out of school and into the show, which was an intense workload.” Since leaving Summer Bay, Isabel has relocated from Sydney to Melbourne to take up acting courses at the Victorian College of the Arts and has started dating Australian singer-songwriter George Byrne. But one of the most rewarding changes for the young actress was working as a volunteer in Namibia, Africa. “There were two main projects – we were building an elephant trough and a permaculture vegetable garden,” she says. “I was prepared in a way but I wanted to be put in a completely dif­ferent world to what I was doing. It was tough work but it was one of the best things I think I’ve ever chosen to do. “The places we saw were just so beautiful. We were really seeing the country from a local’s perspective rather than a tourist’s perspective, and the people were really wonderful and so grateful for what we were doing. You really could tell you were making a dif­ference.” Just months after returning from Africa, Daybreakers, starring Sam Neil, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe, is set to make a huge dif­ference in Isabel’s life. “The genre is bordering on horror,” she says. “An unknown plague has transformed the world’s population into vampires … and vampires have to capture and farm every remaining human or find a blood substitute before time runs out.”

Isabel says her character is the daughter of a blood bank leader and one of the last remaining humans. “She’s trying to protect humans and save the world,” she explains. Isabel admits that working with such well-known actors was daunting at first, but it has now become a huge learning curve. “Everyday I just come to work like a sponge and soak it all in,” she says. “They’re really normal, just skilled and talented people.” While the movie focuses on the supernatural, it has a parallel in today’s world – with the everdiminishing supply of natural resources. “I never watch horror films or any of that,”

“I was prepared in a way but I wanted to be put in a completely dif­ferent world to what I was doing. ” Isabel says. “But this taps into something in us and in society. “My mentor in Melbourne told me that every project you go into, always ask yourself to find the higher good in it … is it serving some moral purpose? “I always want it to mean something to me, otherwise I won’t do it.” Before she was selected for the role in Daybreakers, being filmed at Warner Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, Isabel was busy auditioning for roles in Sydney, London and even Hollywood. But Australia is where she’d like to stay.

“I’ve just been to London for three weeks for auditions,” she says. “A good friend of mine is working over there and I really respect the way she’s doing it. “LA is a land of opportunity for actors. I have a few friends over there as well, but it’s the last place on Earth I’d want to be living. I’d really just like to be based in Australia, in Melbourne.’’ Although a career as an international movie star seems imminent, Isabel doesn’t want to speculate too much on the future. “For now it’s about studying, learning more about the craft and taking it as it comes,’’ she says. But the woman who discovered an “ageless beauty” at the Port Douglas markets is confident Isabel has what it takes. “She’s curious about so many things and ready to give anything a go within reason,’’ Sharron says. “I do love that despite her success and so much attention she has remained humble, generous and so grateful to everyone. “This is a special quality and I think everyone who knows her would agree.

“She is natural and a free spirited young woman. She seems to enjoy the simple things in life.” Isabel’s relaxed attitude to life and the industry she works in could be partly attributed to a childhood spent in Cairns with a down-to-earth family. She recalls riding horses with her sister around Cairns northern beaches. “We got my horse when I was 11, her name is Tiki. My sister and I were in a lot of (riding) competitions, we went camping a lot as well.’’ “Cairns is such a beautiful place, the nature, the rainforest. It’s so laid-back, with such easygoing, lovely people. I could settle there one day. I’ll def­initely consider it.”