IT would be easy to underestimate Isabel Lucas. Physically, the 24-year-old actress is slender to the point of being skinny. Personality-wise, she’s soft-spoken to the point of seeming shy.

But one doesn’t crack the competitive entertainment industry – not just in Australia but in Hollywood – without some toughness and tenacity. That attitude was displayed in 2007 when the environmental activist was part of an antiwhaling protest in Japan that led to the country’s police issuing a warrant for her arrest. Still, when it comes to her career, Lucas has had a few lucky breaks. In 2004, she caught the eye of a Home and Away producer, which led to three years on the Seven soap opera as Tasha Andrews and a Logie for Best New Talent. And her appearance in the upcoming WWII miniseries The Pacific attracted the attention of one of its producers, Steven Spielberg, which led to him recommending Lucas to Michael Bay for a role in Bay’s latest big-budget blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. “It was incredibly gratifying and kind of surreal, actually, ” said Melbourne-born Lucas, who was back in her hometown last week to promote the action packed adventure movie

“But the audition was unusual in a few dif­ferent ways. Michael didn’t like the colour of the dress I was wearing – it was black, and he said he was making a summer blockbuster so I’d be wearing something more colourful – so I was sent away to change my clothes!” she laughed. It was a fitting introduction to the hot-tempered filmmaker. (“He’s a madman on the set but he has a lot of pressure to deal with, so I can understand how he would become a bit of a madman”). The long, tough process of making Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was an equally fitting introduction to the hectic pace of Hollywood. “It’s a completely dif­ferent medium from something like Home and Away, ” Lucas said. “You have a lot more time but there’s a lot more to achieve. I got on set for the first time and it was immediately like ‘OK, let’s go! Action! “Then all the dialogue for the scene will suddenly be changed because Michael is very flexible when it comes to recreating each scene. “So it was very challenging and very intense, but I really appreciated the experience because I learnt so much.”

Lucas’ role as Alice, a dangerously alluring college classmate of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), is a small but eyecatching part of a movie that’s been touted as the one of the year’s biggest box-of­fice hits. She only saw the film for the first time a few days before embarking on her publicity tour around Australia and admits to being “kind of blown away by the film, by how epic it is”. Lucas states the movie isn’t exactly deep and meaningful, but she also says “there’s nothing wrong with a bit of escapism and a bit of fun, which is what this is”. Lucas’ upcoming workload is a combination of crowd-pleasing fare (such as the vampire movie Daybreakers, co-starring Ethan Hawke and Sam Neill) and arthouse material like the upcoming India-set drama The Waiting City.

And she’s recently completed filming on Kin (later re-named The Wedding Party), an ensemble comedy-drama described as “an Australian Love Actually” that she calls “my most enjoyable working experience yet”. If everything works out for Lucas – and it certainly seems to be heading that way – she’ll be able to balance working in Australia on such films while still being part of the American industry. “I’d love to be based in Melbourne, ” she said. “It’s why I came back to be in Kin. But the opportunities are really in the Mecca of the industry, which is LA. “LA is what it is – it’s a vacuous and superficial place in many ways but there are also many real, honest, grounded and creative people there.”