For 10 years, Ruby Rose lived in the US. She says it was 'too toxic' to stay.

When Ruby Rose packed up her life in Australia to move to Los Angeles, she'd already spent a decade being a DJ, MTV host, model and radio personality. 

She left to pursue her real dream: acting. 

"I couldn’t get an acting job in Australia because nobody was ever going to believe me as anything except Ruby Rose," she told Sunday Style in 2016.

As she began finding fame in Australia, she found herself fronting major modelling campaigns for big names including Maybelline, and co-hosting popular shows such as Channel 10's The Project and Australia's Next Top Model.

Watch Ruby Rose in her film Break Free. Post continues after video. 

“I got a radio show, a clothing brand, then invited to meet the Prime Minister and talk about bullying. I even hosted Winter Olympics [coverage], despite knowing nothing about it," she said. 

"I was worried if I didn’t do something different I’d be doing it forever," she continued. "Even when [prison drama] Wentworth was being cast I was told, ‘Nah, I don’t think people are going to buy that,’ which is ironic because I ended up on Orange [Is The New Black]. 

"I was never going to make it as an actor in Australia; I had to come to America to do that."

And in 2013, she decided to make a change by packing up her life for Hollywood. 

The actor hustled for two years and by 2015, she landed the role of a lifetime portraying Stella Carlin in Netflix sensation, Orange Is the New Black. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ruby Rose (@rubyrose)

Rose attributed her rise to fame to her viral short film Break Free, which explored her gender fluidity.

"After two years of trying to get a manager or an agent I had spent every last cent I’d made in over decade of 'showbiz'," she wrote on Instagram. "I was living on a blow-up mattress from Target and I had only six months left on my Visa to prove I could contribute to the industry abroad.

"In a moment close to giving up, I poured what I had into a short film called Break Free... A short film I’d put off making for years because I was so fearful, fearful of how people would react."

Rose continued by sharing how her life had changed. "The film ended up circulating around the world, it made an impact bigger than myself it started a bigger conversation," she wrote. "It also found its way to the creators of OITNB... It opened up a door for me that I could have never imagined and I will forever be in gratitude to those who took a chance on me."

Following her stint on OITNB, Rose was cast in blockbuster movies such as 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Pitch Perfect 3 in 2017. She starred alongside Hollywood royalty Vin Diesel in xXx: Return of Xander Cage and Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 2.

"I literally had two and half years of tumbleweed. But now it’s the complete opposite," she reflected to Sunday Style. 

But despite one career high after another, Rose admitted last week that she is in the process of moving home after living in Hollywood since 2013.

After a decade in the United States, the actor confessed it has become "draining" living in a country where the laws and attitudes towards the LGBTQIA community are so backwards. 

"I don't know that I have the emotional bandwidth and energy to withstand another year of living in the States with that anger and that oppression and what they're doing to the gay community and the trans community – it has become so exhausting," she explained to Stellar Magazine.

Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. Post continues after audio. 

Rose came out as a lesbian to her mother when she was a teenager, and realised a few years later she was gender fluid.

"I think people are scared of things they don’t understand," the actor explained to The Guardian in 2021. "That’s just part of human nature. Unless that person is in a position where they’re actually going to affect the way that people live, then I don’t have the bandwidth to give my energy to caring about the fact that this person doesn’t understand. I don’t even have an issue with the fact that they have an issue. 

"I'm still confused as to why they’re so completely enveloped in this phobia, fear, anger, rage, whatever it is, and why they get so fired up about it."

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.