One Australian woman’s story about her rise through optometry and the pursuit of a long-held passion is almost more compelling than the one she’s set to splash across the big screen.
“Former optometrist.”
So says the LinkedIn profile of Ms Tsu Shan Chambers.
She acknowledges that one probably stings a little with her parents, as they assess the wind-down of their daughter’s respectable 20-year career in eyecare and an unpredictable, riskier journey into the TV and movie industry.
“I know, seriously, that’s what my parents remind me of every day,” she says.
But like the child who gazed in wonder at the big tent and its curious, exciting occupants, Chambers has finally followed her heart and joined the circus.
She’s talking with Insight from her Sydney home, the day before flying to Brisbane for the first stop of an Australian tour to promote her film, My Eyes.
In the movie, she plays Alana – an optometrist who discovers her daughter has a rare inherited eye condition that will rob her vision. But the girl’s only hope involves a revelation that might destroy her parents’ marriage and the family.
Chambers started to write the script during COVID. She also produced the film.
The irony is that the woman who has largely left optometry behind turned to the profession for inspiration and her big break.
Two decades of working in the ophthalmic sector, including roles around the country and with the International Centre for Eye Care Education (now known as the Brien Holden Vision Institute), gave her plenty of knowledge to draw on.
“I got into medicine, actually after year 12, and also got into musical theatre full-time,” she says.
“But being Asian and having very conservative parents, there was no way that I was ever going to do the arts over anything like medicine, right?”
However, a life of trudging the dusty halls of academia for years also didn’t appeal for a young woman already volunteering in hospitals and the community, already working in an OPSM store, and keen to make a difference in the field.
“If I had to stare at the human body all day long, it would have to be the eyes – windows to the soul and all that, so that’s how I got into optometry.”
Cue the movie montage: an active, earnest young woman graduates from UNSW in 2001 and makes her way through her profession; she volunteers in Bangladesh as an optometrist; gains insight into the plight of vulnerable minorities and women; sets up an integrative health centre; and furthers her education in public health and teaching.
The arrival of her first child (she has three now – aged 18, 16, and 12) heralded the beginning of the third act, and possibly the beginning of the end.
It was the early days of women taking on leadership roles in business, and as Chambers began moving into senior executive positions in optometry, she encountered headwinds.
“With those levels of jobs you did incredibly long hours back then and there wasn’t really maternity leave,” she says.
“They weren’t too friendly with me needing to breastfeed on demand.”
One fellow senior executive told her that women shouldn’t be paid not to work.
“So I couldn’t do the corporate thing and decided to start my own business where I could also be there for my children.”
If one door had closed, another was re-opening, just a little.
While looking for something to occupy her children during the school holidays, she came across the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA).
She decided to do something for herself and auditioned for one of NIDA’s programs; she got in and reignited that passion for the stage and screen.
Cue another montage: audition after audition; small roles in various online shorts and TV shows; her first film in 2018 – horror Let Me In 2; the juggling of career, passion and family.
Then COVID.
Prepare the credits on the optometry career. Set the scene for the sequel.
The disease that isolated much of the globe helped to liberate Chambers’ creative side and finally set her on the path of pursuing her greatest passion.
“I’m still on the books for the Optometry Council of NSW,” she says. “They’ve called me in a few times to be an assessor.”
But she’s more likely these days to be assessing the viability of independent TV shows and films that come across the desk at her company, Wise Goat Productions. While she waits for that next role in front of the camera.
“It’s very easy to find a lot of creatives, but very hard to find good financial producers and people who know actually how the hell to do a budget, finance plan and interpret a cost report.”
There’s a subplot from her previous life: she’s working to advance the great work of independent film-makers in a market increasingly dominated by large corporates.
That’s now her day job, and she concedes it’s hardly glamorous.
“But this is definitely more empowering.”
The woman who previously worked to advance the aims of minorities and vulnerable others through eyecare is now doing that in her second career.
“This keeps my soul alive. I’m still very big on public health advocacy and hold the same values. I just now do it through storytelling and in the work that I choose to produce.
“Impact entertainment – you can make a lot of positive change.”
Sounds like a good LinkedIn entry.
More reading
Profile: Dr Malvika Gupta – against the tide
Liz Barrett’s dry-eye Field of Dreams now a reality
An optometrist with a wider health care vision
