For Carina Hoang, acting didn't even seem like a possibility until she landed a leading role in the latest ABC soap series The Heights.

The former refugee and mother of one from Perth with no acting background responded to an open casting call and secured the character of Iris, the owner of a local corner shop who knows all the neighbourhood gossip and isn't afraid to tell people what she thinks of them.

The 56-year-old doesn't share many of these personality traits with Iris, but one thing they do share is the experience of being a refugee.

Carina fled Vietnam on a boat with her parents in 1976. They were pursued by pirates, almost capsized, and lived in an unforgiving island refugee camp in Indonesia before initially being settled in the United States. Carina then migrated to Australia in 2007.

She discusses her acting debut, what she has learned, and the refugee experience with ABC Life.

The Heights airs on ABC TV at 8:30pm on Fridays and the first 16 episodes are available on iview.

You've never acted before, why did you decide to go for this role?

It all started with me receiving an email. It was sent to the whole Vietnamese community in Western Australia. I opened the attachment and it was from a casting company looking for a Vietnamese female within this age range, to play a role of a mother of a son who's in college and it said "with or without acting experience".

Those were the key words that struck me, because if they asked for experience, I would never have applied.

I've never thought of myself going for acting or anything like that, but I always like to try new things and I'm quite adventurous. I thought, "Oh, wow. Let's give it a try!"

I did not realise how big the role was when I went in for the audition, and I am just so, so thrilled that I went in and tried out.

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What were the biggest challenges for you, walking onto a TV set for the first time and acting?

Whenever I put on the costume and walked out on to set, I would think, "Oh, my God, is this for real?!"

It was like that for me every single time, especially if I have a challenging scene when I kind of feel out of my personal character, like when Iris is screaming and yelling and being very angry.

And because I don't display those emotions in public, I'd always think, "Far out! really? I get to act like that."

Having worked in the pharmaceutical industry before moving to Australia, Ms Hoang became an author with her 2011 book, Boat People. She has now added actor to her resume. ( Supplied: ABC Life/Bohdan Warchomij )

I have got to share a little secret with you here, sometimes when I performed a scene where I had to be a really mean, loud, rough person — I would let that all out, then afterwards when the camera stopped rolling, I would think, "Oh my God, who was that? Was that Iris or Carina?"

If it was Carina, I couldn't admit that to you, it would be too embarrassing for people to know that I could behave like Iris.

But honestly, it was a really interesting and wonderful experience for me.

Of course there were moments when I was so worried that I wouldn't enjoy it and I wouldn't be able to perform. I was worried that I would not be able to do what all these people expected from me; performing and delivering and doing a good job.

Day by day, I gained more knowledge and more confidence.

I also received really beautiful and encouraging compliments from my fellow actors and actresses. They all knew that I was brand new to this industry. They are very kind and generous, and made me feel OK.

Now that I've filmed 30 episodes, I'm more confident that I can do it, especially with help around me, but the main thing is that I learned that I enjoy it.

How do you think the refugee experience shaped people from your generation?

In the case of Iris, I think the hardship she has experienced as a refugee has made her a very strong person, but also a very practical person.

You know, she has witnessed how things can be taken away from you, and that makes her approach life in a very pragmatic way. She is very strong. And I think her strength comes from her survival.

I know this from not only my experience, but I work with Vietnamese refugees. I actually take families of Vietnamese refugees from around the world to Indonesia. Usually once a year, we take a group and return to the refugee camps in Indonesia, where many of us had to stay once we got off the boats.

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I take them back there to look for the graves of their loved ones who did not make it. Many refugees who died in the camps are buried there (the Galang refugee camp in Indonesia was opened in 1979 and didn't close until the last refugees left in 1996).

Finding the graves is a way of helping those families to find closure.

You'll often see that Vietnamese families who fled after the war, they get on with life and they can be very successful and have a comfortable new life. But deep down, there are scars and wounds that are unhealed, which sometimes only emerge after many, many years.

They cannot find that missing piece of their heart, because of the way that their loved one passed away in the refugee camps. Many never had a proper burial, and their families never had a chance to properly grieve for them.

What are your plans for your acting career?

Carina Hoang's character, Iris, knows what the characters in The Heights have been up to and she's not afraid of letting them know what she thinks of their behaviour when they come into her store. ( Supplied: ABC TV/Bohdan Warchomij. )

I hope that I will have more opportunities and I'm open to taking on different roles and different characters. I think that would be interesting and challenging.

But I probably will have to try to balance acting with my career and my work. I have just finished my PhD, which had a focus on refugee policy, and I want to work in that area.

So, I look forward to applying what I have learned, plus my own personal experience as a refugee, to assist the Australian Government to develop policies that are more practical and informed.

No matter what I do, I just want to say to people who ever have an opportunity to have an experience like myself and try acting or something like this: don't be shy.

Just go for it, if that's what you want to try. If I can do it, so can everybody else. Pursue it.

The Heights airs on ABC TV at 8:30pm on Fridays and the first 16 episodes are available on iview.