PLAYING THE VICTIM
KELLY MACDONALD TALKS ABOUT HER NEW DRAMA SERIES AND FILMING THE ADAPTATION OF DIRT MUSIC IN AUSTRALIA
When we call Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald, 43, to talk about her new series, The Victim (starts Mon., Jul. 29 at 8.30pm; BBC First), it’s the first day of school holidays. “We have no plans,” she says, referring to her two sons, Freddie, 11, and Theodore, 6. “A friend showed me her spreadsheet for summer. I’ve got literally no plans, even for today other than finding the rackets for the swingball set.”
That agenda-less future extends to her career. “I don’t have a job right now, quite unusually,” Macdonald says. “The past few years have been pretty back-to-back.” One role that’s kept her busy is The Victim’s Anna Dean, whose young son was murdered 15 years earlier by an older boy (who was given a new identity after his sentence). Evidence suggests Anna posted the killer’s new identity online and he is then attacked. Did she do it? Is it even the same guy?
Was doing The Victim an instant yes for you?
It pretty much was. I definitely had to think about it. I read the first couple of episodes and it was completely compelling, and the characters were so well drawn. The main thing was I really wanted to play Anna. In her eyes, she’s fighting for justice, but she’s also acting in ways that are socially unacceptable. She’s quite unlikable at times.
What did you have to think about before agreeing to take the role?
Part of it was: “Well, who’s going to watch it?” You hope to work on something that will have an audience and it’s pretty dark, but it’s more than just what it says on the tin. It was something unusual and really relatable in lots of ways. I didn’t have to think long.
The Victim raises the notion of truth, and how something can be put online and it almost doesn’t matter if it’s true. It sticks once it’s out. You used to say today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chips paper, but that’s not the case anymore. Something gets said and it’s online forever, true or not. It’s on my Wikipedia page that my mum worked in the garment industry. This is so not a big thing, but I don’t even know what that means. That’s not what she did at all. There’s misinformation all over the place.
It does say that, but it says ‘citation needed’. That’s been there for years. Does it say anything about Aberdeen? Apparently I’ve lived there.
It says you moved there when you were 5.
I’ve never been to Aberdeen!
For Anna, her anger hasn’t gone away. Was it a challenge to get into that headspace?
No, it’s not like I roll out of bed the day of the scene and bish, bash, bosh, it’s done, but there’s not much preparation I can do. I’ve got quite a lot of life experience and I can feed off that. It’s just acting; it’s just pretending.
Pretending something fun must be different from being angry and screaming at people?
I don’t know. Is it weird that I probably find that easier than if I had to be on set larking around and laughing my head off? That would be far more of a struggle for me.
You filmed Dirt Music in Australia last year. Was it your first time here?
First time filming there. First time ever in Australia. And hilariously now I am very well travelled in WA. I’ve never been anywhere else or the major cities. But I’ve been to a lot of places that apparently a lot of Australians haven’t been to.
How was the experience?
It was incredible, life-changing in ways. We were invited into really sacred land and it was so remote. We were staying in tents and going to work meant getting changed in a little port-acabin and getting a boat to some remote island.