Kerry Condon
The star of Women on the Verge chats with Janice Butler
“How are ya – is it the evening time where you are? It’s only 9.30 here,” chimes Kerry Condon down the phone from sunny Los Angeles, which has been her home for the past eight years. Her Tipperary accent is still very much intact and when it comes to the acting world, her outspoken attitude is a breath of fresh air. Condon’s versatility and prowess on screen have blossomed just beneath the radar since her debut in Alan Parker’s treatment of Angela’s Ashes. A er that we saw her in Intermission, the toga-clad exploits of HBO’s Rome and most recently, Better Call Saul. At this stage in her career, it’s safe to say she’s well placed to handle the challenges of her trade. “I’m on a day o ,” she says with delight. “I’m not working at the moment; thank God I’m not working at the moment is all I can say,” she laughs.
“I don’t think you need to go from job to job to job just for the sake of working. I like to have my free time and taking time o from work and doing things that I really want to do. I’ve accepted that my job is like that; intense periods of hard work and then periods with lots of free time. I used to nd that really di cult but now I love my free time.”
is well-earned break comes a er a summer of lming her new comedy, Women on the Verge, in Dublin. e six-parter began last week and is the long-awaited new series from Sharon Horgan, whose comedy credits include such award-winning shows as Motherland, Catastrophe and Divorce. Horgan’s co-writer is Lorna Martin. It was Sharon’s involvement in the show that encouraged Kerry to sign on as the lead character, Laura. “It was Sharon to be honest, more than anything,” she says.
“Before I’d even read it, she emailed me about it and with that alone, I was already 50% in. She’s so smart and her stu is hilarious. I’d only done comedy in plays and theatre, never in movies or TV. So I was like, this will be a great experience and if she thinks I can do it, then I have to do it. Somebody thinking you’re great? Of course you’re going to want to work with them!” e series, based on Martin’s book Woman On e Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, follows the lives of three career women in their 30s. While they all have di erent lives, they share the concern that their friends and colleagues seem to have their lives under control, while theirs are becoming ever more chaotic. Kerry plays Laura, an investigative journalist who is at risk of ruining her career a er sleeping with her boss. Her co-stars are Eileen Walsh and Nina Sosanya. Did she relate to Laura?
“My saving grace in comparison to Laura is that I know what I want,” she replies con dently.
“I don’t really care if I never get married. I don’t really care if I never have kids. ere’s loads of things I’ve planned for my life. So I’ve gone on and made plans for my life regardless of those things happening to me. Whereas, with Laura, I was probably more like that in my 20s, not so much now. e comedy is in her not having control and not coping very well but I’d like to think I cope pretty well with my own life.” She seems to; in an industry where people are chewed up and spat out, Kerry has managed to rise above its cut-throat nature. She credits this to not chasing fame and fortune. “What has kept me grounded is my own personality; I’ve never really given a sh*t about being famous, or if I’m going to a party I don’t want people to know who I am. I really always just wanted to be an actress and get paid for it. Now don’t get me wrong; I would be very competitive when it comes to work and a role but purely because I want credit for the work I’ve put in. e other side of it always seemed stupid to me.”
She’s still in Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spin-o on Net ix. Now in its third season, her character, Stacey Ehrmantraut, isn’t in every episode, but she says that the role was still a huge learning curve for her.
“It was de nitely a harder part because it was the rst time for me being in a show and not being in every episode. I was coming in for three episodes a season and that’s a whole di erent discipline because the story isn’t really about you, it’s about the main person and you kind of have to know your place in the story. “It came to me at a point in my life when I was capable of doing that because I was more sure of myself. I didn’t need to be in every episode for my ego.”
I don’t really care if I never get married. I don’t really care if I never have kids. ere’s loads of things I’ve planned for my life