CLELIA’S BIG BREAK
As she prepares for her role in The Sound of Music, the former Fair City and DWTS star tells Niamh Walsh how she has finally learned to be comfortable in her own skin
Former Fair City star Clelia Murphy tells how she landed her dream role after her Dancing With The Stars confidence boost.
Actress Clelia Murphy is enjoying a wave of personal firsts and is grasping every opportunity with the excited gusto of a woman half her age while possessing the mindfulness of making memories that will last a lifetime.
The Fair City actress proved a surprise favourite earlier this year on RTÉ’s Dancing
With The Stars as she waltzed her way from rank outsider into the quarter final.
Since her star turn on the show Clelia has discovered a confidence that evaded her since she was teenager suffering debilitating bouts of anorexia. With her new-found love of life, her career has experienced a lift and her love life has also seen a romantic twist of good fortune.
It’s over two years now since the flamehaired thespian tottered off the streets of Fair City, which had been her acting home for 22 years. Clelia played one of the soap’s most enduring characters – fiery, feisty Niamh Brennan. Now, over two decades since she first landed that role, she is poised to tread the boards at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in the juggernaut West End production of The Sound of Music.
‘It’s been a series of firsts since leaving
Fair City,’ says Clelia. I played the Gaiety for the first time, now I am doing the Bord Gáis. I now have the chance to get up on stage and be part of The Sound of Music.’
Landing the part of the Baronness, whose plans to marry Captain Von Trapp are usurped by the novice nun Maria in The
Sound of Music is just one in a series of recent firsts for Clelia since her DWTS exit opened the doors of opportunity.
‘I got knocked out on the Sunday and I started rehearsals for Light A Penny Candle the following day, so my exit was of good timing,’ says Clelia.
‘Then I went on and did another first. I did the Fringe Festival for the first time ever. I am just back from Mullingar, where we did the world premiere of The Valley of the
Squinting Windows, so it’s all go.’
The play, based on the novel by Brinsley MacNamara, saw Clelia take to the stage with another former Fair City star, Seán
Doyle, to critical acclaim. However, The Sound of Music it is undoubtedly a career dream come true for for the talented actress. ‘With The Sound of Music, I have never done anything on this scale before, so to be part of such a big production is just a dream come true. It’s not lost on me; I feel very lucky and very privileged. It will be another learning experience that I just can’t wait to get started on,’ she says.
And Clelia says starring in the show will bring back happy memories of her own ‘Von Trapp’ childhood in Dublin.
‘It’s one of those musicals that for me is evocative of childhood Christmases, getting families together. I’m getting everybody I know vouchers for the Bord Gáis, to get them all out and make it easy for Christmas gifting for myself.’
The Murphy family will be out in force. ‘I was born in Castleknock. My mother and father separated when I was very young, so I have no trauma of them separating to remember,’ she reveals.
‘We all lived in this big old house in Castleknock with my grandmother, my grandfather and my sister Judy, my uncle Paul and my uncle Séamus and a plethora of dogs.
‘I was the eldest and I was a shy child. Then when Clara-Belle Murphy [her daughter] came along, she just added to the village mentality.’
Reflecting on her own childhood, Clelia does harbour one regret – her battle with anorexia.
‘I hadn’t been well in fifth and sixth year, I decided to starve myself. I was anorexic. Nobody knows that. It wasn’t that I did it intentionally, it just happened. It was a control thing – it was always a control thing,’ she says.
However, as Clelia’s illness took hold, her loving family rallied round to help her overcome her eating disorder.
‘I was very lucky. I copped on very quickly but I genuinely didn’t see it, it was a control thing – it was a goal I had set myself that I wanted to get thin. That’s why I am very aware of it now with young women and I wanted to get the message across. It’s not about what you look like, it’s about how you
‘To be part of such a big production is a dream come true’
feel; it’s in your head. So starving yourself isn’t a good trick because all it does is starve your brain cells. So it is really important that we love ourselves,’ says Clelia.
‘I lost my confidence, my belief in myself. I didn’t understand what I was doing.’ When she appeared on last season’s
DWTS, Clelia left the comfort of her Fair City family and found herself centre stage. It was during this star turn on the RTÉ show that she first opened up about a past plagued by self-doubt which saw her descend into a battle with anorexia.
‘I have nothing to hide. I felt I was exposed enough being on television four nights week. It’s not that I didn’t want to talk about it, I just didn’t think it was relevant,’ she says.
‘It just came from being asked a question, and I gave an honest answer. I was asked what I was like as a teenager and I answered honestly.
‘I said I had no confidence. I judged myself incorrectly and instead of worrying about what you look on the outside, it’s about making sure you are heathy and safe on the inside. It’s about saying to your younger self “don’t worry about what’s goes on on Instagram; judge yourself by yourself”.’
Now aged 44, Clelia is healthy, happy and has a confidence that comes with not only accepting but liking yourself.
‘I’m 44 and it’s only now I’m comfortable in my own skin.’
And as she thinks back to those dark times, she can only wish that 16-year-old Clelia knew what the future had in store. Her self-awareness and acceptance is something that she shares with her new partner, as she says: ‘That’s what myself and Johnny really bond over.’
Clelia’s new romance was revealed last year when Johnny pitched up to support her on the show.
And while she knows that fame, however small, comes with it a certain amount of sacrificing some privacy, it is not something she relinquishes too much or too freely.
‘I’ve said this before, I’ve no interest in being famous. So when it came to being in a relationship, it’s hard enough without putting that extra pressure on it.
‘So there is no need to talk about it, it’s just he was there and supporting. It’s not just my life I’m discussing, it’s other people’s lives too, and I’ve a healthy respect for others people’s privacy – and I’m really not interesting.
‘It’s a pity that you have to be qualified by having another human being in your life. It shouldn’t be who you are dating; it should be the person in front of you. It’s not about being validated by another person; it’s about validating yourself and being comfortable in your own skin.’
Taking part in DWTS was, she says, a confidence awakening and one she is grasping with both hands and feet. ‘For me, it’s given me real confidence. That’s what I got from it, and confidence is worth its weight in gold.
‘Doing DWTS was an incredible experience from beginning to end. It’s terrifying but it has that same sort of feeling of accomplishment. It sets a benchmark; you say “if I can do this, then I can do that”.’
While DWTS has very often been derided for the absence of any ‘big’ star names and the number of RTÉ staff in the line-up, Clelia has words for armchair critics.
‘I am very lucky that I like what I do as a profession. It is hard and you have to put yourself out there. Nothing gets handed to you,’ she says. ‘Ultimately, I am an entertainer. But if you look at the likes of Peter Stringer or Denis Bastick on DWTS last year, they are learning something completely new and they are putting themselves out there in order to make sure someone can have a night off and be entertained. That’s not a lofty statement, it’s just the facts.’
And while Clelia may have some regrets over her past, she has nothing but complete joy at one major event in her darker days. Having just landed her role in Fair City, her career took an unexpected detour when Clelia discovered she was pregnant.
‘I was 21 when I got pregnant, but ClaraBelle Murphy is the best thing that I didn’t plan,’ she says.
Now in her twenties, Clara-Belle is a young woman doing things her own way. ‘She has acted in the past and I’d say she will act in the future. She is a real storyteller. She is studying model-making at the moment. So that’s set design, so she is part of the world,’ says Clelia. But she is her own woman. She will do things her own way and she will do her own thing and she will do it better – let’s call a spade a shovel!’
And as for any return of Niamh Brennan to Carrigstown, Clelia is not ruling anything out. ‘It’s two years and I don’t know where Niamh is. I think she’s somewhere in Fiji. I hope she’s having ball. I don’t know if she will come back – that’s in the hands of the gods and the writers. But never say never.’
The Sound of Music Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from January 10 to February 1. Tickets, from €21, from www.bordgaisenergytheatre.ie