Scenic route to stardom keeps actor Amy de Bhrún grounded
Blackshore star says success is all the sweeter for her because it took so long to get there
SHE is a familiar face from her supporting roles in hit TV dramas – and even one Hollywood blockbuster – but Amy de Bhrún insists she’s glad to have taken the scenic route on her way to landing the biggest parts of her career.
The Dubliner, currently starring in the RTÉ crime drama Blackshore, has had plenty of minor roles in productions big and small since graduating from drama school almost 20 years ago. The talented actor has also written and starred in multiple plays.
But only in more recent years has the 39-yearold begun playing less peripheral characters, starting with the final two seasons of Line of Duty, continuing in Blackshore and soon culminating (for now) in the upcoming drama Borderline – her first TV lead role.
But de Bhrún said she wouldn’t change her protracted career path.
‘I’d be different if I’d got one huge role after drama school.’
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘I’d be a completely different person now if I’d got one huge role straight out of drama school at the age of 21. I’ve really enjoyed my journey so far and it’s made this success that’s come all the sweeter.’
And she said the grind has made her a better mentor and colleague on set.
‘I know what it’s like to go in and have one line on a show and then leave. I’m always aware of that, so when I’ve got something more substantial now, I go: “I know how that feels. I’m going to make that person feel welcome”.’
De Bhrún also has an ‘amazing, juicy part’ in the AMC series Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, not yet released in Ireland, alongside fellow Irishwoman Elaine Cassidy, who imparted lessons de Bhrún has been able to bring to her new lead roles.
‘She was just such a good leader and she was such a great reminder of how to lead a set and how to lead a cast, because that’s really important [from lead acting talent],’ de Bhrún said.
‘Because there’s some people who just read the script and maybe look at their lines and look at what they’re doing, but it’s so important to serve the entire story.’
The actor and writer likes to map the development of her newly-meatier characters, including her ‘slow burn’ character Niamh from Blackshore, whose backstory will come into focus in tonight’s episode.
‘I like to plot the journey of the character, particularly if they’ve got an emotional storyline,’ she said. The mother-of-two lived in London for the first 10 years of her career, returning home and taking a part in Vikings, ‘when the industry over here was opening up and a lot of things were kind of bubbling’.
She wrote six different onewoman shows in the space of two years and performed them as ‘dinner theatre’ – when a show happens in the corner of a room as people eat.
In 2016, she landed a small part in Jason Bourne. De Bhrún watched that film in the cinema with her mother but says her four-episode stint on Coronation Street two years later has been ‘the one thing that my mom was the most, most impressed with’.
‘When I got Coronation Street my mom was like “Oh my god!” – more excited than any other job I’ve got. She was like: “Sure I’ve been watching Coronation Street since the 70s.”
She will be ‘a tiny part in a very big machine’ in the upcoming Small Things Like These, a Magdalene Laundries-set drama starring Cillian Murphy, who she shared one scene with.
‘Himself and the director [Tim Mielants] were absolutely lovely,’ she said of the Oscar favourite.
‘He deserves every success he gets. It’s a brilliant story and I think it’s going to do really well.’
■ The penultimate episode of Blackshore is on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player at 9.35pm tonight.
colm.mcguirk@dmgmedia.ie