FAIRYTALE MAGIC
Meg Walker meets Belfast-born actor Jenn Murray
Jenn Murray has been steadily building a successful film and television career for more than a decade, but landing her latest role exceeded her wildest dreams. MEG WALKER met the Belfast-born star in Dublin to discover a hard-working actor
who is constantly honing her craft.
If you have difficulty recognising Jenn Murray, that would be because she transforms herself for every role. Having begun her film career at the age of 22, fresh out of drama school, playing a mentally ill young woman suspected of assaulting an infant in the psychological thriller Dorothy Mills, which landed her an IFTA nomination, she proved to both the industry and her family that her childhood dream of becoming an actor was one that just might come true. “I had never been in front of a camera before that film. It was intense, but I think from that moment on, I had my parents’ support. They were just concerned because you can be a great actor, but will you get the work?”
With her career headed in the right direction, Murray moved to London, then on to Los Angeles, starring in films alongside Saoirse Ronan and Julie Walters ( Brooklyn), Eddie Redmayne ( Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and Kate Beckinsale (Jane Austen’s Love & Friendship). But her latest role – that of Gerda in Disney’s Maleficent: The Mistress of Evil, the sequel to the 2014 live action rewrite of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale starring Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning – may just be the dream part (so far, anyway).
The aid to Queen Ingrith, fiercely played by Michelle Pfeiffer, Gerda is a clever and cunning fantastical being who’s a dab hand with weapons and plays a pivotal role in the Queen’s war against Maleficent (Jolie) and her crew of magical creatures. “Getting that part was amazing. Gerda’s tough and she has many hidden and interesting skills. This film, it’s a fantasy, it’s an adventure, it’s about three powerful women – the Queen, Maleficent, Aurora [played by Fanning] – and they all have objectives and desires. The performances are very detailed and intimate. The costumes
are so imaginative and the effects are a dream. It’s magical, and it’s a real movie experience.”
Having moved to New York earlier this year, the 33-year-old may well have found herself a new home from home. “I love New York. I’ve made some great friends and feel really inspired there.”
Inspiration comes from many directions in Murray’s world. Photography is an artform she returns to when drawn to the right subject, but it’s creative writing that Jenn dedicates as much time and interest to as acting. “I’ve just finished a novel. For many years, I wrote short stories and when I was in Los Angeles, I found myself writing this one character a lot, and my creative writing teacher said I should explore that. And I thought, I’ll try and write a novel – as a challenge, between acting. So we’ll see. But writing gives me a lot of joy.”
If you try and find Jenn on social media, you may be disappointed. She’s not on Instagram, nor Twitter (there are fan pages, but that’s not the same thing). She simply likes to keep her personal life just that – personal. “I remember Grace Coddington said in The September Issue that the best advice she’d ever been given was to look out the window. I just try to pay attention to what’s happening in the moment. It’s not that I have an aversion to [social media], it’s just what works for me. Life is so beautiful and people have their private moments, and they are so meaningful – just because it’s not caught on a camera doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
“I’m also very respectful of acting as a craft and an artform. It’s a real luxury to get to do what you love. And people like Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, Meryl Streep – they all disappear, and so you believe them [when they’re in character], and so when you watch the story, you escape with them and you go on the journey, and that is such a gift. I feel like, when I play a character, I want the audience to believe me, and if you know anything about me, it might take away from the story. It’s not about you – you are the vessel, you are the storyteller.”
Murray certainly seems to immerse herself into every role she takes on, whether that’s a witchcraft-fearing fanatic (Chastity Barebone in Fantastic Beasts), an Irish girl in 1950s America (Dolores in Brooklyn) or a violent schizophrenic (Dorothy Mills). “I think about the character, what she’s thinking about, what’s important to her, what she likes to eat, what she dreams about, the music she listens to… I see them as individuals. I like to transform.”
She also closely observes and tries to learn from her fellow co-stars. “Michelle [Pfeiffer] is a phenomenal actress to witness. She was really in her character when the camera was rolling. She’s acting with every part of her body – her eyes are acting, and you are with her.”
But it’s not all about work. Murray is a true believer in finding that balance, a tip she picked up from Jolie long before she expected to share a film set with her. “When I was younger, I watched Angelina Jolie in an interview and she was asked for her advice to young actors, and she said, ‘get a life’. And it always struck me because at that point, acting was everything to me. It’s difficult when you’re an actor and you’re unemployed, how do you define yourself?
And her words stuck with me, and I realised my life is so important to me, more important than anything else. And acting always comes. That’s the wonderful thing about acting – it’s so unpredictable – you roll the dice and then something magical can happen.”
Her advice to young actors? “Honour your individuality. If you really love acting and cannot imagine yourself doing anything else, it will work out. Just find ways to build up your self-esteem outside of acting. It took me a long time to work out that it was normal to be unemployed as an actor. There’s no shame in that. Don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Work hard. Dreams do come true if you believe in yourself and want it enough.”
Does she feel a thick skin is essential in an industry where rejection is par for the course? “I don’t know. The actors I love, their skin seems very thin. If you watch Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson; or Tyrannosaur with Olivia Colman; or Michael Shannon in anything he does… they expose everything inside, and it’s their vulnerability that’s so exquisite. You’re moved because they’re moved, there’s a connection there, and that’s from an openness and vulnerability to their own life and their own stories, the stories of the character, and what’s happening that day on set. It’s all there. So you have to have a thin skin because you have to be ready to give yourself to the character. So I don’t know if I have a thick skin. I just get used to [rejection], like you get used to anything else. You just try not to take it personally. You are part of a profession where like that, everything will change, and you can suddenly become very fortunate and get to do what you love every day. Again, it’s not about me. When you get rejected, it feels incredibly personal, but you programme yourself to go, ‘I’m meant to get something else’. I was supposed to shoot something last year and it was delayed, and then I got Maleficent. You’re just making room for something else.”
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is out October 18.
“When I play a character,
I want the audience to believe me, and if you know anything about me, it might take away from the story.”