IT’S GOOD TO SEE A VOICE BEING GIVEN TO THE VICTIM

Irish actress Emily Taaffe says her latest project, a thriller for Sky, tackles several stereotypes

As a fan of whodunnits, Irish actress Emily Taaffe was thrilled to land a part in Sky’s latest murder mystery The Rising. But she says actually being in the show herself made it very hard to avoid spoilers – though it was important to her that she try as she wanted to ensure her performance was as genuine as possible as she and the audience followed the clues together.

While the producers didn’t hide the script or circulate any false endings, she didn’t want to spoil the surprise for herself until she absolutely had to know. ‘I decided I didn’t want to know who did it, because I didn’t want there to be any part of me that was talking to any of the characters as Maria knowing that they murdered her daughter.

‘I felt like that would be quite a difficult thing to hide, like if it was just in your brain or your body anywhere, so I chose not to find out who was the killer until I had to know. I hope we do take people with us on the journey and hopefully there’ll be enough red herrings and twists and turns to keep people guessing to the very end.’

While she might know how the series will end now, that doesn’t mean Emily – who plays Maria Kelly, whose daughter Neve is murdered – is any less excited to tune in and watch the Sky Original series, as she’ll get to see certain scenes she wasn’t performing in herself.

‘All the bits I’m not in I really enjoy,’ the 38year-old says. ‘I’m interested to see the rest as I haven’t seen beyond episode two so it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of it all pans out. I mean, I know what happens, obviously, but you don’t really see it until you see it on screen.

‘The thing I was struck by when I watched episodes one and two was the scope of it, like how cinematic it is. There’s amazing drone shots where she’s on the motorbike, like all that sort of stuff, they took my breath away.’

The Rising follows Neve Kelly, who discovers she is dead. Understandably, she’s scared and confused by this new (non) existence, but moreover, when she realises she has been murdered, she’s furious. Determined to find her killer and get justice, she uncovers deeply buried secrets and is forced to re-examine everything about her life and the people she cared about. Neve’s ‘return’ forces everyone around her to change, confess or start covering their tracks and before long, her death sends fractures through not only her family, but throughout the whole community, as everyone is a suspect.

One aspect The Rising shines a light on is that just because Maria is a young mum doesn’t mean she’s a bad one. She is fighting tooth and nail for her child and often, the representation for younger mothers isn’t as positive.

‘Families take all different forms and shapes and sizes and I really liked the fact that Maria is clearly a young mom, but it’s shown in a really positive way,’ Skerries native Emily explains. ‘She’s a good mom, whereas, I think, often when you see representations of young mothers on screen, it’s not always in the most positive light.’

The Rising is told through Neve’s point of view as she tries to find out who murdered her. With violence against women so prevalent in the UK and Ireland, the series gives a voice back to the victim. Emily describes how important it is to her that these stories are told and how The Rising tackled the subject in a unique and effective way.

‘This is a story about a murdered young

woman, and as we know, there is an epidemic of violence against women,’ she says. ‘I think it’s really important that these stories are told, but I think equally important, is how they’re told.

‘For me, too often, the focus is on the killer and the glamorising of the man who’s done this, whereas the woman is just the object; she is on a slab in a mortuary.

‘What is brilliant about The Rising is it’s a real reinvention of that story. She takes back control, and she is the subject, not just the object – she’s our hero, she’s our protagonist, she brings everybody through the story.

‘There is no gratuitous violence. The way the camera looks at her is very respectful and doesn’t glamorise that violence in any way. So hopefully, people will feel that.

‘I think it’s hugely important [for shows like this to exist] as, so often, the victims become nameless, and all you hear is the victim, the victim, the victim. But they are real people whose lives are cut off, very often in their prime, and there’s a huge tragedy. What’s brilliant about this show is, of course, it’s fiction, and it’s entertainment, but at least it gives back a voice to the victim. I think it deals with it in in a respectful and humane way.’

All episodes of The Rising, a Sky Original thriller, are available now on Sky Max