Phina Oruche Darragh McManus chats to the Taken Down actress, currently making waves as Marvellous the brothel-keeper
As the brothel-keeper Marvellous in Taken Down, Phina Oruche says her only concern about playing such an unpleasant character was that people would hate her, she tells Darragh McManus
Phina Oruche speaks with a so Liverpool accent and is as unpretentious and funny as you might expect of a native of that most Irish of English cities. It’s a measure of how good a performer she is that her character in RTÉ’s crime-drama Taken Down, the very misnamed Marvellous, is so unlikeable. Introduced in episode 2 and becoming central to the dark drama in last weekend’s episode, Marvellous is a Nigerian woman running a brothel, a development of the story’s shocking people-tra cking operation. Marvellous is brash, harsh, even ruthless.
Phina laughs when I suggest her character is “a right wagon.” “A wagon, yeah…I have some other words for her! Marvellous is a delight to play, though. You love to get that kind of role as an actor, where you have to scare yourself, really commit, take yourself to places where you don’t want to go. It’s great.”
It’s possible that Marvellous isn’t quite as bad as she seems. In upcoming episodes, Phina explains, we learn her story and how that a ects “the way she moves through the world and relates to other people – why she behaves as she does. Marvellous is as tough as nails, but she’s been hurt, and we begin to see her vulnerabilities. We learn about what she’s been through, how she got to Ireland and how that plays out in the rest of the story.
“For me, the rougher the part, the better. Deeper, darker, more challenging. I don’t want to play a superhero in a cape. I don’t watch those kinds of things, I don’t enjoy them. I like playing people who are awed, because we all are and also the challenge of taking someone that would be considered bad, and realising that fully but without judging her is di cult to do. Getting that ambiguity is hard, and Marvellous is quite a complex character.”
Directed by Love/Hate’s David Ca rey and created by Stuart Carolan (showrunner on Love/Hate), who co-wrote the script with novelist Jo Spain, Taken Down grips from the get-go, with its blend of cop-procedural thrills and un inching social commentary on immigration, direct provision and sextra cking.
Phina sings the praises of both the show and the people she made it with: “Taken Down is very good and I’m really proud to be part of it. I really enjoyed working with everyone; it was a great group and we created a little family dynamic, as you do when you’re on set. e bond was tight and great, and real.
“They have such pedigree. I didn’t know David and Stuart’s work when I met them first, which was better: I’d probably have made a mess of it! I might have been all sycophantic and ridiculous. They’d have thought I was very strange.”
e gig came about when her agent called Phina to do a self-tape audition for the producers. She sat in her attic, her ten-yearold son playing the other part and sent o the recording, not thinking about it again until six weeks later, when she was on a plane to Ireland to start lming.
She says what most grabbed her was the quality of the screenplay. “As a writer as well as an actor,” Phina says, “I really appreciate a good
script. When I got this, I read it in one sitting. I couldn’t get ahead of it, didn’t know where it was going; it wasn’t a world I was familiar with. These are the kinds of things I look for. You often get sent roles that are formulaic or poorly observed, but Marvellous was real.
“The writing is just superb. It spoke to me so deeply. This world we were depicting was so well-observed by the writers. They gave me a gift and I was ready to run with it. And Stuart apparently liked what I did so much at the audition that he wrote some dialogue I’d added, on a whim, into the character’s lines. I found that very gratifying.”
The series was filmed in July and August in Dublin. “A short, intense shoot,” Phina recalls. “I lived in Ballsbridge about ten years ago – my child was born there – so it was really nice, like coming home. The script was tight, we had a great ensemble…” she laughs, “my only concern now is that people will hate Marvellous to death! At least I’m in Liverpool, so I can hide.”
Phina’s own story is as fascinating as any fiction. Born in England in 1972, to Nigerian parents, she’s been a model in London and New York, studied acting at the famous Actors Studio in LA, and performed in shows ranging from Footballers’ Wives and Buffy to NYPD Blue and Nip/Tuck. While she lived in Dublin in the Noughties, she was a regular on TV3’s Ireland AM.
These days, Phina says, “I’m committed to looking after my boy, so I really don’t live an actor’s life; I’m not in ‘the scene’. Basically, I’m a soccer mom with an acting career on the side! But not being part of a scene is better for your art. I’d previously done I’m a Celebrity… and other reality stuff, and was kind of embarrassed about it. I’m an actor, I play characters, I’m not a celeb.
“Some people make huge careers out of playing themselves in every film, but that’s not what I want to be. The next time you see me on-screen, I want you thinking, is that the same woman? I’ve played men and women, black and white, old and young.”
Taken Down is Phina’s first foray back into TV acting after a lengthy hiatus precipitated by a family tragedy. She explains: “I had given up my career seven years ago, after my 19-year-old niece died in my home: she had an aneurysm, while babysitting my boy. I was very low emotionally. I realised I couldn’t take things for granted as a parent, so I decided to step back and focus on him.
“Then a few years ago I did a Master’s degree in media and wrote a one-woman show (the critical hit Identity Crisis) where I played all nine characters. I toured it from Liverpool to Edinburgh to New York. So I was ready when Taken Down came about – I’d got the acting bug back. Shooting this was a celebration, really exciting, and I was stronger and better as an actor. The silver lining, I suppose, of such a dark period was a commitment to the work, the art, and not bothering with all the silly stuff. “After what we’ve been through as a family, I honestly thought my career was over. You know, ‘How am I going to get back in?’ So to get this part was great. Now I have the chance to reconnect to a world I really love.”
After what we’ve been through as a family, I honestly thought my career was over