An actor’s life
Ahead of this week’s season finale of Smother, Michael Doherty catches up with Seána Kerslake, a key player in the hit Irish drama
“Iam very much not baking banana bread and not teaching myself Mandarin!” Everybody approaches lockdown in different ways. For actress Seána Kerslake, that way doesn’t always involve the time-honoured approaches to homeconfinement. “I think I go through phases, depending on the stage of lockdown,” she explains. “Initially, you have the best intentions so you’re reading books and learning languages on Duolingo, and all of that. But at other stages, you’re thinking, if I can have any semblance of mental health at the end of this, I’m doing well. It’s about staying curious, staying open and just getting through it.”
For many of us, just getting through it is being made that bit easier by the welcome distraction of quality TV fare such as Kate O’riordan’s Smother. This six-part Celtic Noir drama follows the fortunes of the Ahern clan as they navigate the fallout of a suspicious death in the family. Smother has kept audiences on their toes courtesy of a teasing whodunit, a feast of red herrings and outstanding performances from a mostly femaledriven ensemble. In addition to Seána (Grace Ahern), the top-notch cast includes Niamh Walsh, Gemma-leah Devereux, Carrie Crowley, Hazel Doupe and Justine Mitchell, all of whom find themselves under the watchful eye of matriarch, Val, beautifully played by Dervla Kirwan. “That was actually a major draw to the project for me,” says Seána. “I knew it was going to involve a strong female cast and, much like in my own life, Grace is surrounded by fully-rounded, strong women.” While each of Val’s three daughters carries their own secrets and offers their own reasons to be considered suspects, from the very first episode, the spotlight has shone particularly brightly on the youngest. After all, Grace is a young woman with plenty to contend with. On top of her father’s death, she has to come to terms with the facts that her ex-boyfriend has taken up with her best friend, and her beloved café was being sold from under her. Meanwhile, Grace is living with bipolar disorder; an aspect of her character’s personality which Seána Kerslake took very seriously when preparing for the role.
“I had discussions with Mental Health Ireland,” she explains, “and my friend also sent me on research she had compiled for a project she was working on, so there was plenty of material to work with. I also read biographies of people who have lived with or are still living with bipolar. At the same time, I felt that some of Grace’s reactions had nothing to do with the fact that she was living with bipolar: she behaved that way because she was angry and upset.”
The role of Grace Ahern is the latest in a long line of eye-catching performances that have helped turn Seána Kerslake into one of our most accomplished and celebrated young stars. The Tallaght 20-something first came to our attention (alongside an equally youthful Jack Reynor) in Kirsten Sheridan’s homeinvasion drama, Dollhouse (2012). That role earned Seána an IFTA nomination and set her on a career path that would encompass stage (most memorably the co-lead in Mood Music opposite Ben Chaplin at The Old Vic), TV (including the hit series, Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, co-starring her great pal, the late Nika Mcguigan) and the big screen. Her movie roles to date include a dazzling performance as the eponymous lead in Darren Thornton’s acclaimed drama, A Date for Mad Mary (2016), and Lee Cronin’s celebrated horror yarn, The Hole in The Ground (2019). Her acting CV already encompasses a range of genres across media, and that’s just the way she likes it.
If I didn’t have this way of expressing myself, where would I be?
“Absolutely, they all offer something different,” she explains. “In terms of theatre, I am extremely lucky that I have gotten to work on big stages, like the Old Vic, and small ones, like Theatre Upstairs, that are lovely and intimate. Movie-wise, you never know where your film is going to go. It could end up playing to a small audience or, like The Hole in the Ground, it could end up at the Sundance Film Festival. You never really know; you just take the script, work on the character and try to do your best.” In embracing so many genres, the actress doesn’t subscribe to the view that stage and screen acting are different disciplines that require distinctive approaches. “I think, fundamentally, they’re the same,” she explains. “You’re putting yourself in a scenario and you have to make it realistic. It’s just the technicalities that are different. On stage, for example, it might be bigger in the sense that your voice has to project up to the Gods. I don’t necessarily think smaller acting is needed for the screen. If you look at Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, or any Jack Nicholson role, they’re not small performances. They’re big and they’re on screen, and you shouldn’t be afraid of that. It shouldn’t necessarily mean that your voice becomes quieter or that you don’t move your hands as much because, as humans, we do gesticulate a lot.”
While some of her peers might have stumbled into acting a bit later in life, Seána Kerslake has been an actress in the making from day one. “Throughout my whole life,” she explains, “drama was the one activity that I consistently did and something I never gave up. But it was only when I got a little bit older that I started thinking, ‘What would I do without it?’ I had brilliant teachers such as Mrs Birchall, when I was young, and then Anna Walker, when I was doing my Royal Irish Academy exams. When I was with Maureen Ward’s Talented Kids, I realised, ‘God, if I didn’t have this way of expressing myself, where would I be?’ That’s when I knew that drama was going to be more than just an after-school activity.”
That after-school activity, which included doing the rounds of various feiseanna, paid off handsomely when the teenager, then a student of English and Music at Maynooth University, found herself cast in Kirsten Sheridan’s aforementioned Dollhouse. And that’s when the lightbulb went off. “Working on that film opened up my whole world to this industry,” Seána explains. “I didn’t realise that people could be actors, you know? I didn’t see that in my life. It was something that I felt was very distant. On Dollhouse, I’d be looking over at the sound-man, thinking, ‘OK, so this is what you do, this is your job.’ I had never been on a film set before and I hadn’t gone to drama school, so I was like a sponge, taking it all in. Kirsten became a mentor and a champion for all of us.” The success of Dollhouse encouraged Seána to rectify the absence of a drama school from her CV as she enrolled in The Factory (now Bow Street Academy), where alumni include Niamh Algar, Ann Skelly and Jordanne Jones. The roles began to arrive, notably A Date For Mad Mary, for which the actress deservedly received universal praise. “When I read the script for A Date For Mad Mary,” she recalls, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is really cool’, but I never really thought that it would be mine. When I read a script, I always look for the beating heart. As you’re reading it, something hits home, whether it’s the character itself or the tone of the story that clicks with you. You just know in your heart that this is something you would love to do. Sometimes, it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t!”
For the most part, things have gone Seána Kerslake’s way. She has already been involved in many memorable productions, including two that were recently filmed under lockdown conditions. Smother was shot on location in Lahinch, while the romantic drama, Ballywalter, co-starring Patrick Kielty, was mainly shot in Belfast. “I felt extremely lucky that I was working during lockdown,” says Seána, “because it gave my life some sort of structure. Being a freelance artist means you go where the work is, and you prepare when it’s not. You have to create a schedule for yourself, so in a way, freelance artists are more accustomed than most to the lifestyle of lockdown. You obviously worry when the work isn’t coming in, but I feel like things are starting to move again in the industry. Projects are being filmed again and we’re appreciating how art – whether that’s a TV series, a film, a book or a podcast – can provide people with escapism during lockdown. It’s definitely encouraging to see that work is being made, and that Ireland is busy.”
Irish film-makers are busy in Ireland but they are making their mark across the globe, too; whether it’s Niamh Algar excelling in Ridley Scott’s Raised By Wolves, Clare Dunne bringing her self-penned debut feature, Herself, to Sundance; the success of Normal People on both sides of the Atlantic; or the Cartoon Saloon team celebrating yet another Oscar nod for Wolfwalkers. So does Seána feel herself to be part of a golden age? “I think when you’re in something, it doesn’t feel like you’re part of a golden age, or anything like that,” she says, “but it definitely feels like we’re harnessing our artists, our writers and our actors more. We’re getting better at acknowledging that creative talent within ourselves, but I definitely don’t feel like I’m part of any sort of golden age: not when I have so much downtime!”
For an actress as impressive as Seána Kerslake, whose passions span stage, TV and film, downtime is likely to be at a premium. That said, the Dubliner is in no rush to formulate a career grand plan. “Well, they say tell the universe your plan and then watch what it does,” she laughs. “’It might flip it on its head or present you with a challenge that you didn’t see coming! I have no major plan because this is just not the type of industry that allows plans. I just want to continue to do interesting and good work that I find artistically fulfilling, while continuing to work with interesting people along the way. That’s the plan!”
And finally, does this self-declared on-set sponge have any ambitions to work on the other side of the camera? “I should probably be doing the smart thing and writing scripts for myself and my friends,” she laughs, “but when I write, I tend to write children’s stories. Who knows? There could be a producer or screenwriter in me yet!”
Watch this space.