A day in the life of Angeline Ball

Angeline Ball is an actress and singer. She is renowned for her versatility on stage and screen. Born in Cabra, Dublin, she lives in Chingford, England, with her French partner, Patrice, and their children — Katie (14) and Maxime (8)

If I’m not working, I usually get up about 7am. I get the house ready before I wake the children. I usually prep at the weekend for the week ahead. I was always quite organised. I’m the sort of person who makes my bed in a hotel room. I just don’t like being messy. When I’m away working, knowing that everything is ready for the children makes me feel better.

In the mornings, Katie might be on her phone, and Maxime watches some telly. Then I get the kids their breakfast. Usually, I walk Maxime to school. I’ll have something in a NutriBullet, and a cup of builder’s tea.

We live in Chingford, near Epping Forest. It’s very green and beautiful. I’ve been in England for about 20 years too long. I’m always threatening to move back to Dublin. Initially, I moved for work. I really like the fact that London is a cosmopolitan place.

After The Commitments, moving to London was the next step, work-wise. Up until then, I found myself doing two or three auditions a week in London. Back then, the flights were very expensive. I was going back and forth, leading this nomadic life. Then I decided that I needed to settle somewhere.

Patrice, my partner, is a graphic designer and art director. He’s French, and there are French influences all over the house. He loves art. He loves big French dressers and, for a while, he was going to auctions buying huge antiques, but I had to curb that enthusiasm.

There is always some French delicacy in the fridge, and he loves his meat. We don’t speak French that much at home, but when Katie speaks it, people think that she is a native. Because I’m an actress, I try to do the French accent, but I probably sound like an eejit.

With acting, my job is all or nothing. Most of the time it takes you physically away from your children, because you are on location. I was in Swansea last night, and I didn’t get back until 2am. It’s really haphazard, and you can’t really make any long-term plans.

When I’m off work, I like to be 100pc present for the kids. I think this is really important because this is their childhood, this is their learning curve, and you need to nurture that. I don’t want to take jobs that are for a too-long duration. I would love to do more theatre in Ireland, or do a short tour. When I did the RTE TV drama

Acceptable Risk, I was back home every weekend, which was great.

Acceptable Risk is about a big pharmaceutical company, and I play Detective Sergeant Emer Byrne. She is very serious and a bit dowdy. There has been a murder, and the case needs to be solved. She is told to back off, but she is a truth-seeker. She smells a rat.

When you’re an actress and you hit certain birthdays, you’re not the ingenue any more, yet you’re not quite old enough to be the mum. So there are all these different roles that start coming into play. I’ve been really lucky. In Redwater ,Igot to play a sassy IrishAmerican who was the life and soul of the party. In Keeping Faith ,a BBC Welsh drama, I’m a Dublin crime boss. The hair is all big-blowdry, loads of lipstick and leather skirts.

On a day when I’m home, after the school run, I might do reformer Pilates. I’m just about to qualify as a Pilates instructor. I did the course after I finished doing Shameless. That role was for 18 months, and it really tired me out. It was very intense.

Afterwards, I wasn’t working, and I was happy to be at home. That’s when I decided to do the Pilates course. I didn’t realise that there would be so many exams in the course. You have to study physiology and anatomy. But I like to work my brain. Once a week, I do a guitar class. Sometimes I go for a run in the forest with one of the mums from school, or I might do the food shop. Then I’ve got to pick up my son at 3.30pm. As a mother, I think I’m a bit crazy, but it’s great. I still have the 10-year-old inside me. My daughter is always going, ‘Mom!’ and rolling her eyes. The other week, we were in a market in Hackney, and when I heard reggae music, I started jiggling my hips. Katie told me that I was embarrassing her, so I wiggled my hips even more.

I think that I’m a fun mum. I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I love jumping on the trampoline. The other day I was bouncing with my son, going as high as I could possibly go, and a woman looked out her kitchen window and saw me. I’m sure she thought that I was crazy, but I like being 10 again. The trampoline is so much fun.

In the evenings, my daughter will do her homework, but my son has to bribed into doing it. Then you have all the extra after-school stuff, like football. So I will be leading a normal mum’s life, standing there, freezing, on the side of a pitch. I’m very happy doing all of this. And it puts everything in perspective.

In this job, when you read a great script, you might be so close to getting to the part, and then you don’t get it. From a work aspect, it’s disappointing, but I look at my kids and my life and I realise that it’s not the end of the world. The kids don’t pay much attention to my acting. But when I go up for a role, Katie always asks me, ‘Do you have to kiss anyone?’ I lie and say, ‘No’.

In the evenings, there will be bathtime and bedtime. Some nights I will cook, and other nights, Patrice will do it. Once a month, we go to the theatre. We don’t really go out that much any more. We enjoy being at home with the kids.

“When I go for a role, my daughter asks, ‘Do you have to kiss anyone?’ I always lie”