My hardest role at age 15? Telling my dad I was playing a prostitute
Rebellion star Jordanne Jones is delighted at comparisons with her heroine Saoirse Ronan The 1916 drama that has captivated the nation
SHE is the teen acting sensation who plays a tragic sex worker in RTÉ’s 1916 drama, Rebellion.
But for 15-year-old Jordanne Jones the hardest thing about taking on the seductive role of Minnie Mahon – an impoverished tenement child who is forced into prostitution when her dad joins the British army – was telling her father.
Thankfully, the Tallaght student had the support of her mother, Lynn Ruane – the president of Trinity College Dublin’s student union – to break the news.
‘When I came home and told my mom that I was going to play a teenage prostitute she thought it was brilliant, really exciting,’ says Jordanne.
‘It was just really awkward telling my father. That was the real difficult part, but my mom was awesome. I really look up to her so that made it all the more special.’
In Rebellion, Jordanne stars alongside her eight-year-old sister Jaelynne Wallace Ruane. But it was her leading role in Frank Berry’s I Used to Live Here that catapulted her into the spotlight and resulted in an IFTA nomination last year. She admits that while she enjoys getting stuck into challenging characters like Minnie, as an actor it can sometimes be difficult processing their story.
‘I love doing these dark roles. But I have had a few roles that were really difficult emotionally,’ says Jordanne. ‘In I Used to Live Here I played a character with severe mental health issues. Now, in Rebellion, I am playing a young prostitute and living in poverty. I have another movie coming out called Dark Matter where I play a feral child.
‘I love those deep roles where you get to play with emotion. I thought about the girls who were my age and were forced to become a prostitute, and that was tough. The saddest part though, as I was reading through the script, I started to lose emotion and detach myself from the character. I wasn’t being me anymore.
‘In order for this girl to become a prostitute she had to switch off her feelings. She became a bit robotic and that was really sad.’
Since her acting debut in I Used to Live Here, Jordanne has been touted as the next big thing – and has even been compared to Oscar hopeful Saoirse Ronan.
‘Since I saw My Lovely Bones, I have always watched her interviews and everything,’ reveals Jordanne. ‘The first write-up I got I was compared to her which was just incredible. I love her and everything she does, so it is nice to be put in the same sentence as her.’ It was on the back of that first film that Jordanne was offered a scholarship to Bow Street Academy for Screen Acting in Dublin. The college’s founder Maureen Hughes also moonlights as one of the country’s top casting directors and before long the teen was on the Rebellion set alongside Charlie Murphy and Sarah Greene. ‘It has been really exciting, because I have never had something that was shown on TV before,’ says Jordanne. ‘I would love to study English in college but if Hollywood came around, that would be nice. I would hope that Rebellion would open some doors.’
Rebellion, is on RTÉ1, tonight at 9.30pm.
eoin.murphy@mailonsunday.ie
‘She became robotic and that was really sad’