Line Of Duty
Season 6 SABC3 (*193) 21:00 Drama
Kelly Macdonald is used to playing victims or heroes in shows like period drama Boardwalk Empire, so a shady corrupt cop like DCI Joanne Davidson in Line Of Duty is new territory. “I’ve had my fair share of characters over the span of my career, so I’m happy that I’ve not been typecast,” explains the 46-year-old Scottish star. But it hasn’t all been “clean” fun at work…
“There was a production that I’d worked on where we were bound by contract to do interviews about the series, our characters – normal things for a show. And the list of things they said we weren’t allowed to talk about was staggering. I called my agent and asked if they were being serious. There was more we weren’t allowed to talk about than we could reveal.” And she’s had other issues too, revealing that “I’m past doing sex scenes. There’s no more nudity. I’ve worked with very few female directors, there was one in Line Of Duty and she was very nice. But that is beyond me now. They’re horrible, they’re uncomfortable. You just get it over with. Nowadays I’m strictly playing detectives,” she says.
Kelly says that as much as she loves working on productions close to home, there are “benefits” when you work in the US. “I love a good bacon batty sarmie from my local takeaway. At work we get a soggy sandwich. But when I worked on Boardwalk Empire… the difference in productions behind the scenes is massive. There were tables filled with food all day long. When you finish a scene, you go grab a bite to eat. You do that a couple of times a day and suddenly one doughnut becomes six and you’re struggling to breathe in your wardrobe…”