Orla Brady Interview - What's On Where, June 2000

What's On Where

Interview by Paul Byrne

June 2000

Original Online Interview Available from Site Search Engine under Cinema

Web Site Note: Ms. Brady did not appear in Peak Practice as written in this interview.

HOME THOUGHTS WHEN ABROAD
Regularly working miles away from home no longer means a lonely life for Orla Brady, now that she's become an "email addict". Paul Byrne talks to the acclaimed – and rather attractive – Irish actress.

For some people, finally throwing caution - and fear of failure - to the wind and attempting to log on to that vast electronic wilderness known as the Internet can be a disappointing experience. No secret handshakes or instant Masonic privileges, no discernible rise in your social status. But for Orla Brady, her eventual dive into the wonderful world of email was, well, nothing short of a revelation. If her wide-eyed enthusiasm is anything to go by.

"It's changed my life," smiles the noted Irish actress. "I've just gone from being the laughing stock of my friends to a fully-paid up member of the Internet generation, and my feet haven't touched the ground since. It's a complete turnaround for me, in that I went from being convinced that I just wouldn't understand it to feeling now like it's completely my world. Every evening, without fail, I check my emails, and write back to each and every one of them. I've become a complete email addict; to be honest, I'm even thinking about tonight's emails as we speak. It's become the highlight of my day, which is pretty sad, I know."

Then again, when you're miles from home, working in a foreign country, a message from a friend can make for a very welcome escape. Having made an impression on the stage and then TV, Brady made something of an international breakthrough with last year's critically acclaimed feature film, A Love Divided. Charting the smalltown upset that became an international story in the early 1950s, the young Dublin actress starred alongside Liam Cunningham as the young married couple – one a Catholic, the other a Protestant – who reneged on their Ne temere pledge to bring their children up as Catholics, resulting in a violently divided Fethard-on-Sea.

Since then, Brady has found herself very much in demand, starring in the highly-rated BBC drama series, Pure Wickedness, as well as continuing to develop her burgeoning film career. It was whilst shooting in America recently that Brady decided to enter the computer age.

"I was getting paid very well indeed for this particular piece of work, and so I thought, here goes, I'm going to buy myself a nice small laptop, something I'd be happy to carry around with me, and I'm going to get into this whole Internet business at last. I ended up buying a Sony Vaio, which I just couldn't live without now. It logs on to the Internet in a second, and right now, it's probably the one thing that I'd grab if there was a fire in the house. It weighs about three pounds, and it's got IBM. I'm in danger of becoming a complete anorak, a complete recluse with it."

Not much chance of that, given Brady's busy lifestyle. Having returned from Budapest and Italy for another feature film, The Luzhin Defence, the young actress shot a "very light piece of fluff" in America that boasts the rather chucklesome name of The Magical Legend Of The Leprachauns. For those of you who didn't hear me the first time, that's 'The Magical Legend Of The Leprachauns'.

"I keep saying that if they ever show it in Ireland, they'll turn me back at the airport," laughs Brady. "It was like a pastiche of the sort of thing they made about Ireland in the 1950s. Somewhere between The Quiet Man and a John Hinde postcard with lots of fairies and leprachauns. And Randy Quaid and me."

Having just returned from America again, a recent decision to "hold out for the right parts" seems to be paying off for Brady. Believing that she was in danger of becoming too much of regular face on TV (having featured weekly on both Pie In The Sky and Peak Practice), there's a determination now to concentrate on the big screen.

"Life is good at the moment though, but I could make an awful lot more money if I said yes to all the work I've been offered. You can make very good money doing serious television, and I know people who make a lot of money who do just that. But I don't want to get associated with one part, or get recognised in the supermarket. I only have myself to take care of, but it's more valuable for me to make parts that interest me than trying to make an awful lot of money."

Nonetheless, such lofty idealism doesn't pay the rent, and a couple of months back, Orla Brady found herself alone in her London flat one night, nursing a growing doubt that she'd made the wrong decision.

On the other end was an American agent who'd approached her some months before with an offer of representation, Orla having graciously taken his business card and lost it. He was a persistent guy nonetheless, tracking her down and eventually convincing her to let him handle her career in America. Given that he's also looking after the careers of Annette Bening, Rene Russo and Charlize Theron, it shouldn't have taken too much convincing.

"I'd been sitting there thinking, well, if I turn down a good part for TV because I want to build my film career, that's the right decision to make, but then there was another part of me that was going, 'My God, you turned down all that money!'. Anyway, my agent calls me this particular night, which was a Sunday, and he said, 'Can you come over to LA on Tuesday for a test?'. So, suddenly I'm on a plane with a script in my hand, flying to LA and wondering what exactly I was doing, but then I got the part and was filming by the following week.

"And that was such a wonderful buzz, and it made me realise that such unpredictability comes with a job like this. And I've only really become comfortable with that in the last few months or so. Before I used to fret a lot, and worry about where the next job might come from. But now I know that you can never know such things, and that it could all go pear-shaped tomorrow, so you just have to get on with what you're doing and not worry about what might be around the corner."

Of course, when your work is winning praise and awards – A Love Divided recently picking up Best Picture at Monte Carlo – not worrying about the future is made that little bit easier.

"My feeling is anything that's ever happened in my career has been because of something I've done before," finishes Brady, "in that I think it's because someone saw something I'd done and felt I was right for a part they're casting. A lot of it has to do with suitability rather than you're actually the best actress around."