Irish actress Paula Malcomson says working in Ireland is completely different from LA - saying she feels more ‘minded’ on set at home than in Hollywood.
The Belfast born star, best known for her roles in blockbuster trilogy The Hunger Games, and for playing ‘Trixie’ in Deadwood, has been living and working on star studded sets in Los Angeles for 30 years.
But with the pull of home stronger than ever during the pandemic, and a leading role in brand new Irish drama Redemption calling her name in Dublin, she told how she found herself back in Ireland for the longest time in decades last summer.
“Everybody was here. And I was here, which is actually beautiful,” she told Irish Daily Mirror.
“It was sort of a great excuse for me to be back. And this was the longest I've worked here.”
Filmed in Ireland with a leading Irish cast including Derry Girls star Siobhan McSweeney, Ian Lloyd Anderson, Moe Dunford and Keith McErlean – Redemption is centred around Malcomson’s character, Detective Colette Cunningham from Liverpool.
Speaking at the Dublin premiere of the first two episodes, where she featured in almost every frame, she recalled filming as “quite intense from the get go”.
“You know the time was pretty limited. So we were really sprinting from the word go.
“Yeah, sort of 12 hours a day.”
But comparing the homecoming gig to her decades of work in the US, Paula credited the Virgin Media Television and ITV collaboration cast and crew for ‘minding her’ during the ‘intense’ project.
The actress, who has starred in huge US shows such as Lost and ER, said: “It is very different than working in… I mean most of my experience has been in the States, you know, 30 years of it.
“It is very different. Most of my experience has been in the states, 30 years of it. So it is very different but I feel very sort of minded here in a way.
“That could be also to do with the fact that we were, you know, going through covid. We were in a bubble. But this was just a particularly lovely job.”
The six-part series kicks off with her character Colette in Liverpool, before returning to Dublin to uncover the truth when she learns of the death of her estranged daughter Kate.
The opening episode will see Colette suddenly thrown into her late daughter’s life having been named guardian of her teenagers, Cara and Liam.
It will also showcase the Belfast native’s impressive scouse accent, which she reveals came to her overnight after contemplating whether to take the risk in taking it on or not.
The 51-year-old said: “It came quite quickly, although, I wasn't sure I hadn't talked to anybody yet, but I read her. “She's from Liverpool and i hadn't had a big conversation about the accent yet.
“And I thought, I'm not gonna do Liverpool. You know, and it wasn't really specifically written there in Liverpool. And I thought it's gonna be really hard.
“That's a really, really tricky accent. It's a bit like doing a Belfast accent. You get it wrong, you know? You regret it.
“But then I went to sleep. And I woke up, and I heard it. And I was like, Okay, I'm doing it. I just had to do it.
“So I worked with a really good voice coach as well, Conor Fenton, who we really broke it down in a very interesting way for me. So that was a lot of fun to work on.
“And I had time to work on it before I got there.”
“I find the accent so beautiful. And sort of the way it kind of, it just gives you a lot.
She added: “I also love playing working class characters. And I wanted that, you know, I didn't want her to be from sort of a neutral place. I think we've seen enough of that.”
“I just think that this is a sort of more mature character than I played before. I've certainly not played anyone who has grandchildren.
“And I think just the fact that she is sort of is completely your own woman, when we meet her is quite different, you know, that. I've had very different arcs and sort of, you know, long running shows that I've done. Never anybody who's this sort of maturity on her own. You know, she's her own woman, her own agency, her own sovereignty.”
Curious about who her daughter became after she left home at 17, the series sees Colette move her life to Ireland - joining the gardai in Dublin, and immersing her new role as a grandparent.
And when something about estranged daughter’s final weeks don’t seem to add up, she sets out to uncover the truth through her own investigations.
Watch Redemption this Monday, 18th April at 9pm on Virgin Media One and Virgin Media Player.
