Caoilfhionn Dunne views acting as a means to various ends. Raised in Finglas, she enjoyed performing in school, but, when adult life beckoned, she decided to do the responsible thing and get that degree. Caoilfhionn travelled to Limerick and began a law degree.
“I thought I needed to go back and look at this acting thing again,” she says. “Also, I was doing a law degree and I realised this is how the world works. I am not sure I want to be a part of this. Maybe I can come at social advocacy from a different way. Maybe I can coax people through a different medium.”
Caoilfhionn remains a political person. No prompting is required for her to talk us through her feelings about the need for social change. That passion shows through in the raw intensity – tempered by technical skill – that she brought to countless theatrical roles and to her turn as Lizzie, toughest of the crew, in the much-missed Love/Hate.
“The show was popular because it showed an Ireland that a lot of people knew, and it also showed other people an Ireland they didn’t know existed,” she says. “It was exciting in different ways. For some people it was: ‘they’re shooting on my street’. For others it was: ‘I didn’t even know this happened in Ireland’.”
Harrowing drama
Dunne has a taut, focused presence that lends itself to intense emotions and high feeling. She exploits that talent to its fullest as Ruth, a troubled Guard in Ciarán Creagh's harrowing new drama In View. In mourning for both a husband and a child, her character yearns only for death. It must have been a traumatic film to shoot.
“It was very tough three weeks,” she agrees. “It was six days a week, every day from dawn to dusk. But I was surrounded by an amazing crew. They were very attentive and made sure I had as many laughs as I did tears. You need that. It can get on top of you. You need somebody who will say: ‘Come on and we will get a coffee.’ You need to get out of the zone.”
Dunne has managed well after making that lunge away from the law. She started off with a part-time course at the Gaiety School of Acting and then made her way into the full-time version. After being "released into the wild", as she puts it, she was cast in a version of Macbeth and then in Tom Murphy's The Sanctuary Lamp. In 2011, she travelled to London's National Theatre for a role in Conor McPherson's The Veil.
"I reckoned other people seemed to have decided I was a theatre actress," she says. "I didn't necessarily see myself that way. That was a bit frustrating. Ireland is so small you can very quickly get boxed in. I was grateful to go to London for The Veil. That pushed me to a new level. It was just after I finished that I got the call about Love/Hate."
Swagger and chutzpah
Dunne arrived on the Dublin crime series for its third season. Love/Hate was already well on its way to becoming a key measure of the zeitgeist. Lizzy had swagger and chutzpah. She was also the character who got to kill off Robert Sheehan's much-fancied Darren. In earlier interviews, I have read how she received abuse in the street from fans for this entirely fictional offense. What is wrong with these people?
“Oh yeah. It was completely mad. I was Lizzy for some people. They didn’t know my name. So they were not asking: ‘Why did Lizzy kill Darren?’ It was: ‘Why did you kill Darren?’”
Does she have any explanation as to why this happens?
“I was so disappointed by it. That was the main thing,” she says. “Yes, I was upset that people would shout ‘slut’ and ‘tramp’ as you’d walk down the street. But I was more upset that young people hadn’t looked at this character and thought: ‘I’ve never seen a woman on screen like this before. She lives life on her own terms.’ It was as if [Darren’s] life was more important than hers. I was disappointed that young women were so aggressive to this potential heroine.”
Caoilfhionn now lives in south London and – though she is sworn to secrecy on details – has some interesting work in the pipeline. It’s a tough business, but she expresses no regrets about running off to join the circus. Advocacy continues by stealth.
“I do try and get back to Dublin a few times a year,” she says. “There are exciting things happening at The Gate and The Abbey. There is a change in the country now.”
That’s interesting. She feels there is more juice to the nation.
“Oh yeah. My generation have grown up with something that they now know doesn’t have to continue. Many who were away came back and said: ‘Hey guys. It is not normal for things to be this way.”
“I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful.”
