She wasn't one of the 'Pure Mule' award winners, but Charlene McKenna could be a star in the making. She talks to Róisín Ingle
Charlene McKenna is not yet famous enough to be recognised by the tourists arriving for the lunchtime carvery at the hotel where she is staying, a few miles outside Portlaoise, but the trajectory of her career suggests that such recognition won't be long coming.
McKenna's upbringing in a small town - she is from Glaslough, in Co Monaghan - provided insights for at least two of the roles that have kick-started her acting career. The 21-year-old shone as the restless, irresponsible Jennifer in the award-winning RTÉ series Pure Mule, and she is currently touring as Girleen in Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West. "Where I grew up, everyone knows everyone. You wouldn't get away with much," she says.
She got a taste for performing early on, when, as an 11-year-old, she was asked to star in a local production of Oklahoma! She joined Monaghan Youth Theatre at 12, began dancing lessons and, by the age of 16, had an agent and had taken courses in acting for the camera. A part in a Swedish children's television show, a cola commercial and some graduate films followed before she got her big break.
McKenna, who can play a 15-year-old as well as she can play a 25-year-old, was put forward for Neil Jordan's film of Breakfast on Pluto, the Patrick McCabe novel, while starring in Romeo and Juliet.
"They wanted a female who could play a younger role, a strong character. I got the phone call on the Wednesday, and by Friday I was meeting Neil Jordan and Cillian Murphy in Dublin," she says. "I was a bit green. I wore jeans and a T-shirt. I did a read-through, and then we sat down and had a chat. I was supposed to go on holidays, and Neil said: 'Well, if you got the part, would you miss going on the holiday?' And I said yes, and he said: "Well, you have got the part."
Breakfast on Pluto led to Pure Mule, which came at a memorable time for the young actress. "My father had just been taken into hospital, to have a triple bypass, when I got the last callback for Pure Mule," she says. "So I don't know whether that helped me, but I remember saying to myself I had to be really focused. The first thing my father said he when he came around was: Did Charlene get the part? - which was crazy. I will never forget that audition. He's really well now."
With a thick Co Monaghan accent herself, she found it fun learning the Pure Mule brogue, an accent many viewers didn't know existed before the programme aired. "We had a coach from Offaly who helped us. Basically, you lose the 't' in a lot of words, so it's 'shu' up' for 'shut up' or 'bu'her' for 'butter'. You elongate the vowels, so 'naturally' becomes 'naaaaturally'. It's all a bit monotone," she says, laughing. She enjoyed learning words such as "gnoc", or eejit, and perfecting phrases such as "10 jaysus euro".
She'd love to hear that there will be a second series, but she still doesn't know if the series will return. Was she surprised that it won five Irish Film and Television Awards? "Not really. I remember sitting down at the first read-through and thinking: This is really good, this is brilliant; I wonder will other people see how good this is? It really captured the sense of small-town characters. The script was so well written, and we really clicked as a cast," she says. "I watched the IFTAs last year on television, and I was thinking: I'd love to be there next year, but there's no way. And then I was, even if I only made the after party, because I was touring in the North at the time."
When we meet, she is waiting to hear if she has won a part in Middletown, a film about two brothers set in a Border town in Northern Ireland, which is going to be shot in Glaslough. "If I get it, I'll be at home while I'm filming, which would be fantastic," she says hopefully, her bright blue eyes growing even more animated than usual.
She doesn't feel the acting life has changed her much, although her brothers might disagree. "They came to see a performance of The Lonesome West. Afterwards I was kissing the other actors goodbye, and one brother looked at me as if to say: 'What are you doing?' " She laughs, embarrassed. "It's not the way I was brought up, but it's second nature by now."
The Lonesome West is at the Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, today and An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, from Monday until next Saturday