training, she hustled off to an audition for the movie “Trainspotting”
with no idea of ever doing it.
“I went along to that just to kind of build some
confidence a little bit, so I knew what an audition felt like. And my
next step was going to be drama school. And then I got the part, and
drama school sort of fell by the wayside,” she says in a guest room at
a hotel here.
“For years I kept thinking, ‘Oh, everyone else has
been to drama school, I have to attend. But I’ve got enough under my
belt now, learning on the job. Often people don’t study what ends up
being their career, what they love. People find their ways into
different businesses, so we should rest easy and not give ourselves a
hard time.”
For years she gave herself a bad time. “I’m always
really hard on myself and that’s just a general thing, but there have
been a couple of times where I just felt miscast or I’ve known if I
watched something it would be a blow to my confidence, and it would
best be avoided.” If she feels her work isn’t good, she refuses to see
it.
“But I was quite shy and didn’t have a lot of confidence. I think the confidence thing was the real issue,” she says.
It’s no longer an issue for the 34-year-old actress.
In fact, she costars in HBO’s impressive series, “Boardwalk Empire,”
premiering on Sunday. When she got the call to play a young Irish wife,
Macdonald — who is Scottish — again counted on Fate.
“My agent said it was written by
to HAVE to do it. I’m doing it whether it’s the worst script ever, or
working with the most awful people ever, you’ve no choice at that
point. I knew nothing about the character. ‘OK, that’s fine.'”
It is fine. One never suspects that Macdonald isn’t Irish to the bone or that she’s not the innocent wife who is beguiled by
Macdonald is best known in
“‘Gosford Park’ felt like I went up a little on the
career ladder,” says Macdonald, who’s wearing an orange sheath and
black heels.
“It felt like I’d been promoted. Just within the
industry things changed a little bit for me because my performance is
pretty subtle, and I think you have to really chew the furniture for
the phone to start ringing off the hook and everything. And it wasn’t
that. I certainly felt, within the industry, I went up a notch. It was
probably after ‘No Country for Old Men’ that there were more offers.”
Acting had always been her dream. “Since I was
really tiny it’s just been the thing I was interested in. I didn’t know
what acting was but I was always performing quietly to myself in my
bedroom. I was never one of those gregarious children, but I loved
films and loved the chance to recreate films on my own,” she says.
“My mum says she always knew — in that way that mums do. She always knew that was what I was going to end up doing.”
Macdonald is married to musician
“Everything’s been a bit easier since I met Douglas. We’re from
And he was at art school with one of my best friends, and so we kind of
started to bump into each other, and I thought, ‘I like him a LOT.’
She says marrying and having her 2-year-old son
shifted her outlook. “Having a baby instantly changes your whole
world,” she shakes her head.
“Getting married changes your idea of your future and you’re linking arms with somebody and going at it together.”
Though Payne is with a band, their schedules have
meshed so far, she says. “He’s been on a bit of a hiatus. When he
started his hiatus things for me started to get bit nuts, and I started
to work a bit more. So it kind of works out all right, but it’s still
hard. He’s an amazing dad, and he’s had to do a lot more than I’m happy
with. I want to be there doing it. It goes so quickly,” she sighs. “And
everybody says that, and you get annoyed at the time you think, ‘Yeah,
yeah, that’s what people say.’ But it’s so true.”
“Boardwalk Empire” took a year out of her life. “Even when we were in
filming the show, my son was there, my husband was there. I was working
such long hours so I’d go days without seeing him and that’s hard. The
days were very long.”
She says Payne’s vocation may be different from
hers, but he recognizes the need to be away from the family. “He’s
close enough that he understands but different enough that I’m not
living with an actor,” she laughs.
———
For those who missed it on
Yeah, here is another harangue about watching “Friday Night Lights,”
one of the best shows on television that not enough people caught.
Most viewers think the show is about football. While
football is the subplot, the tale is really about small-town America,
about our sense of honor, duty and allegiance. The Family Channel is
the perfect place for it, as it’s a prime show for the family with
teenagers; an opportunity to watch together. They will not be bored.
Neither will parents. Critics have been lauding “Friday Night Lights”
ever since it went on the air. So here’s one more try. Sit down with
the family and watch it. You can find it on DVD, too. You won’t be
sorry. And on
———
In
It started out as a documentary about two real Vegas lawyers,
was executive producer of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” which takes
place in
The show, of course, won’t be shot in
but in L.A. as is the case with “CSI.” Mendelsohn says, “For the pilot,
we filmed both in L.A. and in Vegas, and we’ve built our standing sets
on the Radford lot (in
Show runner
of the things that we’re trying to show in our show is kind of the
other side of Vegas, the hangover side of Vegas, and not necessarily
always casinos and the Strip. And
as Vegas … There are strip malls, and there’s a lot of dry patches,
desert. There’s palm trees. So it’s a real fun way to be able to do it.”
———
Hurwitz says he’s not worried about the show failing. “I personally
worry about success, that having to continue doing it is far more
perilous for me than the fear of it being canceled.”
———
(c) 2010, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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