Ruth Negga looks so compact and anchored sitting in a large sofa chair, covered from neck to toe in very stylish, dark clothes, that she seems like a small statue in need of sightseers or admirers. Certainly, the Irish-Ethiopian actor has no shortage of the latter, as her profile has risen so much in the past few months that
We don’t like to say we told you so, but, well – we told you so… As far back as 2007, when 13-year-old Saoirse Ronan was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Atonement (the film adaptation by director Joe Wright of Ian McEwan’s 2001 shortlisted Booker Prize novel), the writing wasn’t so much on the wall as
Pity the comic actor or stand-up comedian that has to go about their daily routine secure in the knowledge that at some point in their day they will come face-to-face with a member of the public. And not just an ordinary member of the public, but one who is an avid fan, and whose life will be enhanced a
There are few actresses for whom the word ‘luminous’ genuinely applies, but Australia’s Cate Blanchett is one of them – although by now she is probably weary of the description. And yet it’s true; there’s something about the way she looks up close and on the screen that makes you want to reach out and touch her skin to
The first thing you notice about 30-year-old, six-feet-plus Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson is the shock of unruly red hair that announces itself without so much as a beg-your-pardon. The second thing you notice is a certain casualness of demeanour that comes with not really noticing that members of the public are looking at you; and the third is just
There comes a point in every wild child’s life when they have to either clean up their mess and glance back at it ruefully or wallow in it and suffer the consequences. We can easily see which route Dublin actor Colin Farrell has chosen – he sits beside me in a state of health so rude it’s almost unforgivable.
“I’ve always thought of myself as an actor, whereas the term ‘movie star’ has changed over the course of the past few years. You see these movies opening in America with unknown actors and they make hundreds of millions of dollars, and then you see ginormous star vehicles crashing and burning. My ambition when I started out in this game
Let’s hear it for theatre companies, however small; if it were not for these often under-funded bodies, how else would the many actors we have come to know (yet not always love) come up through the ranks? In the case of Irish actor, Aidan Gillen, it is debatable what direction his life might have taken had he not lived close
Tony Clayton-Lea is an Irish-based freelance journalist/writer/editor who writes on music, arts, and pop culture (and travel/hospitality) for a variety of print and online outlets.
Email: tclaytonlea@gmail.com
This is the personal website for Tony Clayton-Lea.