Spellbinding role
As Irish actress Elaine Cassidy takes to the stage in her latest
role in the RSC’s production of Arthur Miller’s classic tale
The Crucible she chats to neil davey about her rise to fame and how as
an actress she always aspires to be part of something that makes a difference.
 By Grainne
Mcloughlin
It’s almost exactly four years since rí-rá last caught
up with Elaine Cassidy. Then, Elaine was a passionate, excited and acclaimed
young actress about to appear in her first “proper” stage
role in Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant Of Inishmore.
These days, as she appears in another major West End run, she’s
a little older — not that it shows — and has even more acclaim
adorning her CV.
However, refreshingly, and despite a few throat problems she’s just
as passionate and excited as before.
“I couldn’t do a job that my heart wasn’t in,”
she exclaims. “I’d still try and give it 100 per cent but
I want to give 110 per cent.”
It’s that level of passion that’s helped Elaine — who’s
still only 26 — navigate her way through her early career with a
killer CV that any actress would be proud of.
Since our last conversation she’s appeared at the National Theatre
as Hitler’s niece in Uncle Adolf, in the BBC adaptation of Fingersmith
— for which she was nominated for an IFTA for Best Actress —
and most recently in just about every scene of the excellent Channel 4
drama The Ghost Squad.
“I’m just very fortunate,” she explains in a slightly
self-deprecatory manner. “I’ve been able to afford to hold
out for the jobs I wanted to. I’ve never had to do something just
to pay the bills.”
When pressed though Elaine admits that this isn’t just good fortune
but the result of foresight and an admirable attempt to stick to her guns.
“I’ve been practical about it. I’ve not squandered money,
“ she admits, “because, I don’t want to be in a position
where I have to take something for the money. I love my job so much I
don’t want to have bad experiences. To have to work where it’s
‘tainted’.
“You can’t do this job half-heartedly. It has to be like a
calling because it is a mad, mad job! You couldn’t do this unless
you love it. But I feel that about any job. If you get on the bus and
the bus driver loves his job you can tell. And you can also tell if he
hates it. I want to tell those people: ‘Get another job!’
“People say: ‘I can’t, I need the money’ but where
there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s easy to say can’t
but it annoys me if people don’t take pride in their jobs.
“Maybe I’m being harsh,” she adds with a laugh, “and
I am very grateful that I am able to do what I want to do but even when
I was a waitress I took pride in it and did it well. It really annoys
me when people don’t have that pride... like if someone’s
doing some work in your house, some cowboy.”
As the sentence tails off it sounds like a comment from the voice of experience.
Elaine laughs and smiles sheepishly. “Yes,” she cheerfully
agrees. “I suppose that is where that was stemming from.”
The issue of pride in your work is a subject that leads neatly to Elaine’s
latest role in The Crucible the RSC’s production of Arthur Miller’s
classic tale. In it, Elaine plays Abigail Williams, the young female catalyst
whose accusations form the heart of the infamous Salem witch trials.
Miller wrote the play as an attack on McCarthyism, the “reds under
the beds” witch-hunt that ravaged the US in the 1950s and which,
of course, featured in George Clooney’s recent movie Goodnight &
Good Luck.
As was so often stated in connection to the film — and as greets
every revival of Miller’s play — this bitter attack on finger-pointing,
misdirection and fictitious enemies is still alarmingly relevant to this
day. While Elaine cheerfully admits the politics wasn’t her only
reason for getting involved — “It was more ‘what a great
play’ and from an actress’s point of view, ‘what a great
part’” — she is clearly aware and, yes, proud of the
play’s statement.
She says: “It’s great to be a part of something that makes
people think about what’s going on today, something that maybe makes
it more accessible for people who aren’t up on politics. Because
it is scary, it is happening now. Have we not learned anything? The fact
that we’ve got all this knowledge, that we’ve got past experience
and the same things are happening over and over again.
“But,” she adds with a rueful smile, “I suppose greed
is always going to be there. And greed is one of the main reasons why
all these things happen.
You can only do your utmost to try and change things though. I’m
not in politics; I’m an actress. But it’s lovely to use that,
to be part of something that maybe raises awareness.”
One downside of long theatre runs of course is that it impacts greatly
on family life. Last time we spoke to Elaine she had just moved to new
place in Dublin and then had to fly to London for work. Given the pressures
of Elaine’s career, she moved to London permanently a couple of
years ago.
“I wasn’t getting tired of Dublin though,” she laughs.
“I still love it there so much. I went through a phase last year
where Dublin sort of felt distant but it had been a year since I’d
been there and I think it was just the sentimental side of me thinking
perhaps I should move back. But I do go back as much as I can. I’ll
have to wait until The Crucible is over to be able to go back but normally
I go home about every six weeks.”
The subject of recent rí-rá interviewee Fionnula Flanagan
— who appeared in The Others with Elaine — comes up. Fionnula
is now resident in Los Angeles but still knows that Ireland is home and
that however far she travels Dublin will always be “the well”.
Elaine agrees.
“I’m not afraid of moving on, and I don’t know where
I’ll end up but Dublin will always be in the running.
“Some people are constantly searching for a home.”
Elaine grins: “If I was searching, I think I’d start in New
Zealand!”
She laughs: “But I do have these roots, I know where I’m from
and it’s always with me, even when I’m not there.”
The Crucible is at the Gielgud Theatre until June. Tickets, priced
from £11 to £41 are available from the Box Office on 0870
890 1105. |
