George MacKay on his Cork roots, and role in Netflix film, I Came By
George MacKay in I Came By.
His impressive performances in movies like 1917 and True History of the Kelly Gang have made him one of film’s most in-demand stars. Now actor George MacKay has told how a special experience with an Irish filmmaker first convinced him to pursue an acting career.
That filmmaker was Ardmore-born Pat O’Connor, whose hits include The Ballroom of Romance and Circle of Friends. The experienced filmmaker had the wisdom to allow his young cast space to hone their skills on his WW1 drama.
“It was when I was 19,” MacKay smiles at the recollection. “It was my first lead role in a film called Private Peaceful, which was about two brothers and based on a Michael Morpurgo book. It was an Irish director, Pat O'Connor, who did it and Pat had a lovely way.
“Myself and Jack O'Connell were playing the two brothers. We'd always be 'How was that Pat?' And he'd be like: “You're fine’. He didn't give us too much direction to eventually get us to come around to just metering ourselves a little bit, allowing us ownership over it.
“I remember doing the scenes going: ‘I just know what to do’. That was a new feeling and it was coupled with doing the job amongst a bunch of peers who were all in our nineteens or early 20s, and having the social side of that experience happen as well. I felt ownership over the work for the first time, which felt amazing.”
The Londoner’s lineage can be traced back to Cork via his great grandfather, who took the emigrant boat to Australia as a teenager.
“I found out just a few years before (filming) the Kelly Gang, that my nana, her dad, Dennis O'Leary came from Cork. He, as a 14 year old, was on a boat over to Australia and that's where her side of the family started out. So yeah, there's a historic connection to Ireland there.”
MacKay has had a busy run of roles that continues with I Came By, a twisty new thriller for Netflix which seems him play a renegade character. British-Iranian filmmaker Babak Anvari’s feature stars the actor as a rebellious young graffiti artist who breaks into the homes of the rich and privileged, without the knowledge of his family. This leads him to make a horrifying discovery at the home of a powerful judge, played by Hugh Bonneville. It must have been fun to observe his co-star go full Anti-Downton as a nasty piece of work. It was, he agrees.
“I guess with actors, ideally, you want to disappear into into every role. But there's something really exciting also about when someone gets to a point in their career where you can't fully disappear because of fame, and therefore using that consciously to almost have a meta level to it.
“There's an acknowledgement almost in the type of work that Hugh has done, and how this is completely flipped on its head, that’s really brilliant, I think, for the film. It was just magic to watch the doing of it, because I get to be on set and see it.”
Anvari’s film explores themes like justice, privilege and power, which seems prescient for the times we live in. For MacKay, it was part of the draw. “It’s like a proper adventure, it's a proper thriller. But there are so many social themes and pertinent questions going on - particularly the elements to do with privilege, and the expectation that comes with privilege, is something that feels particularly pertinent now.”
MacKay was just eleven when he took on his first film role in an adaptation of Peter Pan, but his parents navigated the balance between opportunity and having a typical childhood.
“I've been really grateful to them how they've been with it,” he says now. “Totally supportive, but also not giving it more airtime than anything else.
“My mum and my sister came with me, but it was always kind of the understanding was this is a one off, so really enjoy it because it's a one off. And then a few years later, there was another small job and then a few years later, there was another small job, but it was always most important to go back to school, really.
“I was very lucky to kind of learn by osmosis up until the point when leaving school, I then felt much more consciously hungry to work and to do this as a career. And then was much more active in trying to learn on set when I got the opportunities that I did post-leaving school.”
- I Came By debuts on Netflix on Wednesday, August 31
As autumn approaches Netflix will be debuting several anticipated new series and films in the coming weeks. Here are some of the high-profile shows to watch out for.
Netflix’s feature film revolves around Vince, who enjoyed superstardom as a member of a boyband, only to now find his career washed up. As he performs in the streets, he strikes up an impromptu rhythm with Stevie, a young autistic drummer with a remarkable talent. The film is the first production from Irish producer Collie McCarthy.
Early awards-season buzz has been building for this fictionalised take on the life of Marilyn Monroe, adapted from the novel of the same name. Directed by Andrew Dominik (Killing Them Softly), the film stars Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, and Knives Out’s Ana de Armas as the iconic blonde.
Filmed in Ireland in various locations including Killruddery House, Wicklow and the east coast, series two sees the characters return to the magical boarding school under the authority of Headmistress Rosalind. But when fairies start to go missing in the dead of night, a dangerous new threat is lurking in the shadows. Cork actor Éanna Hardwicke joins the returning cast.
Wednesday Addams is the subject of Netflix’s new series focusing on her student years at Nevermore Academy and a mystery that involved her famous parents years earlier. Jenna Ortega and Catherine Zeta-Jones head the starry cast.
Florence Pugh heads a cast that includes support from Irish actors Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy and Ciarán Hinds in this period drama set in the Irish midlands. It centres on a girl, said to have survived without food for months, and the nurse brought in to examine her case. The thriller based on the phenomenon of ‘fasting girls’ in the 19th century is adapted from Emma Donoghue’s (Room) novel.
