The Midnight Club's Ruth Codd: 'I’d like to be remembered as someone who was tough'

This Much I Know: 'You can try your best to be whatever you want to be but sometimes that doesn’t work out, you know? Life isn’t all Skittles or rainbows...'

I grew up in a housing estate with my mam, my dad, and my little brother. I spent most of my childhood on my granny’s farm riding horses.

I was big into horses but that went out the window when I got injured at 15. I got more into art, makeup, and hair – I got a job in prosthetics.

I kind of fell into acting by accident. They found me on social media and asked me to audition. I didn’t really know what I was doing.

I actually get really bad stage fright. They only time I’d ever acted before was in a nativity play as a star. I got up on stage and my brain just turned to static – I couldn’t remember my lines.

When my brother was born, I was three and a half. First off, I was very annoyed that I wasn’t included in picking the baby I had to live with! I wanted a girl named Amy and it was a boy named Luke and I threw a huge wobbler. I refused to go into playschool.

I don’t believe I was born to be the person I am. I don’t believe in any of that. Life is what you make of it and you’re changing constantly.

You can try your best to be whatever you want to be but sometimes that doesn’t work out, you know? Life isn’t all Skittles or rainbows but I think if you give something a good enough go, that’s all that matters.

I’m not religious, I’m not spiritual – I just think this is this is it. You get one go.

People often tell me I need to be more positive and I’m like; ‘don’t stand there in front of me with your two perfectly working legs and tell me that.’

My injury is the greatest challenge I’ve faced in my life so far. I injured it playing soccer at the age of 15. It never healed correctly so until I was 23, I was on and off crutches, getting loads of operations. Because of nerve damage and chronic pain, I chose to get it amputated.

It took eight years of my life, constantly going in and out of hospital.

My whole life revolved around trying to heal my leg. For years, I didn’t see it getting any better. I was stuck in a really bad mindset and I was pissed off at life. When I made the decision to amputate it, things finally started to turn around. It was a relief. I could get on my life.

I was just messing around in school and fell over playing soccer, which is the worst part because I don’t even like soccer. At least I could have gone out in blaze of glory doing something that I loved but – no!

I’m proud of episode 7 of The Midnight Club. My favourite thing about the show is the friendships – they’re all going through this horrific thing and they kind of just continue on as normal. And that’s how it happens with teenagers, I think – in real life. I know I was very resilient.

My greatest quality is my sense of humour. I have the ability to make a joke out of just about anything which is what got me through all the medical stuff.

I’m terrible for bottling shit up, I’m typically Irish that way. My best friend Aisling is the only one who can get any bit of emotion out of me at all, so she’s the one I turn to.

We grew up together. How we deal with things is through the art of distraction. If things are really bad, we will talk to each other.

The life lesson I would like to pass on is ‘don’t be afraid of embarrassing yourself.’ I think you don’t really get success without embarrassing that the shit out of yourself a fair share of times.

The best advice I’ve ever been given is just because it’s somebody’s perception doesn’t make it true. And even if it is true, it doesn’t give them the right to be an arsehole about it.

I struggle sometimes when people don’t like me, I take it very personally. Sometimes you don’t give a shit. But other times it cuts deep; in acting there’s so much rejection.

I’d like to be remembered as someone who was tough. Hopefully, people will describe me as kind. Just as long as people don’t call me a raging bitch, I’ll be happy.

In playschool, we used to bring toys in with us and leave them on the windowsill. I spotted this girl’s tiny dalmatian and said it was mine. I thought about returning it but I still have it.

This is going to sound dreadful but I didn’t really think about climate change until I realised that it affects animals.

It’s also a human rights issue. I try to use reusable stuff when I can and I don’t buy fast fashion. But again, that’s because my financial situation has also changed.

My greatest skill is acting; it’s probably my only skill. And I can do the splits. That’s my party piece.

Kids always surprise me. I love being around them. Kids are full of joy and fearless about everything. I hate that life kind of beats that out of you as you get older.

If you’d have asked me a couple of years ago what scares me the most, it would have been getting left behind. When I was injured, I really felt like life was passing me by. I was scared of everyone moving on with their lives and forgetting about me but that didn’t happen.

Now, I don’t really have any fears. I’ve just realised sometimes it’s not your time.

I was training to be a barber when the pandemic hit. I think I would have just kept doing jobs until I found something that I loved.

I hope I get to keep going with acting but if I don’t, I have two things that I’m very proud of behind me. It’s not the worst position to be in.

• Ruth Codd is an actor and TikTok star who plays a leading role in The Midnight Club on Netflix. She will appear in The Fall of the House of Usher in 2023.