Hot Press meets Irish actress Charlene McKenna

Talented, down-to-earth and up for a laugh, Charlene McKenna is also one of Ireland’s hardest-working actresses.

The IFTA-winner is one of the stas of the hit television show Ripper Street; has just shot a special episode of Skins; and is appearing in the multi-layered drama Jump, in which she plays Marie, a young woman struggling to support her suicidal best friend. Reuniting with director Kieron J. Walsh, who helmed series one of Raw, McKenna says the production was a “joy” to work on.
“Kieron selected the role of Marie for me. He had an idea what I could bring to it. It’s always lovely to work with people who know how you function, and challenge you to try new things.”
Collaborating with old friends also helped ease her out of her much-loved and highly acclaimed stint on Raw, which she left this year during its fifth season.  
“It was so sad, and so scary, because it was comfortable,” she sys. “That’s exactly why you have to move on. I wanted to go out on a high. The show still had good ratings and had evolved into something really tight. You have to know your expiry date.”
Last season the usually formidable Jojo was a shadow of her former self as she struggled with her emotionally damaging marriage. It was an issue about which McKenna cares deeply. She had previously been part of the Woman’s Aid 2In2U campaign that highlighted the dangers of abusive relationships.
“There was a good point to be made. I think we delivered it well, particularly in the subtle way it was done. It was very insidious in that you could hardly see the abuse explicitly. It inspired this very tense, threatening atmosphere. And it was interesting to put someone like Jojo in that situation, because she’s such a ‘take no prisoners’ type. That was a huge part of the 2In2U campaign. Showing that it’s not just Meek Mary or Michael: it’s not just one gender that can be affected.”
The storyline had viewers transfixed.
“There’s such a ‘maternal’ reaction to Jojo, and therefore to me. They assume I’m her. I was receiving lots of sympathetic head-tilts walking around the place. Everyone was asking. ‘Oh now, how are you doing, you’d better watch yourself now!’”
McKenna has returned to feisty form on BBC’s Ripper Street, a grisly drama, partially shot in Dublin, where she plays spirited prostitute Rose. Though she takes the success of the show and her increasingly high profile in her stride, Charlene says fans can be obsessive.
“I’ve done a lot of cult things like Misfits and Being Human and now Ripper. There’s a very special breed, quite fanatical about that stuff. I get sent screen-grabs from Ripper of my half-dead body covered in blood. Or there’s a man who writes me incoherent letters saying he has to type late at night because his wife is upstairs having a nervous breakdown, and he loves me. It’s mad. I just autograph them all and send them back – and try not to think about what happens to them then!”
McKenna has ambitions outside acting, including a desire to become a yoga teacher and speak fluent French.
“I love Kristen Scott Thomas. It would be a dream to be in a French film. I love French cinema. So I did an intensive week in Paris about a month ago. It was lovely to go back to school. If you’re in the acting business, surrounded by industry people, it can get stagnant. You stop learning ‘life’ things.”
She also writes, and says people have encouraged her to turn professional. A fan of Girls, McKenna says the idea of taking a leaf out of Lena Dunham’s book and penning her own project is tantalising.
“I love those shows where sisters really do it for themselves. Sarah Jessica Parker was an exec on Sex And The City. Lena Dunham writes and directs. I admire women who push through all the shit to do their own thing. I only write poems for myself, really. The few people I show them to don’t seem to think they’re shit – so we’ll see.”

Jump is in cinemas from April 26.