The full Montgomery

Flora Montgomery has a distinctly plummy English accent. She puts it down to her years at secondary school in the UK, yet she bristles when I ask if she is, in fact, Irish?

“Absolutely,” she insists. “I was born on the Ards peninsula on Strangford Lough, Co. Down and that’s where my parents still live. And I return there as often as I can.”

Were her parents theatre-types, instilling in their daughter a love for theatre, as well as a talent for flawless diction?

“Not really,” she considers, “although they were fans of the theatre they certainly weren’t actors and I think my decision to study drama in Dublin probably caused them some concern, although they were very supportive. I’d initially planned to study English at Trinity College but I realised very quickly that I’d spend all my time acting anyway and I might as well do it properly.”

Her time at the Gaiety School of Acting, where she was class mates with fellow Ulster native Stuart Townsend, proved that she had an undeniable talent for acting, despite having little stage experience.

“I think drama teachers really like someone who is fresh and talented,” she observes, “as opposed to someone who has already acquired a certain manner and style. It’s a case of having to un-learn some bad habits. A lot of the excersises you learn at acting school concern that process of deconstruction and stripping everything back. Seen from the outside it might look like they’re just ridiculous games for adults but there’s a very real purpose to it. What you’re really doing is exploring your own emotional boundaries and learning how to call upon that when you begin to act. It’s about carrying those emotions over to an audience in a convincing way. It also teaches trust among actors which is an essential ingredient of any production. You must depend on your fellow cast members and them on you.”

Although most actors experience a period of inactivity after graduation, Flora’s talent had already come to the notice of critics and she was almost immediately thrown into the world of the travelling player, touring Ireland in the back of a van and gaining valuable stage experience. Within months she was in the West End in London, appearing in Gaslight alongside veteran actor Frank Finlay. The production, which received rave reviews, went on to tour Britain, resulting in the fledgling actress appearing on some of the most famous stages in the world.

“I was incredibly lucky,” she insists modestly, “and it was a fantastic learning experience. And a background in theatre really is the best background for any kind of acting work.”

Her success with Gaslight led to a stint at London’s Globe Theatre as Ophelia, which left her with a deep understanding of the Bard’s writing skills.

“In the Globe we were doing the production as it would have been performed in Shakespeare’s time, obviously with no special effects and out in the open. When you consider that he had to paint the scenes into the minds of his audience, you understand the brilliance of his talent. ‘A night of stars, a warm and dreamy night…’ the language is so alive. If he was writing today I tend to think that he wouldn’t have been obliged to do that because Dreamworks would take care of the sky in special effects! But I guess he would have been an incredible film director, a mixture of Orson Welles and Baz Luhrman perhaps.”

Her first screen role was on the ITV drama series Mosely, set in ‘30s England and this led to a series of costume dramas which again were universally lauded by the critics. She also appeared in more modern roles in A Certain Justice and Metropolis, a series which she credits as instrumental in advancing her career on screen. How different is it to act for the camera as opposed to acting in front of a live audience?

“The thing about acting for film or TV is that it’s a very expensive process and the actor has to be ready to perform the instant that the technical crews are ready to proceed,” she observes. “And that can involve hours of simply waiting around in full make-up and costume. That’s one of the reasons actors are well looked after on film sets, because if you’re having a problem and aren’t comfortable when they need you to perform you’re costing them a lot of money. What they’re actually doing when they get you a cup of tea when you want one is ensuring that you’re okay and won’t fuck up in front of the camera.

“Actors are really just a cog in that production process but no more important than anyone else. The person who gets the tea is as important as me. You wouldn’t want to get big headed about it. In terms of acting technique, film means that you can raise an eyebrow and that can speak volumes, whereas on stage you would need to use a different means of projection to convey that subtlety. But the immediacy of a theatre audience is terrifically exciting to me. It’s much more intimate.”

Her leading performance in Roddy Doyle’s When Brendan Met Trudy contained scenes of considerable intimacy which required her to appear nude. Does she find it difficult to do such scenes?

“Well, I’d question how intimate it is when you’re surrounded by a film crew and make up artists and literally dozens of people,” she quips, “but I think it’s facile that people are concerned with such things. A lot of journalists asked me about that issue when the film came out but I think it’s one of the least interesting aspects of that great film. Sometimes I think it must be the only film in Ireland to feature a sex scene!

“I’m lucky in that the people I’ve had to do sex scenes with, Peter McDonald, Greg Wise and Stephen Fry were great fun. And all those scenes were about having a laugh as opposed to anything salacious. I wouldn’t have done it if that were the case and I now have a clause in my contract that states I won’t do nude scenes. But to be honest that’s as much because I hate having to talk about it to journalists afterwards as that I think those scenes can often be unnecessary. I watched Desperado last night and I just thought ‘Oh God, this is practically soft-porn!’ Plus I’ve got more confidence now and a director will listen to my opinion.”

Her current stint at the Gate is to be extended as – following her current run in The Shape of Things – she goes directly into Brian Friel’s adaptation of Checkov’s comedy The Bear, with Stephen Brennan and Eamonn Morrissey. The piece will be twinned with a performance of Afterplay, which places two Checkov characters, Andrey from Three Sisters played by John Hurt and Uncle Vanya’s Sonya played by Penelope Wilton in a piece which imagines their meeting in a Moscow Café. During this production, she will also be shooting a feature film in Ireland. How does she relax?

“That’s an interesting question and if I manage to find an answer I’ll let you know,” she laughs. “It is a gruelling schedule but to be honest I thank my stars every day that I’m working. It really is a dream come true for me and I hope it continues. At the risk of sounding like an acting addict I really love what I do and I want to be stll acting when I’m 80. And by then I probably can lift my no nudity clause!”