Charlene McKenna talks her Oscar-nominated short

A few days ago, the 87th Academy Awards took place in Hollywood. The event was not without controversy. However, it wasn’t Neil Patrick Harris’ clumsy MC-ing, the snubbing of Selma or Michael Keaton missing out on Best Actor for Birdman that made me indulge my inner Kanye West. It was the fact that the heart-warming Irish production, Boogaloo And Graham, narrowly missed out on Best Live Action Short.

A tale of two boys and their pet chickens, the film, set in Belfast in the 1970s – the decade that Hot Press first hit the streets – stars Glaslough, Co. Monaghan-bred actress Charlene McKenna as the kids’ mother. When I catch up with her during the filming of the TV series A.D. (more on that in a bit), I ask her if she too turned into a mini Yeezy when The Phone Call pipped Bogaloo to the post.
“I missed out on it all ‘cos I was filming in the desert,” she laughs. “My pick up was at half-four in the morning so I was tucked up in bed when it was happening, but the producer Brian kept us informed. It’s mad! It’s all happening for the film, but I’m stuck looking at sheep, goats and camels.
“It was the same when we won the BAFTA. I was in the desert and forgot all about it until the texts came through. Locked away in the middle of nowhere, you kinda forget about the rest of the world.
“I did say when we made it that I thought it was special,” she adds. “I actually joked about us getting an Oscar. It’s odd because when we got the nomination there was a part of me that wasn’t surprised. I’m really happy that it’s being rewarded.”
In the acting world they’ve a saying that you should never work with children or animals, but – brave woman that she is – Charlene did both for Boogaloo And Graham. Thankfully, the experience was hilarious rather than harrowing.
“That’s actually the first thing that Michael Lennox the director said to me,” she smiles. “He was like, ‘I know, I know, it features children and animals’. It sounds fake, but we had so much fun. I don’t know how long that dinner scene took us to shoot. We kept corpsing it: we literally wept laughing. There’s some stills that got released where you can see us crying laughing.
“The beauty of working on a low budget project is that everybody’s there for the right reasons. They’re there because they love the material. There’s a real sense of teamwork and that shows in the finished product.”
Long hailed as one of Ireland’s brightest acting talents, McKenna, who leapt to fame and acclaim in the likes of Raw, Whistleblower and Pure Mule, will next be seen on our screens in the NBC television ‘event’, A.D. A sequel of sorts to their big budget adaptation of the Emmy award-winning The Bible, Charlene tells us that she’s relishing the experience.
“Talk about being worlds apart from Boogaloo And Graham! It’s such a huge, huge machine and there’s such a diverse cast. The sets are phenomenal and there are hundreds of extras. This is kind of a sequel: there’s a different cast but it’s a continuation of the story they were telling.
“The first episode starts with Jesus’ crucifixion and deals with what happened afterwards and how Christianity survived in the face of Roman occupation. A.D. serves as a story, as well as whatever you want to take from it spiritually. I’m playing one of the zealots, a character invented just for the show, which is fun as I’m not laden with expectations. I can just bring to it what I want. She’s one of the very few women warriors who gets to wield weapons and cut off Roman heads.”
Speaking of resurrections, Charlene returned for the third series of 19th century-set crime drama Ripper Street, which can be viewed on Amazon Prime Instant Video, and on the BBC in a month’s time. Originally cancelled by the Beeb just over a year ago, the subsequent public outcry convinced Amazon to step in.
“I couldn’t believe it got cancelled because it was such a success,” she says. “We’d been nominated for BAFTAs, people loved it and we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ The third season is so good. They’ve upped the ante big time. Maybe it was good that the rug was pulled out from under us because we stepped up our game.
“We were so touched by the campaign to bring it back,” she adds. “Especially as it got results. The last time I checked, the petition had 50,000 signatures. Then Amazon came in and saved us and the beautiful thing that they did was they didn’t try to use their power to influence the show and change things. Hopefully there’ll be a fourth season. It’s got a fanbase and was No.1 on Amazon so it bodes well. You never know though. Season two taught us that. I wouldn’t be counting chickens, no pun intended.”
People power and online influence has never been greater when it comes to TV. Charlene feels that it’s a portent of things to come.
“In many ways it’s brilliant,” she states. “There are certain shows that probably would never have been brought back because, without social media, there wouldn’t have been that immediate response from fans. There’s such a binge watching culture happening right now, which I don’t really agree with though. People don’t want to wait for a week until the next episode. I’m old school. There’s something good about having to wait. It’s like dating someone and seeing them too often: the relationship is going to burn out.
“I do think the industry’s changed for the better,” she concludes. “We’re in a golden age of television. I’m very sad at cinema’s decline. It’s hard to get independent cinema off the ground now and the box-office draws are just big budget commercial waffle. The flip-side is that all the movie stars are making TV, which is amazing for television viewers. When it comes to the actors on different levels of the food chain, though, it means movie stars are taking TV roles, so it’s like: ‘Piss off back to film’ (laughs). I’m sure they had similar worries in the ‘40s when they switched from silent movies to talking. I don’t know what’s going to come of it all, but we’ll roll with the punches.”
Talk to you in another 900 issues time, then...