Independent: “Eu adoraria crescer e ir além de apenas atuar,” Caitríona Balfe

  • 26 de fevereiro de 2022

Caitríona Balfe is on the cover of the Irish Independent magazine, Weekend Magazine, february 26th issue. The actress talks about her almost-Oscar nomination, awards season, Outlander, creating your own destiny and trying her hand at directing.

I’d love to expand beyond just acting.

Caitriona Balfe isn’t going to let missing out on an Oscar nomination hold her back. She talks awards season, creating your own destiny and her first foray into directing.

Words by Stephen Milton

Caitríona Balfe called it. Days before an astonishing snub from the Best Supporting Actress Oscar shortlist for her touching performance in Belfast, Balfe accurately predicted a nomination for Jessie Buckley for The Lost Daughter. Call it theatrical instinct.

Carefully navigating discussion of what some are calling her “almost guaranteed” nomination for Kenneth Branagh’s sublime love letter to his home town – deemed “in the bag” by industry insiders – along with talk of a cast-iron nod for Ethiopian-Irish star Ruth Negga, who also missed out for Passing, Balte is keen to highlight Buckley’s chances.

What about Jessie Buckley,” she suggests, while dialling in from her base in LA “She is absolutely incredible in The Lost Daughter.

Delivering a complex turn in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Netflix drama, Killarney-raised Buckley had been a wild-card outsider throughtout awards season, likely to be squeezed out of the Oscar race by Balfe and Negga. Along with The Power of the Dog‘s Kirsten Durst and Ariana DeBose for West Side Story, both Irish stars had secured nominations at the recent Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, traditionally sure-fire indicators of Oscars inclusion. Buckley didn’t feature in either.

She was amazing,” Balfe continues, “and The Lost Daughter is one of my favourite films of the year. I’m cheering her on.

Attempting to stifle joy over her own largely foregone inclusion in the Oscar shortlist for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role, she squirms and beams, calling it “weird and amazing“. But then I ask. “What if it doesn’t happen?” “Nothing I can do about it,” she smiles lazily. “If Belfast gets nominated for anything, we’ll be so ecstatic. It was like this family, this little engine. To be recognised would be very special for all of us. That’s what matters.

Scoring seven Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture and Director (Branagh), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ciarán Hinds) and Dame Jude Dench a surprise addition in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category, livid Balfe fans vented their frustration on Twitter, with some tweeting. “She was robbed.

Ever the class act, Balfe took to social media to congratulate her colleagues. “Delighted for all our noms and for Ken, Judi and Ciarán… Congratulations to all our Belfast movie family.

While a disappointing experience for the actor, her parents offered pragmatic reassurance in an interview days before the Oscar nominations were announced, as only an Irish mammy and daddy can.

If it doesn’t [happen], what about it” said father Jim, with mum Anne adding, “Even the possibility of it, its a big thing.

I first met the Monaghan native nearly a decade ago in 2013 when she was talking up her biggest role at the time — playing Arnold Schwarzenegger’s daughter in a prison-escape thriller imaginatively titled Escape Plan. Appearing in two scenes, Balfe was thrilled with having actual scripted dialogue, given her previous film roles were mute.

Attempting to break into acting following a decade in high fashion, Balfe was slowly paying her dues. In 2010, her feet featured in a pair of heels in the opening sequence of The Devil Wears Prada. A year later, she landed her first significant film role as the deceased mum in alien blockbuster Super 8. The part required no dialogue. “Given my character was dead, it really was an amazing experience. And at least you could see my face.

Next came the part of Michael Caine’s daughter in magician heist Now You See Me, opposite Morgan Freeman and Woody Harrelson. Again, no lines.

Well, there were lines, but they all got cut” she laughs. “So,at that point, I’m thinking, I would’ve been a really big silent movie star. Everyone’s like, ‘She’s great, but don’t let her open her mouth.’

Much has been written about a glittering career on the catwalk launched by a chance encounter with a modelling scout outside a supermarket in Rathmines on Dublin’s southside. The garda sergeant’s daughter strutted for fashion houses like Chanel, Moschino and Balenciaga on the runways of Paris, New York and Milan. She was touted as Ireland’s first supermodel, although Balfe often colourfully describes herself as one of the “blue-collar girls”, a few rungs below Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Gisele Bundchen, rulers of the fabulous hierarchy. “You’d see them backstage, but there wasn’t ever really a moment where I could walk over to Naomi Campbell and say, ‘Hey Naomi, what’s up!’

In a story as old as the Hollywood sign, the fashion model decided to try her hand at acting, and toiled through years of rejection, unsuccessful auditions and unemployment. There were independent short films and web series no one ever saw. And naturally, there was doubt. “The consensus is [the industry] only wants young ingénues, and it’s ridiculous to start at my age [nearly 30]. That was the voice going around in my head. It was never said to me, but that was the feeling there.

Persevering, she eventually landed a break in 2014 — the lead in Outlander. In what read as a questionable elevator pitch, the fantasy series would see the actress play Claire Randall, a World War II military nurse transported back in time to the Scottish Highlands during the 18th century, where she falls in love. Balfe was dubious if the show would survive past the pilot episode. Five seasons later and with four Golden Globe nominations for her on-screen efforts on the show, she has jimmied open the doors to the big leagues, working with Julia Roberts in Money Monster and Matt Damon and Christian Bale in Ford v Ferrari. And both roles came with many lines of dialogue.

Now. with her triumphant performance in Belfast and a sixth season of Outlander set to air, I wonder does she believe success was meant to be.

I don’t know,” she ponders, backlit by the Californian sun streaming through a window. “It’s a weird one, isn’t it? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I used to have an old acting teacher who said there’s no such thing as coincidences. There’s been certain times where certain acting jobs, the characters are like people in my life, and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I’m meant to play this!’ But whether or not we create that to appease ourselves, and give ourselves a little more confidence, it’s hard to say. Is luck part of fate, maybe? I’ve definitely been the recipient of a lot of luck in my life, so maybe I do believe in it. The fairies are looking out for me.

Throughout a hard-fought rise to prominence, Balfe’s insight as an actress has developed an abundant capacity for resonant emotion and complex depth, demonstrated with exceptional skill in the latest season of Outlander.

Based on the highly popular series of fantasy novels by former Disney writer Diana Gabaldon, the gripping merger of swashbuckling, time-bending adventure and bodice-ripping passion has seen the saga attract a devoted legion of followers, with early reviews branding it “Game of Thrones for soccer mums”. Fans have sweated over an intense connection between Balfe’s Claire and Sam Heuaghan’s Jamie Fraser, a rugged kilt-wearing clansman. And beyond the titillating amour, audiences have connected with a gallant, female protagonist grounded in intelligence and instinct. After the second season aired, one reviewer wrote: “It’s a rare thing to find a smart, funny, curly-haired heroine who also totally owns her sexuality and sense of self. I love a strong female protagonist, and Claire is one of the strongest out there.

Warning: trigger

Criss-crossing between a vortex of time over the five series, Claire has survived several lifetimes of love and loss — her love for Jamie; the loss of their stillborn child, Faith; love for their healthy daughter, Brianna; and loss of each other for 20 years after Claire teleports back to the 1940s. Eventually reuniting and relocating to America with Brianna on the cusp of the War of Independence, it seems life was somewhat stabilising for the heroine and her family. But enduring gang rape at the end of season five, Claire’s world has been irrevocably shattered.

Exploring her trauma and recovery in raw detail is central in the new season, something Balfe says was crucial to highlight. “Before we even filmed the rape, we were already having those conversations — if we’re going to do this, we need to show the recovery. My fear was trying to wrap it up really quickly.

How do we explore something that’s going to add to the conversation about trauma? One of the things Claire finds it very hard to do is asking for help. When her usual coping functions don’t serve her anymore, she doesn’t know how to proceed. That, in turn, causes this PTSD, and we take her down quite a long, dark road, which happens to a lot of victims. I worked really closely with the writers in how we could be really honest telling that story in this [fantasy] medium without losing what’s important.

Outlander’s use of sexual violence as a frequent plot device has divided viewers and critics. After Claire’s attack, all members of the show’s central family — female and male — have now been victims of rape. After the season five finale, a post on the feminist pop culture site The Mary Sue called for Outlander to “be held accountable for overuse of rape”, while an article in Entertainment Weekly asked the question, “Was another rape necessary?”

As an author, Diana explores how sexual trauma affects people. She’s a woman from a time period when we weren’t allowed to have those conversations. I live in the UK, where the rates of sexual assaults have skyrocketed but the rates of prosecutions have plummeted. We have a crisis of violence against women, not just women, but a crisis of violence and sexual violence that’s happening in society. In a fantasy show, are we best placed to be examining this? Maybe not, but we are telling stories of a time when sexual violence was used a weapon, which sadly is more relevant than ever.

Balfe grew up in the Monaghan hamlet of Tydavnet, a two-hour drive from Cappincur, outside Tullamore, where a young teacher Ashling Murphy was tragically killed. “It’s devastating and I feel so terribly for her family, for her friends,” she says. “Its this thing of, when are we safe? I’m somebody who very often likes to go out for a run by myself, most of my friends do. It’s a real tragedy that, in this day and age, women still don’t feel safe. I feel so deeply for that family, and see how everybody in Ireland was wounded and shocked by it. We pride ourselves on being a safe country, where people look out for each other, a place where you’ll have someone looking out for you. So to feel that’s not the case, it’s awful.

End of warning

How does Balfe reconcile when something like this happens? Is she spiritual? “I struggle to understand why awful things happen to people. They don’t deserve it. It doesn’t make sense to me. I would say I’m spiritual, though have long turned my back on institutionalised religion. I definitely believe in the inherent goodness in the universe. I believe in the inherent goodness in the world, and if you Jead with that, you can maybe tap into being a recipient of that as well. I don’t know, it’s a strange one.

She welcomed her first child last year, a boy with husband Tony McGill. Has parenthood offered a new clarity on life? “Eh no,” she flatly snorts. “If it did, wouldn’t we all be so bloody brilliant. Maybe it shifts your perspective a little bit, but clarity, absolutely not. I’m wading through the day, trying to make it work. It’s an ineredible thing, that sense of responsibility. You now hold the life of a little person in your hands and you’re responsible for not only keeping them safe but also not putting your shitty baggage on them. Teaching them to be a good human being, that’s going to be the real challenge. Pass on the lessons.

What did Balfe learn about herself over the years, particularly from her 20s and 30s? “I was such a mess in my 20s, and maybe that’s the thing I learned, to be a mess. I was very fortunate in a lot of ways. I got to travel the world, I got to live all these great experiences while being unsure of myself, being such an insecure mess. But what I did learn in my 30s? That you’re the creator of you’re the creator of your own life. It’s not up to anybody else, so if you want something, you’ve got to work really had and go after what you want. Put that fear aside. You only really have one life. If you don’t do it, nobody else will do it for you.

An expert in reinvention, Balfe — a producer on Outlander for the past two seasons — has already made the previous transition from one hugely successful career into another. Can she score again with a move behind the camera? “What has drawn me to acting is being a storyteller. But after reaching a certain point [as an actor], you’re limited in the types of stories you can tell. There are only so many characters I will play that will fit how I look, my age. I want to able to tell stories involving people who don’t look like me or aren’t my age, be able to tell different types of stories. I would love to expand beyond just acting.

Her first foray into directing looks likely during the next season of Outlander.

She grimaces tightly. “Let’s just hope I don’t suck.

The day before her Oscar disappointment, Balfe earned a BAFTA nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for Belfast, contending with Negga and Buckley in the same category. It’s the first time a trio of Irish actresses will compete for a significant acting honour. Balfe glows at the potential prospect during our interview. “Three Irish actresses from very different projects, all part of this awards conversation. How cool is that!

Later that week, I find myself scrawling through Twitter. Among the incensed displays of dismay over her Oscar exclusion and condemnation of the Academy Award voters for such an oversight, a rather sweet post stands out.

“Caitriona Balfe will be back for her Oscar. She is a star.” I hope she sees that tweet.

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