Laura Donnelly

AK: No stranger to theatre either, you starred alongside Hugh Jackman in “The River” and most recently in the Broadway and West End productions of “The Ferryman,” for which you were nominated for a Tony and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. What have you learned from stage performance that you have carried over to your screen career? How does working on screen and stage compare? Do you have a preference?
LD: I think most of what carries from stage to screen is subconscious and I don’t like to analyse it too much. I guess a sense of relaxation in the moment, so that you can be available to whatever comes your way and really listen and pay attention is the main thing I’ve been able to exercise most on stage. One moment follows on from the next so you have to be open to where that takes you. If you clam up on stage and become rigid you can quickly find yourself stuck or lost so relaxation is very important. I also think theatre actors tend to approach a character in a more holistic way when considering how to physically inhabit a character. On stage you are in full view of the audience at all times from start to finish and so you have to find ways to make the character a whole being rather than focus on moments. I’ve met incredible film actors who transfer to stage and suddenly don’t know what to do with their body because they aren’t used to that. I like the differences between the two forms and they do require different skill sets so I’m determined to keep doing both, but if I were forced to choose I would have to say theatre.