Editor’s Note: For the scoop on Little Missionary’s Day Nursery, our May cover shoot location, click HERE.
Just about everything I want to share with you about my impressions of Kelly Macdonald is captured in an exchange I had with her about Emma Thompson’s opinions of her. The actresses first worked with each other in “Nanny McPhee,” and later in “Brave.”
“She’s one of my favorite people in the world,” Thompson told an interviewer during a promotional segment about “Brave,” which I unearthed and shared with Macdonald. “I love her because she’s an exquisite human being but also a wonderful actor. Because there’s nothing actressy about her. Nothing precious. Very clean and clear and loving and strong. And original. Rather eccentric in a way.”
“‘Rather eccentric’?” Macdonald cuts in. “Oh, yeah.”
I continue with Thompson’s final thought: “I like very much that she doesn’t conform to anything in particular. She’s just a remarkable woman and therefore she’s just the perfect choice for this very remarkable girl [Princess Merida].”
Macdonald’s interpretation of Thompson’s tribute?
“She was clearly drunk.”
And as for Thompson’s assessment that she’s “not actressy?”
“Yeah, I don’t know how to do that,” Macdonald confirms. “I admire it in a way, but I can’t be that person. I don’t walk in the room and have all eyes on me—or want that.”
But what of her riveting movie debut as a sassy, sexual, and wiser-than-her-years teenager in “Trainspotting” back in 1996?
“I know,” Macdonald acknowledges with a laugh. “I played against type.”
She’s not kidding. Macdonald may well be the most low-profile high-profile actress in the world with memorable roles, not only in “Nanny McPhee,” “Brave,” and “Trainspotting,” but also in the Oscar darlings “GosfordPark” and “No Country For Old Men.” And for the past four years she has co-starred in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” as the resourceful but embattled Margaret, the wife-in-name-only to Steve Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson, the gangster-fixer running Atlantic City in the 20s.
A native of Scotland, Macdonald moved to New York a few years ago for her “Boardwalk Empire” role, and now lives in the East Village with her rocker husband, Travis bassist Dougie Payne, and her two boys, 6-year-old Freddie and 16-month-old Theodore. And though “Boardwalk Empire” will be airing its final season come this fall, Macdonald may well stay in the city for a while.
You were mostly in movies before “Boardwalk Empire.” Is having an on-going job on TV a bit of a slog or is it kind of nice to have a regular gig?
It’s been amazing actually. Just the fact that the show is so good, of course, and being able to work with such good people. But also that it coincided for me with raising a young family. It’s been like the perfect five-year journey.
Do you have a regular schedule?
Well, I don’t know if it’s the same with all TV shows, but the schedule changes quite a lot. So they keep you on your toes. But I also know that it means that I am going to be in New York for the majority of the year, so that makes me happy.
I feel like your character Margaret has been created with a distinct feminist sensibility. She’s so smart and capable, and yet she repeatedly faces horrible choices between maintaining her personal dignity and making things better for herself and her family. The deck always seems stacked against her.
She’s ahead of her time, but she’s also a poor woman, basically single, trying to survive and provide for her family. She’s been through a bit of turmoil, so I’m sure this year won’t be any different.
Are you anything like her?
I would say she’s much smarter than me. She’s quite savvy.
I want to ask you about another of your characters, who also faced quite a bit of societal push back along the way. Princess Merida! Strong and Scottish! I could imagine a movie executive shouting: “Get me that girl from ‘Trainspotting!’” You must have been at the top of their wish list.
No, there was someone else they had been working with. I think I was the last person cast.
Did you enjoy playing a Disney princess?
I was never a girly-girl. I never dressed up as a princess. I used to dress up as Calamity Jane. I wasn’t a tomboy, but I certainly wasn’t a girly-girl. So to be a princess as an adult was kind of funny to me but also amazing. I love the fact that she’s not your typical princess, that she breaks the mold slightly.
Have you watched the movie with your oldest?
Freddie’s seen it a few times. He finds it very funny. It came up when we were at a birthday party in Glasgow. There was a children’s entertainer—a pirate—who was making these balloon swords and he brought up Merida. And Freddie was in awe. He turned around and made eye contact with me in way that was like: “That’s you, mama!” But nothing was said. I was just another mom in the background. The entertainer didn’t know it.
What’s Freddie’s perspective on having a mom who’s an actress and a dad who’s a rocker?
His dad’s much cooler than I am, but he’s starting to have questions about what I’m doing, because he knows it’s not always the same thing…and actually he still asks me about Steve [Buscemi]. He’s been visiting me at work since he was a baby so he’s met Steve, but he only knows him as Silly Steve. Steve’s a great guy and he’s very into kids, so even though Freddy has only met him a handful of times he still talks about him as Silly Steve, or sometimes when I’m going work he’ll say: “Are you going to see Silly Steve?” And Steve calls him “Funny Freddie.”
Do you feel like being a mom has influenced your acting in any interesting ways?
I think it’s made me a better actress. I feel like I’m more secure in my life and that helps me with work. I used to be a bit nervous about working. This goes back to when I started. I hadn’t gone to drama school so I never learned techniques or anything like that so when I started I would be a kind of uptight, twisted, anxious mess, and I did that for years. So, now, not feeling like that has been kind of brilliant. It’s like I know what the real important thing is in my life. My family comes first. For a while, possibly, it was my work life, and now I have this other life that supersedes it—and that’s quite reassuring.
What are some of your biggest joys and biggest challenges as a parent right now?
The joy [is that] I love that I have this whole family, that I wake up every morning and it’s like: “Here we are.” And the kids are funny; they’re hilarious to be around, especially the baby. He has such a big personality. My older son is much more placid and sweet. My younger son is a ball of energy, he doesn’t stop. As far as challenges go, I can do with more sleep! Sometimes I wonder if I’m going to be able to relax ever again.
I’m curious how raising kids in New York has compared with your expectations about what it would be like?
My husband was much more concerned about the move than me. But after being in NYC for just a short while, we realized that it’s a great place for kids. There is so much to do, so much for them to get involved in…and we don’t even do that much of it and we love it. I like Freddie to have time to just sort of goof around. He has swimming classes but not much else. We spend a lot of time in Tompkins Square Park.
Do you have a favorite kind of date night, I mean without the kids?
If I have a regret, it’s that we didn’t come here before we had children. My husband wanted to. But I always thought my work life would take me places, and I wanted to just go with that. I didn’t want to move somewhere without a work reason. We’ve never been overly social—we’re generally in the house by 6pm—and that’s where we stay [laughs]. Occasionally, I’ll get the van back from the studio late at night and I can see everyone out in the neighborhood, and I think I’m too old now anyway [more laughs].
I know that Freddie’s former nursery—Little Missionary’s Day Nursery—has been a very important part of your life here, too.
When we moved to New York, we knew only a few people. But one friend who had kids and lived in the neighborhood told us about many places we should know about. He told us about the school, and we were lucky enough to get a spot…and now feel like we’re part of the community, and Little Mish (click HERE for more info) had a lot to do with that. When we wander about the neighborhood more often than not the people we run into have kids at the nursery school.
Once “Boardwalk Empire” ends, do you think you will ever pack up shop and move back to Scotland full-time?
I have no idea, but I think it’s kind of amazing that we’ve been able to live here and my son had his first day of school here, and we’ll always remember his time skating down St. Mark’s Place to go to nursery. New York is such a big part of my life now, I hope I can make it work for a long time.
One final movie star question. You’ve had some really great roles. Are there one or two roles that you’re most proud of?
Every few years it seems like a job comes up and I cannot believe how I even got in the room with the director. The film “Gosford Park” felt like a turning point for me… And the next one is probably the film “No Country For Old Men.” And “Boardwalk Empire,” of course!
