From pageant princess to warrior queen, former Miss Scotland Kirsty Mitchell's ready to battle as a Barbarian
ACTRESS Kirsty ditches the slap for real war paint as her new role transforms her into the Celtic heroine Boudica.
KIRSTY Mitchell was once a beauty queen. Now the former Miss Scotland has turned warrior queen.
She’s playing Celtic heroine Boudica in a major new series from the History Channel, Barbarians Rising, which charts the rise and fall of the Roman Empire through the people and tribes who fought back against them.
Face daubed in war paint, the actress looked the part but she also had to appear to the troops of actors working with her that she was capable of commanding an army to bloody victory.
Kirsty, 41 , did so with the help of the woman she was portraying – imagining Boudica was standing by her side, watching over her.
She said: “I think Boudica is the most I have had to do ever and it’s great to get a role and know I have worked my way up to this.
“If you had given me this when I was 25, I would have played it really safe but I’ve got the experience to do it how I feel it.
“It felt amazing to have so much responsibility and a character who is so important. To get 30,000 people to come and fight with you is no mean feat.
“I would look at all the actors and you have to convince yourself you are in charge of them.
“If you were just yourself you would be saying, ‘Sorry, I can’t do it.’ I had massive speeches, lots of dialogue and every time before we were doing those scenes I convinced myself she was there and watching me and I had to do her proud.
“I would need 20 minutes before walking out because I would have to get myself into that space.
“But she would have been doing that. She would have been saying, ‘How did I get here?’ I was psyching myself up because I didn’t want to let her down, let her memory down.”
Age and experience have clearly taught her well. When she was cast in one of her first films, 2001’s The Legend of Loch Lomond, she had to sing The Bonnie Banks o’Loch Lomond at the audition and made the producers look at the wall while she did so.
When she got the part, she had to do it in front of 250 people, on her own without a backing track.
She said: “I’m like, ‘What? Sing in front of 250 people? Are you kidding?’ So you kind of have to go, ‘Right. I’m an actress, it’s the part, I can do this, get in the zone.’ And, bang, it’s done. It’s a different switch because it’s a job.”
It’s a method she has obviously perfected and, amid ever-increasing competition, she continues to find work.
As well as Barbarians Rising, which will begin screening in the UK on June 22, she is also starring in crime drama New Blood, which started on BBC1 on Thursday.
The mini-series comes from the pen of Foyle’s War creator and James Bond author Anthony Horowitz.
She is also filming movie The Hitman’s Bodyguard, alongside a stellar cast which includes Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L Jackson, Gary Oldman and Salma Hayek. She said: “I play Sam’s lawyer. It’s not a massive part but it is great to be working with a cast like that and these things all help with where you are going next.
“New Blood is a 9pm slot on BBC1 and season two is being written just now so we’ll see how it goes. I am not supposed to say anything about it but I play someone who is very unemotional, which is a test for me. She has a strong presence in the show and we’ll see what happens. It was a lot of fun to work on.”
Kirsty, who grew up in Possilpark in Glasgow , trained as a ballet dancer and was crowned Miss Scotland at 17.
She moved into acting, winning parts in quick succession in Loch Lomond alongside Brian Cox and A Shot At Glory, Robert Duvall’s Scottish football film also starring Ally McCoist. Having gone on to star in shows such as Monarch of the Glen, Holby City, The Royal Today and Case Histories, she moved to Los
Angeles in 2011 but she has continued to work in the UK – appearing in shows such as Casualty and Hollyoaks.
Angeles in 2011 but she has continued to work in the UK – appearing in shows such as Casualty and Hollyoaks.
It’s been a slog at times, from perfecting her accent through a speech therapist to mellow her vowel sound to establishing herself with casting agents – but it is paying off.
She said: “I have been working on bits and pieces out there. I did a couple of pilots then last year came back to do Casualty and did five jobs in a row so I ended up back here for most of the year.
“I wasn’t coming off Downton Abbey so I wasn’t expecting going to America to be easy but I am not afraid of hard work. You’ve got to establish yourself with all the casting agents and prove you can bring it to auditions and then you are on their list.
“When I first went out there, I met this girl who said give yourself five years before you are a jobbing actor. A lot of people come out and find it is really hard and go home but you’ve got to put the time in. I love it. I love the challenge. I am a fighter.
“Of course, you do have your moments when you think should I stop but I love it so much and then you get a part like Boudica. At this stage, having kept working, if I am turned down for a role, I know it’s not because I can’t do it.
“We all want to get to a place where you have some control and can choose between projects and test yourself but I am happy with how it is going. I’ve done OK for a wee ballet dancer from Possil.”
Barbarians Rising will go out to the History Channel’s global audience, providing Kirsty with a huge platform going forward.
She is aware of what it will do for her profile, adding: “It gave me more responsibility and I am excited for people to see it. I am very proud of it, very proud of the whole cast.”
Kirsty has a boyfriend in LA who is a writer-director and she’s happy in the US . She takes care to eat well – a legacy from her ballet days when she struggled with bulimia – and she enjoys pottering about in her garden. Ideally, she’d love to grow all her own food.
Kirsty added: “I’m super happy sitting in the garden covered in mud.”
Happy as she is in the States, she would still like to work in Scotland and held some meetings on a recent visit to see her mum, just to remind people here she is available for work.
She said: “I love America but I am not someone who likes to stay in the same place very long. I always wanted to be somebody who would come back and forward. I am really happy to work in Scotland.
“When you get into your 40s, you kind of realise you don’t live for ever. You get really nostalgic and I find myself being more protective of my family unit.
“It’s so nice to be back, get back into my own accent, enjoy the sense of humour. There’s nowhere like where you are from.”
Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/fashion-beauty/pageant-princess-warrior-queen-former-8172622#e6tEe9SdgoegkJWj.99
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