Vampire mum Kelly MacDonald on living a happy-happy life in Glasgow

The minutes pass, five to be exact, and although they are filled by with the delightful PR person from Sky, when MacDonald does appear she’s a little less than interview-ready, caught up with Percy. ‘Stop, Percy!’ she yells before ushering him out the door. I presume Percy to be a dog.

Anyway, you’re here now Kelly. So, let’s talk garlic phobias and indoor coffins and your leading role alongside Damian Lewis in this story of everyday folk who live in a seaside town – but just happen to be a little more nocturnal than most.

Kelly MacDonald in Sky TV’s new vampire film The Radleys (Image: KEVIN BAKER) Is this role of Helen the Mum a slightly unusual challenge given the duality, the secrecy that goes with being a far less ordinary housewife? “Yes, but my teenage self would have been so delighted to land the role, given I was obsessed with Bram Stoker’s Dracula [starring Gary Oldman in 1992) and would tear out magazine features about it,” she says, not quite biting down on the question.

Did/does she believe the major attraction of vampires for the watching public being their restraint, yet coupled with a bloodlust – which is really just a metaphor for a lust for sex?

“Well, I think this is the interesting thing about Helen, the part that I play . . .” her voice trails off, and then picks up again . . . “the children don’t know what they are, whereas Helen seems to have been more successful than the rest of the family in covering up who she really is.” MacDonald adds; “And we learn that she is the one in the most trouble.”

The Radley’s calm of normality is crashed one day when ‘a major event occurs’ and Dad Peter, (Lewis) decides it’s time to make an announcement to his teenage son and daughter Rowan and Clara (Harry Baxendale and Bo Bragason). "You’re a vampire. We all are."

"Is it a metaphor?" says Rowan, with a terrific deadpan delivery. "It’s the plain biological truth," says Dad.

The dark comedy shines throughout. “It’s modern and fresh,” says MacDonald, of the movie, “and it all felt real and played really well.”

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Kelly MacDonald lives in Glasgow’s west end with her two teenage sons. What did her boys say when they heard their mum was about to become a vampire? Had they read the book of the TV adaptation From Matt Haig’s young adult fantasy novel, The Radleys?

“I wish,” she sighs. “I’m desperate for them to get into reading, and when I think what I was reading when I was my elder son’s age...”

But were they excited about the part? “Well, they do seem to have more of an interest in this than they do other roles I take on.”

MacDonald still seems a little distracted, or perhaps delightfully unburdened by the need to over-share. No matter. Let’s rewind a little. The actor, who grew up in Glasgow’s south side, landed her career-launching role in Trainspotting after reading about an open call audition and figured she’d go along for the hell of it. Do you still feel it all to be an amazing, unexpected surprise?

“If I stop and think about it, yes, it’s kind of amazing. It’s fantastical,” she says. “But I always thought I’d do what I’m doing.”

Did you? You weren’t banging down the doors of drama colleges at the time? “Oh, yeah. Well, I had applied for an application form, that’s as far as it got, but I think it got lost in the post or something. But I had wanted to go to drama school. Then I got the part of Diane.” And the schoolgirl seduced Ewan McGregor’s emaciated Renton and 1996 film history was made.

But during filming, was there a sense the film would be successful? At the time, Bobby Carlyle was resolute it would be. No reply. Has her wi-fi dropped off? Has her phone gone off again? Is Percy needing fed? Five minutes pass. Seven. Nine. It feels like an eternity. More chat with the PR who has now "sent Kelly’s publicist an email." Still no reply.

Kelly Macdonald in The Victim with James Harkness and John Hannah (Image: free) Instead of thinking of my next question I’m considering tackling the pile of holiday ironing in the bedroom. I’m thinking any conversational flow we had established is about as dead as a Radley family victim. Where will a transfusion of life will come from?

I’m thinking perhaps other feature writers were on the money in suggesting MacDonald can be a little scatty.

Then she’s back. But only visually. She’s on mute. In a sense, it’s quaint to come across someone even more technically useless than me. “I didn’t do anything,” the actor maintains. But I still can’t see her. Now I can. She explains. “My kids have stolen my laptop charger.” I suggest in the waiting time we could have walked round the corner to Epicures café. She smiles. But then her laptop spins. I’m now looking at her kitchen ceiling. Then the floor. “It’s like old lady-ites,” she grins. And the picture comes back, even though she’s now shrunk into the middle of the screen.

Let’s go back to talking career, Kelly. There have been ups and downs, but overall, you’ve enjoyed great longevity, landing terrific roles in the likes of Robert Altman’s Gosford Park, a five-year stint in Martin Scorsese’s TV series Boardwalk Empire and the Coen Brothers film No Country for Old Men.

More recently, playing the corrupt cop in Line of Duty offered more chance to do your internalised angst thing. But was she intimidated by working with massively successful directors such as Altman and Scorsese? “Yes, well, I get nerves, but that’s par for the course.”

Yet, from reading past interviews Kelly MacDonald seemed to have had a little bit of a casual attitude to landing work. For example, when going up for the Matrix (with Keanu Reeves) you read just a couple of pages of script and decided to wing it?

“You’re talking about things that are over 20 years ago,” she says, in soft protesting voice. “I was just young, that’s all.” She grins. “And at some level I was probably thinking I wasn’t going to get the part, which is what happened because you get sent in for everything.”

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MacDonald thinks for a moment. “I still get nervous. But then I wouldn’t get a job if I didn’t manage to control the nerves.”

Did not going to drama college create a little sense of inferiority complex? “To an extent,” she admits. “A long time ago I may have felt that way. But I think any young girl going into any new job would have felt that.”

The ceiling view comes back. Kelly is having a conversation with someone else (Percy?) but it’s not me. When she returns, I throw in another question; what of the rejection that comes with the job?

“That’s my working life – you know you don’t get everything,” she says, not choosing to elaborate. But does it hurt at times? “There are times you may read a book and think that would make a great TV role, and then it gets made, but you don’t get a feeling of exclusivity about it.” She pauses and adds; “I’ll phone my agent sometimes and ask if somethings being made, but I do accept that some things are for you and . . .”

What has she learned about the business in her 27-year stint? Is showbiz full of vampire-like parasites? She smiles. “I’ve learned I do well when I’m around the right people. Like this job, it feels like a proper family. We filmed in a house, and we had an adult’s room and a kid’s room and the kids would come in an steal our sweeties.”

She loses her flow. “What was the question again?” Learned experience, Kelly. “Oh, yes, that the success of the work is really down to the alchemy of the people involved.” Does it teach you not to prejudge people, to form your own impression of Steve Buscemi or Martin Compston or whoever?

Kelly Macdonald and Vicky McClure in Line of Duty (Image: free) “Yeah. For the most part, 99 percent of the actors I’ve worked with have been a joy, and a delight to hang around with. I really liked working on the Radleys because there was a lot of chatting going on.”

And did you work out how to capture the essence of being a vampire? She grins. “The disappointing part of my vampire was that I didn’t get to wear the accessories.” What? No Tam Shepherd’s teeth? No dipping your face in a bowl of congealed Heinz Tomato soup? “No, as the mum I was the one cleaning up the blood,” she sighs.

What of your major role in life, being a mum, to Theodore and Freddie. Is it harder than being an actor? “I’ve got pretty easy children,” says MacDonald who was married to Travis bass player Dougie Payne. “But I don’t know how to answer that. They are harder in different ways.”

If the worst she has to cope with domestically is a stolen charger it’s not so bad? “Yeah.”

But what are her thoughts on the business from the perspective of a 47-year-old veteran? “I think I’m 48,” she suggests. What? “I get a bit confused.” Honestly? “You see I lost a whole year thinking I was younger than I thought I was.” Why? “I think it was because when I was 38, I thought I was 37, and it was a bit disappointing.”

It seems true that old MacDonald can be a little abstract in thought at times. What’s endearing however is that she also seems to be underwhelmed by the whole notion of acting celebrity, (even if she did insist on Zooming rather than a face-to-face cup of tea).

“Well, you see it’s not overly complicated to do what I do. And I’m very lucky in that I’m happy-happy at home, and I’m happy-happy at work.” She adds; “I think if you live somewhere like Los Angeles, it can all get a bit tricky, but I live in Glasgow.”

Would she be happy-happy appearing in theatre? Why is she not leaping into Oran Mor, or the Royal Court in London? She makes a squidgy face to suggest these options are unlikely. “Well, I can’t do a play in London, I’ve got children. It’s just not practical.” She considers. “And I’m not a theatre person. I’ve only ever been in one play and as I said, I’ve never been to drama school. So, it seems like an awful lot of work. And it’s not for me.”

What next after vampiring? Her answer is only a little surprising, given the unpredictability of the last 40 minutes. “I’d like to be a witch,” says, in straight face. “I’ve always had this thing about witches. And I think I look a bit witchy so I’m halfway there.”

I hate Zoom. I like witches though. And I like Kelly MacDonald. But I’d liked our chat even more if we’d been face-to-face in a café, biting into a bun and talk of how Sky have deliciously updated the vampire legend.

The Radleys, Sky Cinema, from October 18