The television seriesKinis one of the most internationally acclaimed Irish shows in recent memory (alongsidethe hilarious comedyDerry Girls), in no small part because of its incredible onscreen talent. FeaturingDaredevil himself, Charlie Coxstars alongside the great Aidan Gillen (from the cast ofThe WireandGame of Thrones), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Downton Abbey, Outlander, Orphan Black), and the formidable Ciaran Hinds (who’s starred in practically too many things to count). The most surprising star ofKin, though, isClare Dunne.
Dunne plays Amanda Kinsella, who begins the show as a put-upon and caring mother struggling to raise her children Jamie and Anthony safely while her husband’s family runs a crime empire in Ireland and stumbles into a gang war. Amanda may open the show in the first scene, but it seems as if she’ll be a tangential character in relation to what initially appears to be a new series ofThe Sopranos, Irish edition. However, as the show progresses, Amanda becomes the most important and interesting character, ending the show on a note which signals that the second season will be devoted to her. It’s almost like hergreat origin story.
Clare Dunne From Stage to Screen
Dunne masterfully portrayed Amanda’s development throughout the course of the series, and yet was one of the least-known members of the cast, having very few film and television credits to her name. In fact, she wasn’t getting any roles she’d want to play, despite being an accomplished stage actor. So she wrote her own role, and then everything exploded all at once in the best way.
I wasn’t getting anywhere on screen. I was just, like, dying to get in, and eventually I had sort of given up on the idea of getting in front of a camera. So I had this idea for the film [Herself] back in New York, when I was doing some pilot season auditions, and I decided to kind of start on that by myself at the time, during the journey of when I’d already given up on the idea of acting on screen.
During the writing and filming ofHerselfwith Malcolm Campbell, the acting gods knocked on her door and she landed a role out of the blue inSpider-Man: Far From Home. “I randomly just got that gig for Spider-Man,” Dunne laughs, “they had a last minute thing, like, ‘Jake Gyllenhaal needs four body people around him, we just need some good actors that can improvise,’ and they just go through their files, and they’re like, ‘she was good in that tape.’ It was kind of one of those weird twists of fate.”
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Then, before the critically acclaimedHerselfhad even premiered, she found herself landing the lead in a show from Peter McKenna and Ciaran Donnelly (Vikings, The Tudors, Camelot, Cold Feet).“I was auditioning for it and I didn’t have a name,” Dunne says, but everyone loved her reading. “It kind of all happened at once, I guess, but really, there was a buildup of a few years, you know?”
Dunne’s theater work prepared her for this in many ways (doingthe plays of Shakespeare, Checkhov, Nabokov, and others, along with her own play,Living With Missy), but notes that the stage and screen are different in inherent ways. “I think some things correlate,” she says, where theater “is about managing your energy towards this like one or two hour explosion every night for five or six months, and you have a process and get to do it a million times over and work on your final draft, so to speak.”
Film is obviously a different medium for an actor, so the transition from the slow self-editing of stage work to the stop-start spontaneity of cinema requires a shift in focus. As Dunne says, “It’s so intense, I just looked at it as a different way of managing your energy. So you’re sitting around waiting for the next set-up, and then you have to suddenly be like 100% in the scene, and then just hang around for 15 minutes while they do the next thing.”
The function of acting remains the same regardless, though—“You’re always trying to tell the truth to character, I mean, that’s the basics.”
Dunne on Her Kin Character, Amanda Kinsella
The truth of Amanda Kinsella inKinis complicated; it shifts over time as she ebbs and flows along the contours of the show’s suspense. Her transformation is remarkable, and difficult to remark upon without revealing the surprising complications ofKin’s first season. Suffice it to say, Amanda has been irrevocably altered, and the season finale finds her having simultaneously lost everything and accomplished all she wanted to, both winning and losing.
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The next season will undoubtedly find Amanda at the utmost center of the story, but it’s difficult to imagine what’s left for her to live for, what possible motivation and meaning she’ll be able to find now that her life has completely changed (as has Dunne’s as a result). Dunne summarizes Amanda’s trajectory well:
I think it’s really about Amanda looking for a new sense of meaning in her life and, like, who is she now? Because a lot of season one maybe changed the very fabric of herself and her morals. It’s just that classic thing, isn’t it, like in life, so many people can identify with the thing where you thought life was going one way, and then it goes another, and it’s like sometimes there’s a bit of you for a while that’s just in shock and looking at it, going, ‘Is this is my life now? Oh my God, am I in the wrong life?’ […] She kind of got brought into the [crime family] when she was younger, maybe she didn’t quite expect it to go like that, but then she was in it and there was no way out. Then for season one, obviously you’re seeing a woman who wants to make sure that her kids don’t have to get trapped in it. I basically feel like season two will be about her searching for meaning and searching for what is her new role in this world and how can she, not enjoy life, but find a point to life on a deeper level.
Where Kin Season Two Goes From Here
Season two ofKinseems like it will be Dunne’s showcase, and it will be fascinating to see how Amanda actually moves forward. “She’s definitely accepted she’s a part of the family now. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say,” Dunne prefaces, “but I know that it’s just all about ramping up, but it’ll be a very different world. You do see that Amanda has probably stepped up to be a bit more involved.”
The most Dunne could provide about Charlie Cox’s character and the rest ofKin’s remaining cast is that “everybody’s journeys will take very surprising turns.” She summarizes her reactions to what she’s read and been told in a funny and gobsmacked, “What!? Oh my God, and then this happens?!”
Obviously, Dunne’s clearly excited about what’s to follow, especially afterKinswept the Irish awards season, especially at the Irish Film and Television Academy, or IFTAs (the Irish equivalent of the BAFTAs or the Emmys).Kinreceived a whopping13 nominations, winning six by sweeping the acting awards in all four categories (incuding one for Dunne) and winning Best Drama and Best Script. “That was amazing,” Dunne says, “we were all incredibly proud, and then I was absolutely thrilled.” With Dunne set to dominateKinmoving forward, it looks like season two may bring even more thrills.
Kinis an RTE original series, but you can watch it on Sundance in the UK and AMC+ in the United States, where a second season will premier sometime this year. The first season is also now available on Blu-ray and DVD.
