‘I’m Used to Flying Under the Radar’: Kelly MacDonald on Fame, Family, and Being Herself | Kelly MacDonald

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At 9pm, on a Sunday in early May last year, nearly one in four of us gathered on our frightened, divided and divided island to watch the finale of the BBC’s Police Procedural Duty Line Six Series finale. It has been Britain’s largest television audience for drama since modern recordings began nearly 20 years ago. It was also a rare moment of group communication, between genders, ages and demographics, which usually only occurs during soccer tournaments or the Olympics. One that felt particularly escalating due to the bad year that haunted the house we all lived in. Basically, though, it was just a sparkling, nerve-wracking TV.

The woman who was the center of it all, DCI Joanne Davidson, aka 45-year-old Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald, wasn’t one of the 16 million people watching. In the previous six episodes, we’ve tried to figure out how much of a rotten egg it was – whether it was a “bent” copper, in AC-12 parlance, the Line of Duty’s fanatical anti-corruption unit. The finale was a true water-cooling moment, even if many of us haven’t seen a water cooler, or even a buddy, for 15 months.

So MacDonald hasn’t really watched it? “No,” she replied, seemed horrified at the idea. Why not? “If I didn’t watch something at the time, like, in the premiere, it’s not something I would do. I have other things to do. The dishwasher always needs to empty.”

Watch the trailer for Operation Mincemeat

McDonald’s is no stranger to big produce. She made her debut in the 1996 classic Instant Trainspotting, opposite Ewan McGregor, and went on to work with directors such as Robert Altman in Gosford Park, Martin Scorsese, in a five-year stint on the television series Boardwalk Empire, and Coen Brothers in No Country for Old Men. Her latest film, Operation Mincemeat, about a secret World War II project, sees her share top with Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen.

However, being the lead “guest” on Line of Duty – a role previously played by Keeley Hawes and Thandiwe Newton – surprised MacDonald. “Oh my God, this was all too much for me,” she said, wide-eyed, as we met at a hotel in central London. “It just matters to everyone. And everyone has an opinion. Everyone seemed to be watching it. I’m used to flying mysteriously under the radar when it comes to the things I’ve done. It was a strange time, with Covid, so it was a shock to the system.”

“I’ve been warned by people I’ve been working with,” she continues. They were like, ‘Are you ready for this?’ “And I thought so, but that was more than I expected. I was so grateful to wear the mask when I was out, I tell you a lot.”

It was one of the most dramatic and emotional scenes I had to do

MacDonald was brilliant in the line of duty, vacillating between difficult and weak, not easy to read, always making a suggestion of guilt and misunderstood naivety. This was especially evident in the penultimate episode of the series where DCI Davidson endures a grueling, uninterrupted 30-minute questioning with the AC-12 trio of Steve Arnott (played by Martin Compston), Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), and Anna Maxwell Martin and DCS Carmichael. The scene looked like an era, from a TV perspective, but the payoff, with escalating intensity, made it one of the most iconic moments in the line of duty lore.

For MacDonald, who spent two grueling days filming the scene, it was a satisfying moment: proof, 25 years after her blissful arrival in Trainspotting, of her ability as an actress. “I had to do the thing I had to do, so it was a good day at the office,” she says. “It was the scene that everyone was talking about nonstop when we were shooting, and I put in many hours preparing for it. I knew why I was there. And I knew I was doing it. And I think it was one of the most dramatic and emotional scenes I’ve ever had to do…”

“I had to do the thing that was thrown for it, so it was a good day at the office.” Kelly MacDonald wears a jacket and skirt by paulsmith.com and a cardigan by madeleine-thompson.com. Photography: Andrew Wenden/The Observer

MacDonald stops—uncomfortably close to talking about acting pretentiously (which she hates). “You only sound like such a traitor when you talk about these things. But you asked!”

I did, and with some encouragement, MacDonald continues: “I used to think my preparations were just exhausting myself and losing sleep and thinking I couldn’t do it. Then I wish I could prove myself wrong. And oh, it’s exhausting and pointless. But that’s just a lifetime.” I know it’s in me to do it and I’ve been doing it for a long time, just letting it happen instead of trying to second-guess, because you really can’t.” MacDonald let out a sad cry. “Very cool!”

So, in short, McDonald’s sweating less than she used to? “Yeah, sure, I sweat less,” she says. “Having said that, I’m probably in perimenopause, so I definitely sweat more.” MacDonald bursts into laughter: “But metaphorically, I sweat less.”

MacDonald never trained as an actor, unless you endlessly rewatch Doris Day in the 1953 musical Calamity Jane as a kid and then act out. “I’ve been trying to get friends on, but nobody knows that like me,” she says. “So it was very difficult.”

Born on Glasgow’s Southside, McDonald’s parents divorced when she was nine and she moved to a suburb with her mother Patsy and younger brother. She left school at 16, working in a bar at 19, when she was handed a flyer for an open vocal audition for “The New Patricia Arquette”. The film was Trainspotting, an adaptation of Irvin Welch’s novel by Danny Boyle about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh. Thousands tried, and MacDonald reached the last two for Diane, a rude schoolgirl.

“I remember getting on the bus after the last test,” MacDonald says. “It was a screen test and I left the makeshift studio we filmed at Alexandra Parade [in Glasgow]I waited for the bus and sat on the upper deck. And I knew it was between me and someone else. And I kind of knew I was going to get it. I had a feeling: “This is my life starting now.” It was an obvious crossroads.”

Rise up and shine: Kelly MacDonald wears a twin from sportmax.com. Photography: Andrew Wenden/The Observer

MacDonald stopped, hugged her stomach, and looked apologetically at my dictaphone. “Yeah, sorry, I’m really noisy, and I hope you don’t pick up on that,” she says. “I had a very disappointing croissant for breakfast.”

Wearing today’s “1970” Bella Freud jacket, with matching lipstick, MacDonald is funny and self-deprecating. When he called her a “movie star,” she felt clear whiskers. “I don’t consider myself a movie star,” she says. “I felt a little bit into this hotel, I didn’t even check in. They were all so nice and met me and I thought, ‘Oh my God, they think Tom Cruise is here.'” “I’m not that person. Like, I’m fine. I can make my way from the train station, I’m fine.”

I used to think middle school was putting pressure on myself and I think I can’t do it

Tom Cruise was adamant that no one else should stay in the hotel, I would suggest. “Yes, I haven’t seen anyone else,” MacDonald says with a smile. “She was very quiet. Tom Cruise might be like, ‘Kelly can stay here.'” But no one else! “

Whatever you say, MacDonald is a movie star and her new movie Operation Mincemeat once again shows how skilled and unflattering she is. The event retells the elusive true story of a secretive team of MI5 tasked in 1943 by Winston Churchill to come up with a plan to convince the Germans that the Allies intended to invade Greece, not Italy. At their head were a pair of “thinking thinkers”, Ewen Montagu (Firth) and Charles Cholmondele (McFadden), who devised a daring ploy to pass on an already dead homeless man as a British officer who was traveling with classified documents when his plane was crashing. McDonald’s Jean Leslie is a clever and resourceful secretary from MI5 who has worked closely with the men, including publishing a detailed background story of the officer and providing a selfie left on the body as a suggestion to the lover he left behind.

‘The story is crazy. You can’t make it up’: Kelly MacDonald, with Matthew MacFadden on Operation Mincemeat. Photo: Courtesy of See-Saw Films

Operation Mincemeat proved to be a turning point in World War II, and is now considered one of the strangest and most inspiring military tricks. “He’s crazy,” MacDonald says. “I feel like if it was an original idea, the screenwriter would have a lot of objections from producers and people saying, ‘Oh, that’s unbelievable. Nobody is going to buy this. Yeah, you can’t make it up.'”

The real Mincemeat got tight, especially McDonald’s Jean and Firth’s Ewen. This is a World War II story not about mud-stained battles and rations, but one of romance and intrigue. Nights were spent dancing at the Gargoyle Club in Soho, with interiors designed by Henri Matisse and Edwin Lutyens. “Jane isn’t just the woman in the office,” MacDonald says. “She’s going through war like a lot of women do. It was a very rough time, but there was also this life grab by nuts, so not to be so rude. That thing of living it, while you have it.”

MacDonald describes the Mincemeat process as a “big, shiny job.” this means? “The food changes,” she says. “You can get a little nicer cars to take you to work instead of pickup trucks.” There was also money to sprinkle on MacDonald’s dance lessons. “It was so much fun, to learn those things with a real dancer,” she says. “I really enjoy it, so the more dancing the better. Not strictly.”

So MacDonald is excluding herself from future appearances on the show then? “I don’t know why you even mentioned it, don’t mention it!” you answer. “I said it as if I was introducing myself as a dancer. I really am not!”

I started growing my own flowers. I am gardening. Everything falls into place: Kelly MacDonald wears a denim dress, chloe.com, and silver shoes, malonesouliers.com. Photography: Andrew Wenden/The Observer

Outside of work, MacDonald lists her main interest as: “I move furniture.” She lives in Glasgow with her two sons, Freddy, 13, and Theodore, 9 (she shares custody with her former partner of 14 years, Dougie Payne, Travis’ bassist), and moved home this year. I ask MacDonald to explain “moving furniture”. “I don’t move other people’s furniture,” she says. “It’s not a side job for me: McDonald’s Movers. No, I move furniture a lot. It’s become a bit of a problem. And the kids don’t even think about it, they go in and go, ‘Oh, that was right there.'”

MacDonald sighs, deciding that it is just a phase of her life. “I started growing my own flowers,” she says. “I am gardening. Everything is in place.”

The business continues to work. McDonald’s just made a road movie with Gina Mackie, directed by Carol Morley, called Typist Artist Pirate King. She is also very happy to cast herself in the English-language remake of the hit French comedy Call My Agent! In the transfer, she played a character not a million miles away from actress Cecile de France originally, who is turned down for her role in Quentin Tarantino’s new movie because she is too old. “I called my agent too! A moment, actually, when my agent was telling me what part I was going to do,” she says. “She couldn’t get the words out and then she realized it was Cécile de France’s story but it’s different.”

For someone who never imagined becoming an actor, and who, even when she got a break, couldn’t anticipate what her career would become, MacDonald – until she accepted – did everything just fine. Earlier in our conversation, she said that if she wasn’t doing what she’s doing now, she thinks she might have been a journalist. So, with our time up, how are you going to finish the article? “My son has to write essays the moment he should start the last paragraph with ‘in conclusion,'” she says.

So in conclusion…? MacDonald finally decides “In conclusion, I’m not done yet.” “And yes, we’ll see how it goes.”

Operation Mincemeat released on April 22

fashion editor Joe Jones; Liz Pugh makeup from Premier Hair and Makeup; Paul Donovan felt using Kérastase; fashion assistant Peter Bevan; Shot at the Rosewood Hotel

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