The movie Kelly Macdonald believes she was miscast in: “I felt uncomfortable the whole time”
Just in case you’re ever doing a pub quiz on movies and TV and someone asks you which former Trainspotting stars have also appeared in Line of Duty, then here’s the answer for you: Robert Carlyle (who will be in the latest season seven) and Kelly Macdonald. There you go, you’re five points closer to that beer voucher.
In fact, Jed Mercurio’s twisty thriller featuring the adventures of AC-12 is something of a haven for talent from north of the border, seeing as Martin Compston is from Scotland as well, despite sounding nothing of the sort in the show. It’s a bit of a shame that Macdonald only did seven episodes back in 2021, because seeing her line up as Old Bill alongside Begbie would be a brilliantly weird experience once Carlyle joins this year.
Instead, though, fans of the surprise Netflix hit crime thriller Dept Q will be hoping that Macdonald returns soon in her role as a therapist with a second season having been greenlit by the streaming giant. The fact that Macdonald was a member of that original, brilliant cast of Trainspotting means that she’s been on screens for exactly 30 years this year, and without ever really troubling headlines, she’s become one of the UK’s most successful actors.
The list of franchises and major movies she’s appeared in over the last three decades is impressive to say the least; Harry Potter, Star Wars, Boardwalk Empire, Black Mirror, as well as the lead role in Pixar’s Brave, made at a point where Pixar seemed incapable of not making a brilliant film (pre-The Good Dinosaur basically).
And in 2007, she appeared in what has gone down as one of the finest pieces of cinema made this century; The Coen brothers’ masterful thriller No Country For Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem. Glasgow-born Macdonald played Carla Jean Moss in the noir masterpiece, the wife of Josh Brolin’s Llewlyn Moss, who finds himself on the run with a bag full of drug dealer cash.
Macdonald was Bafta-nominated for her performance in the film, and it went a long way toward her landing one of the lead parts the following year in Choke alongside Sam Rockwell and Anjelica Huston in a film from the Fight Club writer Chuck Palahniuk. She was then given the opportunity to work with Lee Jones again in 2009’s In the Electric Mist, a thriller with the somewhat dubious premise of a New Orleans detective investigating the murder of local prostitutes, only to be haunted by the ghosts of dead soldiers.
It was not a hit, and in fact was only released in Europe and the Far East, failing to secure any showings in North America. Macdonald was not overly enthused about the film, looking back on it, telling The Guardian about her experience reuniting with Lee Jones and saying: “He’s great but… I felt completely uncomfortable the whole time because I play someone’s arm candy. I was miscast.”
Compare that to her experience filming on No Country For Old Men, about which she added: “It was just so extraordinary. New Mexico was such a strange place; it was like filming on Mars. I felt totally comfortable with Joel and Ethan.”
MacDonald will now head back into the world of big-budget TV as she lines up on Lanterns, a DC Comics production about intergalactic detectives solving crimes, co-starring Rebel Ridge’s Aaron Pierre. Oh, and if you haven’t seen Rebel Ridge by the way, it’s on Netflix, and it’s brilliant, watch it immediately, even if you’re busy cooking or something, it’ll be fine.
