Leah McNamara on her new BBC drama Danny Boy – and Zoom calls with Normal People cast-mates

When I mention the photo during our interview, she bursts out laughing. “Of course I'm Team Connell and Marianne, you have to be. I mean, their love story – their love story is so beautiful,” she says.

However, for her own portrayal of school bully Rachel, McNamara says she deliberately shied away from Mean Girls stereotypes.

Speaking via Zoom from East London, she explains: “I think for Rachel, I definitely wanted with that part to not fall into the trappings of you know, the ‘mean girl’, like the literal slapstick kind of Regina George thing, because I feel like when you're that age, and, you know, she is dealing with the thing of just unrequited love, and she is just mad about Connell and it is really not reciprocated. And I feel like people who are in those positions in school, like the popular person in school, they don't, if you think about it, they don't put themselves in that position. No one can decide that they are going to be the popular person so I feel like sometimes characters, like Connell, he feels all these pressures, and even Rachel – there's a pressure that comes with that [popularity]."

She continues: "It's like the hierarchical thing, and all those tensions that are common in school. And it's really hard when you like someone and they don't like you back, you know, I think everyone has been there at one point or another. So I definitely sympathise with her [Rachel] in that respect, and sympathise with, like, teenage mistakes; but no, I'm definitely, definitely [Team] Marianne and Connell. Of course, how could you not be?”

In the BBC series, Rachel is deliberately cruel and unwelcoming to outsider Marianne, but off-screen McNamara’s relationship with co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones is the polar opposite: McNamara describes her as a “friend for life”.

“I mean, there's a bigger [Normal People] WhatsApp Group, which kind of has everyone. And then there's a smaller one between myself, Daisy, Niámh [Lynch] and Meadhbh [Maxwell],” she says. “So the four of us are quite close, and we chat all the time.”

The WhatsApp group also provided a place for the former Normal People cast mates to process just how big a phenomenon the series became during lockdown (Normal People was the biggest series on BBC iPlayer last year).

“When the show had initially come out, and obviously it was in the very beginning of lockdown, no one could see anyone and we all had, like, a Zoom, I think a week or two after it came out, to speak and be like, ‘This is crazy!’ So, you know, yeah, we all chat all the time. And we all know what each other is up to. And we're all off in all kinds of different places doing different things now. But we're all so, so close. And it's great. And I'm just so happy to have made friends for life.”

McNamara’s latest role in the upcoming BBC Two real-life drama Danny Boy is a departure from both Normal People and her other, notable role as “psychopath” Rosalind Devlin in Dublin Murders.

Being a part of the Danny Boy cast also marks the first time that the actress has played a character based on a real person: Lucy Wood, the wife of former British Army soldier Brian Wood (played in the TV drama by Olivier winner Anthony Boyle), whose actions in Iraq were questioned by now-disgraced human rights lawyer Phil Shiner (played by Toby Jones).

“I haven't done a real life story before... It was really interesting to learn about something I didn't - I actually didn't know about, you know, the [Al-Sweady] inquiry,” McNamara explains. “Because I think I would have been in Ireland when all this was happening, but I know it was a huge thing in the UK. So I was learning about, you know, a whole new world, which is always really interesting to me… And I'd never played a mum before, so that was really nice and something really different for me to do, personally.”

Based on a true story, Danny Boy depicts the events surrounding the Al-Sweady inquiry that took place from 2009 to 2014 and investigated accusations of prisoner mistreatment by the British Army in Iraq.

The real Brian Wood visited and consulted on the film set for Danny Boy, during which time cast members (including McNamara) were able to chat with him as part of their character research.

“I never actually met Lucy, [but] we've exchanged messages... She is quite private,” McNamara says.

Going into Danny Boy, McNamara says she didn’t know much about army spouses like Lucy Wood. “It really wasn't something that I knew a lot about. Being from Ireland, I don't have anyone who served in the army; I don't have anyone in my family, I don't know anyone personally."

She tells me that she “did a lot of research,” adding, “It was really heartbreaking to read some of the accounts of these women who don't know [when their partners] are going to return, where they are, how long they're going to be gone for… and you're kind of left with these kids, raising kids on your own. And for those that are lucky enough that, you know, their husbands or partners do come back, you're kind of faced with the fact that they actually could be a very changed person.”

Lucy is the moral centre of the standalone drama, particularly when it comes to urging Brian to talk openly about his mental health issues. As one character says, Lucy “has her head screwed on right,” exuding patience and goodness.

The character Lucy could not be more different from Rosalind in Dublin Murders, who proves to be a duplicitous villain in the dark drama. McNamara laughs when I ask if her performance as Rosalind scared her friends and family at all.

“Yeah it definitely did, because they told me! They told me they were very scared. A little bit freaked out,” she says. However, she believes that “if the people closest to you can be taken aback and be scared” by a performance, that can only be a good thing: “Hopefully it means I've done my job well.”

I ask if McNamara is particularly attracted to villainous roles, but she tells me ‘no’: the only thing she’s attracted to is “variation” on her résumé. Each of her roles is markedly different from her last, and it’s clear that that’s no accident.

“The parts that I've done so far, I'm conscious of having, you know, variation. And I never want to repeat myself because I know the industry… has a tendency of loving to box people into certain types of parts and type casting,” she says. “So I am actively trying to make sure that that doesn't happen, and that I can play the worst people, the best people. I want to play everyone, you know, and the part that I'm about to do is completely different, again, to everything I've ever done. So, so far... I'm happy with my choices and how that's kind of coming together.”

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McNamara doesn’t think of herself as having ‘made it’ yet: when I ask her if she’s ever been mistakenly labelled as ‘British’ like her Normal People co-star Paul Mescal, she quips that she’s not famous enough for that.

But with a CV as varied and carefully chosen as her own, it’s surely only a matter of time.

Danny Boy will air on 12th May on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. While you're waiting, take a look at our other Drama coverage, or find out what else is on with our TV guide. And if you loved this chat, check out all of our Big RT Interview articles.