They say that everyone has a doppelg?nger. For Cork born actor/producer Sinéad O’Riordan ,it would seem she bears a striking resemblance to Hollywood star, Kate Beckinsale. Which when you consider who most of the Scannain team get mistaken for…well just forget we said anything…
“It’s funny actually”, says O’Riordan, “wherever I go I get stopped by people who think I’m Kate. Recently in a club somebody came up and asked me for my autograph and I had to say I’m not who you think I am but I can sign it anyways!”
Mother of two, Sinéad holds an honours degree in Electronic Engineering, but works in Dublin as an actor and producer. She is also a qualified drama teacher, but four years ago she decided to really pursue her passion for the arts and subsequently quit her job in IT. It was only in 2013, after establishing her own production company and producing and acting in the Irish Premiere of the American play The Woolgatherer that people began to take notice of her. The critically acclaimed production, directed by Dave Byrne from Underground Cinema, garnered five star reviews and a slew of sell out shows.
The lack of strong female roles and the hugely competitive nature of the industry has inspired Sinéad to establish her own production company (ORion Productions) with the aim of creating her own work and allowing her to pursue a passion for theatre and film. Orion is a prominent constellation named after a hunter in Greek mythology and Sinéad wanted a name which reflected her passion and determination to pursue something which she loved.
“If I believe in something I will go after it wholeheartedly. I want to work with the best and attract the best to my company. I figure if I can be a good producer and produce work that is of a very high calibre, then I can attract great talent to work with me.”
With that in mind she has a project under development where she hopes to entice the real Kate Beckinsale on board.
“I have a feature film which I have commissioned a great writer to develop. Once it’s written I can then go about pitching it to the powers that be and hopefully get Kate involved. I’ve already initiated contact with her agent. Currently there are a lot of films coming online with mental health as the primary focus. I would like to have a similar focus, and delve a little further into Ireland’s shamed mental institutions. I’ve been reading a lot of books lately, and trying to understand the terror that people went through when they were misdiagnosed and incarcerated for no reason. Hannah Greally’s Bird Nest Soup, and Mary Maddock’s Soul Survivor are two such books.”
[quote]My idea would be for Kate to play the leading role, where she comes back to investigate who her mother was and why she died behind closed door. Essentially she opens a whole can of worms. I would play her mother in flashback.[/quote]
Sinéad recently finished co-producing a promo for a new TV series Seanchaí starring Owen Roe, (which we featured earlier this year) and is in pre-production on a feature film called The Good Sinner developed by writer/director Maurice O’Carroll. This project has attracted some great cinematic talent, with Sonya Macari and Tom Lawlor attached.
O’ Riordan’s next theatre role sees her playing a cocaine addicted woman from the Bronx when she takes on the leading female role in the European premiere of the wonderfully titled The Motherf**cker With The Hat, which she is also producing. The show will run for 3 weeks in December at The New Theatre. The play, which is produced by ORion Productions, is directed by Aoife Spillane-Hinks and will feature Andrew Lynch, Peter Gaynor, Rex Ryan, and Laoisa Sexton. The play opened on Broadway where it was nominated for 6 Tony awards. An honest mash-up of poetry and profanity by American storyteller Stephen Adly Guirgis, O’Riordan describes it as “a very controversial piece, and will no doubt set some tongues wagging. But there is no point in being in this game if you are not willing to take risks or create something controversial. “