Up and coming actress Katelyn Rose Downey told David Hennessy about her short film Clodagh which incorporates her other love of Irish dancing and acting with big names like Joey King and in the Blade Runner franchise.
Katelyn Rose Downey from Knocklyon in Dublin is a young talent to watch out for.
At just 15 years old, she has already appeared in The Princess alongside Hollywood star, Joey King, horror film The Nun II and the RTE series, Clean Sweep.
On top of all that, we are going to see her in the forthcoming series Blade Runner 2099, the latest instalment of the Blade Runner franchise with Ridley Scott executive producing.
Katelyn can be seen in the short film Clodagh at the forthcoming Irish Film Festival London.
The short film follows Mrs Kelly, a lonely, devout, and rigorously honest housekeeper, played by Bríd Ní Neachtain, who discovers Clodagh (Rose Downey), a young girl with an exceptional gift for Irish dancing.
But Clodagh’s gift creates a moral conundrum for Mrs. Kelly.
The gift for dancing is something Katelyn shares with her character as she is a two time world champion.
Katelyn told The Irish World: “It’s always the character that draws me in the most.
“With Clodagh, that was very, very easy.
“She was such an amazing character that I got to portray.
“Whenever I prepare for a character, I try to separate myself from the character completely and look at it as a completely different person who I don’t know.
“Then I try to find similarities between me and the character.
“For Clodagh, that was very easy because we both share something we love very much which is dance.
“For me, as Katelyn, why I dance comes from a love of storytelling whereas for Clodagh, it comes from a place of being able to express herself and she uses it as an outlet rather than just for enjoyment.
“It was really interesting for me to be able to explore that side of it and what dance means to people who use it as an outlet because dance, for me and for so many people, means so much.
“It was really interesting for me to explore with Clodagh how dance makes her feel and how it just makes her so happy but in a completely different way to me that I don’t relate to as much because my home life, unlike Clodagh’s, is very good which I’m very privileged for.
“But for Clodagh, it’s not that good so it was really interesting to be able to explore that element of it.”
Although initially shy and subdued, Clodagh comes to life when she gets to dance.
“At the start, Clodagh’s quite shy. She’s timid. She’s not very outgoing but as soon as she dances, it’s like there’s a whole new person inside of her and dance just releases that and it’s like it doesn’t matter who’s looking.
“It’s just such a release for her because she’s obviously so in her head when she’s timid, she’s shy, she’s not very out there and dance just really brings out a whole new side of Clodagh that we don’t get to see very often which was really interesting.”
You dance for a different reason but Irish dance has really been a big part of your family and upbringing, hasn’t it?
“Yeah, my mum and my auntie own a dance school and so dance has always been a part of my life.
“But the reasoning behind why I love to dance is I love expressing myself through storytelling and I think that’s also why I fell in love with acting.
“It just felt really connected and really real to me when I started, because it comes from the same love of storytelling for me. That’s really why I kind of fell in love with acting at the same time.
“I’ve been dancing since I was four but I have been professionally acting for three years now.
“I started acting just through COVID and my first project, which I was really, really honoured to be a part of, was a major studio film. I was really excited to be able to have that as my first experience and it was so positive.
“That was really when I fell in love with acting. It was on my first set which was The Princess.
“I love all the different aspects of it but The Princess was my first time getting to put the whole process together.
“I had the character preparation which I love, it definitely is my favourite but then I had the filming and the filming was amazing for The Princess.
“It was such a family environment.
“I lived in Bulgaria for two months and it was really amazing.
“I learned so much because everybody was just really, really helpful to me.
“I feel like then it came out, it was really when I fell in love with the whole process of acting and I knew I wanted to do that as a career for the rest of my life if I was given the opportunity.”
How great is a project like Clodagh that combines the acting with your dancing, your two loves. It’s also rare because as visual as Irish dancing is, it rarely features in a film as an important element of the story…
“No, it doesn’t.
“Clodagh was really the first time I’d ever seen anything with Irish dancing as such a main focal point of the story.
“I know sometimes Irish dancing has came up in different stories but for Clodagh, it was one of the main driving points for the film and it was really, really special to me to be a part of it because I’ve always loved Irish dancing and I think it’s really important.
“I’m really glad that now the world gets to see what Irish dancing is and how much it can mean to people.
“And that is, I think, a lot to do with Portia (A Buckley, writer/ director).
“Her script was incredible.
“I think it’s something that really should be shared especially because Irish dancing isn’t really shown that often, and it is something that’s really important to people.”
Let’s talk about your co- stars and firstly Bríd Ní Neachtain. Bríd was part of the original Dancing at Lughnasa and more recently seen in Martin McDonagh’s Banshees of Inisherin. She has also done much work in the Irish language including Róise & Frank which closed Irish Film Festival London some years ago. What was it like to work with such a pro?
“Bríd is absolutely incredible.
“She was really, really amazing to work with because I just learned so much from her.
“Everything felt so real and she was such a grounded person.
“She was so lovely to work with.
“There’s so many amazing Irish actresses and I’m really proud to have worked with Bríd because she is really one of the best.
“She’s incredible and her work is really amazing.
“I was really, really honoured to work beside her.”
Someone else that we see albeit only briefly is Aidan O’Hare who has appeared in The Wind That Shakes the Barley and more recently KIN. He’s always a class act and plays your father in Clodagh.
We only see him for a minute but he gives the film so much depth..
“Yeah, he really does.
“He gives us an insight into what Clodagh’s home life is like.
“I think it’s really important that we were able to see that little glimpse of her home life through Aidan’s performance.
“We can see that the home life isn’t that good.
“She’s not really wanted, she doesn’t feel wanted and Aidan really portrays that in an amazing way.
“But Aidan, off camera, is the loveliest person ever so it was really amazing to watch the contrast between Aidan and then Clodagh’s father.”
The film has qualified for the Academy Awards..
“Yeah, it’s incredible.
“We were so excited when we found out the news.
“We filmed it in Cork and there was such a family environment.
“It’s just amazing.
“There’s so much love and passion in the project that I feel like it’s getting a lot of recognition that it really deserves.
“I’m so happy that it’s getting to potentially the Oscars which is absolutely incredible to think of.
“I’m just really proud of everybody and how it’s being received because I think it really deserves it.”
Do you feel that there is so much budding talent in Ireland right now with actresses like Catherine Clinch and Alisha Weir coming to prominence in things like The Quiet Girl and Matilda but also yourself and the exciting projects that you have coming up..
“Yeah, it’s really amazing because Ireland has so many talented people.
“It’s really, really exciting that so many people are finally being recognised and I’m really proud to be one of those people who have gotten the opportunity to do work that is so meaningful to so many people.
“I am just so happy that everyone’s finally getting the recognition they deserve from Ireland because it’s a talented country.”
You mentioned The Princess that saw you working with Joey King who is well known from Fargo, The Kissing Booth, Bullet Train and so many other things.
What was that experience like?
“The Princess was absolutely incredible to be a part of.
“It was my first ever time on set and everyone who was there just made me feel so welcome.
“They were all so helpful to me and especially Joey.
“She also started out very young and she’s very much like a role model to me because she’s done so many incredible things. Her career is amazing and she was so kind to me. We went out outside of set but even when we were on set, she was always so helpful.
“Especially on that project, I was just like a sponge. I was taking everything in.
“It was my first time being on set and for it to be such an amazing project to be a part of, I was just taking everything in.
“I was learning what the marks were on the floor. I was learning so much stuff but really everybody who was there was just so welcoming and so helpful.
“They were all just incredible to work alongside.”
After that came The Nun 2: A horror, something completely different.
“The Nun 2 was incredible to be a part of, it really was.
“It was my first lead role and that obviously comes with so much more preparation which I absolutely love.
“I love getting to explore so many different parts of my character and Sophie, who I played, had moved away from her home, she was being bullied, then there was so much other stuff going on with her so that was really exciting to explore getting to do a lead role.
“But really what made that production so special to me was it was the first time I was really treated like a collaborator rather than just like a child, I felt.
“A lot of it comes down to the director, Michael Chaves.
“He was absolutely incredible.
“He always asked for my opinion and he really valued my opinion and what I had to say.
“He was always so open to any ideas and he really treated me like a collaborator on the project which was really, really special.
“I have so many memories from that set, it was just incredible.”
And it was perhaps in between those films that you did the TV series Clean Sweep with Barry Ward and Charlene McKenna.
“Being part of Clean Sweep was absolutely amazing.
“It was really meaningful to me because it was the first time I’d filmed in Ireland.
“It was so incredible to get to work alongside so many amazing Irish actors and actresses and everybody behind the camera.
“It was so amazing to see so many talented Irish people and to work alongside them.”
But definitely most exciting is what you have coming up: Blader Runner 2099 a forthcoming series in the Blade Runner franchise that stars Michelle Yeoh and Tom Burke…
“It’s incredible and it’s being filmed at the moment.
“We are having an absolute blast.
“I can’t say too much about it at the moment but I’m really, really excited to be a part of such an iconic franchise by Ridley Scott.
“It really excites me.
“Blade Runner itself has had such a cultural impact on science fiction films today and it’s really, really important to me and really such an honour to be a part of something so iconic.”
Still looking ahead I understand there has been some talk of taking the story of Clodagh further and making it into a feature film. Would you like to explore the story more?
“Yeah, I think a feature film of Clodagh would be incredible to watch because I think in such a short space of time that Clodagh is, it’s only 12 minutes, you still get to see so much depth to the characters.
“I think it would be really cool to get to explore them through a full feature length film, especially Clodagh. You could maybe go back into her backstory.
“I think it would be really, really interesting to watch and something that would be really special.”
Clodagh screens 2.30pm on Saturday 16 November at Institute of Contemporary Arts as part of the Irish Film Festival London.
Irish Film Festival London runs 13- 17 November.
For more information and to book, click here.
