Ever wanted to know more about your favourite celeb? We’ve been catching up with some of the biggest names in Irish showbiz to discover their hidden quirks and close-kept secrets. From pet peeves to bucket list dreams, we find out all there is to know about some very famous faces!
This week, we sit down with actress Joanne Ryan.
Joanne, what were you doing last night?
Learning lines! We’re back in rehearsals this week for the Irish tour of Eggsistentialism and I’m having great fun getting back into it. It’s very exciting to have the show back on its feet and to be working with director Veronica Coburn again who always brings so much to it.
What’s on your TV series link?
My favourite switch off, wind down show is Gogglebox. The reactions are great, the voyeuristic thrill of getting a nose into other people’s lives and living rooms is brilliant, the meta ‘ooh, look we’re watching telly of people watching telly’ is fun. I also really enjoyed Aisling Bea’s This Way Up recently. That scene of the sisters singing Zombie at their in-laws’ will be on Reeling in the Years someday.
What’s your takeaway of choice?
There’s a great Turkish takeaway in Limerick called Turkmen Grill that does really delicious charcoal grilled chicken and Afghan baked rice. I could eat that stuff all day.
What’s been your most embarrassing moment on air or in public?
Once, in the middle of a show, my dress opened and fell off and because it was a passionate kissing scene it wouldn’t have made sense to pull it on again so I just had to do the scene with my dress around my ankles. The worst part was that it was a historical drama so I was wearing a huge, white flowing dress and, oh yeah, a pair of shabby, black knickers. Mortified!
What gets your goat?
The amount of unnecessary packaging on everything! It’s obscenely wasteful. I feel like I have to play a game of pass the parcel with myself just to get to a courgette.
Who’s your broadcasting hero?
Stephen Fry is pretty wonderful, isn’t he? He wrote a book called Heroes last year about heroic mythological figures and there should be a chapter in there on himself.
What question do you hate being asked?
Now that I have a baby one of the worst offenders is probably ‘Would you not sleep while he naps?’ Yes, I would gladly! If only that wasn’t the only time I have to do literally everything else!
Tell us three things you do every day.
I’m hopeless at resisting the lure of my phone so that usually gets looked at first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It’s a terrible habit. I always start the day with porridge and a coffee and I speak to my mother, Gloria, on the phone pretty much everyday as well. We’re very close.
Tell us a secret about yourself.
I make autobiographical theatre so I’m a pretty open book in fairness. You say ‘secret’, I say ‘material’!
Tell us your ideal date.
I have a 7 month old baby so the bar is pretty low date-wise right now. Tonight we waited until he’d gone to bed before we ate so we could share a pasta bake on our own for 10 minutes and that’s about the height of the recent romance. In an ideal world, I’d be whisked away for an amazing meal, a great show and some hangover-resistant cocktails in London or New York.
Eggsistentialism, nationwide theatre tour. For details, www.joanneryan.ie