{"id":765612,"date":"2026-06-28T11:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765612\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:30:18","slug":"actor-agnes-ocasey-i-have-a-very-clear-sense-of-my-great-grandfathers-spirit-and-his-mind-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/765612\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Agnes O\u2019Casey: \u2018I have a very clear sense of my great-grandfather\u2019s spirit and his mind\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m entering a new thing of saying \u2018no\u2019 to stuff,\u201d Agnes O\u2019Casey says with a nervous cackle. \u201cI\u2019m scared. Every time I do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sounds plausible. When, three years ago, we last spoke, the charismatic young actor could already boast a groaning CV. She had appeared in Anton Chekhov\u2019s The Seagull for Druid<\/a> theatre company. She had two films on the go. She had a leading role in the BBC<\/a> series Ridley Road. Nobody could doubt that Agnes O\u2019Casey \u2013 great-granddaughter of playwright Se\u00e1n O\u2019Casey<\/a> \u2013 was on the rise, but, in this summer of 2026, she has well and truly arrived. An actor of the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s lovely to just finally have a real run of just working,\u201d she agrees. \u201cIt makes its way into your nervous system. You\u2019re like: \u2018Oh, cool. I\u2019m working now.\u2019 But even if it doesn\u2019t take that long to shoot a film, even if your CV can look pretty stacked, there\u2019s still a lot of time off.\u201d<\/p>\n

She is currently in a Prague hotel room, enjoying a day\u2019s rest from shooting the BBC\u2019s Legacy of Spies, an indecently promising dive into the late John le Carr\u00e9\u2019s espionage universe. What does she do with such time off? There are worse places to be at a loose end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on so many long walks now,\u201d she says. \u201cI plan what I\u2019ll have for dinner, read, and become very reliant on podcasts. Ha, ha!\u201d<\/p>\n

Endlessly energetic, with a sharp line in creative deprecation, O\u2019Casey, raised in Devon and north London, could hardly be better company. She has a habit of curling up into a shuddering ball of laughter when reminded of where she has found herself. In 2024, she had a recurring role as Meg Douglas in Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, closing section of the BBC\u2019s epic Hilary Mantel adaptation. In the same year, she squared up against Keira Knightley in Netflix\u2019s spy series Black Doves and played Liz Gold in the hugely acclaimed stage adaptation of Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. Her class of studied intensity is becoming nicely familiar.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Casey is currently bossing the small screen in one the season\u2019s most acclaimed series. Star City, for Apple TV, retells the story of From All Mankind \u2013 that streaming service\u2019s cult hit concerning an alternative history of the US space race, from the gloomier perspective of the USSR. O\u2019Casey plays Irina Morozova, a KGB agent who, we know from the earlier series, will, after much trauma, later become a high-ranking state official. Beginning with the Soviets beating the US to the moon in 1969, From All Mankind is rightly beloved by its fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hadn\u2019t heard of it,\u201d O\u2019Casey admits. \u201cI watched it after I started auditioning, and loved it. A lot of people in my life hadn\u2019t heard of it, but the people who did loved it. It has a very loyal and interesting fanbase. It\u2019s been a huge relief that Star City has been accepted and enjoyed by that fanbase. You are obviously aware they are very loyal and you don\u2019t want to let them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

For All Mankind supposes that, if the Soviets had indeed landed first on the moon, the US, driven by humiliation, would never have stepped back from manned space exploration in the 1970s. We get moonbases, missions to Mars and a different school of rivalry between the two powers. Irina is an intriguingly conflicted character.<\/p>\n

\"StarStar City: Agnes O’Casey as KGB agent Irina Morozova <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a very loyal foot soldier to the regime, or at least she wants to be,\u201d O\u2019Casey says. \u201cIt would be naive to think that she\u2019s questioning it. I think it\u2019s in her DNA to sort of trust everything, and the interesting thing about her storyline is that we watch her lose faith \u2013 or have a crisis of faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

I note that much of the series was shot in Vilnius. When we last met, O\u2019Casey explained that one side of her family were Jewish \u00e9migr\u00e9s from Lithuania. That must have felt like going home.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Archive review: Agnes O\u2019Casey looks like she is going to be a starOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing. It was so exciting,\u201d she says. \u201cA few of us on the show have Lithuanian grandparents or great-grandparents. It was wonderful. Vilnius is an incredible place to be. And then there was a moment where I got excited, because there was a rumour going around that if you had a great-grandparent, you could get a European passport, but it turns out \u2018no\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, yes. She misses out by just a generation or so on both sides. Shivaun O\u2019Casey, Agnes\u2019s grandmother (and S\u00e9an\u2019s daughter), was born in Devon. So no Irish passport. It seems similar regulations stopped her securing the equivalent Lithuanian document.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hopeless, I think. I have an Italian great-grandfather, I think, but \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

My Italian passport law is rusty, but it sounds as if that might not do it either.<\/p>\n

\"AgnesAgnes O’Casey and her grandmother Shivaun O’Casey, daughter of Se\u00e1n O’Casey in Dublin in 2019 for the official opening by then president Michael D Higgins of Flac’s (Free Legal Aid Centre) head office at 85-86 Dorset Street Upper, formerly the home of the Irish playwright. Photograph: Dara Mac D\u00f3naill <\/p>\n

O\u2019Casey has had a lot to do with spies recently. She is also toying with a great many fiercely loyal fanbases. Le Carr\u00e9\u2019s 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies is a peculiar sort of book. Owlish genius George Smiley and his lieutenant Peter Guillam emerge from retirement to consider the betrayals and deceits depicted, 63 years ago, in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It seems the series has more to do with that earlier novel \u2013 famously filmed around Dublin with Richard Burton in 1965 \u2013 as it does with the later Smiley chronicle. The BBC describes the project as \u201cadapted from le Carr\u00e9\u2019s global bestseller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and drawing on material from his 2017 novel A Legacy of Spies\u201d. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Casey reprises her role from the theatre version as Liz Gold, a tragically misused pawn in the conflict between East and West. Hugh Laurie, Dan Stevens and Joe Alwyn also star. Matthew Macfadyen sounds like smart casting as Smiley. He can manage the same crushed intelligence. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe is brilliant,\u201d O\u2019Casey says. \u201cI had a scene with him the other day, and it was pretty magic. It felt so real. You\u2019ve done so much reading about Smiley. He is so present in all the books, and he\u2019s so tricky. He\u2019s cold. He\u2019s warm. He\u2019s calculating.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unusual for an actor to move from a theatrical production to playing the same character in a differently titled screen adaptation. It\u2019s not like Barbra Streisand taking Funny Girl from Broadway to Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, exactly. I think it\u2019s a pretty uncommon experience,\u201d O\u2019Casey says. \u201cI said it to Matthew: \u2018Have you ever done this?\u2019 And he said: \u2018No.\u2019 It is wonderful. I\u2019ve never felt so prepped. I\u2019ve played her for so long. I\u2019ve been with her for years, and I think that, when I finish filming, I\u2019m going to feel bereft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I was really scared, because I thought: I\u2019m English, and no one in England knows who I am. But I don\u2019t know if I can work in Ireland. I felt a bit placeless\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Agnes O\u2019Casey<\/p>\n

It would be natural of us to assume, given her heritage, that O\u2019Casey was always destined for a life on the stage. The story goes that Shivaun O\u2019Casey took young Agnes to productions of her father\u2019s plays when she was just eight. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was five, but then she said: \u2018I wouldn\u2019t have done that.\u2019 Ha, ha! But she was the kind of person that wouldn\u2019t really think about it. She would just bring you. And I\u2019m glad. I\u2019m so glad she did, because I was terrified. But I was also loving it. So it was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Shivaun talk much about her father? <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the time,\u201d she says. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the nicest things about having S\u00e9an as my great-granddad. I get to have a sense of connection to a great-grandparent. Whether it\u2019s right or not, I feel I have a very clear sense of his spirit and his mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, born Agnes Kenig, she took his surname for her professional moniker. That feels like an implicit tribute to the author of The Plough and the Stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, exactly,\u201d she says. \u201cIt felt like the right thing to do \u2013 to have the name in some way. It was completely connected to why I became an actor. Also, I like the double \u2018s\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Casey mentions that she is dyslexic, but it seems that was spotted early and she had the right sort of assistance.<\/p>\n

\"PlaywrightPlaywright Se\u00e1n O\u2019Casey <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty obvious,\u201d she says. \u201cAlso, both my parents are dyslexic. So, I was like a nepo-dyslexic. I went to a Steiner school where reading isn\u2019t forced upon you. It\u2019s done very gently. You learn to read when you\u2019re, like, seven. But it wasn\u2019t a huge trauma for me \u2013 I guess because I was in a dyslexic household.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Next Year Will Be a Good One by Shivaun O\u2019Casey: Life in the benevolent shadow of Se\u00e1n O\u2019CaseyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It feels like a further tribute to her Irish heritage that, when the time came for drama school, she opted for at The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin. That establishment has trained a golden generation of domestic actors over the past decade or so. The likes of Paul Mescal, Alison Oliver, Zara Devlin and \u00c9anna Hardwicke have all honed their skills there. Presumably British drama schools were also an option. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, they would have been if they\u2019d let me in. Ha ha!\u201d she says. \u201cI auditioned for drama school three years in a row. I hadn\u2019t heard of the Lir. And then I came to the Abbey, and someone said: \u2018Have you auditioned for the Lir?\u2019 Thankfully, I got in. I had no idea at the time how incredible the training was going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admits to being worried for the future at that stage. I can believe it. Even the most experienced actor wonders if the phone might eventually stop ringing. It takes courage to make those first tentative leaps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really scared, because I thought: I\u2019m English, and no one in England knows who I am. But I don\u2019t know if I can work in Ireland. I felt a bit placeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The world soon found her. She seems as at home in Irish films such as the recent, highly acclaimed Small Things Like These as she is in high-end series such as the excellent Star City. Now skirting 30 (if she\u2019ll forgive me), she is of an age to give advice to younger actors setting out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say try your hardest to enjoy the process of auditioning,\u201d she says. \u201cI would also say if you\u2019re in a room and a director is making you feel like crap, chances are they\u2019re not a very nice person, and you don\u2019t need to impress them. You can come across a lot of power games. I hope it\u2019s changing, but there are these people in power with these young brains in their hands. They can be quite cruel and power gamey.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is an uncharacteristically sombre \u2013 though undoubtedly accurate \u2013 pronouncement from a performer who otherwise radiates positivity. Pondering again, she comes at the question from a less forbidding angle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re rejected in some way, which you will be, there are a million other people that you will jive with and who will understand you,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be blanket accepted by everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Star City is on Apple TV. New episodes every Friday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m entering a new thing of saying \u2018no\u2019 to stuff,\u201d Agnes O\u2019Casey says with a nervous cackle. \u201cI\u2019m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[23083,64,63,447,134,202719,364835,364834,76232],"class_list":["post-765612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-apple-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-john-le-carre","tag-lir-academy","tag-sean-o-casey","tag-weekendreview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}