Genevieve O'Reilly interview

Published: Tuesday, 19 June 2007, 2:11PM

Playing Kate has been liberating for Irish actress Genevieve O’Reilly even if the 1980s fashions are shockingly bad. “Kate’s clothes are awful,” she laughs.

“But it’s been so fantastic to wear clothes that when I was a kid my mother wouldn’t let me wear. For some reason I was never allowed to have a Ra Ra skirt. But I did have a stone-washed denim jacket, which is what we see Kate in most of the time,” says Genevieve from Dublin.

“When I first met the costume designer, I had the best time going through all these original 80s clothing.”

For Kate, the last 18 years were truncated into one evening. She has no clear memory of what happened but sees the birthday party night in flashback. In episode two she recalled Brian giving her a wallet to look after. It contained drugs he was trying to hide.

But she cannot piece anything together just yet. Genevieve explains: “I think the best word for Kate is lost. In fact, I was watching this show recently called Unknown White Male that was about a guy who woke up in the subways in New York and had no recollection of who he was and where he has come from. When Kate woke up she thought she had just left school.”

“But Kate’s mum and dad have told her the truth and they explained about the coma, her school friend Brian, and she then begins this process of discovery,” she adds.

“She can still only relate to everyone, including her old friends as if she was still a teenager. All those school relationships are somewhat invalid now because her friends have really moved on. So throughout the series I think she’s quite lonely and isolated.”

Genevieve is actually six years younger than her on-screen character. She says “I remember thinking when I was 18 that I had the answers to life and thank god for it, because that is what motivates you through life. You need that confidence and Kate has it.”

Genevieve’s research for the role was not exactly run of the mill. “When I started I sat down and watched as much real-life footage of coma victims as I could.

“Some had been in comas for long periods of time which was fascinating. There was a man from America who woke up from a coma after 19 years.

“I also saw two girls who after five years both recovered all speech and consciousness. They were helped with incredible rehabilitation programmes to retrieve their speech and cognitive processes and physical dexterity.

“But we don’t focus too much on things like that in the drama because we didn’t want the whole series to be about coming out of the coma. We wanted to pay attention to the relationships and how it affects the people around her.”