Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

All of my dad's family, his brothers and sisters, my nana and grandad and all of the cousins emigrated to Australia within two years of each other. Irish families are close at the best of times, but when you move to the other side of the world, we were like a big posse over there.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I'm a working actor, and that's what I always wanted.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I think most Irish people are creative. Whether it's music, or dance, or... certainly storytelling is in the blood.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I'm not sure I'm a good cook. But I like cooking, and it's a real family thing - an expression of love being together.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I'm a bit of a mongrel, really!

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

There's such a fascination with celebrity. I think that's a very different thing to being an actor.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I've had quite a wide spread of a career. But it's not like I've had to negotiate what Sienna Miller has had to negotiate, or even Felicity Jones, for example.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

My goal has always been, from the time I was at drama school, about longevity.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

Certainly in my youth there was lots of singing, lots of storytelling, and whenever we went to a party, you had to do a party piece, like sing songs, recite poems, or tell stories. That sort of narrative musical culture was my upbringing.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

When I was around 13 or 14, there were visits to the theater, which really ignited my passion. Going to see live theater is when I properly got the bug and hoped I'd be able to do it for a living one day.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

Whenever I do a play, there are 'Star Wars' fans at the stage door, and they're always lovely - so excited and so effusive about the storylines and the characters. When you're doing something really serious, and the 'Star Wars' fans are waiting outside, it's a nice juxtaposition.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I used to have an Australian accent for school and an Irish accent for home.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I was the only one silly enough to carry it on to the professional level, but I would say most of my family - and my extended family - are storytellers. And really, that's just what acting is.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

It's great to have a job and then go to another one, and have another one to go to after that. It doesn't always happen; you might be waiting a few months. But I've had some interesting roles, and worked with some great people. And it has been a really interesting mix between theatre television and film.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

Isn't everybody a 'Star Wars' fan?

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I have a few homes. I have my family home in Adelaide where my parents and my brothers and sisters are, and I have a few friends and my place where I used to live in Sydney, and then my husband and our family in London, so... I'm from everywhere and nowhere.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I love Adelaide. It's a great place.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I think there's a responsibility to any character that you play that was a living persona.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

We used to speak Irish - Gaelic Irish - around the dinner table, but over the years, we lost that.

Genevieve O'Reilly
Genevieve O'Reilly

I think moving from Ireland to Australia, you couldn't get a more different accent on the palate. The Irish accent is very muscular and involves a lot of tongue and cheek-muscle work, whereas the Australian accent is really flat; the palate is quite broad. They're at almost opposite ends of the scale, so I feel it was good training.