“At the end of the day, you’re still buzzing, but you’re physically tired.”
Derry Girls star Jamie Lee O’Donnell has spoken about the challenges of playing a teenager.
O’Donnell, who is from Derry herself, plays Michelle on the show, and recently shared that she has to meditate to come down from the challenge of playing a teen.
In an interview with the Irish Independent, the actress said: “It can be slightly hard to switch it off and shake it off.”
She continued: “Playing Michelle can be a bit exhausting, because it’s intense teenage hyperness that you’re bouncing about all day.
“Because it’s a comedy and it’s so hyper, between scenes I try and keep myself at a 10. At the end of the day, you’re still buzzing but you’re physically tired.
“That kind of hyper, positive, delighted-about-life energy can be really exhausting as well.”
In terms of what she does to calm down, O’Donnell said that she practices meditation and goes to the gym to cool off. She also said that she likes to read and tries to spend as much time outdoors as she can.
O’Donnell’s comments about the challenges of portraying a teenager come just a few weeks after she won praise for her appearance on The Late Late Show.
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While on the programme, host Ryan Tubridy asked her about her age, and O’Donnell pointed out how actresses tend to get this line of questioning more frequently than their male counterparts.
Ryan asked her: “This might be a rude question, you don’t have to answer – but can I ask you how old you are?”
To this, she replied: “”I’m 117. I’m very, very wise.”
When Ryan asked the age question again, Jamie said: “This is the thing about it, that gets on my nerves a wee bit, no disrespect. It’s always quite misogynistic even if it’s unintentionally because men don’t get the same scrutiny in their career.”
Ryan assured her that he would ask a male actor playing a teenager the same question, and Jamie pointed out how there wasn’t a male actor present.
