Eileen stars in hit Mary Queen of Scots movie

Eileen stars in hit Mary Queen of Scots movie

23 January 2019

CASTLEWELLAN actress Eileen O’Higgins has spoken of “the blessing and a curse” of trying to master a Scottish accent as her new film, Mary Queen of Scots, goes on worldwide release.

She has teamed up with her “best friend”, Irish actress and Golden Globe winner Saoirse Ronan, for the second time in the movie that aims to give an alternative historical take to the rivalry for the throne between the Scottish Queen Mary and her cousin Queen Elizabeth 1.

Eileen plays Mary Beaton, one of the ‘Four Marys’ or ladies-in-waiting, who attended the young exiled queen.

While historically the two young queens never met in person, the film creates the lead-up to a meeting as Mary pleads to Elizabeth to come to her aid after a failed attempt to regain the Scottish crown.

The relationship between the cousins was bound to be strained as Mary was seen as the natural heir to the English throne by many English Catholics as the only legitimate surviving daughter of King James V.

Eileen, a former student of St Malachy’s Primary School in Castlewellan and Assumption Grammar School, Ballynahinch, said that mastering the Scottish accent was key to her performance.

Referring to the Scottish accent, she said: “It’s not so terribly different to ours which was a blessing and a curse. It was hard sometimes not to slip back into the northern Irish accent.”

Apart from mastering a Scottish lilt, Eileen also had to learn French as that France is where the young Mary Stuart spent most of her early life.

The daughter of Kathleen and Brian O’Higgins, Eileen trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama after leaving Assumption.

Since then, she has become an emerging star of stage and screen with performances at the London’s Old Vic and the English National Opera. 

Her television credits include BBC dramas My Mother and Other Strangers, Emma and playing Eva Gouel in Picasso in National Geographic’s Genius series.

However, Eileen got her a major break — and made a lifelong friend with Ronan — when she appeared alongside her in the 2015 Oscar-nominated movie Brooklyn.

Eileen played Nancy, the best friend of Ronan’s character Eilis Lacey as she learns how to navigate her new life in New York as a young Irish emigrant. 

She was also in the latest homegrown move, Grace and Goliath, which also received a Hollywood premiere last year. 

Ronan name-checked Eileen as her “best friend” in her acceptance speech for winning Best Actress for Lady Bird when they attended the glamorous event together in 2018.