Genevieve O'Reilly

I love going away with friends - it gets a bit raucous and fun. ”

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. ”

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. ”

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. ”

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. ”

Me and my husband make decisions together, and we think of the children always, as a lot of jobs take you away as an actor, and it's a bit of a gypsy lifestyle. ”

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

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. ”

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