'Raw' star Charlene McKenna chats to Linda McGee about her feisty character Jojo, learning to cook and her recent IFTA nomination.
Linda McGee: Jojo is the kind of character who just oozes attitude and always seems to be sparking off other people. Do you enjoy that element of her character?
Charlene McKenna: I do, and people ask me a lot am I like her and there's some traits that are the same. She's very direct, very honest and I am as well but I think I wrap it up a bit more and engage my brain, maybe, more before I speak. Whereas she just fires off the hip constantly, but it makes her great and she's very funny and she's very sarcastic. Great lines, she's very sarcastic. Yeah, she's quick. She is fun to play. I wouldn't necessarily be as quick. She's straight back with one-liners.
LM: And she somehow gets away with saying unbelievable things to people!
CM: She does! I think it's as well because she's, as I am, small. She's like a little terrier or something! But she's harmless.
LM: When we met Jojo again at the start of this season she seemed slightly different. We know she's had a bit of heartache recently over Bobby, she seems to be constantly at loggerheads with Shane and now her mother has been added to the mix. Is there any sign of happier times on the horizon for her?
CM: There is, thank God. The second series is a lot weightier and there is a lot more bigger issues and life is throwing curveballs at her and she has had to grow up a lot since the first series. But the want is still in her, you know, and the life and soul and the glint in her eye is still there. And I think that glint gets taken with Dylan. She gets more life issues, but good and bad. She gets really good and really bad, so it's nice to see how she is in them situations.
LM: Tell us about the spark that's developing with Dylan. If I'm honest, I was a bit gutted to see him stepping in and possibly ruining a chance for Jojo and Bobby to get together...
CM: The Ross and Rachel?!
LM: Yeah, exactly. I see some jealously brewing there... Can you give us a few clues about how that storyline develops.
CM: Yeah, it's great. It creates a different dimension. You know, it's near time, Jojo has finally moved on... or has she?! I mean there'll always be something special between them two, be it friendship or be it... whatever it is. And it's interesting to see her attention taken and how that affects Bobby, so I think that plays out really well.
LM: And Jojo has the arrival of her mother to contend with this season as well. Is that going to bring more fireworks and stress?
CM: It is. You certainly start to really get to know Jojo because you see that. It's like meeting anyone's mum, you go 'Ah, that's where you come from'... to see her being chastised like a child again and to see that pushing Shane and Jojo together. I mean obviously they are really tight but they fight, like proper brother and sister. But they're united, not against the mum, but then there's the serious issue. There's the breast cancer story. They're quite tight. They are a close family, as long as there's distance.
LM: In that sense, they are really believable siblings. Yes, they scrap but they always seem to have each other's backs, haven't they?
CM: Yeah, they totally have each other's backs. There's a lot of love there. For me, if I wasn't in it and I was watching it, that's what would appeal to me. I think it's so real, the relationship between the mum, between her and the brother, and how they all work. It's fantastic, I think.
LM: Do you enjoy getting stuck into those scenes where yourself and Keith (as Jojo and Shane) have to tear lumps out of each other?
CM: Yeah, it's great. It's really fun. We had some really funny scenes, myself and Keith, and I was just laughing so much, even though you've done them 20 times. We were still having such a laugh with them.
LM: So there's good fun on the set when you're filming, is there? Seeing all the old faces and welcoming a few new ones...
CM: There is, and we were trying to be conscious of that, because we're so tight as a group, outside and in the show, it's hard for new people coming in. But we really tried and everyone, I think, pretty much just came in and fitted in. It was a good testament to us that Ger Ryan, who is obviously a legend and has worked on so much, came in after being on I don't how many sets in her life and said that it was the nicest atmosphere to come in to and to join and she said it was lovely, so that was great.
LM: You guys had a cookery masterclass before you started acting in the Raw kitchen. Having gone through that, do you think you could stick the heat of a real-life restaurant kitchen?
CM: I don't think I could. I don't think I could hack the pressure. I think I would have a nervous breakdown in a real kitchen because they work so hard. It is mental hours and the heat and everything. I mean we struggled filming it and we've air conditioning coming on after every scene. They don't. I mean it's great and I love that pressurised environment and I do think I work well but I don't think I could hack it at all, not as a full-time job, no. I'd lose my marbles!
LM: Congratulations on your IFTA nomination for Pure Mule...
CM: Aw thank you. It's still settling in.
LM: Were you chuffed to be nominated for that role because Pure Mule seemed to be a series that people just instantly took to their hearts?
CM: They really did take it to their hearts. Before we did the second one people were, for years, still coming up to me and being very complimentary about it. So it's great. As much as it's for this one, it feels like it's a nod from the Academy from long ago, and it's lovely. It's really lovely. Because we were anxious because it had been so long and 'Did anyone still care?' we were thinking. And it was a testament that it was still so prevalent in people's hearts.
LM: Revisiting 'Pure Mule' must have been a bitter-sweet experience this time round...
CM: It was, without Tom [Murphy]. It was very mixed that day because my first day back was in their house, in what was Tom and Garrett's house or Shamie and Scobie's house. So it was a very nostalgic, good and bad, trip down memory lane. We're doing 'Raw' a year apart or whatever and it's just like 'Aw we're back' but this was a long time. I had changed so much from a 21-year-old to a 25-year-old. I was a very different girl from the last time. Those years are very informative, you know.
LM: What's up next for you, Charlene?
CM: I don't know. Well, I'm going to go back and just do a small part on 'Law and Order' UK, which is great. It's small. And then I've just done a couple of auditions so I'm waiting to hear back.
LM: And you're based in London all the time, very near to the rest of your 'Raw' family, aren't you?
CM: Aw, we're all beside each other. We really are. It's terrible. We're like The Brady Bunch! It's super because it makes London a lot smaller and a lot more homely and I think coming from small towns, like me and Keith and a lot of us do, that's very important.
LM: Did you initially find it difficult to make that move over to London? I know sometimes you have to go where the work is but was it daunting for you?
CM: I've said before, I was there on and off for about four years and it took me until now to love it, to just go 'Ah this is great' and not be scared of getting lost! Now I'm like 'Aw whatever'.
And so we've learned that Charlene McKenna isn't as much like her character Jojo as she thinks she is! Chatty, smiley and very modest, she puts Jojo to shame!
