Charlene McKenna plays a woman with a dark past in gripping new Irish drama Clean Sweep. She talks to Alan Corr about entering a world of moral ambivalence
"Oh, I got my teeth into it alright - and my nails, my eyes, my ears, my soul . . . I'm still not recovered," says Charlene McKenna about her new role as a gun-packing housewife with a dark past in new Irish crime thriller Clean Sweep.
She plays wife, mother, and homemaker Shelly Mohan and she seems to have it all - a loving husband, three (mostly adorable) kids, a large SUV (electric, of course), and a very nice house but what really goes on behind the plantation shutters and manicured lawns of leafy suburbia?
In this wily new whydunit, Shelly is a woman who is desperately trying to outrun her past by keeping perfectly still.
A lot happens in Sunday night’s opening episode. We learn very quickly that she is actually a murderer who has assumed a false identity, but we don’t quite know why or who she has killed. However, the past has a way of catching up on you, first slowly and then very quickly.
For always watchable 39-year-old Monaghan actress McKenna, it really was a dream role. "This was one of those parts that I got to explore all kinds of emotions - there’s Shelly’s past life, her current construction of a life and then there’s the balance or hiding in plain sight and being a killer. It was just a gift to play."
This is a show with a strong ensemble cast including Barry Ward as Shelly’s husband, Jason, who just happens to be a detective (awks!), his partner in crime busting Fiona (Jeanne Nicole Ni Áinle), and the three Mohan kids.
However, McKenna, who has become an in-demand performer following roles in Bloodlands, Pure Mule, Peaky Blinders, and Vienna Blood, is the skipping heart of the whole thing and she says that playing the paranoid for a very good reason Shelly was emotionally draining.
"Yes, completely, 100%. I was absolutely shattered. I’m the kind of person who, if I’m going to do something, I do it full on. I’m a complete perfectionist, as is Shelly as it happens. I just tend to kill less people.
"I put everything into all my roles. I leave everything on the screen because I feel otherwise why bother? If you’re going to do it, do it right. Go big or go home. It took a lot out of me, but it was worth it."
Right from the off, there is tension and moral ambivalence in the air. Shelly may be acerbic and dry-witted but she’s also twitchy and panicky and has a fondness for large glasses of wine followed by a Valium chaser.
She may be a wrong 'un but it isn’t her fault and boy do we root for her. "That was my aim. All I wanted in this role is to somehow play a known murderer and have people rooting for her," McKenna says.
"Can I pull that off? That’s what I wanted to do. Actors are always saying they’re going to defend their character because they spend so much time with them and they delve into their reasoning and logic and their psychology.
"Morally, of course, Shelly is a wrong ‘un. She kills more than one person, but I can, to the best of my ability, understand that she isn’t a sociopath. She is into complete and utter survival. In the early days, she’s protecting herself and then later, it’s about protecting her family at any cost."
Clean Sweep is also a first for McKenna. As well as starring in the lead role, she also executive produced and worked very closely with writer Gary Tieche.
"That acerbic wit and dialogue was something me and Gary really worked on," she says. "Gary is American, but he has family from Armagh. He spent an awful lot of time in Ireland so he’s not an outsider writing about Ireland.
"He has the perfect mix of being `in’ enough but being on the outside to see it, aware in a way that we can’t always be, and I think that’s a perfect blend. An insider/outsider vibe."
She seems modest about her own considerable input. "I would look at his scripts and say, `Love what you did there, Gary, but change it all but keep the bones.’ No, I’m not remotely taking that much credit but that is sort of what we’d do, and he was very, very open and he wasn’t precious.
"We would just hash out plot points and make sure everything made sense and tied up. We had long emails every night after shooting where we’d hash out ideas. He was such a dream to work with and he made it so collaborative and so creative. We never fell out ever."
There’s some good writing on Clean Sweep, a twisty drama which follows the interconnecting stories of the large cast, including teen son Derek (Rhys Mannion) who is developing a fondness for reefer, daughter Caitlin (Katelyn Rose Downey) on the edge of adolescence, and precocious and sickly Niall (Aidan McCann), who is wiser than his tender years.
"The kids are everything," says McKenna. "This drama is about family and my big fear was that if we don’t get the family right, if we don’t get that dynamic right, I think we’re going to lose the heart of the show.
"We can have all the edgy crime element but for me that won’t stand up without the heart. That was really, really important to me and I think the kids are incredible. We got on so well, we were just so lucky."
She adds, "And Barry Ward has an amazing repertoire of dad jokes."
He could also be voted rear of the year, as we see in the first episode, which features a snatched moment of passion when Shelly is doing the dishes. "I can’t wait for his Marigold (Barrygold, anyone?) campaign to come out." laughs McKenna.
You’ll have to watch the show to see what she means but she adds, "There is more glove action coming up, shall we say. If you watch Clean Sweep for nothing else, watch it for the gloves.
"At first we were like `I’m not sure about this, is this a bit weird . . . ?’ but life’s weird, we’re all weird and we all go about pretending we’re normal. I’ve yet to meet a normal person, there is no such thing."
That’s certainly true of some of Clean Sweep’s minor players. There’s a hotel receptionist who might have stepped off the set of a Coen brothers movie and a creepy pathologist who enjoys his job far too much.
In episode three, we also meet Cathy Belton as Scotland Yard investigator DCI Crichett and her public school educated sidekick, Eames. Crichett comes to town and is willing to sacrifice everything in her obsessive search for answers.
McKenna herself remains a bit of a firecracker. She may live between New York and the family home in Glaslough with her husband, fellow actor Adam Rothenberg, whom she met while making Peaky Blinders and married during lockdown, but her Monaghan accent remains bulletproof.
Five years ago, she went full flapper playing Daisy Buchanan in an "immersive" new production of The Great Gatsby at The Gate in Dublin. One of her co-stars was a newcomer making his stage debut and who hadn’t even graduated from acting school.
What was his name again? Oh yes, Paul Mescal . . .
"Is that what his name was? I know, isn’t he just flying? Just flying?" says McKenna with genuine wonder.
"I was talking to him at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last February and I was just going, `Paul . . . what the . . . ?’ and he was just, `I know . . . it’s completely and utterly insane‘ but he hadn’t changed a bit, still the same. I think anyone with a good rarin’ keeps their feet under them, but we were just looking at each other going, `what happened? This is just bananas!’"
Clean Sweep starts this Sunday on RTÉ One in the drama slot recently occupied by something called KIN.
"I know, I know!" says McKenna. "It’s cruel to be honest, it’s nerve wracking and it’s cruel but I think we’re a lot different from KIN and hopefully in a refreshing way. There’s room for all of us!"
Alan Corr @AlanCorr2
Clean Sweep begins this Sunday, 14 May on RTÉ One at 9.30pm. All six episodes will be available to watch on the RTÉ Player immediately afterwards.
If you've been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please see RTÉ's list of helplines.
