Writer's Block with Caroline Grace-Cassidy - The Gloss Magazine

Writer’s Block with Caroline Grace-Cassidy

Actress, screenwriter and panellist CAROLINE GRACE-CASSIDY talks her latest script, FOODIE DELIGHTS from her favourite Andalusian escape and running into JAMES FRANCO buying Jameson on the set of YOUR HIGHNESS …

Caroline-Grace-Cassidy
Caroline Grace-Cassidy is not only the charismatic author of five best selling novels, but an illustrious actress, producer, screenwriter and regular panellist on TV3’s Midday. Her new book The Week I Ruined My Life was released last month to a glowing reception.

Caroline has lit up the small screen over the years, enjoying roles with the BBC, TV3, TG4 and RTÉ, where she played Aoife Coleman in Fair City. Caroline’s film career has seen collaborations with such directors as Jim Sheridan and Aisling Walsh. She most recently appeared in the star-studded comedy Your Highness, rubbing shoulders with James Franco and Natalie Portman.

Caroline turned to writing full-time in 2011. Her first feature film script is currently in pre-production with an American film studio. She is already working on the next script along with book number six.

Caroline lives in Dublin with her husband Kevin and their two daughters Grace and Maggie.

On home

I live in the leafy suburbs of Knocklyon in Dublin 16. I have lived here pretty much my entire life as my parents moved to Coolamber Park before I was two years old. Knocklyon and I have grown up together. From a very small neighbourhood in the eighties with a prefab church and prefab school it has sprouted countless houses and shops and developed into a huge sprawling area. St. Colmcille’s Junior school is in fact the largest junior school in Europe, Grace goes there and Maggie will start in September. I was the first pupil through the door. The fact I still live here is a lot to do with my parents being nearby too. I’m very much a family person.

One of the most incredible things about living in Knocklyon is that five minutes’ drive away from my house you are literally in the Dublin mountains. I love to drive around them and stop off in Glencree and Enniskerry. The Merry Ploughboy is my favourite local pub. Again it seems so rural and serves the best pint of Guinness and chicken wings in Dublin. Highly recommended.

On creating

I actually write in Maggie’s bedroom. All five novels I have written in that room and she will be five in September. We share the space but I’m pretty sure I will be evicted soon enough. My writing desk is in the corner of her room facing out the window. That desk is usually tidy with a scattering of notes, my yearly calendar and cold cups of unfinished tea. I have my red writer’s pin board on the wall, which I’ll be honest is way more for decorative purposes. Unfortunately, I am not a plotter so all that usually is pinned on my board are my character’s names and the working title of the novel. On a long black shelf in front of my lap top I display all my inspirational novels, Gone with the Wind, Great Expectations, Pride and Prejudice, Black Beauty, Watermelon, Agassi, Borstal Boy, the obligatory copy of Ulysses, and yup, my own novels.

On her favourite bookshop

The Book Haven in Supervalu Shopping Centre in Knocklyon. It is newly opened but already they have embraced my books as a local author. The Book Haven has that beautiful uniqueness of independent book shops. People speak softer, connect with eyes of recognition as you leaf through a book they have just finished, and the smell of all those new pages. Divine.

On treasured literature

Great Expectations. I have read this book over and over, I honestly can’t say how many times. I was introduced to it for my Inter Cert in Sancta Maria College and fell in love with the protagonist Pip. It was the first of the classics I had read. Actually, on my book shelf sits that exact same very well thumbed copy. It still gives me shivers as it opens on those grey, cold, isolated moors with the terrifying convict, Abel Magwitch, in hiding. But it also displays such human qualities as Dickens feeds us the heart of Joe Gargery. Miss Havisham could very well be written today and this wish to become a gentleman is timeless. Pip, that dear old chap, a decent soul. How I love a decent soul. It is a wondrous piece of writing.

On her oasis

Nerja in Spain. My parents have been living on and off on Calle de la Frigiliana out there for 15 years. I love the quiet authentic backstreets and the feeling of that hot, pomegranate scented air as you step out for the night with the garlic aromas spinning all around you. Nerja seems to give me more space in my head as I slowly stroll around it. I know a lot of the locals now and it wouldn’t be unusual for me to stop off for a jug of sangria and a sizzling bowl of Pil Pil prawns more than once a day.

On Your Highness

It was a dream role to land. In the script I had a nice part, however on set the director David Gordon Green threw the sides away and it was all improvisation. On day one I walked into wardrobe and James Franco and Danny McBride were huddled in a corner buying bottles of Jameson whiskey from the prop guy. I think they thought it was poitín! Natalie Portman was also bedside me in the makeup chair one day and I can tell you that’s no sister you want to have to look at 5am. She is uniquely beautiful. I’d been on film sets before but never one with a Hollywood budget like this. Universal produced it and everything was on a huge scale. Amazing experience.

On writing for Hollywood

It is a screenplay I co-wrote with another Irish writer based out in LA, Lisa Carey. We were chosen to pitch the idea out of hundreds of applications at the Galway Film Fleadh Pitching Competition two years ago. I had to give a 60 second elevator pitch in a room of about 200 people and a panel of industry judges, from Pete O’Toole’s daughter Kate, to the famous casting director Ros Hubbard. We didn’t win but immediately the buzz went around about the project and we started to gets lots of interest in the screenplay. My lips are sealed however as final negotiations are still on going. But it’s incredibly exciting a dream come true!

The Week I Ruined My Life (€8.99, Black & White) is available nationwide from all good bookshops.

Caroline was photographed at The Merry Ploughboy, Rathfarnham, by Eoin Rafferty

Sophie Grenham @SophieGrenham

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