Page 277 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

I worried I might not speak like the other students and I was a wee bit nervous about holding
myself in conversations.
Mirren Mack

“I [later] realised that people’s lives can be both amazing and difficult, no matter where they come
from, but I do find it interesting that me and others had to sort of rely on the kindness of strangers
to get where we were, whereas some people could do that for themselves or thanks to their family’s
money.”

Mack got the part in The Nest while still at the Guildhall and has also had a small but key role as
the asexual Florence in the second series of hit Netflix show Sex Education. She has since been cast
in The Beast of Blue Yonder, the latest play from award-winning writer Philip Ridley. Its opening
at Southwark Playhouse has been postponed because of the pandemic.

She describes acting opposite Gillian Anderson in Sex Education as “jaw-dropping”. “My heart was
going so fast during the scenes with her – I did have to keep telling myself ‘remember to act’.”

She was thrilled, too, at the positive online response to her asexual character. “I hadn’t realised
how little representation of asexuality there is. I did do research but the best thing was getting
feedback from people who said that they had actually found themselves in a storyline.”

It is The Nest, however, which looks set to propel Mack into the big time. Created by Nicole Taylor,
the award-winning writer of Three Girls and country music hit Wild Rose, it is a tense drama
about class, privilege and the question of who deserves success in life.

Mack was delighted that her first major role had taken her back home. “One of the things I loved
most about filming it was that it was a beautiful showcase of Glasgow,” she said. “There’s one point
when I’m on a rooftop looking out over this amazing city. It was really emotional because this part
of Scotland is so rich with life and I’m standing there after a couple of years at drama school,
finally doing what I love more than anything else in the world, here in this place that I also love.

“I was such a mess that I actually started to cry.”