'I love being able to make people happy or sad or entertain them though a performance'

An actor from Moynalvey who landed the lead role in a star-studded TV series says taking part in local drama classes as a child ignited a passion for the arts.

'Departure', a British/Canadian suspense drama is a high-octane conspiracy series that follows the mystery of Flight 716 - a passenger plane that vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean.

Florence Ordesh joined the cast is season two series plays the lead character Rose Tate opposite Emmy award-winning actress, Archie Panjabi.

“It is about a train travelling from Toronto to Detroit and derails in Michigan. Archie Panjabi played a detective in the first series and is back to solve the mystery of the train derailment,” she explains.

Florence says she can’t reveal much about her part just yet but she was in a cab on the way to Toronto from her Vancouver base to shoot further scenes, when the Meath Chronicle spoke to her.

“It’s a really interesting character to play that I hadn’t done before so I was really excited to dive into it,” she added.

After working on a number of independent productions in Canada, Florence’s first big break came in 2011 when she landed the leading role in the mini-series, ‘Saor Sinn ð Olc’ for TG4, and has been working ever since.

“I decided to get representation here in Toronto and Departure was the first audition that my agent here got me and I booked it so I have been lucky.

“They pushed the shoot out until the end of the summer and did some rewrites so it could be shot in a Covid-friendly environment so I was really hoping it would go ahead because everything was so unpredictable but luckily it ended up getting the green light.

“Every industry has found a new way to work they are working through it really well, masks are being worn Covid tests are being taken, all the productions in the studio are completely separated from each other, there is no crossover and in between each take the masks go back on.”

Departure was one of legendary actor Christopher Plummer’s last roles before passing away last month, aged 91, but due to Covid filming restrictions Florence did not get to work alongside the actor.

“With the Covid rewrites it meant that he was shooting a lot from his house in the States so the crew went over so I didn’t get a chance to meet him unfortunately.”

It was her first experience on stage as a child in Summerhill that gave Florence the acting bug as she explains: “I grew up in Moynalvey and went to drama classes in the Summerhill Community Centre so that is where I started acting. I loved it and couldn’t get enough and went for years. I performed at Feiseanna and the plays every year before I went off to secondary school in Dublin.

“From going to drama school I knew that I loved acting and I knew it’s what I wanted to do when I grew up so even from a really young age when people ask a young person what do you want to be and they usually say something crazy like an astronaut, for me an actor was my answer but for me it never left I never grew out of that.

“So from secondary school I just had in my head, I’m going to study acting when I leave school, I thought I’m not going to fill out a CAO form, I don’t think I need this because I’m going to be an actor, I was so naïve but obviously I got to do it so it worked out in the end!”

It was after secondary school that Florence initially went to Canada to learn her trade.

“When I finished school I went to the Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts to train professionally. I looked online for screen acting programmes in Ireland because the Gaiety was the main place to train at the time and it was all theatre acting and I wanted to learn how to be an actor for screen rather than stage.

“Unfortunately at that time Ireland didn’t have a screen acting programme so I looked in LA and New York and just through my searches online my research I found Vancouver and it was known as north Hollywood, there seemed to be a lot going on and it sort of just suited me best.

“I had an audition and an interview and they offered me a place.”

Describing what acting means to her, the Departure actor said: :For me it’s an opportunity to become somebody else for a short period of time and through that tell a story that entertains other people that’s what I love about it.

“I love being able to make people happy or sad or entertain them though a performance and it is invigorating as an actor to take on that character and it is such a creative experience working with other actors, working with all of the crew everyone has such a meaningful job on set so I love the collaboration aspect of it as well.

“Sometimes I try to take a step back and think how grateful I am because it is a notoriously difficult industry, you just become involved in the industry and you are working, and you forget how a lot of actors actually don’t get to have this opportunity, so it is amazing, and I try to continuously remind myself that I’m in a great position.”

Reflecting on taking part in drama classes as young child, Florence commented that: “Very early on as a young kid I was shy so going in and learning a piece and getting up and performing it was a feeling that I never had before.

“I think that was a turning point to get up and perform as a child and think getting to learn something and become somebody else for a few minutes doing a monologue and feel how invigorating it was, it was different being another character, any sort of self-conscious feelings were gone because this was the character that I had to honour or honour what character was feeling.”