Beverley Callard joined the cast of the RTE soap earlier this year and also recently revealed a breast cancer diagnosis – Sorcha, who plays Orla Molloy, says the whole cast has been there for her
Fair City star Sorcha Furlong
Fair City stalwart Sorcha Furlong, who plays Orla Molloy on the hit Irish soap, has described the cast of the show as a “family”, as she opened up about supporting new co-star Beverley Callard after she recently revealed a breast cancer diagnosis.
Sorcha, who has spent over two decades in Carrigstown, shares a dressing room with Callard on the set of the show – and says the cast are “all there for each other”.
“I met Beverley when she first started and we said ‘hello’ but I wasn’t doing scenes with her so it was just a ‘how are you?’, ‘welcome’.
“But then we shared a dressing room and when you share a dressing room with somebody you’ve more time to spend with them so we shared a dressing room and I was talking to her about her husband and her dog because I had just got a puppy so we were chatting about that and then I said, ‘I’m so sorry to hear about your breast cancer’ because she had just started sharing the news online.
“And I have to say, what a graceful lady – what a lovely, lovely lady.
“For someone who had just joined the show so recent and had such a life-changing experience, everyone just kind of banded together for her because everyone on that show is just family – we all know each other’s kids, partners, etc.
“We’ve lost other actors, we’ve lost crew, people have lost family members, but we’ve always been there for each other and Beverley is under our umbrella now so everyone cares what happens next and we just want to support her as best we can.”
Over the past 26 years, Sorcha has had many sad, mad and explosive storylines. And while some storylines have been more challenging than others, the 49-year-old, whose character is currently grappling with her feelings over her onscreen son Junior growing up, still adores her craft – and loves “being involved in other people’s storylines”.
“Sometimes you have a storyline that’s about you and everyone is involved in that and then sometimes you’re involved in other people’s storylines and I love both because sometimes when you’re involved in other people’s storylines, you won’t have gotten to work with those people for a couple of weeks and so getting involved in Paul’s storyline and Pete and Dolores’ storyline, it’s great – I love the whole fly-on-the-wall thing,” Sorcha told Chic.
“But I think over the last couple of weeks it’s been focused on, you know, the single mom, the money worries, the loneliness, which, for me, is really interesting.
“So it’s a hard thing to do – being involved in other people’s storylines but also carry your own and so still being in your own feelings and character – but it’s a great thing to do, to bring your character into other people’s storylines.”
Hours on set can be long and Hollywood superstar Ryan Gosling recently described soap actors as the hardest working people in showbusiness, describing learning 10-20 pages of dialogue daily as “technical insanity”.
But for Sorcha, this is all just part and parcel of the job.
She says, “Last week I was in for two days and I was in every single scene from morning until evening and the crew would be like, ‘how do you remember all the lines?’, but after 26 years, you just do, you just put the work in, there’s no bells and whistles.
“Don’t get me wrong, there’s days when it’s 8 o’clock at night-time and you’ve been filming since early morning and you don’t even know your name you’re so tired, but we’re all in the same ship, even the crew, so I just think, there’s no solo players and we’re all part of the show and we’re all doing the same hours.”
We are currently seeing Sorcha’s character Orla’s son Junior starting to show an interest in girls, with Orla struggling as he transitions into being a teenager.
In real life, Orla is mom to 16-year-old Stella but says being a mom to a teenage girl is very different to being an onscreen mom to a boy!
“Whether you’re a single parent or you come from a two-parent family, the teenage years are a challenge.
“I try to remember what I was like as a teenager and the rebellion and the talking back, it is a rite of passage and it does happen at this age but I just think you try to teach them to be respectful.
“You’ll take the odd jab but then you have to kind of rein it in.
“But it’s different with Charlie (Duffy, who plays Junior)… because he’s a boy and so he’s really easygoing – just talks about football, you know.
“He only turned 13 there – he’s the third of April and I turned 49 on the 4th of April – and every year I say to him, ‘do you want to swap ages’ and he goes, ‘how old are you this year?’ and I say ‘49’ and he says, ‘nah I don’t want to swap!’.
“We’re very comfortable with each other but we also work together so you try and maintain that friendship even though he’s a teenager because you want him to feel safe around you but also have the craic and all that stuff.
“We had a scene recently where he was really cheeky to me and I said to him, ‘no, you’re not going’ and he was like, ‘aww, I hate you’ and we filmed the scene and then afterwards he came up to me and was like, ‘I’m so sorry, I don’t like talking to you like that’. He’s such a dote.
“I am totally blessed with him – and his family are a gorgeous family too.
“Then I have a 16-year-old girl who is also a gorgeous girl but 16-year-old girls are a challenge because they think they know everything and they don’t! Or sometimes I think Stella thinks I came out of the womb at 46 and don’t know how things are.
“It’s a great challenge but sometimes you’re like, enough with the challenge, just give me a chilled weekend,” Sorcha laughs. “But we were all the same!”
Sorcha has shared the screen with co-star Tony Tormey, who plays Paul Brennan, for the past 26 years after she was introduced as Niamh’s cousin who then went on to date Paul.
And after years of sharing the screen intimately with each other, the pair have forged out a great real-life friendship.
“You can’t work 26 years with somebody and not become close,” she says. “So I’d know himself and his wife Kate very well outside of the show.
“I started at 23 and I came in as Niamh’s cousin and Niamh was engaged to Barry (O’Hanlon, played by Pat Nolan) but she fancied Paul and then when I came in and started dating Paul she realised she had feelings and she said it to me and I said, ‘yeh, whatever, it doesn’t matter, I’m not into bald men anyway, you can have him!’.
“Then there was me and Victor so you get very close to the people you’re working with and then you get to know people in the other circles as well.
“There’s 40 or 50 cast members and we wouldn’t see each other all the time but we do cast drinks and it’s lovely getting to know people outside of work.”
‘Orla’ has had some heavyhitting storylines over the years but she pinpoints Junior’s cancer diagnosis as the most challenging storyline she’s had.
“I definitely found the Junior being sick with cancer really challenging.
“That was challenging because you are so aware that there are parents out there going through it so you feel a great sense of responsibility to portray it – but everyone does, the writer, the director, everyone does.
“So when you’re playing comedy scenes, that’s obviously light release and you don’t have to kind of think about it but then when you’re playing hard-hitting scenes, the ones people can relate to, you have to take more responsibility over that.
“You don’t want someone to be looking at a storyline and going, ‘that’s not true’, ‘that doesn’t happen like that’ or ‘that’s not how a parent reacts’.
“So when Junior was in hospital, it had to be no make-up, I hadn’t washed my hair so when I started playing that storyline I was like, I’m not wearing a touch of make-up because I don’t want a parent saying, ‘she has mascara on, when did she get time to put mascara on when her child is sick?’ – stuff like that, that you really have to take yourself out of it as an actor and try and relate to the person.”
While a familiar face on Fair City, Sorcha will also be well known among panto fans for roles as Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (2022) and the Evil Baroness in Jack & The Beanstalk (2018/2019) at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght – and she returns to the stage at the theatre from May 12-15 in Happiness Then… before moving on to the Viking Theatre Dublin from May 18-30.
A riveting comedy drama exploring the thorny relationship between two sisters, Sorcha stars alongside Kin’s Rachael Dowling.
Eternally at odds, the sisters bicker as only sisters can over everything from the wine to the will!
Sorcha says, “The play is coming back in May and some of the crew have seen it and some of the cast have seen it and some haven’t and they were asking me last week, ‘which do you prefer?’ – stage or screen – but it’s a totally different beast. When you’re on stage, you’re there for 50 minutes and everything is instantaneous and you’re in your head so when the crowd laugh you go, ‘okay great, they’re laughing’, so you know whether they’re enjoying it or not.
“So I’m definitely more nervous going on stage than going on set in Fair City because on Fair City you’re walking among friends and you’re rehearsing it and then you’re filming it. So it’s totally different.
“They’re both as great as each other and both rewarding but really different and for the first time I’m doing both – filming Fair City during the day and doing the play at night.
“I love a challenge so why not challenge myself more?”
Sorcha turns 50 next year and has big plans to mark the occasion.
She told Chic, “I love marking the day – I think it’s really, really important to mark the day. Sure aren’t we lucky to grow old?
“My birthday (this year) was Easter Saturday so me and my family, my parents, my sister, her husband and my nieces, me and my daughter and her friend, we all went out for dinner and then I had drinks.
“Next year I’m thinking of getting a villa and inviting friends and family and whoever wants to come can come.
“Well I’m saying that now but I’m a crap organiser – but I’m full of good intentions!”
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