The Umbrella Academy’s Marin Ireland takes on a challenging new role in Apple TV+’s Dope Thief, a gritty crime drama from director Ridley Scott and showrunner Peter Craig.
Best known for portraying Sissy Cooper, the love interest of Viktor Hargreeves (played by Elliot Page), in the hit series, Ireland is also an acclaimed theatre actress and has had major roles in the likes of Y: The Last Man and Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.
In the new Apple drama, Ireland portrays a character called Mina alongside an all-star cast led by Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as Ray and Manny, two friends who impersonate DEA agents to swindle drug dealers.
The trailer for the series keeps Ireland’s role within the plot a mystery, however, she appears to be working with FBI Agent Mark Nader (Amir Arison).
She’s also scarred and suffering from a condition affecting her voice, as her character slams a wall to communicate before demanding in a strained voice, “Go find him.”
Umbrella Academy star shares one thing she’s ‘never done before’ for new role (Image: NETFLIX)
Without giving away too many spoilers, Ireland previewed the unique challenge the performance posed while speaking to Express Online and other outlets.
“There were a couple of times that I had to memorise lines that I wasn’t going to be speaking, but I had to memorise lines that I was maybe going to be writing or typing or something,” she explained.
“And that’s something I never had to do before.”
Thankfully, Ireland had an experienced scene partner for the majority of filming in the form of Arison, who is coming off nearly 200 episodes as FBI technician Aram Mojtabai in The Blacklist.
Ireland worked closely with The Blacklists’ Amir Arison (Image: APPLE)
As her character clearly finds it difficult to speak, she revealed she had to get used to writing or gesturing to get her point across.
“I remember running lines with Amir in our trailers because I was like, ‘I need to practise writing it at speed!’” she recalled.
“I’ve never had to do that before. And that’s how we figured out maybe rewriting in my written lines, because I was like, ‘I wouldn’t write that whole word out. I would skip that word. Peter we have to change this because it takes too long’, you know?
“And those are things I’ve never had to deal with before.”
Despite the unique challenge of not speaking a lot of her character’s ‘dialogue’, she was still thrilled to dive headfirst into this unique role in Dope Thief.
Find out the truth behind Marin Ireland’s mystery role this Friday (Image: APPLE)
The character’s condition meant she had plenty of opportunities to portray Mina’s physicality in a way she’s never been able to with other roles.
“I couldn’t always express myself properly through my voice,” Ireland said.
“I found myself hitting things more or throwing things across the room. That energy wants to go somewhere, and that was really exciting for me.
“That was one of the reasons I was excited about this character in the first place, it was a way of expressing myself I had never experienced before.”
If you want to find out what happens to Ireland’s character to get her to this point, make sure you tune into the riveting drama Dope Thief when the first two episodes premiere this week.
Dope Thief premieres Friday, 14th March on Apple TV+.