Isobelle Molloy

Isobelle Molloy has gone from the West End stage to the seaside town of Whitstable for her new drama series, via Eastenders and a Disney blockbuster. The 20 year old actress talks us through her career and tells us what it's like working on a TV show in the Covid era.

You started out on the stage - had you always wanted to work in theatre?

I was always dancing when I was very young, and went to ballet, but when I was about 6 or 7 I went to some local acting classes for kids and fell in love with acting and singing too! My first professional stage role was in Oliver!, the musical, when I was 9 - I worked with Rowan Atkinson on that, who was very kind and a lot of fun to be around!

Later on you played Matilda in the West End show - how did you get that?

I originally played Amanda Thripp - the girl who's swung around by her pigtails - and eventually the director suggested I audition for the role of Matilda. I got it, and played Matilda for about a year! I did the show for a year and a half in total.

Your first screen work was Disney's Maleficent - how was that experience?

The casting director of Maleficent had actually been to see Matilda, and found me through that! I had both my 12th and 13th birthdays on the set - it was such a huge project, you don't realise the scale of this sort of thing until you're working on it yourself. It was a very fun, very interesting first screen role to do!

Tell us about your new series Whitstable Pearl?

It's a mystery drama series, actually filmed on location in Whitstable! I play Ruby, a waitress at the restaurant of the title. We shot it over four months, and it was the first work I'd done during the pandemic. We had a very Covid-safe set, we were all in groups of six and everyone had to be Covid tested before we begun. We had to wear masks whenever we weren't filming - we'd take them off when the cameras were rolling and put them back on straight after!

What do you look for in scripts and characters?

I like to find characters who are relatable, that I can identify with and hope the audience can, but I also like to do things that are just escapism, that aren't really realistic - that you as the viewer can just sort of switch off and enjoy.

Words: Scott Bates