Hailing from Scotland, Mirren Mack is slowly making her way through the film industry as an actress to watch. After collecting a handful of important roles under her belt, including Netflix’s blockbuster Sex Education and The Witcher: Blood Origin, she’s now on the final countdown for her next big project, stepping into the shoes of Rose in Paramount+’s forthcoming production The Doll Factory.

Based on Elizabeth Macneal’s critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Mirren is set to take centre stage as the lead alongside Éanna Hardwicke and Saorise-Monica Jackson. With the series set to release in early December, we connect with Mack to discuss her artistic upbringing, the upcoming project, and the roles she would love to play in the future. Keep scrolling to read the full interview…

Watch the trailer for The Doll Factory…

Hi Mirren! How has your day been? What have you been up to?
Hello! So far today’s been good thank you. I’m working in Oxford at the minute and it’s really stunning with the trees all beautiful autumn colours, and I’ve just had one of the best bowls of porridge of my life so I’m feeling very content.

Can you speak a bit about how you got into acting and what it was about the profession that initially intrigued you
I grew up absolutely loving listening to people telling stories, I still do, and I think story telling and sharing is a huge part of being a person in a community. In my family it was a real sort of theatrical experience when anyone would have the floor to speak, so I needed to work on my skill essentially from birth to hold my own. There was a real sense of pride if people laughed or reacted and it was the first feeling of enjoying an audience that made me want to do more.

When reading a script or hearing of a project, what do you look for?
When reading a script sometimes it’s just a gut feeling of getting hooked and not being able to put it down, where I think “ah this must be great”. I think that’s down to brilliant writers, but within that I think what gets me are characters or relationships that feel exciting and curious.

What was it about The Doll Factory that drew you in? Had you read the book?
The story is brilliantly unpredictable and what drew me was that at every turn I had no idea who to trust or what was about to happen. I knew of the book but hadn’t actually read it until I was auditioning for the show. Once I had read it though, I couldn’t stop dreaming about it and thought I would do anything to be a part of the story, be it Rose or one of the mice that gets stuffed in the taxidermy shop, any part of the story if I was lucky to experience some of its dark and beautiful world.

Specifically, what was it about Rose that compelled you? How did you get into character?
I think what drew me most was the difficult relationship between Rose and her twin sister, Iris. The two have this incredible bond of sisterhood and love, but also built-up resentment, fear and dependency warps their relationship and it was so brilliant to play with that push/pull love/hate dynamic.

And getting into character was really special on this job, all due to the amazing departments that came together to create her — especially makeup, hair and costume, who every day would sculpt the outside of Rose, and then I got to slot my body into what they created, and immediately I felt I was in her world.

Is there a scene or specific plot line you’re most proud of?
When I watch the show back I will feel proud of having been a part of it with everyone, but there are definitely moments that Rose had where I feel proud of her as a character. Probably more so towards the later episodes.

What was the dynamic like on set? Do you have a favourite memory from filming?
I absolutely LOVED filming in Dublin. I would be over the moon to go back and see all the brilliant crew again and stroll the city happy as anything. There were really special people working on that show, and I had this one amazing kind of shake my head in wonder moment, where I was with the amazing Reece who plays Albie, and we were trotting along in a horse and cart through the streets and it was like for a moment we actually were living in Victorian London.

Out of all of the roles you’ve played, which felt most challenging to you and why?
I might say Merwyn in the Witcher Blood Origin just because the world was so wild and magic filled, and although it had similarities to our own, sometimes my eyes couldn’t get over the fact there were monsters coming at us and ears that were pointed (I was an elf). It was so magic to be in that world, I often just wanted to stand in awe and take it all in.

Is there a kind of project you’d like to work on next?
I’d love to be lucky enough to work on anything with a good story! I’m also really hopeful to experience different methods of working. I’m so excited because I’m about to head up to Scotland to film a short that will follow the life of a couple over 15 minutes or so. We are hoping to film it as one continuous shot so I think technically it’s going be a challenge but so exciting and feels to me like combining theatre and film together.

When you’re not acting, what do you like to do in your free time?
I really like walking places, but I think I’m probably my happiest when I’m around people, so with any free time if I’m not spending it seeing people I know, then I’ll be just in places where I can be with people around me, like in the cinema or somewhere to swim or in a cafe. And I love eating.