I loved feisty new Netflix role.. she won't put up with any bulls**t, says Kelly Macdonald

Scottish Sun

12-05-2025

'I read a couple of self-help books and had the odd session myself. I also picked up bits and pieces from talking to others who've had lots of therapy'
PLENTY OF ATTITUDE I loved feisty new Netflix role.. she won't put up with any bulls**t, says Kelly Macdonald
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
KELLY Macdonald has revealed she studied self-help books to become a 'f***ing feisty' therapist for her latest TV role.
The Trainspotting legend plays Dr Rachel Irving in the big-budget Netflix cop drama Dept. Q that was filmed almost entirely in Edinburgh.
Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter
Sign up
6
Kelly Macdonald has revealed why she loves her latest Netflix character
6
Actors Matthew Goode and Jamie Sives are two of the main stars in new Netflix show.
6
Guilt star Mark Bonnar as the Lord Advocate in Dept. Q.
6
Scots actress Chloe Pirrie also has a major role in the cop drama.
But Kelly delved into self-improvement manuals to prepare herself for the series which also stars fellow Scots including Jamie Sives, Kate Dickie and Mark Bonnar.
She says: 'Playing a therapist appealed to me. I liked Rachel's attitude - she's certainly got one.
'I read a couple of self-help books and had the odd session myself. I also picked up bits and pieces from talking to others who've had lots of therapy – so you get an idea of these things and how they work.'
Kelly, 49, also relished her on screen clashes with Matthew Goode who plays DCI Carl Morck - the cop tasked with setting up the new cold case unit staffed by a bunch of police misfits.
But after his colleague DI James Hardy (Sives) is shot Morck is sent to Kelly's in-house therapist character for counselling.
She says: 'I liked that Rachel was just as f***ing feisty as he is and she doesn't take any of Morck's bulls**t.
'I remember that first scene they have together, where he's basically trying to escape (from the therapy session).
'She calls him on it, she can immediately see what's happening and says, 'I don't care, come into my room or not. It's up to you.'
'I think that's quite enticing for a character like Morck. She's not afraid of him, and instead is sort of intrigued. He's like a 4D puzzle that needs to be worked out. For Rachel, he's an interesting case.'
She adds: 'So I found her chippy-ness quite interesting. She's quite unusual for a therapist. She's pretty smart and she can read people well.'
However Matthew admits he feared other clashes on set - like the dodgy car director Scott Frank gave him to drive.
He says: 'They got me this old Ford Sierra in a lovely colour.
'That car had serious problems with its brakes though, so whenever he (Scott Frank) told me to drive fast and really hit the curb I'd be thinking, 'okay but I really hope it stops and I don't plough into anyone.'
'Occasionally I would turn the car off and walk away, and I'd hear it start up again, ha! I'd have to go over and give it a kick.'
6
Kelly Macdonald has revealed the techniques she used to get into character
Credit: Getty
The series is based on the books Department Q (corr) by bestselling Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen, with their Copenhagen setting swapped for the cobbled streets of Edinburgh.
But taking on the lead role was daunting for Matthew, who played aristo Henry Talbot in Downton Abbey, as he was one of the few non-Scots on set.
It was also the first time he had ever visited Scotland.
Matthew, 47, from Exeter, Devon, explains: 'When I was in university all my friends would head off to Edinburgh for the festival, but I always had to go back home to Devon and work on the farm.
'So embarrassingly, I only visited the city last year. When I got there I just thought, 'this place is staggeringly beautiful'.
'It's also really bloody windy. They have these huge communal bins for everyone to put their rubbish in and I was in my flat at night and I thought a bomb had gone off.
'It was just one of these bins that had been blown over and was heading down the street as we filmed between January and June and had several storms.'
He adds: 'I stayed in New Town, a couple of floors above a fishing tackle shop, which I made the most of a few months in when I took myself off salmon fishing for a couple of days.
'I'm really glad it was set there, which is the genius of Scott for transposing this Nordic drama to Edinburgh.'
However Edinburgh-born Jamie - who played Jake McCall opposite Mark Bonnar as his brother Max in the hit BBC crime caper Guilt - admits he had to give some local lingo lessons to US director Scott.
He says: 'I just felt sometimes it needed a bit of 'Scottish-ing up'.
'Scott had Hardy saying, 'oh boy' at one point and I told him I was going to change it as he was more likely to say, 'oh f***' or 'away and boil yer heed'.'
But Jamie had to spends much of the series lying down after he's shot - although maintains that was tougher than his usual roles.
He explains: 'To be honest, the fact he was paralysed was the most challenging aspect of the part.
'Any time we did a scene where I was in the hospital bed I had to really concentrate to ensure I didn't move – you can't ruin a take by twitching a toe.
'So just keeping absolutely still was a discipline in and of itself.'
But the Scot, who also appeared as chief nuclear operational engineer in Chernobyl, discovered there was something very familiar about his co-star Alexej Manvelov, who plays police station civilian worker Akram Salim in the series.
Jamie says: 'We were chatting one day, and he said to me, 'Have you seen Chernobyl?'
'To which I replied, 'I have, and have you seen Chernobyl?' And he said, 'Yeah, I was in it' and I said; 'Yeah so was I!' So we bonded over that.'
Meanwhile Mark Bonnar, 56, also from Edinburgh, enjoyed his lofty part as Lord Advocate Stephen Burns.
And he got up to speed for the role by watching BBC Scotland's Murder Trials documentaries which charted real-life court cases including Bill McDowell being found guilty for murder of lover Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son Andrew who disappeared in the 1970s.
He says: 'Stephen was great fun to play, especially as he enjoys his high status and doesn't want to give any of it away to anybody, making him a great foil for a complete maverick like Carl Morck.
'But I watched the BBC Murder Trials documentaries and soaked up as much as I could about how these people hold themselves.'
However there was another reason why Kelly enjoyed taking on her therapist role - as it meant she was only an hour away from her Glasgow home that she shares with her two sons.
She says: 'It was nice being a sort-of local, because a lot of my work is out in Los Angeles and you have to drive everywhere and it's so stressful.
'So yes it was very nice to be able to work so close to home on Dept. Q and I loved my little therapy scenes - they were like doing short plays.'
*Dept. Q starts streaming on Netflix from May 29.