3 days ago
Dept. Q star Chloe Pirrie says filming in her hometown let her reconnect with family
Her career to date has seen her travel the world, including a stint filming in Canada alongside Hollywood stars Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones.
But Scots actress Chloe Pirrie, 37, insists she was more excited by the opportunity of shooting in her home town of Edinburgh for six months as it allowed her to reconnect with family.
A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she is currently starring as prosecutor Merritt Lingard in Netflix crime drama Department Q.
Discussing what it meant to be back in the city of her youth, Pirrie, who is known for her roles in The Queen's Gambit and The Crown, said: 'I've got family there that I hadn't seen for a while so it was great to be able to spend time with them.
'A family member came to set – I've never had that before. That kind of stuff is really special.'
The actress also told how she and her Scottish co-stars proved themselves expert at delivering the expletives written in the script.
She joked: 'We're just good at it. It's like a national sport.'
Pirrie's co-stars on the new show include Downton Abbey's Matthew Goode, Harry Potter and Bridget Jones star Shirley Henderson, Trainspotting alumni Kelly Macdonald and Game of Thrones actress Kate Dickie.
However, despite spending six months in Edinburgh, Pirrie revealed she didn't have time to let her hair down with them.
Speaking on the red carpet at the show's premiere in London, she said: 'I didn't get to socialise with people as much as I probably would have liked because my schedule was so different to everyone else.'
Based on a series of books by Danish writer Jussi Adler-Olsen, the series follows Goode's character DCI Carl Morck, who sets up a cold case unit while struggling with guilt over an incident that left a young police officer dead and another paralysed.
As Goode's character brings his team together he is reluctantly paired with rookie assistant Akram Salim, played by Swedish actor Alexej Manvelov.
And while Pirrie might have struggled to socialise, the same can't be said for Goode and Manvelov.
In an interview to promote the show, Goode revealed that he and Manvelov hung out together as most of the home-grown cast decided not to stay in Edinburgh.
He said: 'Most of the actors lived in Glasgow. It was only me and Alexej in Edinburgh.' Explaining how the pair bonded, he said he invited Manvelov to meet him at a French restaurant on their second day in the city.
He added: 'We had lunch and were still there five hours later sort of six bottles of red wine down. If you become friends off-screen then it really helps on screen.'
