Maria Branagan’s just another Irish person who’s swapped the Emerald Isle for Australia. Well, except for the fact that she landed a part in hit Oz drama Scrublands. John Byrne reports.

Zoom is home to most interview situations these days. Post-covid, it’s rare to meet up with someone unless they happen to be in Ireland. Or I just happen to be in Hollywood. It takes away the personal touch, but it also allows you to conduct interviews in a more personal setting than having a chat on the phone. Being able to see the person you’re conversing with is always a plus.

Especially if – like Maria Branagan – the person on the other side of the Zoom happens to be in Australia. It’s a long way from her native Meath, and that’s a story in itself. But the ultimate reason why we’re chatting, early in the day for me and late in the evening for her, is that she went to Australia hoping it would ultimately lead to a new chapter in her acting career. Spoiler alert: it did.

Remember Australian drama Scrublands? Well, it’s back on RTÉ2 for a second season from Monday June 9 and our Maria’s got a part in it for a three-episode arc. No wonder she’s grinning at me like a cat in a cream factory when I ask if she headed Down Under on a whim.

"I really did just say, f*** this. I'm heading off," she laughs. "In September of 2023, myself and my fiancé had just finished renovating these farm garages on his mam's land. And that's where we intended to live.

"Long story boring. We ended up renovating these garages myself and Dan and - I’m not joking - we finished and I just turned to him and I said ‘I've booked flights to Australia’ and he said ‘What, what? ‘And I was, like, ‘We're moving!’

"And so off we went. We packed our bags in January of 2024. And it's been a fantastic experience. I mean, it's been daunting and there's definitely times where you're like, 'What am I doing?'

"But generally speaking, I do believe that everyone should leave home for a couple of years, you know, kind of puts perspective on what life is all about really."

From Meath to Mudgee

"It couldn’t be nicer," Maria insists, describing her current surroundings. "The weather’s just gorgeous." And where is this gorgeous weather? "I’m in Mudgee, which is a small town four hours inland from Sydney." From Meath to Mudgee. It’s quite literally half the world away.

Thing was, Maria Branagan wasn’t getting many breaks in her acting career here in Ireland. Sure, there was some work, such as the 2023 movie Made in Dublin. As is the nature of the acting game in a small country such as Ireland, you can spend a lot of time travelling on a career path without getting very far. And time does tend to fly. Especially when other things are put on hold.

Maria’s brutally candid. "I literally had, like, resigned myself to the fact that I had been trying to kind of crack the Irish industry for about 10 years. And I've been putting off myself and my partner's travel plans. "I only have ever had two wishes in my life," she adds. "One was to be a working actor and the other was to travel the world. So I put our travel plans on hold for so many years.

"And my partner was so understanding. He was really like, ‘Absolutely. I’m so committed to you pursuing your dream’.

Opportunities Down Under

"And one morning I woke up and it would have been around September 2023 and there was a wave of peace that came over me. I don't think I ever told myself I was going to quit [acting] because it is a drug, isn't it?

"So I kind of just put it on the back burner. And I said, ‘Look, let's go travel.’ And when we, if we eventually ever come home, I'll try again."

Fate– or whatever you’d like to call it – made an appearance when, at the same time, a pal of hers made a big life choice of her own that had the potential to impact Maria’s acting prospects.

"Literally the December before I left, a friend of mine, Cathy Ievers, told me that she was going out on her own and making her own [acting] agency. She had done huge things in London with massive agencies and then she was like, ‘I'm going out on my own.’" Not only that, Cathy wanted Maria on her roster of talent. Y'know, the Maria that’s just about to put acting on hold and move halfway around the globe. No biggie, Cathy insisted.

"She said that everyone’s sending self-tapes these days," Maria explains. "So you could be anywhere in the world, you know. I thought, maybe we can do this - but when we got to Australia, I was really disoriented and really just focused on travelling. I kind of had acting in the back of my mind."

Lucky for her, Cathy Ievers was beavering away back on this side of the planet. Maria was Down Under "about three or four weeks" when Cathy sent her a text about interest from a top casting agency in Sydney. Yep. Sydney, Australia.

Maria recalls: "I didn’t think much of it, sent the tape in, forgot about it entirely, and Cathy was on to me a week later to tell me I was after getting a recall." Two weeks later, she got the news that she’d been cast to play a character called Toria in the second season of hit Australian drama Scrublands. Sweet.

"They actually changed her name from Topaz to Toria," Maria explains when I ask about her character. "They thought Toria was more of an Irish name. I was like, Toria is not an Irish name. The description was originally an Argentinian girl. So that's why they went with Topaz. But I didn't care. I got cast."

Indeed. Once the name on the payslips is 'Maria Branagan’ that’s all that really matters. So – after some to-ing and fro-ing involving vans and stuff – Maria was off to Western Australia for the shoot.

On the Set of Scrublands

As for the plot and where Toria fits in, Maria recalls: "It's all about this murder that occurs and Martin Scarson, who's the lead character, played by Luke Arnold, has to figure out who the killer is.

"It was a friend of his that had been murdered and the whole story is wrapped around that.

"And then Toria - the part that I got cast as - she's actually a backpacker and she's trying to scam this well-off sleaze bag in the town, for a visa and money. So Toria comes into this town, she's an Irish girl who’s hooked up with this English dude. They're so ropey. They get involved in some ropey stuff with the local drug dealer.

"She's a bit of a spicy, spicy girl. And she brings just a bit of pzazz to the whole thing, to be honest. It was incredible to play the role, you know, because she was just a bit feral.

"I felt very free in the role," she adds, laughing at the fact that she was playing such a colourful character. "I could do whatever I wanted. You know what I mean? That was the vibe that she had."

Scrublands is CV history now for Maria – that's showbiz folks – but her performance has resonated, and other opportunities have begun to present themselves to her. Fingers crossed, eh?

"All I want from this industry," she insists, "is just to be consistently working." She also hopes that her performance in Scrublands "will give me a leg-up back home . . . Hopefully get a bit more traction – because my dream is to work at home. On Irish productions."

Working with Jane Seymour

Talking of Irish productions, I was struck by one show on Maria Branagan’s CV, the fun procedural Harry Wild filmed in Dublin and starring an ageless Jane Seymour as Harriet "Harry" Wild, a retired literature professor with a knack for solving mysteries.

Being a nosey so and so, before the interview ends I have to ask what Seymour – a former Bond girl and probably best known for playing Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman in the hit US show that ran for six seasons – was like.

"She still looks amazing," Maria says. "Oh my God. She is such a lovely woman. Like, when we went on set in the morning, she laid out all these canvases and watercolours at one of the tables that we would all sit at while we were waiting to film.

"And she sat us down and she was talking us through how to paint watercolours. The woman was so Zen. I've never seen a woman so Zen!"

Ms Seymour also showed impressive levels of professionalism when called on to perform for the cameras. "They'd be like, OK, Jane," says Maria. "And she’d just saunter over. I didn't once see her do a read-through.

"She's not doing a read through - those lines are just there. They're there in her head. I'm like, ‘Oh my God, that's so impressive.’ And she was just such a beautiful woman."

Scrublands season two is on Mondays at 10.35pm on RTÉ2 and on the RTÉ Player.

Source: RTE.ie