IRISH actress Caitríona Balfe has revealed she was once dropped by an agent for not doing the “hot-girl thing”.
The Monaghan star was a model before stepping into the acting world, but after small move roles, she was given the heave by her management.
And she recalled she was standing in a dog park with a pal when he called to dump her because she hadn’t had work in months.
She said: “He kept telling me, ‘You have to wear the dress and put the makeup on and do the hot-girl thing.’ And it was so not me. I’m glad I knew that I wanted to do it with integrity, if that makes any sense.”
It seems the agent was wrong to make that call because in 2013 she got the lead role of Claire in the hit TV series Outlander, and now as Ma in the movie Belfast.
FAN FRENZY
But with the fame came the fans, and while most of them have been supportive, some began to believe she was in a relationship with her Outlander onscreen love, actor Sam Heughan, who plays Jamie.
Meanwhile she was in a relationship with her now husband, Scottish music manager, Anthony McGill.
She told Vanity Fair that someone had called the church where they wed to prove that their marriage wasn’t real.
And she revealed that she has been told that private investigators have been hired by some fans to prove she and Heughan are together and that he is her new son’s father.
Most people were not even aware she was pregnant until she shared the news on Instagram that she had a son last August.
But Caitriona said she was not hiding her pregnancy.
She said: “Everybody at work knew, all of my friends knew, anyone I came into contact with in my life knew. But in terms of putting that out there, I don’t see the value in that. I think there’s certain things that are nice to have for yourself.”
And because she is now very protective of her son, she said she won’t be sharing his name or any pictures of him online.
She admitted: “I don’t want those crazies—because that’s what they are—I just don’t want them talking about him.”
She added: “It’s sad, because you meet the loveliest people who are fans of the show and they’re super supportive and they do the nicest things—and then you have that little thing, which just taints it.”
FAMILY REUNION
Her own family in Ireland only got to meet the baby in recent weeks when she returned for the premiere of Belfast in the Northern Irish city.
The 42-year-old said: “They hadn’t met the baby. They hadn’t seen me pregnant. It was like this whole event happened without seeing them.”
Caitríona stars alongside Jamie Dornan, who plays Pa, Ciaran Hinds as Pop and Judi Dench as Granny in the film created by actor Kenneth Branagh.
Set in the times of the Troubles, it is something that is close to her heart.
Caitriona said: “As an Irish person, you read so many of these scripts about the Troubles, and they all have this romantic version of the violence. It always upsets me, because I don’t think that’s something that should be romanticised. And here was a script that really focused in on the family and on the people and the communities that are affected.”
And while she spoke about family life, she said the joy of being on Belfast was seeing so many women and mothers as part of the crew, something she didn’t see as much on Outlander.
She said: “By the time you get to a certain age, if you want to have a family at all, you end up stepping off that ladder and I think it’s very hard for them to come back in.
“That’s something we need to address as an industry because I look at our camera crew, all amazing guys, all of them have become fathers in the eight years we’ve been filming, but not one of them has had to give up their position.”
