Singer- songwriter/ actress Roseanna Brown told David Hennessy about being in the new WW2 film Pressure, her new music, touring with Westlife and having Dana as her ‘Auntie Rosemary’.
The British- Irish singer- songwriter/ actress Roseanna Brown, who goes by Roseanna as her performer name, has certainly been busy.
Not only is Pressure, the WWII film she appears in alongside Brendan Fraser, Andrew Scott, Kerry Condon and Damian Lewis in cinemas at the moment, she has also released her latest single, Awake.
But being a double threat should not come as that much of a surprise from Roseanna.
Music was in her blood quite literally as her ‘Auntie Rosemary’ is known internationally as Eurovision winner Dana.
In fact music was such a massive part of the upbringing of Roseanna and her siblings, they would go on to from the family band The Rua.
The Rua had a string of US hits and shared stages with names like Rob Thomas, Goo Goo Dolls, Train, Third Eye Blind and Walking on Cars but undoubtedly their biggest tour was when they toured with Westlife in 2019.
Roseanna, who grew up in Langley, Berkshire, had previously played a Slytherin student in The Harry Potter film series and Fandral’s Wench in Thor: The Dark World but playing Eisenhower’s lead operator in the new film Pressure is her biggest role to date.
Roseanna took time to chat to The Irish World about the film and her new music.
With Pressure in cinemas now and the new single Awake out now, it’s all go go go at the moment for you, isn’t it?
“Yes, it’s all good ‘go go go’.
“I’ve always wanted to be able to sing and act and write songs because they’re all different parts of me so even though I’m busy, I’m totally grateful for it.
“To be able to balance the things that I love to do and feel fulfilled, I’ll take all the tiredness in the world because it is just the best feeling to feel like you’re living your dreams.”
So accomplished both musically and in acting, were you always passionate about both?
“Even as a kid I was always a performer and I always sang.
“I remember one of my cousins saying to me, ‘If I don’t see you up on a stage one day, something has gone wrong in your life’.
“And they’re different parts of me for sure.
“As a singer, I’m connected to my music.
“I’m writing about my life.
“And acting is the same thing.
“It’s connection and telling stories.
“I love being able to step into another person’s shoes.
“It’s very freeing and I think the acting actually makes me a better songwriter because I’m able to have a bigger viewpoint than just mine so I think sometimes it really helps.”
You have just released the single Awake. It is a very different style for you, isn’t it?
“Very different.
“I love the freedom of it.
“I just stopped taking myself so seriously and I was like, ‘Let’s have fun. Let’s rekindle why I love music so much’.
“I decided to do 21 days of songs for myself.
“I got to day three and I was like, ‘Why did I say 21 days? I should have said seven’.
“But it really made me fall in love with songwriting again and the freedom of it.
“I don’t know how it works but I know that it does and you know when something feels right.
“But with Awake I just heard the guitar.
“I was like, ‘This is interesting’.
“I love Ed Sheeran.
“I love Justin Timberlake.
“I love those slightly R and B driven songs.
“It feels nostalgic to me.
“It feels early 2000s for some reason and I just really was like, ‘This is right’.
“And then the lyrics just all came to me and I just was like, ‘I’m not questioning this’.
“When I played it to my friend who co-produces with me, a guy called Zach Paradis, he was like, ‘This is different for you and this is exciting because I wouldn’t have put Roseanna in this lane. Is this something you think you’d release?’
“I questioned it and I was like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s too fun’.
“And he was like, ‘Do you love it?’
“I was like, ‘Yeah’.
“He’s like, ‘That’s what matters: Do you love it?’
“I think that was a big change in my mind of rather than trying to put myself in a box, do what I love and do what I connect with because then surely other people will.”
Pressure is now in cinemas. What is it like to be part of such a heavyweight cast that also includes Andrew Scott, Brendan Fraser, Kerry Condon and Damian Lewis?
“It’s honestly insane.
“I am so grateful that I get to be a part of, as you say, such an amazing cast of people that are just so incredible.
“They’re so incredible at their craft and they all bring something different.
“It is an absolute privilege.
“I’m just like, ‘This is fantastic that I get to do this and create with such amazing people’.
“I really hope it opens the doors for more things that I get to do because you can learn so much from being on set and watching people do what they do.
“I feel like sometimes I’m a little bit lost for words.
“The bit that I’m in is probably at the most tense part where we’re finding out if D-Day was a success.
“I play Eisenhower’s lead operator.
“I’m the person in connection with the front line so I’m receiving all that information and so, in that scene, there is everybody.
“There is Andrew Scott, there’s Damian Lewis, there’s Kerry Condon, there’s Brendan Fraser. Just everybody.
“It was just such an amazing atmosphere having all those people and such talents in one room.
“It’s an energy.
“It just is incredible.
“Normally when there’s a telephone scene or if your scene partner isn’t there, you have somebody doing offlines for you to act with and I did that for Andrew Scott for a telephone call that he has.
“That was fantastic to be able to do that.
“It was an absolutely amazing experience.
“He is such a fantastic actor and such a wonderful human being as well.”
As the operator you would have been interacting most with Brendan Fraser as he plays Eisenhower, is that right?
“Yes and that particular scene just has everybody there because they’ve made the decision and it’s, ‘Let’s see if we’ve won the war’.
“And there’s no spoilers because obviously we know how the war ended so that’s a good thing.
“We know how it ended but it’s still amazing how Anthony (Maras, director) has managed to create such a tense atmosphere in a story that you see in such a different viewpoint: To be in the rooms of the men making those decisions and see the pressure actually put upon them and the trust built between them and the arguments built between them too.
“We had the premiere in London which was fantastic and it was lovely to see everybody again.”
You have been on massive film sets before but this being such a prominent role, did it feel like a special moment?
“100%, to be in this now, to have gone to the premiere, it’s all sinking in in a really, really nice way where I’m just so grateful for the opportunity and then it’s made me go, ‘Right. You can dream even more. If I’ve got to work with these people, who else would I love to be able to work with?’
“It feels like I’m on the precipice of moving on to something else.
“I really hope so because I love music, I love singing, I love acting and to be able to do all of them, any of them I’d be living my life dream and I’m very grateful for the opportunities to be able to do that.”
You formed The Rua with your siblings so music and performing must have been big in your house as kids..
“We had no choice but to do music.
“It chose us.
“We grew up doing so much music.
“We used to go back to Derry every single year and do The Feis.
“From when I was probably four until I was 17, every single year we would go back to Derry and do all the competitions.
“Just everything was music and it was encouraged and it was enjoyable and it was just always around.
“Then I just started teaching myself guitar and writing songs and my brother wanted to do that too.
“My sister was an amazing piano player and she’s got a lovely voice as well.
“We all had our different strengths and we always used to get asked to go up and sing songs together.
“We have home videos of me and my sister doing mini performances for anybody that would come over.
“It was a really lovely time period for us to then write songs together and see how we do that- With many arguments, we’re family.
“We had such an amazing run in the US with chart success.
“I think we had maybe four or five top 40s.
“We went on tour with Westlife.
“We’ve toured with so many people and there’s not many people that can say they’ve done that with their brother and their sister.
“It’s a really crazy but beautiful shared experience that we got to have together.”
You also played the Oscar Wilde awards..
“That was fantastic.”
They are star studded, aren’t they?
“They are.
“They really are.
“Oh my gosh some of these are all a blur because you meet so many people but one that just came into my head is Catherine O’Hara.
“I was just so happy we got to meet her.”
Do you have a particular highlight of that whole journey?
“Honestly the O2.
“Playing at the O2 was absolutely fantastic.
“I remember the opening night in Belfast.
“I was really nervous and then as soon as I got on stage, it just went away and it was just the most enjoyable time, that tour, to play for so many people.
“I want to play music live.
“I want people to have a good time and so to see people having a good time listening to your songs is the best feeling in the entire world.
“That’s why you do it.
“You want to feel connected to people and whatever emotions they have from it, that’s what I want.
“To have that for 30 nights in a row was just incredible.
“Incredible is not even the best word to say for it.”
What happened to The Rua, did it run its course or did you want to do your own thing?
“We did the Westlife tour in 2019 and then COVID hit.
“COVID hit and then I started writing on my own and my sister got married, now she has two kids.
“I think we’d never say no to releasing music together again but I think we ran a really lovely course and we were forced into a decision for those years.
“It’s not like we’d ever say, ‘Oh, let’s not do music together ever again’.
“My brother still produces some of my stuff with me which is lovely but I think it was just a natural thing that happened.
“I started writing for a lot of people.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to be a solo artist.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
“But I think lockdown changed a lot for a lot of people and gave the space to be able to maybe figure out and make those changes.
“If there was a good thing that came from it, it did allow people to do that.”
You have another famous musician in the family. She’s well known as Eurovision winner Dana but of course to you she’s ‘Auntie Rosemary’..
“Yeah, I remember when we were younger and we used to go down to the shopping centre in the Quayside.
“I remember sitting there with my cousins one day and everybody would want to come and say hi to my aunt and she would spend as much time as somebody wanted to spend talking to her, because she’s just so lovely.
“I must have been like seven.
“I remember just going, ‘Hmm, everybody knows her…’
“And I didn’t quite understand it but it was something that was just normal.
“It was just a normal thing and so you got used to it.
“But she really is just such a wonderful person.
“She’s so supportive of everything that we do.
“She’s had such an amazing career herself and it’s funny how our musical worlds crossed.
“I’d met Louis Walsh when I was probably five and met him many times through my aunt and being over in Ireland and then for us to go on tour with Westlife and Louis to be there it was just like, ‘Hello, how you doing?’
“She obviously is a very well known person but sometimes I forget because she’s my auntie Rosemary.”
Although you didn’t know it at the time because you were just seven but it sounds like you were learning from your aunt even then how to interact with people and the attention..
“Unbeknownst to us, we were just watching and learning.
“But I think that’s how I now always try to be with people, give people the time and you want each person to feel like they’re the only person in the world.
“That’s just the way to do it.
“I think when you’ve grown up watching somebody who’s well known, it’s just so nice to see and learn from that.”
Your song Kingdom was featured in the film Songbird, produced by Michael Bay so that is another way your music and film career collide. What was it like to have your music featured in a film like that?
“Very different.
“That is a very, very different way of doing stuff but to hear yourself on screen in a very different capacity but it’s made me want other things.
“I would love to be the voice of a Disney character or I’d love to do a musical film with Hugh Jackman.
“I would love to be able to bring those sides of things together.
“Did you ever see Daisy Jones & The Six?
“I would love to do something like that.
“Why not? I love straight acting too but blending the worlds together on screen, I would adore it.
“Look what happened with Wicked.
“That would be amazing.”
Would you also like to do a stage musical maybe?
“Oh yeah, I would 100%.
“There’s also so many amazing huge actors going to the West End now as well.
“So different when it’s live.
“You have a response straight away.
“But they’re completely different art forms in different ways.
“But I would love to.”
You have always identified very clearly as British- Irish because although raised in the UK, you have so much Irish heritage..
“Yeah, it’s a very strange thing.
“I was raised in England but I was in Ireland so much and all of my family is Irish.
“Nearly all of them have Irish accents.
“It’s just really me, my brother and my sister that don’t.
“I never really felt English because I was raised by two Irish parents and my friends here were also Irish and their parents were Irish so I was just raised around this Irish community here and so I just feel this pull towards it.
“And I look pretty Celtic.
“I can’t run away from the fact I’ve got red hair and freckles and it’s something that I really love.
“It’s something I’ve never wanted to change about myself and I am really proud to have my Irish heritage and it’s something I feel really, really connected to.
“It’s something that I’m very, very proud of and so I don’t just say it lightly because of who my family are.
“It’s something that I’m like, ‘No, I feel this inside’.”
Awake by Roseanna is out now
Pressure is in cinemas now.