Victoria Smurfit bombarded with 'hate' over Rivals role
Actress Victoria Smurfit has revealed she's been bombarded with "hate" over her role in Rivals - admitting her character's behaviour has riled up fans of the show on social media.
Victoria Smurfit has been bombarded with "hate" over her role in Rivals.
The 52-year-old actress plays Maud O'Hara - who is married to Aidan Turner's character Declan O'Hara - in the hit Disney Plus show but Victoria has admitted Maud's behaviour has riled up fans of the show on social media.
During an appearance on the Picky Bits podcast, Victoria explained: "The amount of hate I’ve got as Maud for being, let’s say, challenging towards her husband.
"And then Maud wasn’t particularly pleasant to her daughter and wow, did TikTok let me know."
Victoria previously opened up about playing Maud - admitting she enjoys her "bohemian spirit" but find her antics "appalling".
During an appearance on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, Victoria said: "I think like every decent woman, you should be some part devilment and some part whiskey and it just depends on what level we're going to be at."
Asked if she recognises any elements of Maud in herself, the actress replied: "I hope I'm a better mother than her, my kids say I am, and I definitely have to be a better wife than Maud, I mean she's desperate."
She went on to add: "But I think her kind of bohemian spirit – I really enjoy getting into that and also Maud's vulnerability to excuse her appalling behaviour."
Victoria also revealed she read Dame Jilly Coopers books - on which the show is based - when she young and both she and her mother were "obsessed" with them.
She said: "Obviously she [mum] read it going: 'Isn't Maud amazing', and I would read it going: 'No, isn't Taggie amazing?' And now here I am, Maud's age and having the extraordinary privilege to play her. And, guess what mum, I married Declan.
"It is a bonkers, bonkers thing but I think of it as the longest method acting research I've ever done because it's been 40 years of having Dame Jilly Cooper in my life and that is also a privilege to know the legend in real terms."
Victoria also revealed she donated a lot of her mother's 1980s clothes to the Rivals costume department after her death, adding: "[She] lives on in the Rivals store cupboard.
"I know she'd have loved that – the idea that: 'Oh, Katherine Parkinson's wearing my belt'."
