#scottish actor
Sharon Rooney looking pretty in polka dots at her friend (cousin?) Jil’s hen night.
Posted on her Instagram on 27 June, 2021.
TECH? NO: Sharon Rooney isn’t daft about smart homes after filming in one for new ITV show Finding Alice
TECHNOPHOBE actress Sharon Rooney reckons living in a smart home would be a hi-tech horror — as she doesn’t even like talking to Alexa.
The Scots star — who played Miss Atlantis in big-budget Disney flick Dumbo — was at the mercy of machines filming new show Finding Alice, which was set in a house full of futuristic technology.
She admits working on the six-part ITV drama — which kickstarts after her character’s brother is found dead at the bottom of his bannister-less stairs — made her realise she’s happy to keep it simple in her own life.
Sharon, 32, says: “When we were filming on the stairs, which don’t have a bannister, I was thinking, ‘Why would you not have a bannister? It’s just so dangerous’.
“I’m very clumsy. So the thought of not having bannisters on stairs fills me with fear.
“Also, the thing of having to talk to your house to open the curtains and so on.
“I’m bad enough with the Alexa. Sometimes I’ll say something at home and she’ll suddenly talk to me.
“And I think, ‘No, I don’t want to talk to anyone, never mind a machine’. I mean, what is she listening to? What has she heard?”
Finding Alice stars Bodyguard favourite Keeley Hawes as Alice, a mum whose life is turned upside down when her husband Harry (Jason Merrells) is found dead at the bottom of the stairs in the smart house he designed.
She can’t even find the fridge while dealing with the aftermath of the tragedy and struggles to contend with unexpected visits from Harry’s parents Minnie (Gemma Jones) and Gerry (Kenneth Cranham) as well as her own dad Roger (Nigel Havers) and mum Sarah (Joanna Lumley).
To make matters worse, other unexpected visitors make her realise that Harry’s business debt wasn’t the only secret he had.
Sharon — who starred in the early seasons of hit Scots comedy Two Doors Down — plays Harry’s younger sister Nicola who has a habit of blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time and played second fiddle to her “golden boy” sibling.
The actress thinks the show deals with the practical side of someone passing away and hopes it gets people talking about how to deal with the death of a loved-one.
She says: “There is a lot of humour in Finding Alice. Even in the saddest of times there has to be joy.
"How do you breathe again when you’ve been through such tragedy and pain? Because you have to. Life is crazy. You have to laugh again.
“I love how Nicola always wants to remind people with stories about Harry at any opportunity.
“That’s how he lives on. With reminders of him on top of the coffin at his funeral.
"My gran always used to say to me, ‘A funeral is for the living’. That’s so true.
“There’s no cheat sheet that comes when somebody dies, to say, ‘This is what you have to do’.
“I really hope Finding Alice gets people talking. Just a quick conversation.
"No one wants to talk about death. But it is important. You have to know what to do in practical terms.
"When you’re grieving the last thing you want to think about is bank accounts and passwords.”
Sharon shares the screen with The Durrells actress Keeley and admits she loved working with one of the telly stars of the moment.
She reveals: “Working with Keeley was just the best. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much.
"I remember having a day off and thinking, ‘Can I just come in?’. And they were like, ‘No. Have a day off!’.
“There’s one part of the story where Nicola and Alice go jogging. We actually did do a lot of it.
"I’m not going to say I’ve developed a love for it. But I’ve developed a liking.
“We also filmed a night out at a bowling alley. Nicola gets a strike in the script and by sheer luck I got a strike on camera.
"I felt like I had scored the winning goal in the World Cup.”
Although filming for Finding Alice was interrupted by Covid, Sharon and the cast got back to work by following strict protocols.
Ironically, the Glasgow actress admits the best thing about working on a show about smart technology was the rules banned her from even looking at her phone.
She adds: “It’s really weird how quickly it became the new normal.
“And actually, how much better it was, in a way, not to be on your phone in the morning because you couldn’t take any personal items into make-up.
“So you could just sit and not scroll through Instagram. That was nice.”
* Finding Alice starts Sunday, January 17, STV, 9pm…’
The Scottish Sun, 14.1.21 (not linked to avoid giving them more clicks)
Sharon Rooney has joined the cast of new BBC thriller, The Control Room.
The Scottish drama has just started filming, in Sharon’s hometown of Glasgow.
Iain De Caestecker (Roadkill) and Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) lead an ensemble cast which also includes Daniel Portman from Game of Thrones, Taj Atwal from Line of Duty and Stuart Bowman from The Bodyguard.
The Control Room follows the story of ambulance service emergency call handler Gabe, played by De Caestecker, who has his world 'turned upside down when he receives a desperate life-and-death call from a woman who appears to know him’, according to the BBC.
It is written by Nick Leather (who also wrote Murdered For Being Different, starring My Mad Fat Diary’s Nico Mirallegro) and directed by Amy Neil (Hanna, Trust Me).
