Derry Girls actress Tara-Lynne O’Neil has defended her co-star Jamie-Lee O’Donnell after her appearance on The Late Late Show.
Jamie-Lee, who plays Michelle Mallon in the Channel 4 sitcom, appeared the Friday night’s episode of the popular RTÉ chat show.
Host Ryan Tubridy asked the actress: “This might be a rude question, you don’t have to answer. But can I ask you how old you are?”
Jamie-Lee jokingly replied, “I’m 117. I’m very, very wise,” before Ryan said, “Would you consider telling me what age you are?”
The actress responded: “This is the thing about it that gets on my nerves a wee bit, no disrespect…”
Ryan interjected, “Oh no, that’s okay, I’ll walk away from it if you’d like me to.”
Jamie-Lee then explained, “Do you know what it is, it’s always quite misogynistic even it’s unintentionally misogynistic because men don’t get the same scrutiny in their career.”
Defending himself, Ryan insisted: “I would definitely have asked the male actor the same question because he’s playing a teenager too.”
Jamie-Lee then joked: “You’re saying that now, there’s nobody here. I’ll have to take your word for it!”
Explaining why he asked the question, the Late Late Show host added: “I would say that you’ve got these great characters playing teenagers.”
“And that’s really what I was getting at, the fact that you’re of a certain age that play teenagers and do it so well.”
“Actually there was a compliment coming there… please don’t misunderstand where I’m coming from, I mean that genuinely.”
Ryan added: “I’m done with that question; I’m going to move on. I can read a mood when I see it.”
Jamie-Lee’s co-star Tara Lynne, who plays Ma Mary in the show, has since defended her response.
Speaking on Ireland AM, Tara Lynne said: “I think, if you’re going to start a question with ‘this may be rude, and you don’t have to answer it,’ I think that’s not a great question to ask. If you’re going to say ‘you don’t have to answer it’, let somebody answer it.”
She continued: “I think Jamie-Lee’s a very smart, clever, forward thinking young girl and I think if he had let her answer the question, it would have been much clearer as to what she meant.”
“The girls do get asked [about their age] quite a lot, and I think if he had let her finish, he would have left [the interview] not in a mood. but on the funny ancedote she was a bout to give.”
“She was going to find a way to be funny and explain where she was coming from but obviously Ryan just felt uncomfortable and moved on- and that’s understandable too -but if you start a question with ‘this may be rude,’ just don’t ask it.”
