{"id":638235,"date":"2026-08-15T06:59:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638235\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T06:59:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T06:59:25","slug":"kate-oflynn-on-widows-bay-emmy-nomination-and-mike-leighs-final-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638235\/","title":{"rendered":"Kate O’Flynn on ‘Widow’s Bay’ Emmy Nomination and Mike Leigh’s Final Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tKate O\u2019Flynn<\/a> found out she was an Emmy nominee and immediately went underground.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI felt like an ostrich,\u201d she tells Variety over Zoom. \u201cI got the news, and I was immediately overwhelmed and put my head in the sand, and then quaffed champagne. It was nuts in the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe realization didn\u2019t land until the next day, when she scrolled through a phone full of messages from people she had worked with across two decades. These names wouldn\u2019t mean anything to anyone outside British regional theater. \u201cThat\u2019s when I got emotional,\u201d she says. \u201cIt just puts it all into context.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat context is what the Emmy narrative keeps flattening. O\u2019Flynn is being covered as a breakout, and she doesn\u2019t dispute the term.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is undoubtedly a breakout for me, no question,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m coming with more life experience. I\u2019ve worked hard to cultivate a life outside it that also supports this moment. There\u2019s a bit more faith in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer years onstage shaped how she approaches a set. Most of her theater work was on new plays with living writers, which taught her to treat the script as a governing document. \u201cIt\u2019s about the writer\u2019s voice,\u201d she says. \u201cAs an actor, you\u2019re trying to serve that vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe calls acting a team sport and frames every scene as a question of orchestration. \u201cWhat instrument are you playing in the orchestra in any set scene?\u201d she explains. \u201cThen you stick to that instrument, and you play your part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat instinct made her a natural fit for a project creator Katie Dippold had been carrying for 12 years. Unlike nearly everyone else, O\u2019Flynn was never skeptical it would work. Asked whether she believed a horror-comedy that plays like Stephen King directing \u201cParks and Recreation\u201d could land, she didn\u2019t hedge. \u201cHonestly, yes. I knew it was my taste. I knew that I would want to watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe script, director Hiro Murai\u2019s sensibility and a first read-through alongside Dale Dickey, Stephen Root, Kevin Carroll and Matthew Rhys settled it. Even the tonal tightrope critics keep marveling at was, to her, a nonissue. Her read on Patricia, a social outcast and eccentric assistant, turned out to be nothing like what Dippold and Murai had imagined. \u201cThat\u2019s what\u2019s great about collaboration,\u201d she says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got your root material, and then it\u2019s filtered through different people\u2019s brains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tKate O\u2019Flynn, \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tApple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tThe character\u2019s afterlife as a meme still bewilders her. \u201cShe is annoying, selfish and tough at times, but she\u2019s brave and kind,\u201d O\u2019Flynn says. \u201cShe\u2019s a flawed three-dimensional person, and to see the weirdness of her embraced, it\u2019s like, oh, we all are that weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe year of O\u2019Flynn won\u2019t stop on Emmy night. She heads to Toronto with Mike Leigh\u2019s \u201cTender Loving Care,\u201d made by the director who gave her a first job on \u201cHappy-Go-Lucky\u201d at 21 and who has signaled the new film will likely be his last. \u201cYou\u2019re treated as an artist by Mike,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s no scaffolding. It\u2019s terrifying and liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDickey, her co-star and fellow nominee, told Variety she is rooting hardest for O\u2019Flynn to take supporting comedy actress, and has vowed to carry her train up the steps. O\u2019Flynn feels the love. \u201cShe\u2019s Dame Dale Dickey to me,\u201d she says with the biggest smile. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll be quite happy to carry hers. We\u2019re just going to be two queens rocking the red carpet together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kate O\u2019Flynn found out she was an Emmy nominee and immediately went underground. \u201cI felt like an ostrich,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,7612,117,19,17,269848,231300],"class_list":["post-638235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-eire","tag-emmys","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kate-ou2019flynn","tag-widowu2019s-bay"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}