The beautiful people

It may be dubiously fashionable for misogynists and Uncle Tomming girls to take aim at Ireland’s youthful Beautiful People, but around these parts we’re having none of it.

Do we really want to go back to the time when occasional headlines pertaining to Hollywood Heartthrob Gabriel Byrne were as close to glamour as we were ever going to get? We think not.
So let’s have a big shout out for Hugh O’Conor and Nora Jane Noone, stars of the new amnesia comedy Speed Dating and two of Hibernia’s Brightest Young Things.
Where previous generations of Irish thespians would tread the boards or seek gainful employment in character acting, Hugh and Nora Jane are fine specimens of a new breed of indigenous movie star.
“I think Colin and Cillian have really raised the profile of Irish actors,” says Hugh. “They’re two of the best actors in the world. But funnily, I still think of those guys as being character actors in their own way. They’re always acting and not just being the man in a car chase or something.”
Hugh, you may recall, was the ridiculously precocious young talent from Lamb, Da and My Left Foot. By 18, he had progressed to headliner, landing the lead role in The Young Poisoner’s Handbook and has since worked steadily in films such as Chocolat, Deathwatch and Bloom.
“I was really young starting out,” recalls the 31-year-old. “But I still get the same thrill I did when my first film came out.”
Is the Irish film industry a more impressive entity now than at the beginning of his career I wonder? Or do cameras still occasionally fall over?
“No, that stopped ages ago,” he says. “You look at the crew on a film like Speed Dating and they’re all really young and hungry. It helps that we’re not making films about Northern Ireland and the Catholic Church all the time.”
At the tender age of 23, Galway born Nora Jane is quickly gaining ground on Hugh’s formidable resume. In 2002, she made her film debut in Peter Mullen’s The Magdalene Sisters, and received an award for Best Actress In An Ensemble Role at The British Independent Film Awards. She has since popped up in Coronation Street and as one of the feisty doomed heroines of Neil Marshall’s superb horror flick The Descent.
“Roles are still harder to find if you’re a woman,” she says. “But I’ve been really lucky. There are lots of actors out there who are good enough but who just don’t get the breaks.”
Still, luck doesn’t explain why the uncommonly pretty Nora Jane and her generation are so much better looking than the Irish that went before.
“Well, I suppose Irish women used to get married at 20 and spend their lives having children. Now we have the time and money to finally get to the hairdressers.”
Speed Dating is released April 20.