Alison Oliver is a long way from home when she sits down to speak with Screen International on Zoom. The Irish actress is in Philadelphia, gearing up for a day of shooting with Mark Ruffalo on HBO miniseries Task.

“It’s set in Delaware County so it’s a very specific dialogue,” she reveals of Brad Ingelsby’s crime drama. “The [vocal] sounds are amazing here. I’ve never even heard some of them before.”

Production on the series also meant Oliver missed out on accepting her Irish Film and Television Award in April, for best supporting actress in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. “It means the most to be recognised in your own country,” says the Cork native.

A “very loud” child, Oliver enrolled in several dance and drama classes growing up before studying at The Lir Academy in Dublin for four years. “I graduated during the pandemic [in 2020], which was terrifying,” she says. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m never going to work.’”

She was soon eating her words: the day after graduation, Oliver was cast as the lead in the Hulu/BBC television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends. More TV work came with BBC series Best Interests, as the onscreen sister of fellow 2024 Star of Tomorrow Niamh Moriarty.

For Saltburn, Oliver went through three rounds of “collaborative” auditions before receiving a personal text from Fennell confirming the role of the troubled Venetia Catton. “I obviously didn’t have her number, so it took me a minute to take it in,” laughs the actress, who goes on to say the director took “such a leap and risk” in casting her.

“It completely pushed me out of my comfort zone,” Oliver recalls of making the film, alongside the “spellbinding” Barry Keoghan and her other inspiring co-stars. “It expanded everything I thought I knew about acting.”

Next up is a small role in Justin Kurzel’s crime feature The Order for Prime Video, while Oliver is also attached to Ralph Fiennes’ The Beacon. She is keen to do “one play a year” too, having spent most of 2023 on stage, including the title role in Almeida Theatre’s Portia Coughlan. “I’ve learnt about myself that if I could rehearse forever, I would,” says Oliver.

Contact: Lara Beach, Curtis Brown 

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