The Botanist: Happening Now: Kate Ireland

Letting yourself go and surrendering to the moment in front of you. I think it's trying to just be instead of always seeing yourself from the outside and thinking, how does this make me look, or how will this make me look in the future? Or how does this help me achieve my goals? Which I think hinders us from just feeling. I think the moments in the film that really bring the character I play joy are not the moments where she’s actively composed herself, it’s when she's pottering about in the garden or just having fun at a party with her mates. It's an unplanned, loose way of just being and accepting that you can’t preempt things.

Three things that bring me joy are… Good lighting, dogs and going to the cinema. Wee lamps dotted around the room feel like little containers of warmth and allow you to sit and have intimate conversations without the sensation of being watched or observed. Dogs - they’re just such pure creatures, they bring me a lot of peace, make me feel really present and the nonverbal communication brings me down to earth. I’m really enjoying going to the cinema with my partner at the moment. We have a monthly film pass for this local independent cinema and you can see as many films as you want. Sitting for two hours immersed and watching someone’s story is quite a mindful exercise and talking about it afterwards is a nice little routine. 

My favourite comfort food dish to make at home is… A rice noodle ramen with some chilli oil, yoghurt, peanut butter, garlic, onion and veg with a fried egg on top and more chilli oil, crispy sesame seeds and pickled cucumber on the side. I'm not a very good cook so what I do is just throw everything in! Usually, it's something that doesn't require too many parts, like a one-pot job, but I think that this one feels quite nourishing and healthy.

The last book I read and loved is… Green Dot by Madeleine Gray. I read it on holiday in Greece, I just picked it up in the airport and it is so brilliantly written. It’s pacy, funny, witty and weird as well. I couldn't put it down and that's rare for me, I’m usually going between lots of different books at once. It was so nice to be like, ‘oh, I really want to pick this up and come back to it.’ I really recommend it.

My weekend routine is… Going to the pub with friends for a roast and just sitting and chatting, going for walks on a Sunday or maybe going to a gallery or a show. I’ve been seeing a lot more live music recently, which has been nice. I like going to small venues to see bands that I don't know. I’ve really been trying to do more wholesome, people-centred things.

The best gifts are… Small reminders that someone has kept you in their heart when you've not been there. So they might have seen something in a wee shop and thought oh, that reminds me of you. Something that feels personalised. I also love handmade things. I lose things so easily but if you give me a little note or a card or something you've sewn, I will keep that in a box till the day I die, I’m very sentimental.

Hand-crafting something for someone is the kindest thing. So much of our expressions of love are digital, it's nice to hold something in your hand that someone's made for you. 

My drink of choice is… A Negroni, maybe with a little prosecco topper. I had a Lychee Negroni once with white vermouth, which was gorgeous. I do love a classic with a nice little orange rind set on fire so it has that orangey, fragrancy thing going on.

A recent performance that moved me is… CMAT at Primavera. She's Irish and she’s got the perfect combination of being so utterly brilliantly talented at what she does, there's a lot of craft and rehearsal and time put into it, but then she's also letting herself be completely free and weird and unencumbered. I sometimes watch her before I go on stage to perform to remind myself to just be and let go. People respond to something that doesn't feel overly rehearsed. 

My biggest inspiration is… I have so many but I also think that so much of what inspires me directly when I write is the way that people speak when they're not performing or they're just having a casual conversation. I think with Scottish people as well there's a lot of poetry to the way people talk, there are so many dialects or little phrases that people say. The profound, the mundane, and the language we use to converse and connect when we're not trying to sound impressive? I'm really inspired by that.