Derry Girls star Saoirse Monica-Jackson landed life-changing role after being fired from sales job

She spoke for the first time about life before she found stardom

Derry Girls star Saoirse Monica-Jackson has revealed how she landed the career-changing role just after getting fired from her job as a door-to-door salesperson.

The actor, 26, is currently surviving lockdown in her London house share where she talks for the first time about life before she found stardom.

Turning to swing-ball in a bid to beat the lockdown blues, the talented actress revealed that her acting life is currently on hold. Saoirse is set to star in a brand-new movie called ‘Liverpool Ferry’.

But she revealed that life before she landed the part of Erin Quinn in ‘Derry Girls’ was very different.

“Before I got the ‘Derry Girls’ call, I was living with my ex-boyfriend in Manchester,” she said.

“I was lying to him, telling him that I had a sales job in town.

“Every day he would drop me into town at this office block and then I would go around the corner, get into this car and drive to the outskirts of Manchester and sell the meal kit service door to door.

“I was absolutely awful and it was only commission-based.

“And anyone that was interested in inviting you in was old and I really believe didn’t know how to use the Internet well enough.

“But I would tell them not to do it and basically leave and so I was strolling around Manchester for a year eating biscuits talking to old people for a year before I got the call.

“I had just gotten fired from that job when the email came in about ‘Derry Girls.’

“And I genuinely thought they were making a documentary about Derry. It wasn’t really the path I wanted to go down but it was a job.

“Then I read it and I realised it was this amazing project and I knew I wanted to be a part of that.”

Saoirse makes the revelations in Kevin Paints, a new RTÉ Player Original series, where comedian turned portrait artist Kevin McGahern adds a splash of colour to a celebrity interview.

Kevin chats to the Derry Girls star, comedians Pat Shortt and Joanne McNally and fellow artist Don Conroy about life, the universe and adapting to change, all while attempting to paint their portrait.

The first episode starring Saoirse goes live this morning (Monday) on the player and will be broadcast on Thursday night on RTÉ 2.

Over the course of the interview the actor gives a tour of her quirky, if slight untidy London flat and chats about fame in the US and how winning the celebrity Bake Off proved to her mam that she’s not “utterly useless.”

“My mum definitely values winning Bake Off much more (than any awards),” she said.

“When the show went out, she rang me, obviously it was pre-recorded, and she said to me ‘I have never been as proud of you in my life, because I always thought you were utterly useless’.”

• Watch the full episode now on the RTÉ Player on RTÉ2 on Thursday nights 9.20PM.