Katie Honan and Sarah Morris: ‘I’d be a pretty good carpenter’

Why do you think you’ve ended up doing what you do?

Sarah: I knew I didn't want to be in school, so I left school young and pretended to be a dancer for a couple of years.

Katie: You're a really good dancer!

Sarah: When I finished that I was 17, and trained in acting.

Katie: We both went to The Lir, but it didn't exist when I left school. When it came about, I signed up and was there for the first year; you were there for the second year.

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Sarah: I thought that you couldn't get into Trinity or anything like that without your Leaving Cert.

Katie: I did musical theatre for a couple of years.

Sarah: I'm sure if I put my mind to it I'd be a pretty good carpenter! But I couldn't sit in an office at a computer. I'd lose my mind.

What subject do you wish you had studied?

Sarah: Criminology. I worry about someone seeing the searches on my computer. I just started listening to the podcast My Favourite Murder. I can't stop. You start getting way more suss-y of people. You feel like you could be a criminal profiler.

Katie: History, I think. Through work I love the process of before you start a play, looking into the history or doing a lot of research.

What is your death row meal?

Sarah: Eggs Benedict with rashers, and a steak.

Katie: I'd have a fry, a really nice sandwich, and some good pasta.

Sarah: You do love a good sandwich.

Can you guess what the other person’s drink is?

Katie: Prosecco.

Sarah: Yes. Yours is a pint of Heineken, or a bottle of Coors.

Katie: Yeah.

What is your favourite item of clothing?

Sarah: I have a go-to pair of crushed-velvet wine ankle boots from Zara. They're a wardrobe staple.

Katie: A suede coat. I bought it in River Island around four years ago. It was one of those ones where you think, "That's going to get manky dirty", and it hasn't.

What fault do you most tolerate in people?

Katie: I'd be slow to give people a hard time about things.

Sarah: With actors, people are constantly aware of gigs, sometimes the negativity from that you have to tolerate because everyone gives it off and takes it. I think people can be "on" a lot of the time. You find yourself talking about that stuff a lot of the time, and it's so boring to talk about!

Katie: I think I'm tolerant of people f***ing up a bit, because we all have the potential to do that. Everyone makes mistakes. If you make them a million times over, it's kind of like: "Sort it out."

Sarah: You're a slate-cleaner: "That was that, let's move forward."

Do you have a personal motto or mantra?

Katie: My boyfriend always says to me: "It'll be alright in the end, and if it's not alright, it's not the end." I'm like: "Wha?" But now I always say it.

Sarah: I was recently at a shamanic healing New Year's celebration thing. You think about all the things that you hold on to that are just a load of nonsense. I felt like, I'm going to have to be doing this once a month! Just checking in with yourself, being present. It sounds a bit airy-fairy.

Katie: Well, it sounds like something everyone should be doing.

Is there any artist you feel particularly connected to at the moment?

Sarah: Erykah Badu, Kendrick Lamar. I recently saw the Nick Cave documentary One More Time With Feeling. That was one of the best things I saw last year. It's one of the most true portrayals of grief I've ever seen. I just watched The Sopranos for the first time. Edie Falco is just outrageous.

Katie: I'm listening to The Cinematic Orchestra a lot. I'm obsessed with the royal family. I watched the second season of The Crown and then started watching the first season again.

Sarah: It's so boring!

Katie: You haven't seen it!

Sarah: I don't want to see it. I have no interest in it. You sitting there with tea and crumpets watching it.

Katie: I don't eat crumpets.

When did you last cry?

Sarah: I cried last night with my sister. We were just having a chat. The two of us love a good cry.

Katie: The last time I can remember crying was in the bath a couple of weeks ago. It was around the time of the show opening. I think it was just a release. I wasn't even upset.

What do you worry about the most?

Sarah: Money

Katie: Money

Sarah: That's terrible, isn't it?

Which word do you overuse?

Sarah: I curse a lot. I have to watch it. I use "literally" in the wrong context a lot of the time, so I'm constantly being corrected about that. But if I really want to convey something – which is all the time – I throw in a "literally".

Katie: I notice myself saying "actually".

Sarah: You say "tea?" with a question mark at the end.

Katie: I'm a nanny like that.

Katie Honan and Sarah Morris are actors. Katie recently appeared in Let The Right One In at the Abbey Theatre, while Morris's most recent work was Class on the Peacock stage at the Abbey.