The Emmy nominee is poignant and achingly funny in 'Tender Loving Care,' which marks the culmination of her 20-year partnership with Mike Leigh. She unveils the project in-depth for the first time.
Kate O’Flynn has been a working actor for 20 years and, on this blinding August morning, is adjusting to the beginnings of her first-ever trip to Los Angeles. Over the years, she’s starred opposite the likes of Toni Collette and Olivia Colman on high-profile series for Netflix and HBO, respectively; she’s an Olivier-nominated stage regular who drew raves for her brittle take on The Glass Menagerie’s Laura on the West End. But it is the funky Apple TV horror comedy Widow’s Bay that did the trick: O’Flynn is now a first time Emmy nominee while her character, the indefatigable mayor’s assistant Patricia Moyer, has become an unlikely internet sensation. And so it goes — welcome to Hollywood.
“I feel like I’ve launched out of a rocket,” O’Flynn says, as we wait for a table at a busy West Hollywood café. Wearing a purple tee and dark denim shorts, she’s as warmly approachable as you’ll find in this part of town, even with the dizzying schedule of campaign events: “It’s taking me awhile to acclimatize.”
