KIRSTY Strain laughs as she recalls standing on Maryhill Road, in winter, wearing nothing but a bikini while holding a poke of chips.

 

And the actress agrees if you can do that, her latest role won't prove to be too problematic.

Kirsty is set to star in 52 Shades of Maggie, the sequel to 51 Shades, the theatre comedy spoof on the Fifty Shades of Grey book phenomenon that took the world by storm.

Maggie is a Glasgow girl who loves sex, chips and cider. And it's a role that calls for an actress to send herself up mercilessly.

However, Kirsty maintains it was the likes of her bikini sketch in cult TV show Burnistoun that reminded the actress you have to be able to laugh at yourself.

"I spent three years studying serious acting in New York at the Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio," recalls the 34 year-old, grinning, during a break in rehearsals in a converted Belfast church.

"And during that time I think I forgot I had a funny bone. I had been taking life far too seriously.

"When I was growing up my granddad would entertain me with videos of Hector Nicol and Laurel and Hardy, which I loved, but the time in New York sort of made me forget that.

"The Burnistoun sketches however brought comedy back to me. I never stopped laughing during the three series I was with the show." - even when I was freezing cold and wearing a bikini."

But why take off to New York in the first place?

"I was fascinated by James Dean and the Actor's Studio in New York," she reflects.

"When I was at Langside College (studying Drama) everyone was talking about going to the RSAMD, but for me, New York was this itch I needed to scratch.

"And I felt I needed to have some real life experience."

Kirsty had always wanted to become a performer and joined Scottish Youth Theatre, aged twelve.

"I had this abundance of energy as a kid and I tried dance classes, but gave it up when I realised I had two left feet and no rhythm.

"So I asked my mum if I could go to drama classes when I was twelve, and loved it."

However, Kirsty developed ME, until she was seventeen. And her time in bed made her keen to spread her wings.

The young hopeful applied and was accepted by the Actor's Studio, where the likes of Robert De Niro and Angelina Jolie trained, and planned to stay a year.

"Before going, I worked for an insurance company for three months, then did promotions work and some modelling to save money.

"But then the chance came to stay on in New York for another two years, and I took it. Thankfully, my mum and dad were really supportive, sending me cheques, even though they weren't in the best financial position. And meantime, I got a waitressing job."

Kirsty gained huge life experience in New York, but she didn't want to spend her life there.

"I needed a support network around me," she says. "And I wanted to come home. Even the humour here is different."

She worked in London for a year, before returning to Scotland.

"And no one had a clue who I was," she says of the local casting directors.

"Because I hadn't gone through the usual acting routes, I had to start from scratch and let people know what I could do. But within a year, I landed a Taggart role and the work came in."

She went on to appear as a prostitute in River City, and has appeared in several short films.

Now, she's set to return to the theatre. Fifty One Shades ran at the Pavilion last year and broke box office records. And it looks as though the follow-up will follow suit.

"I've been doing TV and film and I haven't been on a main stage theatre for ten years," she admits.

"But 52 Shades is such a big piece you become so absorbed in it all. And the characters you have to play really force it all out of you."

Kirsty, who was a tomboy as a kid, adds; "I've never been girlie-girlie, but here am I taking on a character like Maggie, who's even less feminine than I am," she says, grinning.

"I've had to get her walk, to think about the way she sits."

Kirsty is as slim as a lettuce leaf, so she's wearing a fat suit for the role, to create a few lumps and bumps.

"Maggie eats donner kebabs, bargain buckets of KFC and drinks Buckfast," she informs, laughing.

"She's not going to be slim, is she?"

The actress looks at her padding and adds; "You don't have sweat," she says. "But it's worth it."

Strasberg's teaching however suggests hopeful actors immerse themselves in their characters, indeed become their character in order to achieve a real truth in their performance.

But does that the young lady from Mount Vernon has spent recent times involved in bondage sessions with men she's known less time than it takes to tie her up?

"Well, my boyfriend's been winding me up about that, referencing the Strasberg Studio and saying 'You'll come home like Maggie Muff. You'll be different.'

"But I think he knows I'll still be me."

*52 Shades of Maggie, (Dirty Dancing In The Pub) the Pavilion Theatre, April 15 - May 2.