Claudia O'Doherty on ghosts, Will Forte, and playing a horrible person in Extra Ordinary

“Generally, when I play characters, I play fairly unthreatening, sort of like sweet, nice people who wear overalls.” Comedian and actor Claudia O’Doherty knows she has a type, which made it all the more exciting when her old pals Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman asked her to be one of the “villains” in their charming horror-comedy Extra Ordinary. O’Doherty plays the brusque wife—also named Claudia—of Will Forte’s Christian Winter, a one-hit wonder musician who fled to Ireland and has now turned to black magic for another shot at stardom. Their diabolical plans put them at odds with reluctant ghostbuster Rose Dooley (Maeve Higgins), who is convinced by a new friend to tap into her supernatural powers in order to save his teenage daughter from becoming a sacrificial virgin. “I liked playing her because she’s so horrible, but she’s really lazy and stupid, but she’s also dressed like Kate Bush, so that’s really fun.,” O’Doherty told us during our recent chat in Los Angeles prior to Extra Ordinary’s stateside theatrical release. We dug in deep with the actor about the joys of villainy, filming death scenes, and why Christian Winter may be her favorite Will Forte character yet.

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Extra Ordinary is in select theaters now.