ALMOST 20 years after her breakthrough movie, Trainspotting, Glaswegian actress Kelly Macdonald still does not like seeing herself on screen. This isn’t self-consciousness though; she says she doesn’t know “anyone who loves watching themselves”.

Free of airs and graces, the actress, who has been working solidly with roles in the likes of Coen Brothers’ 2007 hit No Country For Old Men, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Anna Karenina alongside Keira Knightley, admits she’s been known to duck out of premieres.

“You kind of have to be there, unless you awkwardly ask, ‘Can I just leave?’, which is weird, but which I have done,” confesses Macdonald, who has two sons – Freddie, six, and toddler Theodore – with her husband, Travis bassist Dougie Payne.

She has made an exception for Sky Atlantic’s Boardwalk Empire, however, and she’ll put on the ritz for the fifth and final premiere of the period drama, which returns to screens this month and in which she stars as go-getting Irish immigrant Margaret.

Following the bloody conclusion to series four, season five jumps forward seven years, to 1931, as the country struggles to cope with the Great Depression and the end of Prohibition looms.

Although she can only “skirt around” the storylines, Macdonald teases that she would like her character to reach a sticky end.

“Part of me wants Margaret to end badly,” she says. “Not for any moral reason, just because I thought that would be fun to play.”

Even though she can’t elaborate on the plots, moving the show forward a decade has been a sartorial blessing for the Scottish star.

“There are waists where there were no waists before,” says the actress, referring to the straight-up-and-down flapper-style costumes. “I would not have not looked my best in the Twenties, so thankfully I have the option to have a cinched waist.”

Although she loves the new flattering fashions and her character’s “strength”, Macdonald admits she is also “looking forward to not being Margaret”.

Understandably, saying goodbye to co star Steve Buscemi, “the nicest man in the universe”, and the rest of the cast and crew comes with mixed emotions.

“It’s been a big part of my life,” she says.

“Five years is huge... I’ve had babies in that time. Margaret’s evolved every season. She’s the character you’ve seen the biggest change in from beginning to end.”

“Before Boardwalk, I would work on films and everybody knew what they were up to next,” she explains. “I have never been that way. My career doesn’t go back to back, but hopefully there will be something coming up.

I hope I get to keep doing this for a long time,”

Macdonald adds, “and I can look back at the evolving things I’ve done in my life.”

  • Boardwalk Empire returns to Sky Atlantic on Saturday