Michelle Keegan: Why the ‘Fool Me Once’ Breakout Is One to Watch
TV viewers are all too happy to be fooled, it seems. Fool Me Once, the latest small-screen thriller based on a Harlan Coben novel, has become a smash hit for Netflix, ranking No. 1 worldwide amid the streamer’s English-language TV shows after racking up 61 million views over two weeks, per Deadline.
And the show’s success is just the latest accomplishment for star Michelle Keegan, who has transitioned from British soaps to globally-watched dramas. Here’s why she’s someone to keep an eye on.
She won over soap audiences.
Thousands of British thespians have passed through ITV’s Coronation Street since the soap opera’s 1960 debut, but Michelle Keegan has stood out over the rest. In 2010, The Guardian named Keegan’s Tina McIntyre one of the 10 best Corrie characters. “She’s gobby and she’s glamorous, but her knock-out quality is her intelligence,” the newspaper declared, adding that the believability of Tina’s storylines is a credit to Keegan acting with “lovely directness.”
She’s the subject of award voters’ adoration — and their lust.
Can’t a gal get an award for her acting and not just her looks? Before the British Soap Awards eliminated its Sexiest Female category in 2015, Keegan took home the prize in six consecutive years, per Digital Spy. And that winning streak was “embarrassing” for Keegan, as she told The Observer in December 2023.
“Because I was in a lot of heavy storylines,” she added. “There was one where I felt like I was crying every day for months and months. And then at the end of it, when the accolade was Sexiest Female. It was so frustrating. … And the funny thing is, I’m not sexy! I’ve never been sexy! My friends have always laughed about it. Even when I say the word, it makes me cringe.”
Fortunately, other awards shows have recognized Keegan’s talent. She won Best Soap Newcomer at the TV Quick Awards in 2008 and Best Actress at the TV Choice Awards in 2018.
She’s a master of the meringue.
Keegan earned the respect of the Great British Bake Off judges — and even a hug from the hard-to-please Paul Hollywood — in 2019 when she won an episode of The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off.
The competition under the tent was fierce, with James Acaster, Russell Tovey, and Rylan Clark-Neal all vying for the title of Star Baker. But after a signature challenge (making flapjacks) and a technical challenge (producing cream horns), Keegan took the cake, so to speak, by whipping up a ski-slope meringue scene for the showstopper. Hollywood called the results “faultless,” per Radio Times, and fellow judge Prue Leith said Keegan’s baking was worthy of the regular Bake Off competition.
Even more impressive, Keegan told The Sun she hadn’t baked before. “I cook at home, I love cooking. … Baking is completely different,” she said. “Your measurements, timing, everything is different. I’ve been around baking, my mum is a really good baker. But I’ve never actually done it myself.”
Now oddsmakers have her as a Bond girl favorite.
The name’s Keegan… Michelle Keegan. Betting sites in the U.K. have their eyes on the Fool Me Once star as a potential Bond girl, as Metro reported this month. Gambling.com reports Keegan’s odds for starring in a James Bond film are 5/2, putting her ahead of bigger stars like Florence Pugh, Jenna Ortega, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Dua Lipa.
“[Keegan] started out in soaps, starring as barmaid Tina McIntyre in Coronation Street for six years,” explained James Leyfield, a Gambling.com betting expert. “That means she already knows how to perfect a martini – shaken, not stirred – but more than that, she could be an ideal MI6 colleague for Bond.”
And viewers love her in Fool Me Once.
In the new Netflix offering, Keegan plays an ex-solider contending with the seeming reappearance of her dead husband. And she has audiences gobsmacked, as X posts attest.
“Michelle Keegan is off the charts with one,” tweeted @_pankajkapoor.
“It’s good to see Michelle Keegan getting that attention overseas that she definitely deserves,” wrote @RedLuca56.
“If you watch all episodes of Fool Me Once [back to back], you can make a case that it’s actually an eight-hour film and Michelle Keegan has been cheated out of an Oscar nom,” said @secrettracksuit.
(Now that’s a trophy Keegan would be proud to claim!)
