Roisin Conaty interview
Roisin Conaty talks about creating GameFace...
Hi Roisin. We really enjoyed your pilot. Perhaps we could start off by asking you to explain what the show is about...
Thanks! I'm really pleased you liked it. GameFace centres around a woman named Marcella who is trying to sort her life out. She is at that point a lot of people get to in their early 30's, where maybe the big dreams of your 20's need reshaping and you feel a little lost. Her acting 'career' never really took off. She is single, drinks too much and eats too much.
I called it GameFace as that's what Marcella uses as a defence - she is all front, which makes things worse for her, but better for comedy.
Until recently you've primarily been known as a stand-up. Was writing a sitcom something you've always wanted to do?
Yes, I am a massive comedy fan in all its forms but writing narrative was something I have always wanted to do. There are sitcoms and comedy films that I go back to again and again, that have seen me through shitty times, grief, being skint, being heartbroken... and, without sounding like too much of a prick, I always wanted to try and have a go at creating one.
They say, for the best sitcoms, you should 'write what you know'... we hope this isn't too autobiographical though?
Thematically it's autobiographical, in that I have felt like I didn't know what I was doing with my life and can be a bit of a dickhead... but no, I didn't go home with a man who worked in a chicken shop because he gave me some chicken, if that's what you mean!
As you allude to, GameFace starts with Marcella waking up after a very heavy night on the drink. What's the worst you've ever been hungover?
Once I was so hungover my nostrils hurt! It was like my body had run out of places to store pain, or it thought "well we made her sick and depressed last time and yet here we are again, I think we should kick the shit out of her nostrils, that will get her attention".
Ha ha. Marcella isn't all bad of course... she has some inspirational advice for some school kids in a great montage sequence. You'd make a good Life Coach in real life?
YES. I. WOULD. In all seriousness, I do think we should be taught a little more about the real world in school. I.e. how the financial markets actually work!
In GameFace, Mike Wozniak plays Marcella's Life Coach. Was it weird working with a moustache-free version of Mike?
Ha Yes it was. I had never seen his lips before, so to me it looked like he was pouting the whole time and I pointed it out to everyone... much to his annoyance.
You appear with Mike in Channel 4's Man Down too (pictured). Are you looking forward to joining back up with him and Greg Davies to make the second series of that?
Yes, I cannot wait! I loved working on it. Mike and Greg are two of the funniest people I know. I haven't seen any of the script yet so am looking forward to seeing what batshit crazy stuff Jo does and wears.
Another show you're a regular on is Impractical Jokers. Any news on a third series yet?
I haven't heard anything. Again, Joel, Marek and Paul are incredibly funny and we are very pleased with the reaction that the show got. The response has been incredible.
Back to GameFace... East 17's Brian Harvey makes a cameo. How was that?
Ah, that was pretty incredible. The 14 year-old me was saying 'at last you have achieved something I wanted'. He was very nice, great comic timing, and laid back about us referencing the 'potatoes' incident.
Presumably you'd be up for making a full series of GameFace if given the chance?
Yes, I would love that. I have learnt so much through making the Blaps and then the pilot. I have so many ideas that I would love to explore with it but, y'know, I am a firm believer in 'what's meant for you won't pass you by'... so if it does develop into something more, that would be amazing, but even if it's just the Blaps and the pilot, I am really grateful I got the opportunity.
GameFace is on Channel 4 on Wednesday 23rd April at 10:30pm.