Kerry Condon, Nina Sosanya and Eileen Walsh interview
Here Kerry Condon, Nina Sosanya and Eileen Walsh - who play the lead roles of Laura, Katie and Alison in Women On The Verge - talk about how they became involve in the show, and what their characters are like.
How did you get the part?
Kerry: Sharon sent it to me because I had done a play with a friend of hers 13 years ago. She came to see it, and then she watched other things that I'd done, and so years later she sent this to me and asked me would I like to play the part. I couldn't believe that she remembered really, to be honest with you. But it was nice to know that somebody was paying attention to something I'd done and put work into, that it was noted or whatever. I've done jobs where you still have to audition even if you've worked with them before, so it was massive for me to have somebody have such confidence in what I can do.
Nina: Kerry's is a really good story, and my story is a lot more normal! It was just a very normal route for me in terms of getting a script and auditioning and then waiting to hear. And then hearing! But I think Kerry's story says a lot about Sharon, doesn't it? Her imagination and what she can see in people, so that's lovely.
Eileen: I'd worked with Sharon before [in Catastrophe] and she'd mentioned it, and said, "There is the project in a couple of months..." Of course, saying that to an actor is a really bad mistake! I kept going, "Any news?" "Remember that project?" And she's like, "No news!" So, then I got some theatre work, and then I got a text from Sharon going, "We just checked the dates, and you're not available, and you said you were available." I was like, "Oh, fuck! Now I'm doing stupid theatre, and what the fuck am I going to do now?" And then I had to go the very normal route of going in and reading, and going again and reading, and then going again and reading, and then going in because Nina was cast, so I had to go and do a 'chemistry meet'... I had to jump through so many hoops.
Kerry: I usually have to do that, on my life, honestly!
Eileen: I'm totally over it! I'm totally grand. I think the scripts were amazing to read. In fairness, if somebody comes to any actor and says, "So, Sharon Horgan and Lorna Martin..." It ticked so many boxes immediately.
Kerry, did she have you in mind as she was writing?
Kerry: I don't know. I wasn't cocky enough to ask! I just was happy enough to take it. "Thanks a million!" When somebody does something so nice, I'm hardly going to go, "No, I'm just going to beg someone else for a job and try and convince them that I'm good." Of course, I'm going to go and work with the person who already thinks I'm great. Trying to convince someone else that you're good, kind of gets old after you've been doing it 20 years, you know?
The lady who plays my mother, Dervla Molloy, I worked with her years ago in a play too, and she said to me after the read-through, "Did they write this with you in mind?" I was like, "I know! It's totally like..." It's just me, you know? I'm not saying I'm drinking myself into oblivion at night, but there's a stream of consciousness in the way that I talk, and I'm very honest about things that annoy me, like Laura. That was when I thought, "Christ, this wouldn't be that much of a stretch for me really." I'm very honest and open.
What appealed to you about the script?
Nina: I liked Katie's bluntness. I was really pleased to be thought of for the part, because a lot of the stuff that I had done before is not like her at all, and that's really nice. I mean, she's professional, like doctors, detectives, I've done those. But she's got a lot of stuff going on and that's fun. She also just speaks her mind as well, without actually revealing much about herself, oddly, which has been interesting. She's just an interesting character.
And it was also just the fact that it was three female leads and that's fun. In a working environment, you don't get that very often. I don't get to work with actresses so closely usually because you're the only woman often. The only other one was Last Tango In Halifax, where the relationship with another female actress was just brilliant and unique. We don't get to do war films like boys do. They go and bond and spend all that time with each other, just as actors. So, this has been cool.
Tell us a bit more about your characters...
Kerry: My character isn't in a relationship and has no responsibilities and only has to take care of herself. I suppose she's a bit lost, really. She's trying hard at her career but it's just a bit mediocre, and I'm not even sure if it's something that she's that great at anyway because she hasn't got a lot of self-esteem. Then she's picking the wrong kind of guys as well. Again, with the whole self-esteem thing, being happy with the shittiest treatment. But she doesn't find nice guys attractive. Because of her lack of responsibilities, she can go out drinking and behave however she wants and be self-destructive and subsequently really lonely. Her friends have children or are thinking of having children but there's no sense of that with Laura. That's miles away for her. She'd just like a boyfriend or a promotion.
Nina: So, you meet Katie when she is about to make a really massive decision, which she completely backtracks on. And then you spend the rest of the series finding out why that occurs, I suppose. She was a bit of a free spirit, arty, photographer who settled down very early on, had a baby and then very quickly went, "Oh no, that was the wrong thing to do, because I don't actually love this person." For the sake of her little girl Ella, they divorced, and she's doing her best to be a good mum in a situation that she probably wouldn't have chosen, if she's brutally honest. So, she's trying just not to repeat patterns, but she is repeating them, because that's the nature of people, people do that. And does she need a man, want a man? Possibly not, but she still makes the same mistakes that we all make, even though she should probably know better.
Eileen: So, Alison is hitting a point where she's ready to settle down, and she wants the package. She wants the fella, she wants the wedding, she wants the baby, she wants everything in place.
She's got a reliable enough job, it's not thrilling, and I think that is in itself telling of the relationship that she's looking for too - she just wants a reliable relationship, it doesn't have to be thrilling. I've just got to tick boxes, get my uterus full, and that's fine. And then I suppose over the course of it she realises that you can't just tick boxes, sometimes it's more complicated than you think. Throughout the series you see her fella's family and you see her friends, but you don't see her family. You see her desperately trying to make her own family.
The women you play are all quite self-aware and smart, aren't they?
Nina: They're not daft, and that's sort of where the fun and the conflict comes from. They're going, "I shouldn't be doing this, but I can't stop myself".
Eileen: There are lots of those moments of daftness, where your friends who go, "Did you just hear what you said?"
Kerry: It's lousy for Laura because there's a sadness of the fact she's trying to catch a break and she can't. But then with her friends there's this idea that when you're settling down everything is fine. Well, it's not. That's a whole other journey. But I think it's sold to people who aren't in that situation that if you don't have a husband or you don't have children, that's it.
Eileen: And yet, people that are in those relationships are like, "Do you have a lovely time when you go out? It costs me a fortune to get a babysitter. You can shag anyone. Can I live vicariously through you?"
Nina: The grass is always greener, whichever side you're on.
Kerry: And you can't have it all.
...Or even just quite unashamedly and openly making the choice to have one night stands or sex in the loo...
Kerry: Well, I don't know! If you look at The Golden Girls, there's loads of great sex jokes in that show, and that was years ago.
Nina: But they don't talk about the messiness of it all. And there was a whole barren period after that anyway. The last two or three years it's suddenly become okay not to be perfect, and to actually be a bit rubbish at stuff. And to have that on TV and to know that it does sell, and that other women - and men - are happy to watch it, and go, "Yes, it's funny and reflects us." Because it doesn't just reflect women, it reflects men too, you know? That we, as human beings, fuck up.
Kerry: Yes, because there's load of male parts in this as well, now that I think about it. For the three women there's all different partners, so there's all those male journeys too.
What is the friendship between the three women like?
Eileen: I think what's brilliantly written within it, is that sometimes you get a certain thing from one friend that you don't necessarily look for in the other friend. With three friends my character Alison can share something with Katie, but she needs to protect it from Laura, or whatever, so there are different dynamics and I think that's beautifully done in the script.
Nina: And that is interpreted by Laura as being left out. Which feels really true.
Kerry: It's not all roses, the friendship, and there's jealousy as well. I think definitely Laura is a little jealous of Alison.
Nina: And she fears Alison taking over that friendship.
There have been several strong comedies recently about women in their 30s and 40s going through turmoil, such as Fleabag and Catastrophe. Why do you think those are? Particularly resonating with audiences?
Nina: I would say that the fun isn't actually watching them not being able to cope, because they are actually coping. It's just that it's a hard road. It's a tricky, bumpy road, and ripe for comedy. Because the harder something is, the more potentially funny it is. But I think it's sort of about coping rather than not, or you'd fall off the edge.
Eileen: There's also that thing of suddenly it's okay to talk about periods, or not being satisfied in your sex life, or having more than one partner. With Fleabag, you know, it was an unusual thing for a woman to come out and say, "Not like that, I prefer it like this."
You didn't get the giggles during filming?
Kerry: Oh, Christ, no. No, I'm strict with that. Because once you're gone, you're gone. So, no, I didn't get the giggles. It was nice to get those scenes over with, because there was an awful stream of consciousness [in the scripts], there was quite a lot of learning. If we hadn't done them at the beginning I'd have spent every weekend being like, "Oh, Jesus, those therapy scenes, I'd better go back over them." Whereas the way we did it was like, "Phew".
This series is set in Dublin. Does it feel very Irish or quite universal?
Eileen: It feels very universal. Humour crosses everything, doesn't it? But I think the Irish delivery sometimes plays into it a bit, and because of how Lorna has written it, there's a similar syntax because she's Scottish.
Kerry: There's a sense of humour that's very Irish that I think is appreciated in other countries a lot more than it even is in Ireland. I don't think people in Ireland realise how funny they are, you know, and the way they phrase things and stuff, and the level of honesty. Not that Irish people aren't sometimes pretentious or fake, but generally speaking the way they talk at least sounds honest and that's what these scripts have in them.
Can you tell us about Sharon's character, Dr Fitzgerald, who is Laura's therapist?
Eileen: She's mesmerising.
Nina: She wears a great blouse.
Kerry: We shot all the therapy scenes in the first two days. So that was good, because it was the first day for everybody, and it took the nerves off because everyone's a little nervous and trying to prove themselves. And because Sharon was there, I felt it was an opportunity for me to show that I was going to do a good job. The way we shot them was that Sharon was sitting behind me, and I was lying on the couch. So, it was kind of relaxing, lying down! And it was full-on after that, so I haven't had the chance to go back and say, "Oh, I could have done that better."
I could have been nervous, I really didn't want to fuck up after she had faith in me, but I just rose to the challenge. Sharon's pure gas. She's so nice. You know, some people can be intimidating but there's not that feeling with her, I just really enjoyed it.