The script was so beautiful. You know getting a character on the page that is already so great
is such a, I mean it's such a gift.
Hi. - Hi, how are you? - I'm good, how are you?
I'm doing well, thank you. - Are you having tea today? - I am. I was just saying it's absolute sacrilege. It's in a
paper cup but it is tea. See look it. I've got a tea bag. - What kind of tea do you usually drink?
You know, I'm kind of a herbal tea gal. I gotta say I used to drink plenty of Builder's tea, but I
sort of just, yeah I don't know, coffee took over. It just didn't have that caffeine kick that I
needed, so now it's when I have tea it's usually like a mint tea or chamomile. This one's chamomile
and honey and it's very lovely and soothing. - I have chamomile too actually. - Very good, cheers!
I went to the Landmark just the day before yesterday to re-watch Belfast and it just reminded
me, because I had actually visited a few years ago, so it just reminded me of this
trip that I had taken with my aunt. We had taken one of those black cabs to go do,
we were basically traveling like all through Ireland and we were doing those black cab tours
and stuff. Every single one they would just be like "Oh you know we were in so much solidarity
with the Indian freedom movement that we started naming streets and stuff after random colonies." So
I'm from Bombay and one of them was like "Oh we have a Bombay Street you should come!"
No way. - It was really interesting there was definitely a lot that I related to growing, like
growing up as well. - Yeah well, I think that's the beautiful thing about Belfast, is that it does have
this you know, it has these themes that many people can relate to. You know, as a small place that has
civil unrest and conflict you know unfortunately that exists so many places across the world.
You know ordinary people trying to survive within that context is a very
commonplace thing unfortunately but it's it's kind of beautiful
how something that was so specifically Ken's story has really resonated with people all
across the world. - How did you prepare for the role? - The script was so beautiful. I'm you know getting
a character on the page that is already so great is such a, I mean it's such a gift but
it's, you know when I read it it sort of instantly transported me back home.
It made me think of my mum a lot. You know, our circumstances were very different, but when I was
a baby we moved to the border because my dad was stationed there. He was a sergeant and so I
grew up with the troubles or that conflict sort of in the background of my childhood the whole time.
And you know even though this is sort of the beginning of it, a lot of those things that
sort of Buddy would have been seeing, we saw those things on TV all the time. Like you know there was
constantly bomb scares. It was constantly bombs close by or whether in Belfast or Enniskillen or
different places that were really only you know 20 minutes away, 30 minutes away.
So a lot of that, you know, the knowing what it felt like to have those things
in your periphery or on the out, you know on the outskirts of your life I understood.
I don't know, I just, she just felt really familiar to me. So it was, I went back and
I watched a lot of Youtube interviews of women from Belfast, from Northern Ireland.
I watched a lot of footage from those very days and I just kind of tried to absorb as much
as I could of those women's stories you know. One thing that was so apparent and so strong
was how, you know, it wasn't wanted. You know these women didn't want this. They didn't, a lot
of them, you know I was watching interviews of people you know 10 years into the conflict. 15
years into the conflict, and they were all talking about how they never wanted it and they had to
live within that and they had to live within that environment. They had such strengths but at
the same time they were so hampered that there wasn't, even back then, there wasn't this ability
to sort of get up and leave easily. That wasn't an easy decision for anybody to have to make. So
I understood that from Ma how difficult that was for her to try and have to do that. - I think there's
like a scene where she's on the bus with Pa like they're talking, and she's talking about how
afraid she is to, you know immigrate really, because she's like what if they just don't like us.
Because they see what we're doing here and what if they don't like us. I feel like
a lot of immigrants specifically can resonate with that. Especially ones who do come from
countries where conflict is common because we're so worried about perception because it's
so tied to our safety. That moment really you know stood out to me and I think one of
the really interesting things was just how it was explored through the view of like a child,
because children don't understand conflict that way you know? So I was kind of curious to
know what it was like working with Jude Hill because that must have been, you know. How did,
because all of you probably had lived through it or had some proximity to
that experience, but he probably didn't. - It's amazing that you work with someone like Jude.
His entire life has been post-conflict. So he didn't you know, he doesn't have
a recollection or he doesn't have a concept of his home of Northern Ireland being a place where
tanks would go roll down the street. That's a really amazing thing you know. You think, thank
god that is it, you know. Obviously it's not a perfect peace that we've had since 98, but
it's been a relative peace. So you think like how amazing it is that there's these generations
who've grown up and don't remember or have no concept of what that is. You know that was one
of the beautiful things actually when we when we all met and we were talking about stuff.
You know I remember Ken asking him like "Do you like, what do you think of when that was
happening?" Especially when we shot that scene where a literal tanker was going down the street.
You know you could see how Jude was just so, I mean, he was amazed. He was amazed that that existed.
But the beautiful thing about working with him is he's such a,
he has, he just has the all of his emotions or this really available resource of
an honest tap in his emotions. I think that was a thing that was most apparent. You know
even though he was very green in the beginning, he's such a quick learner. He was so you know,
just so adapting at being able to like pick up on everything that he was supposed to do you know.
Day one, Ken was like don't look down the camera but after that it was like, you know, it was like
he was an old pro you know. He's just the sweetest kid but he was an incredible listener.
He was incredibly just open and I don't know we we absolutely took him under our wing and
fell in love with him straight away because he's just such an amazing little kid. - I actually had
these were thoughts I had while I was watching it. Do you think Buddy and Catherine wind
up together? That was one of the things I really wanted to ask you. - I think buddy went to England
and Buddy found himself a new Catherine who he didn't have to work so hard for.
Do you think Ma ends up liking London? - You know, I spoke with Ken a lot about
that and you know, I saw sort of in my own life, my mom, when we moved had
to leave her very close-knit family. Of course you know she made friends and she
found a community eventually, but it's a really hard thing. I think especially
you know in that time being a woman in your sort of 30s,
with kids, it's hard to start new friendships. I think you know, Ken has spoken about how
his parents who were so social and so vibrant, how they really struggled to sort of find that new
community again. Which is kind of heartbreaking you know they really sacrificed a lot to give him
and his brother and then his little sister that sort of safe and fresh start.
So yeah, I do I think about, I think about you know that and Ma and what her next step was.
It can't have been easy. A lot of people associate you know 2022, with change for better or for
worse, you know. So what's something you think you'd like to change this year? - What I would like
to see is I think over the last two years, there's obviously been huge changes in the world and
some of those have been positive. I think you know we all realized that maybe this rat race
that we were on so much, that it's not maybe the healthiest way of living and that there's a way
hopefully that we can move forward and retain some of that quiet time or retain some of that
like peace that we all got a little bit of. - What advice would you leave to emerging
creatives and storytellers? - Well I think one thing, especially coming from a film like Belfast that
has really you know been so impactful, is when you tell your story, when you're really specific
about your story that often is the thing that will resonate the most with other people.
I think too often we get caught up in trying to you know, put in everything into our our projects,
we're trying to tick a lot of boxes. But actually you know, when you make something really personal
it ends up i think resonating more because it's really in these specifics that we all see ourself.
You know we really ultimately, when you boil it down, are so much more similar than
we could ever imagine. So yeah tell your story, be true to yourself, and that's what people will
respond to. - It's been really hard, I think this year, for a lot of people to remain creative through
what's going on. I definitely feel most days I'm just like in a fog, but I think
that it does help. - Yeah and I think a routine also. I think one of the things that I did
this whole pandemic is there's a great blog that I was following which was kind of like a a creative
everyday giving. Like you know you just spend 15 or 30 minutes just trying to do something. Whether
it's writing a little bit or you know doing one thing every morning every day and trying to create
that pattern for yourself. So that you know some days you'll feel like you want to continue that on
for three hours and some days you might not want to be able to sit through the 15 minutes at all.
But it's that important thing of giving yourself, just that routine to try and just encourage
that creativity to come no matter what. - Well, thank you so much for talking to me today.
Honestly it was the best and thanks so much for obviously being a part of Belfast.
That was so wonderful as well. - Thank you so much have a lovely evening all right, bye.