Interview with Lola Petticrew who plays Cushla

Can you describe Cushla in four words?
Cushla Lavery is kind, loving, funny and I would say open.

How would you summarise the series?
I would summarise the series by saying- love and happenstance.

What attracted you to the role? What made you go ‘I want this’.
What attracted me to playing Cushla was I had read the book, and I just felt like this particular story was so interesting and was a lens in which we hadn't seen the Troubles in. The romance element really excited me, and I don’t think we’ve really seen a character like Cushla in this world yet.

What resonated with you the most about your character Cushla?
I think it’s how open Cushla is. She's somebody who has the ability to see a much bigger picture and I think even though the world around her is quite dark, she tries so hard to really dig deep and still have light about her and through her and around her.

Did she have any quirks or habits that you enjoyed getting to explore?
I think in terms of like quirks or habits that she had, that were interesting… I think being a 24-year-old Catholic teacher and having an affair with an older Protestant man was quite quirky and interesting.

What did you do in your prep to make you understand Cushla? 
In order to prep for this this role and understand the character more, we used Louise Kennedy’s fantastic novel. It was great source material. However, there was quite a distinction between the Cushla in the novel, the Cushla in our show and the Cushla that I brought to the table. Exploring this, I started to write a journal as Cushla for all the scenes that we had and the different core memories she had. Writing through her experience and trying to understand those deeper inner thoughts was really helpful for bringing more detailed work to a scene.

How does Cushla grow from the start to the end of the series?  
Throughout the series, I think Cushla becomes a lot more secure in her convictions. I think when we meet her at the beginning of the series, if there were a window, she’s somebody who would stand on the windowsill, always on the precipice. She takes massive leaps during the show and in not being afraid of falling, she lands very firmly in what she believes and what her convictions are.

What was it like playing alongside Tom?  
Playing opposite Tom Cullen was a dream come true. He's such a fantastic scene partner and such a fantastic human being. A lot of the work that we were doing was really vulnerable and I just felt so safe, secure and taken care of. He is also an incredible silly billy so it was just a lot of fun. 

Talk us through playing alongside the legendary Gillian Anderson.
I mean, what a pinch-me moment. First of all, I've followed Gillian's career since I was a kid. She is somebody that I have massive great respect and admiration for and all that she does work wise. So I felt that going into set every day was very much a pinch-me moment and getting to watch her work was just incredible. 

Talk us through Cushla’s wardrobe.
So, in terms of the costumes, Cushla and I would have a very different sense of style. I don't know if you can tell. She is floaty and romantic, very 70s, and we had an amazing Costume Designer, Emma O'Loughlin, and team who were so detailed in their work. We had a lot of crazy fittings in the trailers to make sure that every detail is just absolutely perfect. It is so important to a lot of character work, so just working with people that I trust and immediately seeing how detailed and incredible their work is, it was honestly an honour. My favourite outfit was actually a specific piece of clothing that felt like something I would personally wear. It was a gorgeous berry blazer that was tailored just for me and I did get to take it home at the end of production. I was buzzing!

What has been the most enjoyable thing about the project?
The people that I got to work with. The cast and the crew were absolutely incredible. From Oisín Thompson who plays Gerry, who is just a delight, to Conlaoch Gough-Cunningham who plays Tommy, he’s 16 and out-acted all of us. And the crew, well it was a hard shoot emotionally, a lot of vulnerability, and we sat in a house together in Finaghy for four weeks in the cold. The hair and makeup and costume team just kept me laughing and kept my spirits up. I just think there are no better crews anywhere else in the world than here in Belfast.

Were you aware of Louise Kennedy’s book before you got the script? 
I read the book twice before this job. I did that really actor thing where I immediately rang my agent and said “I’ve just read this book and I am certain that they're going to do something with it because it's too good. If you hear about an audition for Cushla Lavery, ring me immediately.” Six months later, he emailed me and said, "you have an audition for Cushla Lavery" and I was buzzing. We are getting this one!

Do you have a chance to speak to Louise Kennedy before we start?  
Yes, I got an amazing opportunity to spend a couple of days with Louise before we started. She is just so wonderful and so open and was just a really amazing source to have. Her joy in this project coming to life was really infectious and I think it spread through all of us. It was a great honour to be able to bring Louise's world to life.

Talk us through what it was like filming in Northern Ireland.
Getting to work at home and shoot here is my favourite thing in the world. I think that the crews in the North of Ireland are the best people in the world and I love getting to hang out with them. I've been acting for a long enough time now so a lot of the crew are just really good friends of mine. I get to go into work with some of my best pals, which is really class! It's great to be able to go home to my dog in the evening. For Trespasses, we were shooting in some fantastic locations, a lot of the locations here in the North are absolutely stunning and beautiful. We shot in this house inFinaghy for three weeks and there was an incredible bakery, shout-out Coyle’s Bakery, where the women in the bakery kept us fed with lovely bowls of stew and tuna sandwiches, just little comforts like that. The people here… There’s nowhere like it in the world.

If you could steal something from set, a prop, costume, whatever it may be, what would you steal and why?
If I could steal something form set it would be Tom Cullen, and I would shrink him down and put him in my pocket. I would just make him sing me silly songs all the time and make me laugh.

What was your favourite line in the series?
There were so many really heartbreaking lines from Cushla but one that I loved getting to deliver because of Gillian's face looking back at me was when we came out of mass and Cushla says “big juicy eyeballs on ya”, because Gina was so hungover. It’s such a Belfast saying. There’s a line from the book that we thought about a lot when shooting this. We didn’t include it in the series as it was an inner thought, but it was something along the lines of “she'd got a lumber off a barrister and now she like thinks she knows everything about social justice”. I just thought that was a hilarious way to encapsulate Cushla. 

Did you give any of the other cast tips on the Northern Irish accent?
We had a really incredible dialect coach, Judith McSpadden, who is just so fantastic. Honestly, you could see the work that Tom and Gillian had both put in behind the scenes. They were just really in it and Tom would sit on set and tell stories in his Belfast accent, which was incredibly fun to watch. They both just really went for it, and they were amazing. So, I don't think I really had to do anything.

Let's go a little more in-depth into your relationships on screen. Tell us about Michael and Cushla?

Cushla and Michael, I’m probably going to get a bit emotional talking about these two. They are from very different worlds, and they have this ineffable connection and real deep love and admiration for each other. I think that they have that because they see the world in the same way. Cushla has a lot of fear about their relationship, a fear for going for these ‘wants’ that they have. I think Michael doesn’t have that, and Cushla just admires him so much for that. She sees his kindness and his heart for what it really is. I think a lot of people have an idea about who someone like Michael Agnew is, and Cushla really sees him. 

The relationship between Cushla and her mother Gina is incredibly complex and complicated. I think that they are a lot alike in very certain ways and I think that that thing has happened that often happens in parental relationships where at a certain point the role is reversed, and the child becomes parentified. That has had massive ramifications emotionally for Cushla. Ultimately, Gina is somebody who is trying very hard and is trying to the best of her ability and when push comes to shove, she's there and she does what Cushla needs her to do. I also think that Gina is incredibly funny, and it is sometimes very hard for Cushla to stay angry at her because Gina is just naturally charming and hilarious.

Talk us through a memorable moment in the series.
There is a particular memorable scene with Cushla and Michael. In the build-up to it, we were all quite worried as it was very emotional. Cushla has found out some information that has sort of rocked the world that they've created together a little bit. I was so frightened of doing this scene. The safe space that the crew created for us and the reverence on set that day was unbelievable.  The camera team, the sound team, everyone, everybody. Tom for allowing me the safe space to go to really vulnerable places and Dawn Shadforth, our Director, knew exactly when to come in and give notes and when to leave space and let us go for it again. It felt like everything that happened that day, felt quite magical. I'm incredibly proud of the work that I did that day but more than anything, I'm proud of the work that the entire crew did that day. You could see the care and love that everybody had for this project.

What makes Trespasses unique to the previous projects we’ve seen covering the Troubles? 
What separates Trespasses from other shows and films that have been made about the Troubles, is the lens from which we're seeing it. I think it's really interesting to see it as a backdrop to the romance story. It filtered in and became part of the tapestry of their relationship and what the characters think and feel. It was also fresh and interesting to follow the romance, at that time, and through quite a youthful lens with Cushla only being a 24-year-old woman. I think the Troubles is such a rich tapestry to pull from and still such a recent history that is so raw. People are still feeling the effects of it and I think that we’re only now starting to see people make shows from a lens that isn't just older men. There are a lot of people, a lot of people from all sorts of walks of life that went through the same thing, and we're now starting to see those stories being told.  It is really interesting and I am so happy to be a part of it.

Why should people watch Trespasses?
I think people should watch Trespasses because an incredibly talented crew made every frame look absolutely beautiful. It’s a show that has heart and fire and really hooks you in.