Bestselling novel Trespasses depicts a “forbidden love” story across the divide of Catholics and Protestants during the Troubles in Belfast. Now, Louise Kennedy's gorgeous novel has been adapted into a four-part Channel 4 TV series, with Irish rising star Lola Petticrew playing protagonist Cushla and none other than screen queen, the ultimate Sex Education mother and Scoop star Gillian Anderson playing her “glorious wreck” of a mother, Gina.
Filmed in Belfast, we see young school teacher Cushla fall for married Protestant barrister Michael (Tom Cullen) and pursue a passionate extramarital affair with him across enemy lines. When she's not risking her life for love, she cares for her alcoholic mother Gina (Anderson), who is grappling with grief and mental health issues.
Kennedy, who is also an executive producer, asked Gillian on board over dinner. “Louise actually asked me, she says, after she was ‘emboldened by a couple glasses of wine’, when I had a meal with her, whether I'd play Gina,” Gillian recalls.
Lola (who identifies as non-binary) previously played real-life IRA volunteer Dolours Price in explosive TV series Say Nothing, and can also be spotted in the opening scene of #MeToo movie She Said playing a terrified victim of sexual abuse. They are a perfect example of the “green wave” of acting talent coming from Ireland, a concept entering public discourse again after the success of Netflix's House of Guinness.
Both Lola and Gillian clearly thrive in telling the most important of stories, and Trespasses is no exception – a torrid, compelling love story set during conflict that still exists in its own way today.
Glamour sat down with them to talk telling Irish stories, the importance of shame-free sex scenes and depicting a complex mother-daughter relationship on screen.
Glamour: Lola, this is your second big project telling a story during The Troubles after Say Nothing – tell me a bit about what this means to you?
Lola: It's an incredible privilege for me as an Irish person to be able to do that. There was a time when I was in drama school and I panicked that I would never get work because of my accent. So anytime I get to do something in my own accent and something that's about home, it feels like a privilege to me.
.jpg)
I also think the conversation is really interesting, because men play seven soldiers in a year, and nobody ever says anything. And people never ask English actors if they worried about being pigeonholed into English roles. If I only ever did Irish projects, I would consider that a privilege.
Glamour: How did you go about forming such a complex mother-daughter dynamic on screen?
Lola: We shot for a short period time in the dead of winter in a cold, mouldy house. I think the relationship is very special. In many ways, a lot of the most romantic moments in the show are actually between Cushla and Gina, the most tender moments. And when they tell you that Gillian Anderson is playing your mammy, you're like, 'I'm in'.
Gillian: I was impressed by how Lola stepped into a serious, teacher, career role in a way that was instantaneous… In our relationship, it was so clear how the dynamics would flip flop from scene to scene in terms of who was parenting.
Glamour: Dealing with a parent with alcoholism is an important subject matter and something I’m sure lots of viewers can relate to. What did you both hope to bring to the screen so people feel like their stories are being told?
Gillian: I think it's easy for anyone who has been around addiction – even if you're caught up in the challenging dynamic of it and you are complicit in the dynamic of it by the nature of your roles as a family – it's hard to bring the kind of love and compassion [that Cushla brings] because it's exhausting and can be really deeply upsetting and damaging in many, many different ways.
She continues to believe in the best version of her, and eventually we get to see that, which then makes it even more delicious somehow.
Lola: I think that what you said about seeing the best version of Gina is absolutely the way I felt when I was playing it and her belief in her mother and the person that she may have been before she was in active addiction. In many ways actually, Gina might be Cushla's most complicated, complex, toughest relationship and there's a happy ending, in that sense.
I just think mother-daughter relationships are something that continue to bring in audiences and really touch audiences for a reason because a lot of people navigate difficult relationships with their mothers. That's why Lady Bird was so popular. It was a really authentic story and it felt very easy to slide into that with you [to Gillian].
.jpg)
Glamour: There are some amazing intimate scenes on the show between Cushla and Michael – Lola what was the on-set experience like for that, in terms of working with intimacy co-ordinators?
Lola: I love working with intimacy coordinators. I think that they're great. We have fire safety people on set, in case there's a fire and an intimacy coordinator does the same job, and they're really led by you and your process. They're there when you need them, and they take a step back when you don't, and I think it just helps everybody feel really confident in what you're doing and really safe. I've had nothing but fantastic experiences.
It's something that the industry was missing for a long time. I understand that some people might feel like they don't need one, but I think it's important that they're there in case anyway, just like there might not be a fire, but you have a fire safety person and an extinguisher just in case. With consent, it's interesting, because you might say you're fine, and then your scene partner might feel under pressure to say they're fine then, and then there can be complicated feelings during the road. So I think it's just always best to have someone who's able to navigate that process with you. And I think it just creates a better scene, because then you can just focus on the acting, which is our job.
Gillian: I've had scenes where I've thought [having an intimacy co-ordinator] is gonna dampen down the sense of passion. I mean, not that scenes on camera end up being actually properly passionate because very often they're so technical, Intimacy co-ordinators actually suggest things for a scene that you're like, “oh yeah, whoa, yes, I can try that”. [Using them] doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to suddenly get tame.
Lola: They also advocate for safe spaces for you to change and if you need to fix an intimacy garment. I used them a lot in Say Nothing for abuse of the body scenes, which people might not think you need an intimacy coordinator for, but it's still something intimate. It's happening to your body, people that are doing it to your body. And so there are many different ways that we can use them, and I'm such a massive advocate for them.
Glamour: The show definitely spotlights Cushla’s sexual identity and her want to express that and feel free – did you relate to that?
Lola: We felt it was very important that while this love might be illicit and secret and there's this outside disapproval and fear that while in it, there was no shame attached with Cushla with the sexual part of it. She wasn't afraid of her body, that she felt very open and free in those moments with Michael. It felt really important for me, for this representation to be something that was free of shame in her sexuality.
Gillian: Having another representation of a young woman really trying to make sense of themselves coming of age, navigating the throes of love and passion is always a good thing.
Glamour: Gillian, you’ve collated a whole book on sexual Want… What did the depiction of sexuality in Trespasses mean to you?
Gillian: I think anytime that one sees represented on screen a different view into someone coming into themselves, particularly I think in an intimate way, sexually… It's something that we all experience in one way or another, and we all have our own take on it and our own fears and complexities, hang-ups and proclivities.
Glamour: What makes you both feel empowered?
Lola: For me, it's community. I think, living, working, being in community, in whatever that is for you, is so empowering. And I think that community and community care is going to be the other that saves us all.
Gillian: I feel like when all my facets are working and I know which particular hours in a day that my brain works at its best and can take in the most amount. I think we can create issues for ourselves as women, and so anytime there is freedom from that, it feels like there's a clean direct path forward. I'm very pleased by the sense of agency that that gives me.
Trespasses premieres on Channel 4 on Sunday 9 November.
