‘I get to walk around my home area dressed as a bag lady and it’s fine’

Game of Thrones star Gemma Whelan on the comedy Surviving Christmas With The Relatives – and bringing up baby both on set and off

British director James Dearden is the brains behind the screenplay of acclaimed 1987 thriller Fatal Attraction. While his latest project doesn’t fall into the same category, it does focus on an annual event that can be a nightmare for some – Christmas.

The 69-year-old reveals the film, Surviving Christmas With The Relatives, has a few personal experiences woven into it.

He explains: “The story was an amalgam of my experiences of Christmas over the years. I used to have to go up and down to London and have two Christmas lunches.

“I’ve also experienced Polish builders and living in a building site, with everything going wrong so I put it all together in one crazy Christmas.”

Described as a “heartwarming, riotous take on the traditional festive family gettogether”, it sees two sisters and their families reunited at Christmas time at their recently deceased parents’ dilapidated country home.

Sisters Miranda (played by Gemma Whelan) and Lyla (Joely Richardson) are forced to confront old sibling rivalries that threaten to derail the festive season. The film also stars Sally Phillips (as Miriam) and Ronni Ancona (Vicky).

Signing up to the film was a no-brainer for Whelan.

The 37-year-old, best known for her turn as Yara Greyjoy in Sky Atlantic and HBO’S gritty series Game Of Thrones, also gained critical acclaim for her 2017 role as Karen Matthews in BBC drama The Moorside.

She explains: “Well, what excited me about the part was that it was… James Dearden of Fatal Attraction fame, writing a comedy and directing it. I thought, ‘That sounds juicy’. And then the other people who were on board with the project, and the script, I really thought it was great fun, a slightly different take on the sort of, disastrous Christmas movie”.

Whelan says the film, which was shot in locations including Hertfordshire and Greenwich, has a “sort of

0 Gemma Whelan and Julian Ovenden in the festive comedy

sizzling drama at the heart of it”.

“The house [left by their parents] is barely liveable. There’s no oven, no plumbing, everything’s cold. So they are all just trying to do their best in this chaotic environment and have a nice Christmas,” she says, adding: “Basically, [it is] any family Christmas, but with the volume on all the difficulties turned up”.

Currently filming alongside Doctor Foster’s Suranne Jones in upcoming BBC One drama series Gentleman Jack, Whelan will also be seen on screen next year in ITV’S six-part drama, the White House Farm Murders, based on the grisly murders that gripped the nation in the mid1980s.

“It’s always nice to do lots of diverse things I suppose. I’m very, very fortunate to play a nice light-hearted comedy role, and lovely, serious gritty dramatic roles as well, and fancy roles and everything in between,” she says.

During filming, Whelan had her six-month old baby with her on set and credits the people around her for their support.

“It was fine,” she says, “With the right support, it is all possible, isn’t it? It always sounds much scarier than it actually is, popping off to feed your baby now and again, as long as everyone’s willing to allow that to happen, which invariably they have been.”

“I think Claire Foy did a lot for it (working mums on set), Sally Phillips, who was on this

film, she took her babies to work with her, a lot of mums do, so I think the more we do it, the more normal it can become.”

The Leeds-born star is happy to fly under the radar as far as being recognised in public goes too.

“Some people can’t place me, and I don’t ever disclose the TV darling, I just say I’ve got one of those faces,” she says, adding: “So it doesn’t really happen, I’m very pleased to say – not that there’s anything wrong with being recognised, I think it’s a nice thing to be recognised for your work.

“I think it might be a different thing if you are hounded, you can’t go out,” she says laughing, “I mean I’m out, pushing my buggy around at the moment, and I truly, I look like a bag lady.”

Expanding on this – in a way many parents will relate to – she says it’s “because we leave in such a hurry in the morning”.

“I can’t describe what I put on in the morning, but nothing goes. I get to walk around my home area dressed as a bag lady and it’s fine.”

Asked about there being more roles of substance for woman of late, she says: “In writers’ minds as they write now that stuff is more likely to be made if they’ve got a strong… I mean, I hate using the word ‘strong, female character’ because by default women are strong.”

So, are women are feeling more empowered at the moment?

“Yes, the movement is happening, isn’t it? We are doing very well.”

● Surviving Christmas With The Relatives is in UK cinemas from today

“Basically, [it is] any family Christmas, but with the volume up”