I hope they don’t see it as blasphemy. It really was about falling in love JAMIE MAKES MY SKIN C RAWL ...IN A GOOD WAY!
Karen Hassan is earning rave reviews in a new vital Irish drama and owes it all to The Fall
ACRISP January wind blows a lock of hair across the alabaster face of actor Karen Hassan. The click of the photographer’s lens catches the attention of the barman in the picturesque terrace at the Grayson Hotel on St Stephen’s Green and at this point all eyes are on the raven-haired Belfast beauty.
Some will know her as the witty and strongwilled Lynsey in Hollyoaks who was able to outsmart a serial killer before paying the ultimate price. But for drama fans it was her complete performance as serial victim ‘Annie Brawley’ alongside Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan in the award-winning The Fall.
Today though she is in town to talk about her lead role in the critically-acclaimed new Irish film the Cellar Door. This independent movie tells the story of young lover Aidie (Hassan) as she searches for her son while trying to escape the grip of the Catholic Church.
‘It is a film that stays with you’, she says cupping a glass of water. ‘As an audience member you kind of have to invest as much in the movie as we did, which I love.
‘It is the story which is so haunting. We’ve had a few people in the audience who’ve come to watch it and they have been quite moved. Because it reflected on their lives and what they had gone through or what their mothers or their lost mothers had gone though.
‘That was something we were really sensitive about. I did a lot of research about it and the Magdalene Laundries as well before hand. I was shocked at how recent it was. We are not talking about hundreds of years ago here. This all happened and, let’s be blunt about it, all happened because women had sex outside of marriage and were considered outsiders and were shut away in prisons. A lot of them for the rest of their lives.’
Karen’s lead character is forced down a shocking journey of self-discovery. As she gets closer to the truth, she spirals out of control. Something is forcing Aidie to relive the moments that led to her being institutionalised. She must work out the mystery, break free from the cycle and find her son. The movie jumps backwards and forwards in time in a bid to include the audience in her traumatic journey. It is not an easy watch but the acting is incredible and the pay-off at the end is well hidden throughout.
‘The edit was a complete beast altogether’, she says. ‘This wasn’t filmed in any style that I have ever filmed in before. There was no continuity. There were no make-up artists or stylists on set or clapper boards. Sometimes you got an ‘action!’ but mostly it was in your own time. So you really just lived the world. I would start a scene and we would go for a second take and it would be completely different.
How he managed to join those dots in the edit was unbelievable. It was a tough shoot, emotionally feeling this character’s pain and loss every day and straight back into it the next day. By the end of the shoot I was pretty knackered. There is a scene in the hospital where I got genuinely very upset filming and I found it very difficult to keep the emotions in check so I could go on and film the next screen. It really hit a nerve and I don’t know why. But that was a tough night when I went home, having to feel all of that and prep for the next day. It was a very unusual film but one that was a wonderful experience to be part of.’
Directed by Vicko Nikci in association with The Irish Film Board Cellar Door is already stirring the cinema community. Last year it won an award at The Galway Film Fleadh 2018 for Best First Feature Film, helped in no small part by Karen’s acting. Playing such an intense character was possibly the toughest role she has had.
‘It does stay with you and yes it is hard to leave it behind’, she says. ‘When I am watching the film it is very hard for me to switch off. Now I have some very good memories filming and it wasn’t all doom and gloom. You have to keep your spirits up when you are dealing with such a subject matter. It is hard for me to watch some scenes and think about the entire day. A lot of the stuff that was filmed under water and we struggled right up to the last minute to get those shots and the water was freezing cold and you were hyperventilating but you still want to get the shots and force yourself through it. So it is so hard for me to watch it in isolation.’
Her Memento-like timeline sees her visiting her artist mother; being in a classroom with young giggling children; dancing with her handsome lover Aidan; tussling with a nun played by Catherine Walker; part of a group of unmarried mothers in a home; and, finally, being in various stages of pregnancy and childbirth and trying to find her child.
The film is full of talking points particular in the no-holds barred manner in which they deal with the Church’s involvement and control over the Magdalene women. There is however a particular scene that has ruffled some feathers where Karen’s character and her teenage boyfriend have sex on an altar.
But Karen is at pains to point out that this is very much a part of Aidie’s journey and not an attempt to smear or blaspheme the church.
‘It was the Guinness factory church, it was owned by the Guinness family’, she says. ‘I hope they don’t see it as blasphemy. It really was about falling in love. This was Aidie’s first love who she never really got over, who started her on this journey.
‘I don’t think it was any political statement to the church and it wasn’t there to shock people. This was a place that was integral part of her journey. And even though we are showing that side of thing, all of her memories are overlapped.
‘And all she remembers is this feeling of being loved and in love and adoring her partner; it is just that these memories have become overlapped with her time in the Church. I hope people get that rather than seeing it as just salacious, because it is not like that at all. It is no type of protest to the church. It is her story and that is how it happened.’
Karen says that that the minute she filmed an audition tape with her friend, Peaky Blinders actor Packie Lee, she knew this was the part for her. Meaty parts have since become her stock and trade since wowing audiences in The Fall.
‘It was an incredible project and Gillian Anderson is in it as is Jamie Dornan’, she says smiling at the mere mention of the Fifty Shades Actor. ‘I’d have fought for that part and plus it is championing Belfast. Prior to that a lot of the TV in Belfast had been on a certain level, comedic superficial, and I know the people of Belfast and we have depth with a history that can’t be replicated anywhere.
‘They are good storytellers and Belfast was crying out to have something like that in it. But the part I actually auditioned for was for a police officer and then I think myself and a couple of other actresses walked in and they had an amazing idea that he had a thing for brunettes and they would all have a similar body type. Luckily I got the one that survived. I love anything that is challenging and is not bubble-gum.’
As one of Paul Spector’s regular victims Karen got up close and personal with Dornan, but in a way that was eerie and uncomfortable rather than erotic. ‘Jamie plays a guy who makes your skin crawl’, she says. Yet it was lovely working with him. It is hard when you are working with someone who, off set, is so lovely and nice and polite and genuinely cares about you. You realise that what you are doing is telling a story that is sinister and graphic and everything else. But I don’t look at Jamie and see his character; I look at him and see Jamie Dornan.
But then after the show came out I had friends ring me telling me they had to lock their windows and doors in case he was on the prowl. I think he did a phenomenal job and the good thing about him was that he didn’t play the typical villain.
‘He was kind of a normal guy and that made him even more sinister. Another actor may have fallen into the trap of trying to make him the
villain behind the mask. Whereas he played it the opposite and it was far more challenging. She was a great character as well and she was feisty and she fought back. I felt in season three she could have come back and nailed him on some of that. But it wasn’t the case.’
At 37 Karen is now one of Belfast’s hottest acting properties. Last year she appeared in Finding Joy alongside Amy Huberman and starred as DC Rachel Miskelly in the BBC flagship film Doing Money as part of the BBC anti-slavery campaign, directed by Lynsey Miller. She has recently collaborated with The Comedy Unit and The BBC playing boss Lisa McCoy in the second series of Soft Border Patrol, exposing the hilarious consequences of the border change between the UK and the EU postBrexit. But it’s not been an easy career journey and Karen recalls the two-year period after Hollyoaks where industry snobbery stopper her getting interviews.
‘I cut my teeth in the theatre’, she says. ‘I made a lot of mistakes and that is the right way to do it. So when Hollyoaks came up, I was doing a play at the time. I remember the director I was with; let’s just say she wasn’t a fan of the show. And I had been offered the part and I remember listening to the director talking about Hollyoaks and soap actors and it wasn’t a glowing opinion. And I really admired her and it almost put me off taking the job.
‘But I just loved it and I had a ball working on the show and I moved to Liverpool and learned how to act fast and quick, pick up a script and rely on your instincts. After I came out of Hollyoaks I had a period for two years where I couldn’t get an audition. I had got the Fall when I was in (Hollyoaks), I suffered a lot from that, you know, “oh she is a Hollyoaks actor, we don’t want to see her”.
‘It was tough but thankfully I broke through. That was about seven years ago and I have been lucky enough to have things on my CV that get me in the door. I am back auditioning now and I have a new series of Soft Border coming out. That was scary. Comedy is scary. Ask me to cry and I am fine. But stand there and improvise a comedic scene and I am terrified. So I have that to look forward to.’ Check your cinema listings for your nearest screening of The Cellar Door.