HIGHWAY TO NELI
Louisa Harland, who charmed us as quirky schoolgirl Orla in Irish sitcom, tries Cockney and Scots accents as female Dick Turpin in Renegade drama
DERRY Girl star Louisa Harland is back on our screens as a highway robber with superpowers in Sally Wainwright’s swashbuckling period drama Renegade Nell.
And the Irish actress, who shot to fame playing quirky schoolgirl Orla McCool in the hit Channel 4 sitcom, has revealed mastering her highway-woman character’s different accents was quite a feat.
Louisa, 31, who loved getting to play a female Dick Turpin in the new Disney+ series, admits switching between a posh English, a Cockney and even a Scots accent, was great fun but took quite a bit of practice.
The Dublin actress, who was delgihted to be given the lead in a show written by Happy Valley’s Sally Wainwright, said: “I actually lived in the east end of London for two years before I got the role, so when I got the part I was living in the east end.
“That can’t be a coincidence. Unbeknownst to me I was preparing for the role for those two years. For the fight sequences there would be a lot of effort noises and improvised lines of dialogue that obviously would need to continue in the cockney accent as well.
“I found it really fun actually, playing someone who is Cockney pretending to do a Scottish accent, and a bad one. When she slips, it has to be slipping back to Cockney, I can’t slip back into my Dublin accent for obvious reasons.
“It was fun but it was hard. My brain was exhausted at the end of the day but I didn’t stay in the accent the whole time. Obviously when I came home from work, that was it.”
Renegade Nell, which starts streaming on March 29, is set in England in 1705 and tells the story of Nell Jackson, who is framed for murder and goes on the run with her younger sisters Roxy and George.
Aided by her superpowered sidekick, a plucky sprite called Billy Blind – played by Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed – Nell realises fate has put her on the wrong side of the law for a reason, a reason much bigger than she could have ever imagined: to defeat a magical plot against the Queen.
Louisa, who lives in London with her Hollyoaks actor boyfriend Calvin Demba, 31, said auditioning for the show, which also stars Harry Potter actor Frank Dillane, was a no-brainer.
She said: “Sally Wainwright is just so great at writing for women but also great at writing truthful characters and truthful relationships. When you put that into such a fun world with magic and fantasy and epic fight sequences, then it’s all of the above
“I love this world Sally has created, and I hope it goes down well because I love the idea that the whole family can sit down and watch this. And I do mean the whole family, even my younger niece would be brave enough and would love it. I really think it has something for everyone.”
Louisa, who played Erin Quinn’s wacky cousin in Derry Girls, added: “When people think of highway robbers it is usually men, whether it’s Dick Turpin or Adam Ant. I love that Nell subverts that image.
“Obviously it’s great she is a woman but the reason she’s even dressing like a man is because it’s easier to just get around. It’s easier to ride a horse, it’s more comfortable, it’s easier to protect
yourself in those clothes being a highwaywoman.
“For Nell, she is the ethical thief in a way. Everything is for good, for the better, for the greater good. Nell is stronger than any man.
“I mean it was awful for women at that time. I had it easy, as the majority of the time I got to be in trousers and boots when a lot of my incredible co-stars were struggling in corsets.”
Louisa admits, as well as the accents, one of the most challenging aspects of
re-creating 18th century life on location was getting the dirt and pong just right.
She said: “Tanya Lodge, our make-up and hair designer, would say, ‘you know they would all smell, I need Nell to look like Tom Hanks in Castaway! You’ve been on horseback trying to make a better life for yourself and your sisters for months, you need to look like you smell’. And all of us did! They all did. So that was interesting as you need to be able to translate that on screen somehow.
“I spent a week with my head in a puddle. We wanted it to be real and I loved all that type of stuff, it helps. We went through the seasons on the show because it was such a long job, so in the colder months I was delighted because I was wearing around 17 hundred coats.
“In the summer months, in Ealing studios, with real fire and it’s around 40 degrees outside in London because of global warming, and you are in 12 coats, that is not fun.”
As a highwaywoman Nell spends most of her time driving a carriage or on horseback – a whole new concept for Louisa, who can’t even ride a bike.
She said: “I had to learn everything for the action sequences. I can’t ride a bike. And now I can ride a horse.
“I wouldn’t be able to go to Amsterdam and get on a bicycle, but I could gallop through the mountains, no bother. So I had to learn how to ride a horse and how to fight, really. The last thing I am is a gym bunny so they were all new skills to me.” Louisa admits she fell in love with the horses which she says have become good friends.
She said: “Riding on top of a carriage isn’t easy and it’s relentless, but we had such brilliant horses. “It sounds ridiculous to say, as if they were part of the cast, but on this show they truly were and we got to know all the horses and the horse team. I didn’t know the horse industry but these horses, they were in Napoleon! I saw some of my friends in Napoleon. I saw them in the Lloyds advert the other day, I was like ‘that’s Sherman!’”
Louisa says the cast and crew worked hard to ensure each scene was thrilling and suspenseful while at remaining suitable for family viewing.
She said: “It was really interesting finding what that line is for a family audience. The level of gore – you want ittobe realistic and you want to be on the edge of your seat and be nervous – but you don’t want people to have nightmares.
“And you also want it to be true to the time and not blood and gore just for the sake of it, but for storytelling.”
● Renegade Nell will start streaming on Disney+ on Friday, March 29.
It was fun but it was hard. My brain was exhausted
LOUISA ON HAVING TO SWITCH BETWEEN VARIOUS ACCENTS