No./20 The self-built film about a self-built home
New drama Herself is a journey of one woman’s selfdetermination — something that was mirrored off screen
THE BLUEPRINTS
The idea for Herself, a film about an Irish woman who escapes domestic violence and temporary housing by building her own home, was drawn from real life. “A friend of mine rang me one day,” recalls Claire Dunne, the film’s co-writer and lead actor. “She’s a single mother of three. She said: ‘The landlord has to evict me within a month. I have nowhere to go. I have to declare myself homeless.’”
Shocked by her friend’s situation, Dunne began thinking of solutions. “I started fantasising: imagine if she could build a house with her own two hands?” After searching online for instructions for cheap self-built houses, a story came to her. “In a flash!” she says. “A story of a woman who decides to help herself, and therefore attracts the help of others. I was trying to think of it in a way that is positive and yet realistic.” The next day, she began writing a script.
THE STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS
As an actor who had never written a screenplay before, Dunne’s early drafts were written “instinctively”, she says. She spent months reading screenwriting books, and asking writer friends for advice. “It takes quite a different muscle,” she admits. “Jesus, like — I’m an actor, I’m used to just playing one character! To write all the characters and ‘play’ them all at the same time certainly took a bit of stamina.”
Things stepped up in December 2016 when Sharon Horgan and her production company, Merman, came on board. “That was a year-anda-half of real development. It was amazing — where I really learned the ropes of what it takes to create a screenplay. Script editors are magical people.” The production company also brought on board an experienced co-writer, Malcolm Campbell, to get the film over the finish line. “He asked me if I could look at my earliest drafts. He retained some lost elements and sewed them back in, in this really intricate, gentle way.”
THE BUILD
The shoot was challenging, as the art department had to construct a house from scratch, with filming schedules shaped around the build. “We had to ensure we had the house built in sync [with actor’s schedules], ” Dunne explains. “I’ll never forget the day when I saw the house completed. The symbolism of it was quite obvious, you know?”
JOHN NUGENT HERSELF IS IN CINEMAS FROM 16 OCTOBER