‘it was difficult to move on’
Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough open up on the “funny, hard and intense” experience of filming Alice & Jack together
Actor Domhnall Gleeson was so affected by his role as Jack in the new Channel 4 romantic drama Alice & Jack he had to take a break once he’d completed work on the series. It was 10 months after he’d finished filming the intense and emotional scripts before he felt able to step in front of a camera again.
“I felt I needed to do it,” explains Domhnall, 40, best known for playing Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films and General Armitage Hux in the
Star Wars sequel trilogy.
“It’s an amazing privilege to be an actor, but as a piece of work I found it very tough to shake off at the end of the filming process, one of the most difficult to move on from. And that’s despite the fact that I feel I am very similar to Jack – maybe because I am so similar to him.”
Domhnall, who is the son of acclaimed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and is dating Irish film producer Juliette Bonass, didn’t waste his freedom when he took time out from acting.
“It gave me a chance to spend time with my partner, spend time with my brothers and the rest of my family, which was great to do,” he says. “I mean, it’s possible that nobody was hiring me for 10 months, that
I simply wasn’t getting cast,” he jokes. “the line is a little bit on the blurred side, but I’m sticking to my version that it was very much my choice!”
Alice & Jack is a six-part series which tells the story of two people who fall head over heels for one another after meeting on a blind date. Alice, a hugely successful business executive working in the financial sector, invites Jack, a scientist, to her penthouse flat and they enjoy a night of unbridled passion.
the couple get on tremendously, both in and out of the bedroom, and it should be the start of a brilliantly successful relationship. But it never seems to work out that way.
“Alice comes from a childhood where she lost everything,” explains Andrea Riseborough, who plays the character. “It means she can take risks in areas of her life like finance and make lots of money, and it means she can love very deeply, but it also means she is unable to be loved, or at least finds it very hard to be loved – even by Jack.”
Andrea, 42, said she knew the part was right for her after falling madly in love just before she read the script.
“I found my soulmate,” smiles the Geordie actress, who is dating Frenchman karim saleh, who played her lover in 2020 film Luxor.
“I met him shortly before I read the script for Alice & Jack and then felt compelled to play the role of Alice because of my own real-life experience. It was as simple as that – the fact that
I had felt that intensity of love made me think I was able to play this particular role.”
Appearing in Alice & Jack
meant more time on screen together for Domhnall and
Andrea. they’ve been good mates since playing girlfriend and boyfriend in 2010 movie Never
Let Me Go, then brother and sister in the 2012 film Shadow Dancer.
there’s an ease between them when they talk together about Alice & Jack, Andrea commenting, “Domhnall and
I have seen each other grow up, he is someone I trust completely.
“He’s wonderful, although of course he’s changed as the years have gone by. He had his enthusiastic, puppy dog quality about him when I first knew him, and he didn’t have bad hips!”
“I thought what I’d told you about my hips was private,” grins Domhnall. “Although it’s true to say I don’t have the energy I had when we first knew each other.”
making Alice & Jack also exposed Domhnall to the “eye-opening” experience of parenting a young baby.
“During one of the Alice and
Jack break-ups, Domhnall’s character becomes romantically involved with Lynn (Aisling Bea) and the unexpected result is a daughter, Celia,” explains Domhnall. “It was quite an eye opener…” According to Aisling, star of Channel 4 black comedy This Way Up, working with the baby girl who plays Celia was a little bit Jekyll & Hyde. “We had two big days of filming with the baby and the experiences were very different, shall we put it like that,” says Aisling. “The first day the child did top work and was very professional, but on the second she just didn’t want to be there.
She cried so much that it even had me crying towards the end of the day because
I thought I was responsible for her being so upset.
“And don’t start me on the fake baby they used for some of the scenes. That was absolutely terrifying!” Adds Domhnall, “I’m sure a lot of people will be able to identify with the sleepinterrupted nights Jack and Lynn have. But there’s also a deep love there, the kind of all-encompassing love for a child that my character has never known before.” Domhnall says he has now shaken off the role of Jack, which, with Covid interruptions, took up five years of his life, and has other movie projects in the pipeline.
“But I will never forget
Alice & Jack. It was a funny experience at times but it was also very hard, very difficult, very intense to play, and it definitely had an impact on me. “However, it’s a show of which I’m very proud. It’s both funny and moving, and I hope people like it as much as I do.”
‘ALICE FINDS IT VERY HARD TO BE LOVED – EVEN BY JACK’