Building project
Clare Dunne a driving force – and star – of ‘Herself’
With “Herself ” Ireland’s Clare Dunne takes a familiar subject — an abused spouse who escapes to begin a new life — and gives it a commanding intensity.
Dunne not only stars as tormented Sandra, she dreamed up the story, cowrote the screenplay and convinced A-list director Phyllida Lloyd (“Mama Mia!” “The Iron Lady”) to helm the Dublin-set drama.
“I went on a mission after a best friend had to basically move and couldn’t find somewhere to live. She was back in 2014 just in this horrible situation and I was so angry on her behalf,” Dunne said.
Sandra has two young girls to raise and decides to build herself a house along with her new life.
“I Googled ‘Self Building — and how to do it cheaply’ and I came across this guy Dominic who had built a house for himself for 25,000 Euros. It just sparked this story -– this woman trying to get out of a desperate situation who builds a house for herself — and a new community and life forms around her.”
It took years but, she said, “I just felt this was my calling. I began the research and tried to learn how to write a screenplay.”
Was her research on abusive husbands or building your own house?
“Both,” she answered. “I became friends with Dominic
— we’re still friends — and then I met Sinead, this woman in Women’s Aid Refuge. It all started around the same time. It was such a big idea and a big amount of research — when you’re only starting out!
“I had a lot of research, a lot of thinking. I would look at the building structure and try to write a scene that was exciting and relates to Sandra and her situation within one of those building moments.
“I had to get it all in there somehow — but also make it entertaining and watchable.”
Dunne always knew Sandra “was going to have two little girls. As I developed it, it became more intricate as to how her ex uses certain things against her within the system, how he uses the children as pawns.”
She also discovered, “It’s amazing how much the system itself becomes a weapon of abuse. So you’ve got to really know your stuff and that became me looking at court transcripts.
“I always knew,” she added, “it was a story of redemption and that at the end she heals and transcends her wounds and accepts them as part of her life story — and that’s OK.
“I knew at the end it wasn’t about the house, it’s about her.”
“Herself” streams on Amazon Prime on Friday.