With Girls & Boys currently in cinemas nationwide, Matthew Briody had the chance to catch up with the film’s star, Liath Hannon. In this interview, the multi-talented actor and writer talks about her acting inspirations, the magic of Halloween and the importance of taking chances.
Charlie is such a complex character. Did you draw on any of your own personal experiences when you were playing this character?
I drew on a mix of my own experience and imagination. As an actor, you often fill in the blanks of characters with yourself and use that as a foundation. I wrote quite an in-depth character background that expanded her history, her drive, her ambitions. I also used music quite a lot on set to get into her head. I transitioned in secondary school, ironically in Transition Year, so I intimately knew the feeling of wanting to be a normal girl while your peers are obsessed with pointing out your differences. How I tackled Charlie’s relationship with Jace was informed by my own relationships with male childhood friends.
For many queer people, there is this very uncomfortable shift around the start of puberty where they start to be ostracised or ignored by their childhood friends.
There’s something really traumatic and vulnerable in that experience, so it meant a lot to be able to explore that in my performance.
You and Adam have such great chemistry on screen. Did you have time before shooting to get to know each other and rehearse?
Adam and I actually got to rehearse together with Donncha, our director, for about three months before shooting, so we were really able to hone the dynamic between Jace and Charlie. We would perform the scenes as written, then do looser takes where we were free to ad-lib and experiment. Doing that gave us insight into each other’s character and humour, and those workshops really shaped the script before we entered the shooting period. It was incredible to get to create that relationship, but honestly from Adam’s first chemistry read with me I knew he was perfect for the part. He brings so much sensitivity and humour to the performance and is a wonderfully generous scene partner.
Charlie is an aspiring filmmaker who creates some gorgeous films. Do you have any aspirations to get involved behind the camera in the future?
I actually got to write the short films that Charlie makes in the film, which was great fun and gave me some insight into working behind the camera. I love the process of writing and I definitely see myself doing more of it in the future.
How long did the shoot last for this film?
So our main shooting block was 16 days over three weeks in January 2024, which was quite tight. Because most of the narrative spans one night, we predominantly shot from four-ish until midnight or later, and we only had access to our locations for a limited time. Because of the tight schedule, there were some scenes we couldn’t do in our initial block that had to be done separately. We also shot most of the Super 8 montage footage in the periods before and after this block. Adam, Donncha, Gearoid and I would just run around town filming each other, which really contributed to the relaxed, candid nature of those scenes.
Dublin city centre looks absolutely beautiful. What challenges did you face shooting at night?
We were really lucky that our shoot was relatively seamless. The main issues were just noise, like sirens, buses, helicopters, but that’s just Dublin.
Setting the film on Halloween night adds a certain magic...
I think what makes Halloween so magical is the way it allows us to experiment with and express identity. It’s vital to the film: the characters are performing heightened versions of their own archetypes, Jace as an all-American jock and Charlie as a silent film femme fatale.
When you dress up on Halloween you play a character and pretend to be someone else. As a performer, do you see a connection between this and the craft of acting?
Yes. I mean, I think as children our first introduction to the concept of acting is through Halloween, how costume changes us and reveals the plasticity of identity.
Were there any performances that you were inspired by when playing Charlie?
I really wanted Charlie to have a balance of wisdom and naivety, strength and vulnerability that also felt quite youthful. I was really inspired by Emma Stone’s performance in Easy A, Keira Knightley in Pride & Prejudice, Kirsten Dunst in Marie Antoinette, and of course Julie Delpy in the Before trilogy.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
I think the biggest takeaway is to take chances, be fearless, and to thine own self be true. The expectations of who we should be steal us away from the person we are and the people we love, but by resisting society’s impositions, we can find our way back there.
Within the movie, Charlie has been fascinated by film from a young age...
I’ve always had a great love for film, and grew up watching classic Hollywood films. I’ve always looked up to actors like Bette Davis, Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Taylor. When I was a kid, my parents kept trying to get me into sport, GAA, hurling, tennis, and they all made me kind of miserable. Then I started doing speech and drama at my local GAA club and it was like a revelation. It became a really safe space to express myself creatively, and I found myself coming back to it throughout my life.
The film feels uniquely Irish but also has universal themes. Would you like to see the film released in other countries?
That would be incredible. I think it captures Dublin in such a tender way that would broadly appeal in places full of Irish people away from home like London and New York. At the same time, the message of hope and possibility it posits can resonate anywhere.
What advice would you give to any aspiring actors?
Try not to compare yourself to others. Read voraciously, stay open, do the work, and keep honing your craft so when your time comes you’ll be ready for it.
What's next?
I’ve written and will be performing my one-woman show The Dolldrums inat Smock Alley’s Boys’ School this November, which I’m very excited about. It’s about a girl who gets murdered by her subconscious.
Thank you, Liath!
Girls & Boys is in cinemas now.
Liath will be performing her one-woman show The Dolldrums in Smock Alley from the 4th–8th November. The Dolldrums is a modern parable about the truths we deny and the perceptions we embrace. No matter how far we run from ourselves, we can never escape who we truly are.