I was on the first leg of my tour heading for Belfast. Helen Elizabeth, the leading actress in my film, and I flew off in the early hours of Saturday morning.
As we landed at the George Best Airport it was grey and rainy but Helen, who’d had long family holidays here as a kid, informed me it was the norm so I didn’t take it personally.Don’t Worry About Me was playing at the The Queens Film Theatre in the evening, but first, in the afternoon, I was doing a talk giving my “insights” on being an actor. Susan Picken who runs the QFT welcomed me warmly, and we ran through the clips and did a quick sound check. Before the event began I was introduced by Moyra Lock from Northern Ireland Screen and I blushed as she went through the work of mine she’d seen and enjoyed over the years.
I spoke for about half an hour about being an actor, auditioning, first day on set, building character etc and then I was joined on stage by Helen and also Lisa Barros d’Sa and Glenn Leyburn who’d jointly directed a brilliant film set in Nr Ireland called Cherrybomb which is released later this year. We swapped stories about our experiences, both in front and behind the camera, and took some great questions from the floor as well.
Don’t Worry About Me played in the evening and Helen and I did a Q+A afterwards chaired by Brian Henry Martin. I never get over the nerves of screening my film. It’s such an exposing experience but you think I’d be used to it by now, but it’s always a rush of anxiety and excitement. It’ll be interesting to see if there are different reactions to the film as I tour it around the country, will people laugh at different bits in Newcastle than they did in Belfast? Cry at a different scene in Derby than in Bristol? Walk out earlier in Aberystwyth than they do in London?
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