The Changer (The Changer Trilogy)

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It was difficult to focus on working with the other actors, because they were always egging me on to catch sausages in my mouth. This happened almost every hour. I was in the makeup department during filming, and I sat next to the little girl who plays the young version of Bridget's character. I said, ‘Hello, I play Joy.’ She said, ‘Her name really suits her character’. I thought that was a really astute thing to say. It’s a really appropriate name for her. I really liked playing her. I really enjoyed making the town hall meeting scene. We were all together and it was the midpoint of the story, the moment where disaster strikes and we see how our band of principles deal with that: what’s important to them, what they deep down care about. For me, it was a gear change for my character. He goes off and spends time in the woods to protect his beloved tree. So, I really enjoyed performing that. It's really great writing from Bridget.

You filmed in beautiful locations – tell us about where these were and what it was like to film there? Ryan makes a big decision about his unexpected inheritance, and the Eel sisters now turn their attention to the forthcoming Eel Festival and who they will crown the inaugural Eel Queen. The moment is soon broken by the arrival of ‘Pig Man’ (as he’s known to his friends). A reclusive figure who lives a solitary, self-sufficient life in the forest with only the wild boar for company, Pig Man gave up a job in the city after a devastating life event and now lives a frugal life off-grid with frothy coffee being his only extravagance.

I do think he’s a positive male role model. The crisis he experienced brought him to make this change, as is often the gift of crisis. So, for him it’s an initiation of sorts. The other guys to different extents perhaps still identify more with our white material culture’s distorted idea of masculinity, of what it means to be successful, to fit in and make it in what is in many ways a life destructive culture. So yes, I think Pig Man has rejected that whole conceit that we are sold of what it is to be a man.

You talked about your original vision for story and the look and feel of this series. Is the final product what you'd always hoped it would be? Which bits of the show did you most enjoy filming and what do you think is Tony's funniest scene in the show? The character and his story touch on quite a few things that have become prominent issues in recent times, such as conspiracy theories, isolation, and online radicalisation. How did you research that role and get into the character? The idea of community is a strong theme throughout the series, especially for Agnes and her sister. What do you think the show says about community but particularly, community between women – sisterhood and friendship? I loved it. I wouldn’t say it’s redeeming or atonement in any way, but it gives us a greater understanding of where our focus should be, where his focus should be. Whether it changes him or not I don't know because he needs an identity and I think so many people summon these horrific views as an identity.Since the night she and her grandmother had found the dead woman, Nessa had always felt the cool calm of the graveyard. When she’d encountered Jo, she had been drawn to her warmth. Together, they balanced each other out. This woman was different—far more powerful and less controlled. She pulled Nessa toward her, and though Nessa was neither scared nor reluctant, she also knew there was no point in resisting. Some forces in life are so strong that the only thing you can do is submit. When it came to casting the stars of the show, alongside you playing Linda, the characters of Joy, Agnes and Carmel are all played by women around 50. Why was it crucial that both the stars and characters are women of this age? Is it rare to find that on TV? In the Eel Festival, the characters lead a procession representing the stages of a woman’s life and repeat the line, ‘May all your transitions be joyful’. What did you think of that line and the message of the festival? The first scene that you filmed, your character Tony s

It makes total sense to be part of a series about female empowerment, especially as an Iranian man who has been very active and vocal about the “woman life freedom” movement going on in Iran right now.

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It’s inherent in Bridget’s journey and the journey that Linda, her character, has taken. If we lose our connection with the land we were born from and on, well the consequences of that are pretty huge to say the least, and we are of course now living in the midst of them – we have lost touch with the natural balance of things, and our part in that balance. At the heart of the story, it’s asking us to return, to remember, to reconnect with beings other than human. Every other plant and animal works within the natural balance of things, whereas we’ve been moving further and further away from that innate knowledge and wisdom. Thankfully, there are still indigenous cultures with that knowledge that haven’t been wiped out. Unless we realise that and take heed of that wisdom, then I think we know that we are in for a very rough ride, I mean it already feels heart-breaking what we are doing to our ecosystems, to each other, and to our beloved animals. We’re at a tipping point right now and a lot rests on it. Also personally, I don’t think we can experience a true joy of being, without reclaiming our innate human identity as not separate from all of nature.

Speaking about the Eel Festival, like you said, it is funny, but it is quite poignant too. During the festival, characters discuss puberty and menopause and repeat the line ‘May all your transitions be joyful’. Did that resonate with you? And there was a bit of a last-minute change with Susan Lynch stepping into play your sister, Agnes. Transitions are a part of life. Maybe it's a bit ambitious to expect a woman to be joyful, because change is very hard for people. But the festival is about embracing change. If you try and live in the moment with things, then hopefully transitions can be joyful. If you’re open and trusting, hopefully they can be.It begins with a procession of symptoms at her 50th birthday party – hot flashes, irritability, and forgetting what a cake shovel is called. So, she goes to her GP convinced that she’s got early onset dementia. The more benign and ordinary reality, however, is that she’s simply beginning the menopause. I'd say that the eel sisters, and the Eel Festival, is something that the community in the forest revolves around. The eel sisters have lost their dad – I wouldn't say it's touched them in the way that it touches many people, because I'm not sure how much they liked their dad. But that family is the centre of the Eel Festival, which is the centre of the community. They run the Eel Café which serves eels and mash and liquor, and that’s where all the old men come and get their food. They're a respected family and you don't mess with them. One of the stage directions early on that Bridget put in was that all of the men clearly adore Carmel and her sister.