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“INCREDIBLE”.
“ONE OF the best Irish films of the year.”
The new Irish film A Date For Mad Mary has been hoovering up a huge amount of praise since its release – and it’s being touted as proof that Ireland can punch well above its weight in the movie world.
The film tells the story of two young women, Mary and Charlene (played by Seána Kerslake and Charleigh Bailey respectively) and their disintegrating friendship as Mary emerges from a short stint in jail only to be faced with her bestie having transformed into a bridezilla.
The film has many special elements to it – it’s Darren Thornton’s directorial debut; it stars a female-heavy cast; it’s set in Drogheda, not usually a big setting for films; its lead, Kerslake, is seeing her star rise in the film world; and it touches on friendship, sexuality and relationships in a way that everybody can relate to.
When TheJournal.ie catches up with Kerslake and Bailey, it’s the day before the film’s official release.
“I think it’s kind of overwhelming at times but I can’t wait, I’m really excited for everyone to see it and laugh and cry, and whatever feelings they feel during it,” says Bailey when asked how she’s feeling about the film going out into the world.
Just days later, the film has taken in €47,814 at the Irish box office, having opened at 19 locations nationwide. In comparison, Woody Allen’s Café Society also opened the same weekend at 15 locations and took in just over €38k.
The actors are particularly proud of the fact the film is about female friendship. “I think that’s a huge draw for me, the female friendship, because it’s such a universal thing and genderless,” says Kerslake.
“It’s that thing where you have a best friend and you think this will last forever and you realise as you grow up you shift and change and opinions change, life experience changes, so you don’t always fit as well together as you used to. But sometimes you can adapt and still move past that and become even better friends – or it can fall by the wayside, and I think that aspect of it really intrigued me.”
Being Mad Mary
‘Mad’ Mary has a bit of a temper – to put it mildly – and can’t escape the moniker that she’s been crowned with. Living in a small town makes it all the harder.
“It’s just a name she can’t shake, so even when she meets Jess and she doesn’t know her this is her chance to shake this label,” says Kerslake. Jess’s relationship with Mary is pivotal in her development as a person.
And even in a small town you can’t escape that [label], so for her to escape she has to get out to transform herself and I think that is where Mary would go after the film, she needs to break away to become a new person.
It’s a situation familiar to many Irish people – you don’t need to have spent time in prison, or be your town’s resident angry woman, to know what it feels like to be tagged as a particular type of person. Trying to escape others’ preconceived notions about you and your character can lead you to flee the town you grew up in.
Not a villain
Charlene, Mary’s best friend, is similarly outgoing, but while she’s a ‘bridezilla’ she isn’t as aggressive as her friend.
“For me, I felt like Charlene showed so many different sides to her – and I loved how blunt she was, and how she just said what she meant, even if it hurt someone,” says Bailey. “She was unapologetically truthful and definitely the comedy aspect to Charlene I was drawn to as well.”
I thought she was an amazing 3D character and couldn’t wait to play her. Loved her. I had a ball playing her.
It can be easy with a character like Charlene to fall into the trap of assuming she’s the baddie – she is, after all, the reason why her friend Mary has to audition a string of unsuitable men for dates.
“I didn’t really see her as a villain either,” says Bailey. “And obviously as an actor you’re trying not to judge her character and I felt like she was rightfully so a bridezilla, and why not – like that’s every woman’s time to have your mam, your sisters, your bridesmaids, pandering to you – having you up on a pedestal. So I thoroughly enjoyed all that aspect to it.”
Kerslake was drawn to Mary because “she was so complex and everything that was going on with her and how confused she was with herself”.
And I can identify with that, times in your life when you don’t understand your feelings and getting to know your feelings and things like that.
With the setting up of Waking the Feminists in Ireland’s theatre world, more eyes tend to be on female characters when they set foot on Irish stages – and in the film world, there’s similarly an interest in how women are portrayed.
The Irish Film Board, for example, launched a six-point plan on gender equality late last year, in an effort to encourage more women to get involved in filmmaking. So to see a film with a strong female cast is something that has clearly resonated with a certain section of the A Date For Mad Mary audience.
Tom Connors / TwitterJust out of A Date For Mad Mary and I'm an emotional wreck. Film of the year. Seana Kerslake a superstar. Funny, sad, tender and wise. Go!
— Tom (@baloobas1) September 6, 2016
Kerslake and Bailey play two women who aren’t afraid of sharing their opinions, which is something that resonated with both actresses. “I do love how they are so blunt and unapologetic, they don’t realise that their social graces, they are not being correct in the way they behave a lot of the time, which was kind of fun to play,” says Kerslake.
Bailey, meanwhile, describes playing Charlene as “very liberating”.
“I think as Irish people we are so polite and afraid of offending – so to have these characters which were just like ‘that’s the way it is and deal with it’, that was really refreshing.”
Kerslake agrees.
Because Mary wasn’t afraid of the repercussions, if it did end in a fight that was OK by her – if anything she’d probably like that, she wants a reaction, so she knows what she’s doing.
Playing a character like Mary was tough at times for Kerslake, however.
“[Sometimes I] would feel lonely in the character, or if you were about ready to go for a take and it was quite an angry, angsty scene, trying to hold that till the take was quite difficult, because there are so many emotions going on and you just want to burst,” she says.
That is hard as an actor, dialling down the emotions so you are not a horror show to work with, but as well you want to get the performance that you need to get.
Now that the film has hit a chord with Irish audiences, the question is what the women are up to next. For Kerslake, it’s a role in Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, Stefanie Preissner’s much-anticipated series for RTÉ, while Bailey is set to finish a tour of Angels in the Park.
“It’s unwritten, the next chapter, and we’re excited to see what’s coming next,” says Kerslake as we wrap up the interview – but it’s clear that with the reaction A Date For Mad Mary has received so far, the future looks bright indeed.
A big year for Irish cinema
We’ve already had Viva, and A Date For Mad Mary – but there is even more great Irish cinema on its way.
Handsome Devil, directed by John Butler (The Stag) and Brain on Fire from Gerard Barrett (Glassland) are two forthcoming Irish films that were announced for the Toronto Film Festival, which runs until 19 September.
They join other Irish films The Secret Scripture (directed by Jim Sheridan and starring Rooney Mara, Jack Reynor and Vanessa Redgrave), Maudie (directed by Aisling Walsh and starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke), Unless (Alan Gilsenan, director of the Yellow Bittern), Without Name (directed by Lorcan Finnegan under the IFB Catalyst project), Forever Pure (documentary produced by Alan Maher, directed by Maya Zinshtein) and the short Second to None (directed by Vincent Gallagher) at the festival.
Then there’s Mattress Men, a documentary about Michael Flynn, aka Mattress Mick and How to Defuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story, which looks at children being sent from 197s Northern Ireland to spend the summer in the USA. They’re among the documentaries set to feature at the IFI Documentary Festival, which runs from 22 – 25 September.
Irish films have already taken more than €125 million in the worldwide box office in 2015/2016 to date. Earlier this year the Irish Film Board launched its new film strategy – and called for an increase in funding.
The board has had its funding cut since the recession, leaving it to wonder if this could have an impact on the output from the Irish film industry in future years.
“We are saying very loudly in our strategy that we need the immediate restoration of pre-recession funding to at least €20 million. Look at what we’ve done with limited funding – just think what we could do if we had the funding that we’d like to have to take the industry forward,” said the chairperson designate of the IFB, Annie Doona in July.
Landing slots in Heathrow is a red herring… If passengers want to come to Ireland for business or leisure 2 things…
1. They will book flights over whatever routing to get to Ireland from wherever they are
2. If there are profitable routes to fly, airlines will provide capacity to Dublin London … The volumes on this route will always be served
Consolidation of the airline business will happen… smaller carriers will be absorbed into bigger groups or will fail. IAG seem willing to preserve an excellent Irish brand and operation.
Landing slots in Heathrow is simply a valuable asset on the Aer Lingus balance sheet at present… nothing more.
I haven’t seen figures for traffic specifically connecting in Heathrow for Dublin/Ireland nor have I seen figures for the proportion of UK based traffic using Heathrow-Ireland which would provide proper fact based argument as opposed to ill informed scare mongering rhetoric. You would think a journalist would do this research!!! Journal?
If this small profitable, lean, well run airline is vulnerable then instead of allowing it to fail, precisely this partnership styled buyout might be the best protection for the 4000 jobs over trying to tough it out against much bigger competitors.
Toughing it out or being influenced by government or political non business groups could kill the airline and lose that employment.
Don’t talk sense here, the lefties don’t like it.
Its not sense to say that the landing slots are a valuable balance sheet asset – and nothing more!
They produce the wherewithal to generate a significant element of the airline’s income.
Aer Lingus could not operate without them, in any meaningful way.
Can you demonstrate that with financials?
The transatlantic is vastly more profitable.
IAG could use Dublin as a t/a hub as a second hub to Heathrow and expand Aer Lingus as a financed subsidiary fed with IAG traffic.
If Aer Lingus fails or is bought, is it going to be a case of boat traffic only… I don’t think anyone believes that?
A strong ownern/partner is exactly what Aer Lingus needs.
That’s intangible and subject to fluctuations.
I’d prefer to stay on point – as, you well know, my point is valid.
It is virtually impossible to buy a slot at LHR, and will be for many years – perhaps decades.
A BS asset – yes. But a major generator of business and income….
And London city, Gatwick and Stansted don’t?
Very roughly, AL passenger income is about 1m a month – split fairly equally between shot and long haul.
Shorthall carries about 5 times more passengers – so the slots are the most important possession that the airline has.
As mentioned, slots cannot be bought. Aircraft can easily be bought or leased.
If revenue per month is split evenly, and the pax ratio is 5:1 short/long haul, then long haul is much more profitable. EI would be better off concentrating on this, and regional UK connections to Dublin make massive sense. So slots to London become less important to EI’s long term revenue generation.
Fergal there’s no need to bring a bit of common sense and business acumen to the debate here. There are far better places for that. All you need to remember here in the Journal comments section is:
Privatisation of anything is bad. End of story
Slots to London? Its the LHR slots that are being discussed.
Yes longhaul is more profitable – must most airlines want a mix. Flying into Europe etc.
Which would be impossible for AL without the LHR slots.
Those slots alone make up a significant amount of the airline’s €1.3 b value.
Meant LHR gravel.
Jason wants Aer Lingus to operate longhaul and UK/Dublin only.
Because its more profitable. If only business was as simple as that.
If that business model worked – which it doesn’t – Ryanair might just have adopted it….
As things stand, BA use 10-14 of *their own* Heathrow slots to service Irish flights every day. If anything, they would cut those services rather than EI’s, but since BA are under no obligation whatsoever to service those routes, it’s fair to assume they use Heathrow slots on these routes because it makes business sense.
It’s also worth noting that none of Iberia’s Heathrow slots have been taken away from them since the merger with BA.
As such, I’d say a far bigger threat to Aer Lingus services to LHR is if they try to stay independent and end up going to the wall.
Either way though, while connectivity with London is clearly vital to Ireland, connectivity with LHR in particular is not. There are already more flights from Ireland to other London airports than to LHR, and in my experience, most people do their utmost to avoid LHR if at all possible. There are also several other options for long haul connections – Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, Dubai.
Fair enough CT – but LHR continues to grow alarmingly as itis most people’s preference; on the tube, less than 15 miles from central London.
And it will contract to grow, with a very strong lobby for a third runway. Over 75 million passengers a year – the busiest in Europe and third in the world.
Put simply – its where airlines want to be…..
*continue
Again Cornelius that kind of analysis isn’t appreciated or even under stood by the left here.
By the way some people are acting, you’d swear Heathrow is the only option to go anywhere. As you say, from Dublin, you could use any of the European hubs, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris or Istanbul. Much more beyond though, Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Even within North or South America, you could use JFK, Newark, Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia or Chicago. From Shannon, JFK, Chicago or Philaselphia. Even from Cork, theres a double daily service to Amsterdam, besides the Heathrow route
Besides all that though Heathrow as a hub needs to compete with all of the hubs mentioned above anyway. Even if the Heathrow services form Shannon for example are loss making why would anyone expect Aer Lingus to keep them on anyway? They could cut them in the morning and the government would be powerless. All they could do is make a bit of noise. IAG have promised 5 years more of these services, 5 years longer than the government has now. What more can be expected of a private company?
For people travelling from Ireland to London (as opposed to connecting in London on the way somewhere else), the best airport really depends on whereabouts in London you’re going. London City airport is by far the best option for people going to the City or East End. Stansted is just as good as LHR for the East End or North London. Luton is much better than LHR for North London. Gatwick is the best for South London. Flying into LHR is really only the best option if you want to go to West London.
The other main reason people fly to LHR is to connect to somewhere else – but as I said you don’t have to go to via London at all if your destination is further afield. I honestly don’t think it would be a disaster if there were fewer flights from Ireland to LHR, but in any case I don’t think that’s a likely outcome if this deal goes through.
Will, didn’t say that at all. Can you point where I said it? What I am saying is that EI has huge growth potential on longhaul, both in pax and revenue terms, via Dublin from UK regional airports, and that LHR slots are not the most important part of it’s business model.
Agree with most of that CT. But London is where/the route people prefer.
Will said 75 million pass through Heathrow ever year – but another 75 million go through Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, City and Southend.
Yes there are many competitors – but few in the aviation industry will plan anything without factoring in London.
The third runway at Heathrow is inevitable – as is a second at Gatwick.
London seem to be absolutely pivotal in this industry – although, as you say, it doesn’t have to be.
More BS Jason- you just love to hear yourself talking! Ps your beloved Ryanair put the prices up for pre booking seats between 10 & 20 %! No doubt you’ll say this is something to do with bird strikes etc etc
Protect- it’s bs that EI has huge growth potential? Or is it bs that UK regional airports offer great business opportunities to EI? Or is bs that EI can improve revenue by offering more long haul routes? What’s bs exactly? And I’ve not once mentioned FR here, that’s your obsession.
As for my own voice, it’s a public forum, open for anyone to comment. I actually agree with you that FR can charge too much on routes where they are the only carrier, but you don’t seem to get that there is a massive difference between Dublin and Stansted in terns of how pricing structures work. So that’s it, I agree with some of what you say, I’ve tried to explain some of the rationale behind their pricing etc., as I’ve first hand knowledge. So good luck to you.
This present government of ours would sell their grannies for a few euros so it’s not if they sell their stake in our national airline it is when?
Has anyone noticed yet government tactics on almost everything? Deferred, or pushed down the road for a few years and hopefully whatever the issue is they can sneak in under the radar in a few years time!
What’s the rush? It’s a difficult decision. One that should be throughly examined. I wouldn’t want them to make a snap decision either way. Personally, I’d prefer them not to sell, but what the hell do I know? Maybe we’re better off without an airline that will struggle. If you could swap the Air Lingus share for say…Metro North without the burden on the tax payer, is that worth it? Overall, that could more beneficial as we already have very good connectivity through other airlines. I think the government are correct to take their time on this.
I am curious why does the Journal refer to IAG as “British airways parent company” rather than the parent company of Iberia & BA as it should be referenced
Should the journal name ALL its subsidiaries – every time IAG is mentioned!!!?
Well they feel the need to mention BA? I am curious as to why BA and no other subsidiary? Considering IAG’s head office and registered address is Spain not Britain!
No – its Head Office is London. When Diageo is discussed here, Guinness will be mentioned – for reasons of relevance.
In this thread, IAG’s other subsidiaries have no real relevance – as they operate largely in different markets.
Whereas BA has…
Registered legal office for IAG Is where? Madrid
Will said ‘Head Office’ – and he’s correct.
Quick make a load of promises and sell it, by the time anyone realises it will be to late and if anyone says anything tell them how bad SF are.
He who pays the piper calls the tune
The five year deferral proves the real intent, Are Lingus will have no guaranteed access to Heathrow after five years. The only guarantee IAG have given is, they will not sell the slots but I doubt there was ever any intent to do that.
It is like the government’s pledge on privatisation of Irish Water, lots of tinkering around the edges but the door is still open, when the opportunity was there to close and firmly lock it.
You know IAG could by the remaining 75% and do what they want? They don’t need the 25% state holding.
They won’t have 75%, from what I recall O’Leary said Ryanair would follow the government’s lead which would leave IAG with 46%, assuming all others go along with it.
Ryanair will very soon be legally required to offload 25% of their share in Aer Lingus. They know this so they will sell their shares if this offer goes through because it will allow them to sell for what they paid, allowing them to save face with their own shareholders. This would give IAG a controlling share hypothetically*
Of course you don;t really care about that or Aer Lingsu for that matter, all you care about is government bashing to suit what your far left agenda demands of you.
*Obviously this isn’t going to happen. IAG will leave it off if it means the government holding onto their 25.1% stake. You wouldn’t blame them with that government stake being kicked around like political football among clueless back bench TD’s and even more clueless local councillors, as we saw in Co Clare recently
Only problem bob is Ryanair can’t offload them if no one wants to buy them. They’ve been hawking them around for a while now and can’t get a buyer.
Exactly which is why this approach is great timing for Ryanair seeing as they’ll likely have to sell the shares anyway. Aer Lingus shares were worth quite a bit less several months ago and their value will fall even further than that if IAG give up on their takeover approach. If Ryanair can sell at this €2.55 a share offered by IAG, they will get back what they paid for their shares. Hard to tell exactly who would buy Ryanairs share if not IAG.
What cast iron guarantee does Aer Lingus give to Cork and Shannon ? IAG wants to develop and grow Aer Lingus. Ryanair gained over 9m customers in the last 12 months that’s almost the total amount Aer Lingus fly today. What cast iron guarantee does Aer Lingus have on its future NONE! Long term thinking not parish politics are needed here.
It is so myopic and naive of people to think their darling rip off air-line will remain patriotic.
At best it will be run as a proper independent business as opposed to a government backed money losing cartel with “connected” board members and suited slibhins. The chickens are finally coming home to roost. Cocadooledoo.
Nothing is permanent in this life, they can promise all they want but they will find a way.
It is a criminal act to sell aer lingus
Anyone else think we’re being overly patriotic to Aer Lingus. I’m working as a corporate travel consultant and to be honest people are much happier paying less for the Stansted/Gatwick etc flights to Dublin. And if flying Dublin via London to another international destination, any airline is fine by them in my experience.
Are the hotels lobby a shareholder? This is a matter for the people who own the business and what is acceptable to them and to no one else. a shareholder has no responsibility for irish transport that is none of their concern nor should it be.
Why is there a constant reference to British Airways in these Aer Lingus sale stories?. IAG is a company that owns BA and other airlines Inc Iberia, not the other way around. this is not a BA against the Irish. So please Journal change the record… no need to sensationalise the headlines.
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