Lola Petticrew: ‘Political apathy is a privilege I did not grow up with’

Lola Petticrew is an Irish acting legend in the making. Last year, their performance as Dolours Price in Say Nothing earned them a BAFTA nomination and an IFTA win, and they used their acceptance speech to give voice to urgent issues. “While both governments punish trans kids for existing, and legitimise war criminals with handshakes and shamrocks, my peers are dying by suicide,” they said. “There is what seems like insurmountable intergenerational trauma, and insufficient services to deal with it.”

It was a rallying cry for improved mental health and youth services in the North of Ireland, for a proper standard of living for working class people. The issues Lola cares about, whether that be trans healthcare, calling for a free Palestine, or the trauma, suicide rates and poverty that remain in their home of West Belfast, are never far from their lips.

“For me, art and activism are totally intertwined; they can’t be separated,” Lola tells me over Zoom. “I am an artist because I’m an activist and I’m an activist because I’m an artist. Growing up watching the films of Ken Loach and Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows, those were my touchstones; that’s what I saw art as and the reason that I wanted to be an artist. I can’t separate the two, and if I had to, I wouldn’t be interested.”

“In recent times, that’s become diluted and we’ve got artists coming out saying they don’t think they should be political and thinking that’s not taking a side, when political apathy is absolutely taking a side,” they say. “Political apathy is a privilege and I did not grow up with that privilege. Saying nothing is a privilege I wasn’t afforded. It might be lovely to sit back and wear the nice clothes and talk about how fun it is to make television and film but that’s not something I think is reasonable; it’s not something I’m capable of doing.”

Lola is resolute: “It’s an artist’s duty to speak up and use their platform and change things for the better. What is the point of it all if we just have a bunch of artists who don’t want to say anything? It would be incredibly boring, dull and meaningless.”

Lola is the kind of actor that mesmerises you, whether that be playing a closeted teenager in Dating Amber or a Republican paramilitary in Say Nothing, they’ve got this ethereal quality that is so arresting. At the start of November, Ailbhe Keogan’s eagerly awaited adaptation of Louise Kennedy’s book of the same name, Trespasses, was released on Channel 4, and all four episodes are a perfect mixture of absorbing, heartening and heartbreaking.

“I absolutely devoured the book, I was completely captured,” Lola recalls. “The way that it was written was so cinematic, I could see it in my head and I knew someone smart would read it and make something from it. So, I called my agent and asked them to keep their ear to the ground, because I wanted to play Cushla Lavery. I was thinking ahead, maybe a year or two down the line, but then five months later, I get an email telling me I have a tape for Cushla!”

The series is a forbidden love story, set in 1975 against the backdrop of the Troubles, that revolves around Lola Petticrew’s Cushla—a school teacher whose hopes and dreams have been frustrated by the grind of daily life—and Tom Cullen’s Michael—a barrister—alongside Gillian Anderson as Gina, Cushla’s glorious wreck of a mother.

The story looks at this period of time, a period so often funnelled through the eyes of soldiers and men in back rooms, through a more feminine lens. It is, ostensibly, a love story, but romance ricochets to and from so many of the characters, spotlighting the very real power of platonic love, familial love, the love between a teacher and students.

“It makes more sense to me to call Trespasses love stories, rather than one love story,” Lola says. “Michael isn’t the only love story in Cushla’s life. It’s not the only love that’s explored in this story. A lot of the really tender, loving moments take place between Cushla and Gerry, or Cushla and the McGeowns, or Cushla and her mother. It was really lovely to be able to get my teeth into all of those.”

“When you’re working with people like Tom Cullen and Oisín Thompson and Gillian Anderson, they just make it feel effortless and easy. Especially with Tom, the Michael that he played is so wonderful. The way that he sees Cushla and his desire for her isn’t actually very typically masculine, but it’s wrapped in softness and safeness and love. Without Tom’s performance being what it was, it’s an incredibly hard sell. You have to love Michael, because it’s all quite ethically grey and murky, but Tom’s Michael is so bursting at the seams with love, and that’s quite infectious. I think a lot of other male actors would have struggled to bring what Tom brought. It’s rare, and incredibly special.”

As a character, there’s a reason Cushla became so beloved in the hearts of Louise Kennedy’s readers. She is a woman with this great capacity for love, and she remains steadfast and loyal to those around her. She’s smart and informed and carries herself with confidence. She lacks prejudice and gives into her own unrelenting love for a man she knows she shouldn’t fall for. She’s deeply human and existed so completely in many readers’ minds prior to any talk of adaptation. I wonder if that added a degree of pressure to stepping into Cushla’s shoes?

“When you read the book, it’s so Cushla’s point of view, you’re in her world and it’s through her eyes,” Lola says. “I was so captured by that and I wanted to make sure that I was bringing that depth. I’m a book lover, I know what it’s like to read a book and envision a world and character and get caught up in that. I was really afraid that I wouldn’t be the Cushla that people wanted, the Cushla that they connected to in the book, because I connected so strongly with her while reading. I felt that massive pressure, to do right by Louise and her world. I think when I knew that she was happy, I felt more settled. Journaling was a really good way to get into that internal monologue and understand her inner voice.”

Spoiler alert to those who are yet to watch the series: Lola has done all that and more. I binged all four episodes and found myself crying in bed at 1am the night before our interview, so real were the emotions Lola brought to the screen. It stays so true to the book, throwing it up in beautiful technicolour.

Before our conversation draws to a close, I ask Lola to share some words of wisdom for those starting out in the industry who may be unsure of their next steps.

“You’re probably going to get a lot of bad advice. You know what you want to do, follow your intuition and make sure that you have happiness in your life outside of it all because if your happiness is solely based on this job, it’s going to be a struggle. You have to have love and happiness elsewhere, and you need to have other creative outlets. Don’t limit yourself to just one thing. That will only help you in your endeavour to be an actor.”

Watch all four episodes of Trespasses on Channel 4.