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The most remarkable aspect of the show is perhaps how few hard facts we know about her condition.
Aine performs contentedness for everyone around her, including her sister, who shes emotionally dependent on.
But once shes alone, she struggles to maintain that same positivity.
It started purely as [being about] family and the relationship between sisters.
For me that was the driving force: the two sisters, and that language between sisters.
Sometimes I was like,God, I thought that was going to happen quicker.
Time made it better.
The mental-health thing came in naturally as another layer.
I think we need to physically see it; the audience needs to see it.
From then on, you dont need to have as heavy-handed of an approach.
I didnt want to diagnose her.
When Im onstage and I say, Its important to talk about mental health!
Thats a lot more realistic to me.Yeah, and how it can lift you up and crash you.
Its a multipronged approach to get well and stay well and stay with yourself.
Sometimes its not always therapy, or vitamins, or your medication.
The idea that you could fix yourself with a tablet is problematic to me.
I actively didnt put in tablets, diagnosis, or therapy scenes for that reason.
It doesnt explain what is troubling her.The show is a work of fiction.
I wanted to be very plain.
Do you think its easier to write about someone with mental-health issues for TV than in stand-up?No.
I suppose one fed the other because I gig every week.
I wasnt [thinking of it as writing about mental health].
I was writing the character, and one of the parts of her is that she isnt well.
Thats how I feel about mental health.
Its the road and the car; its not the actual people.
Its an undercurrent that you’re able to see, and about gender and respect for women.
TV and film kind of land somewhere for a day and leave a plastic trail.
We need to have a more environmentally friendly policy on set, but what can you do?
Youre just an actor chatting away and then going and pretending to be a clown or something.
Its very hard, whereas with this, in the preproduction stage, thats where those conversations happen.
Suddenly I could actually make a difference since I was in the driving seat.
you’re free to change things in a bigger way.
It feels more real and important.
I couldnt tell you what it is, but Ireland and England, we approach things very differently.
I just couldnt totally work it out.
You just dont know, no one says anything, but you know youre doing something wrong.
I do not feel that in America.
Theyre more used to listening to us.
You have a couple of big upcoming roles thatll be released this fall.
Do you hope to continue to do stand-up along with acting and writing?Oh, yeah!
As a creative idiot, thats the purest form of creativity.
