The Walsh Sisters’ Louisa Harland opens up on fears acting in new series

Actress Louisa Harland has confessed she wasn’t certain whether she’d manage to perform at all in new series The Walsh Sisters following her stint in Derry Girls.

Louisa is most recognised as Orla McCool in the beloved Channel 4 programme, yet she admitted she worried she might struggle to act naturally since her new character Anna in The Walsh Sisters requires her to speak in her natural accent for the first time. She said: “I hadn’t worked in Ireland for a bit, and then the crew were like can you just do the voice there? So every now and then I would.

“But no, I mean, I haven’t really done anything in my own voice. So I was like, didn’t know if I was going to be able to act full stop. Because I always feel like I’m doing a bit, and I didn’t have that shield. I didn’t have that kind of protection of doing a bit, so I had to, but that was really nice and a really interesting experience for me. So yeah, it’s great.”.

The six-episode RTE series features Anna, portrayed by Louisa, as one of five siblings in the programme, which also stars Caroline Menton as Rachel, Danielle Galligan as Claire, Máiréad Tyers as Helen, and Stefanie Preissner as Maggie, reports the Irish Mirror.

Stefanie also pens the series, alongside Kefi Chadwick from Marian Keyes’ adaptation. Speaking candidly about juggling dual roles on set, Stefanie said: “If I had known I was going to be in it, I definitely wouldn’t have given myself the only sex scene in the whole series.

“I didn’t know that I was going to be in it. That came about like we cast Rachel and Anna and Helen first, and with great ease, and then we were auditioning for Claire and because Claire is almost an adaptation, like an evolution of Claire from the books.

“I remember coming on the Zoom with the casting director, and I had been away at this writer’s residence that I go to when I’m writing, and they were like, ‘Oh my God, you look amazing, you’re glowing on Zoom.’

“And I was like, ‘Yeah, because I’ve had three full night’s sleep, nobody has called my name, nobody’s touching me, nobody’s asked me to do their laundry. I don’t have to brush other people’s teeth.'”.

“And Dixie, the producer, was like, oh, that sounds like something Claire would say you should play Claire. And immediately I was like, Absolutely not. I’m not Claire. Couldn’t play Claire. I know a lot of actors who can play Claire, absolutely amazingly, will definitely find Claire. I’m not her.

“So then, as we auditioned for Claire, I was reading Maggie opposite the Claire’s and Maureen Hughes, the casting director, said to me, you read beautifully for Maggie. And I was like, Well, yeah, I wrote it, and I know her really well, and I think she’s lovely.

“And some of the Maggies that we had seen might have been a little bit more stereotypical, like the good girl, and Maureen said, I think you should audition. So I did.”

Stefanie doesn’t have any siblings and confessed she sought guidance from the director, Ian Fitzgibbon, about how to introduce herself and build friendships with her fellow cast members to create a sisterly connection that would make filming over the following 12 weeks straightforward.

She explained: “I don’t have siblings, but I make friends very easily. But I also lose friends quite easily. I find it hard to keep friends because I miss lots of social cues.

“And I remember Ian, the director. Giving me, like, a little pep talk before the girls came in on the first day. He’s like, okay, so when they come in, you’re not going to sit with me, you’re going to sit with them.

“So we’re going to put all the five chairs over there. And if they go out for a break, go out with them. I was like, okay, but if I go out with them, like, what am I going to say? And then, like, we were that role rehearsal week was, like, in our big production lot, so there were lots of people, some people smoke, some people vape, some people are, like, on the phone to their agents, you know. So there were people gathered, and I was like, Okay, I’m going to go out to these people. And then it was kind of like, standing in the background. And then on day one, we realised that it was Louisa’s birthday.

“And I was like, Okay, perfect. Like, I can’t really do small talk, but I can organise a party, like, I can really quickly organise a cake. And she was like, ‘I hate my birthday’. And I was like, ‘I don’t care’,” she said laughing.

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