Louisa Harland is trying to describe her new TV show. After a lot of thought, she settles on “Pirates of the Caribbean meets The Goonies meets The Favourite”. Not that she knew that when she auditioned – “Everything was quite under wraps… I just had two scenes with very little context”. She knew one thing, though, and that was enough: “I was like, ‘Oh my god, Sally Wainwright’s doing a Disney show.’”
The show is Renegade Nell and, despite her own misgivings, the Derry Girls actress turned out to be perfect for an 18th-century highwaywoman with superpowers: “I obviously don’t have a Cockney accent, I can’t do a tumble and I can’t ride a bike, let alone a horse… they really took a risk with me.” The series follows Nell, on the run after being framed for murder, as she takes on the aristocracy and the patriarchy, assisted by Billy Blind, “a pixie soulmate” played by Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed. Nell, says Harland, is “a normal girl who wants more for herself. Ambitious, stubborn.”
Viewers expecting the grit of Wainwright’s magnum opus Happy Valley will instead find a rollicking adventure tale – “It’s a 12, which is no swearing or nipples but loads of violence” – a period drama with added pizzazz. The magical elements may put some off, but the fleshed-out relationships and family dynamics are classic Wainwright, and Harland is mercurial and magnetic at the heart of it all.
Heading up a big-budget fantasy series was new territory for the 31-year-old, who has spent much of the past year on the stage. Our interview is squeezed in ahead of rehearsals for Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in the West End, in which Harland will star opposite Brian Cox (“such great craic”) and Patricia Clarkson. It follows roles last year in Dancing at Lughnasa at the National and Ulster American with Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis. For Harland, it’s living the dream: “I always wanted to do theatre. I’m obsessed with live performances so I’m really lucky I’ve had a good run lately.”
It’s probably a safe bet that many in the audience will be Derry Girls fans. Harland’s kooky, squeaky-voiced Orla McCool became a fan favourite for her off-kilter outlook, filter-free chatter and flare for performing. The finale leant into Orla’s surreal tendencies, with Harland performing a now-iconic dance sequence to Dario G’s “Sunchyme” surrounded by a troupe of young Irish dancers – a joyous symbol of possibility as the characters turned 18 and their country, with the Good Friday Agreement, entered a new chapter. “I remember reading the script and it starting with Orla dancing down the walls and thinking ‘Oh my God’,” she says. “I said to Lisa [McGee, screenwriter], ‘If this doesn’t work then cut it’. And she didn’t.”
Harland never thought she’d do a comedy. Growing up in the Dublin suburb of Dundrum and attending Anne Kavanagh’s Young People’s Theatre (of which Andrew Scott is also an alumnus), she was more interested in performing Shakespeare monologues than making people laugh. She moved to London aged 19 to study at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and her first role was in Irish gangland drama Love/Hate. But when Derry Girls came along – “such an incredibly written comedy with such incredible comic actors around me” – she threw herself into it. “And then obviously I decided to give her a silly little voice…”
Harland has previously referred to Orla as “they”, explaining that they wore shorts rather than a school skirt because they aren’t “defined by gender”. In Nell, she has again found a character who isn’t confined to stereotypes, frequently disguising herself as a man.
Harland relates: “I am not an incredibly glamorous girl. I’ve never really been into make-up or high heels, but I’ve also never struggled with gender dysphoria. I am a woman but I suppose I’m not the norm.”
She doesn’t believe that Nell is experiencing gender dysphoria either: “I think it was just easier to get around at that time dressed as a man. More inconspicuous. You probably gained more respect. And literally just more comfortable to ride a horse.” Harland chooses her words carefully because allyship is important to her. “I love the queer community,” she says. “I love queer art. I get very defensive over the LGBT community. And the trans community just have it so incredibly hard and it’s so, so frustrating and they just don’t have the same opportunities in life. Trans women are women and trans men are men. That’s what I believe.”
One thing Harland is also sure of is that Orla would love Nell: “They would be mates – fearless, carefree. Orla would love the costumes, the horses, the swords.” She can’t help but slip into the “silly little voice” once more to pronounce “she’d think it was cracker!” and it’s no surprise to learn that Harland loves doing different voices, of which there are many in Renegade Nell. She nails the Cockney accent, probably because she lived in the East End during lockdown with her partner, the actor Calvin Demba, and his family: “I didn’t know that I was preparing for Nell subconsciously… I had a genuine Cockney advisor at home, so that was really my secret weapon.”
Filming Renegade Nell in Ealing drew Harland west, and the couple now live in Ladbroke Grove with their cat Benny (“He’s a bit overweight – don’t judge him”). She and Demba have been together for five years after they met in the street and he told her he liked her T-shirt. “It was my dad’s,” she says. “Honestly, not an incredibly attractive T-shirt…But here we are now.” It’s a rather sweet and analogue way to meet these days, especially when they are both in the industry: “That actually really annoyed me. I meet this really great guy in the street and he’s still an actor.”
That said, Harland has her fair share of industry pals. Those who would like to believe that the Derry Girls are all still hanging out will be pleased to hear that Harland saw Siobhán McSweeney (Sister Michael) yesterday, and calls Kathy Keira Clarke, AKA Aunt Sarah, “one of my best friends”. She also popped up opposite the wee English fella James, Dylan Llewellyn, “our Dyl”, in his other sitcom Big Boys. That show, about coming of age and coming out, was written by Jack Rooke, another close friend: “I basically just said, gun to [Jack’s] head – ‘Put me in in any way you physically can’.”
She also saw Nicola Coughlan recently at Vogue’s Bafta afterparty, a rare glitzy outing for Harland. “I really struggle with press, red carpets, photographs,” she says. “That’s why I take photos so I don’t have to be in them.” She is, however, enjoying the Irish domination of awards season: “Me and Daryl [McCormack, star of Bad Sisters and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande] were saying this the other day! Like ‘up Ireland!’… Every Irish actor – and there’s so many of us floating around that you come into contact with and that you know – they’re such lovely people and it’s so nice to see it.” Would that include The Bear’s Ayo Edibiri, who the internet has gleefully proclaimed as Irish after she dabbled in the accent in red carpet interviews? “Oh, she is,” nods Harland. “Just confirming: she is.”
The global recognition of homegrown Irish talent makes sense to Harland – “It’s in our blood. We’re storytellers. It’s in the soil” – and she harbours her own ambitions of directing in the future but for now, she is keen to see where her new skillset of stunts, sword-fighting and horse-riding could take her. Hollywood, perhaps? “I’ll take anything! Anyone that will have me.”
‘Renegade Nell’ is streaming on Disney+ on Friday
