You’ve also spoken openly about your experiences of grief and how you’ve managed your ADHD, is there a catharsis or empowerment in sharing such personal stories?
I don’t regret it for a single second at all. It just doesn’t mean that it’s not difficult at times. It becomes so much easier when I can make stand up or use more creative ways of talking about issues, because then it feels like a character, or you able to put a joke on it, and you feel like you’ve talked about it. Maybe in interviews or in writing, more open things can feel a lot more like taking a few layers of your skin off.
Irish women are having a MOMENT, with Sharon Horgan’s Bad Sisters and Nicola Coughlan being nominated for a SAG Award… HOW are you guys so funny?
I think it’s all of the pain and suffering that they’ve gone through traditionally, and that if we didn’t laugh, we would cry. And there’s loads of women in the crying market who have covered crying, especially singers and stuff like that. And so there isn’t that much work left. We’ve had to diversify. Because of all the crime that’s been done, most of the rivers in Ireland are salty with women’s tears that have dropped into them. So I think that’s maybe why.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
One year at Edinburgh [Fringe], I was doing a stand up show, and I had really good reviews, and then one or two bad reviews, and it affected me so deeply and personally, because I felt like I put in so much hard work, and I was so sad that for these two people it just hadn’t worked. My mother was like, ‘oh, actually, you know, f**k it, f**k it. And it was just exactly what I needed to hear then. Sometimes you have to say, oh, f**k it. F**k it. Not today. I can’t do anymore, maybe tomorrow, but just for today, f**k it.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
Get Away is releasing on Sky Cinema from 10th January.
Charlie Clift
Aisling Bea’s 5 Feminist Commandments
- “Until all women are equal, we’re not really equal… If you’re not looking after all women, that’s not really feminism. That’s egotism.”
- “Hormones are the biggest thing that are probably affecting you, and no one’s really putting any money into working out how we can help women. So look after yourself and invest in researching your own hormonal health.”
- “If you don’t want a baby, that is totally fine and a totally valid life choice. People probably aren’t going to totally understand that, and that’s just something you have to accept. If you really want a baby and can’t, then that is a true and real grief, and it’s okay to be grieving again.”
- “Money. Talk about it. It is difficult to talk about, but it’s the one thing that is holding women back so much. Money is empowering. Paying people and women in your workplace is empowering. Having ‘Go get ‘em girls’ on a tote bag or a t shirt is not empowering.”
- “All you have to do to stop a woman getting employed or going on a date, or keeping her away from any sort of power is to say that she is difficult, that she is not easy, and that she is tricky. Films and books have not been read or made about women who were easy, and there is no access to healthcare or rights that we have now that were helped along by easy women. So just be careful about using those words about women.”
