As the third and final season of the Nancy Harris-created comedy-drama The Dry begins on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, stars Róisín Gallagher and Pom Boyd tell us what's ahead for their characters, Shiv and Bernie.
What's the dynamic in season three?
Róisín Gallagher (Shiv): The dynamic in season three is, in ways, I feel, even more subtly constructed and complex than one and two. There's a knitting together of everyone's journeys. If the audience have watched one and two, and they know the characters and have ideas about them or feelings about them, I think all of those things are just going to be amplified.
There's more tension, there's more to lose, there's more to gain, there's more questions. Nancy [Harris] has done an incredible job of bringing all the aspects and themes of the show together to give us a really lovely send-off.
Pom Boyd (Bernie): It's complicated because there are so many storylines to follow. She's (Nancy Harris) followed them all. Because it's not just us, there's the other characters' storylines as well: the key characters, Karen (played by Janet Moran), Jack (played by Moe Dunford), the new character that we have (Daryl, played by Australian actor Rick Donald). It's a lot of balls in the air for Nancy. She has plotted it really well.
Pom, what's ahead for Bernie in season three?
Pom Boyd: In this season, Bernie's story is going to explain a lot about Bernie and why she is the way she is. It's partly her personality anyway; she is one of those reserved, emotionally unavailable people. But she's also emotionally atrophied through what's happened to her in her past and stuff.
Our relationship, Shiv and Bernie, it's always been heartbreaking for me because I can feel Shiv - the need she has for her mother to give her some affirmation, to give her some recognition and love. And she doesn't... I keep just not, not, not, not, not! So, I think in this season, we reach a little bit of a rapprochement or whatever. There's a beauty to it.
Róisín, how is Shiv handling her sobriety in season three?
Róisín Gallagher: (Laughs) She is all over it! She is so in control! Everything's fine! Nothing to look at here! I think Nancy (Harris, creator) has, again, a beautiful and subtle way of writing in this slow but quite sure way, but maybe we can't quite put our fingers on what exactly it is, [the] train crash that's about to happen. Or maybe it's not even a train crash, maybe it's just a change...
I think there's a danger that Shiv carries always: the more that she looks like she's got it all together, the more worrying that is for everybody else! Because she's an addict and she doesn't get what she needs for such a long time and she doesn't know how to get what she needs for such a long time. Watching that in a person is difficult. The problem with Shiv is no matter where she goes, she has to bring herself with her, or her brain with her, her feelings.
For each of you, what has been your favourite thing about playing Shiv and Bernie?
Róisín Gallagher: I think, for me, my favourite thing about playing Shiv has been the emotional depth, or that I was allowed [to explore]. When you get something like this, like Shiv, I've said it from the very, like, day that I read the first scene that I got to audition, it doesn't come around very often. And there's an instant, 'Wow, I get to do this and play all these levels, do all these things'.
It's sad and funny; it's just real life. And you get to bring parts of yourself and others and your own experience and to do a show and to be with this character for so long.
I feel like I've grown up with her, in a way. I'm well aware that I might not get to do that again. And it really has been a privilege because a lot of people who are more than capable, more than talented - that doesn't come into it - don't get the chance to do that in their careers.
We had a moment where, as much as it was, like, the snot and tears, there was something that was so liberating about getting to access those things. And the joy of knowing, the satisfaction of knowing you've given it your all, you've done the best that you can do, and you can send it off with a lot of pride. And knowing you've got the full support of the writer, producer, directors, and stuff. She's got good costumes as well!
Pom Boyd: I love the fact that she's so 'back here' and doesn't feel the need to fill in the gaps for anyone. I really enjoy doing that because it's not like me!
Some of the scenes we've shot, we were both like rags after it, but you don't get the chance to do that very often on screen. Like, a lot of the parts I get offered, they're mediocre at best. For a woman my age, whatever, you get a lot of the same - the mother. I mean, I am the mother here, but we're all... we're the brother, the sister. It's not the mother separate to the main story, which is a lot of what happens to women as they get older. They don't get offered meaty parts that are complex and have a central role to the action.
It's hard to talk about this stuff without sounding so clichéd and all that, but it is a privilege [to make The Dry]. It really is a privilege. I think if I was a viewer, I'd be going, 'That's a very emotionally satisfying journey I've been taken on'.
Episode one of the third and final series of The Dry airs on RTÉ One on Thursday, 23 April at 10:15pm. All eight episodes will drop on RTÉ Player on the same night. Catch up on series one and two on RTÉ Player.
