Roxanna Nic Liam speaks to Julie Lordan about her new film, Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up, her love of writing and why being true to herself is so important.
Roxanna Nic Liam is best known for her role of Erica Allen in Fair City, and at the moment her character is pregnant with Doug Ferguson's baby and is central to a dramatic storyline. But Roxanna is also the star of new film Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up, in which she plays the lead role of Mags, a hot-headed pizza delivery cyclist in Dublin.
Although the film was made before lockdown, it is particularly relevant now as it deals with sky-high rent, evictions, making ends meet and cycling in a city made for cars.
"Once the script was written I realised the only person for the role was Roxanna Nic Liam," says Conor O’Toole, who wrote and directed the film. "I needed a great actor who knew what cycling in Dublin was like and could believably shout at people in the street."
Of course, there is more to the role than being able to cycle. "Conor has a unique brand of humour, and when I read the script it was unlike anything I had ever read before. It was such a great chance to play a lead character in a film," says Roxanna. "There is a lot of magical surrealism in this, and Conor didn’t really focus on what might happen in real life. But in terms of what it’s like for cyclists, it is spot on."
"It was shown last year in the Galway Film Fleadh and it got a great reaction, but because of Covid there was a smaller audience, so we are looking forward to it showing in the IFI on 21st June and everyone can watch it together," says Roxanna. "It was made by Conor on a very low budget. He is a comedian and knows so many people in the industry that he was able to get people on board," says Roxanna. "There is a real who’s who of Irish comedy stars in the film."
Apart from being a story of cyclists at its core, another theme is the rental situation for young people: a problem in 2018 when the film was shot, but one the writers couldn’t have known would become a whole lot worse as the film is released "Yeah, we wondered if the housing crisis would be over by the time the film came out, but that didn’t happen," says Roxanna. "Actually, Conor was looking at a place to rent for himself and his family at the time so was very aware of the difficulties. He has since relocated to Glasgow where there is a huge Irish arts community," she adds.
Roxanna was lucky that she was able to work during Covid, but it was an insecure time, and she was grateful both for the chance to play a role in the film but also to be a central cast member in Fair City, which kept going for much of the pandemic. Roxanna has many other interests and delved into them during the last two years.
"Yeah, I got a few commissions during lockdown, to write poetry and to work on my Irish language poem, Suicra, and a couple of other things came around. People in the arts had money that they weren’t spending in the normal way, so they came up with creative ways of commissioning work from artists. And as a writer, I am lucky in that I can create my own work," she says.
Roxanna started off in sketch comedy, with friends who were all attending the Dublin Youth Theatre, and they played comedy clubs around the city. But acting and writing are her real interests and that’s where she decided to put her energy.
The positive reaction to Irish language films like An Cailin Ciuin and Arracht, there is a real buzz now around Irish films. "We’re famous for being storytellers and we have so much within our language that can only be told through Irish and it’s amazing to see it take off," she says.
While Roxanna is very talented – writer, actor, poet, comedian – she is also modest when explaining why it is good to be involved in as many aspects of the arts as possible. "We are such a small country, that you have to be Jack of all trades in a way", she laughs. "The writing was always personal, as a creative outlet, but the spoken word has come back in such a big way. As to what I prefer, it really depends on the project and what it means to me. I would love to explore the film and TV world a bit more and I have an interest in writing my own short films and to go on to possible feature films, just because there are so many stories out there."
Like most actors, Roxanna wouldn’t turn down a role in Hollywood. "Ah look, if they came calling I wouldn’t say no," she laughs. "But a lot of actors, when younger, make that their goal or their target and I think that it’s important to keep in mind that while Barry Keoghan and Jessie Buckley are doing big Hollywood films, they are also involved in small independent films. So, I think if you are not creatively challenged, you are not going to be satisfied. So, while I would love to go beyond Ireland, I think that there are just so many stories here.
"I think that the ambition behind An Cailin Ciuin, for example, wasn’t to be in Variety, or go to Hollywood. It was to make a good film, tell the story that connected with people. So, you have to think of what you want to do yourself and the effect that work could have on people and hopefully, then there could be a knock-on effect for yourself," says Roxanna.
What was it about acting that attracted Roxanne to the arts? "It actually wasn't acting at all when I was a child. But I always wanted to write. I was extremely shy as a teenager, and writing was my way of expressing myself. But going to DYT and doing the workshops there, it brought me out of my shell and gave me another way of expressing myself in front of people. And it went from there and I just kept going", she says.
"What’s great about keeping up the writing is that as an actor you have a lot of down time and I would spend that by writing, challenging myself and turning it into work," she says. "To me, acting and writing go hand in hand," she says.
While Roxanna hasn’t a role model in the film business as such, she is very clear about what matters.
"I just love people who are doing their own thing and being completely true to themselves. There is a New Zealand director that I particularly admire, called Taiki Waititi. He is doing major work now with Marvel and Thor, but he started out with his mates doing little comedy films. And what I love is that he still has that same sense of humour, and he makes sure he includes Māori workers in his films and connects with his culture. So, he is brilliant, and all his work reflects how he never sold out and stuck to who he was," says Roxanna.
With those guiding principles, we can expect to see Roxanna’s work for a long time to come.
Bicycle Thieves: Pumped Up is screened at the IFI and on the IFI Payer, ifi.ie.
