TALK TIME: Eoin Butlertalks to Clíodhna Ní Chiosáin, star of TG4's 'Aifric'
You don't mind if we do this in English do you?My Irish is a little rusty That's okay.
At a stretch, I could possibly tell you about my day at the beachNo it's grand, honestly.
Describe your TG4 show 'Aifric' for those who haven't seen itIt's basically about a girl who moves from Dublin to Galway. About her settling in there, her romances, friends, enemies, family life . . . stuff like that. It's been on for three years, but I've been working on it for five years. So it's been kind of a long process. I hope that people like it. We've gotten awards and stuff like that.
Aifric's school and her school uniform - they bare a pretty striking resemblance to another famous soap school, don't they?Yes (laughs). To be honest, there's no connection whatsoever between our programme and Home and Away. I've no idea why they picked that uniform. But that's the first thing I said to them about it, too!
How did you get the part?We speak Irish at home. It's, like, my first language. My dad spotted an article in Foinseone day, talking about a TV series they were trying to put together. They were asking people between the ages of 12 and 18 to send in their CVs. I sent mine in for the craic and then I forgot all about it.
You were 13 and had no previous acting experience. What could your CV possibly say?I just said that I'd always been interested in doing television work. My dad kind of helped me. I can't even remember what I wrote - I'm surprised I even got a call back. There were three rounds of auditions and a few workshops. Finally, they told me I'd gotten the part!
To what extent can you relate to your character?I find it very, very difficult to relate to Aifric because she's a bit of an odd one. There are so many aspects to her personality. She's a bit like every single character rolled into one. In fact, I'm forever saying to the director, like, seriously, who says stuff like this?
What has been the best thing to come out of the experience?I loved going to the Iftas and the Meteors. I met Jonathan Rhys Meyers - he was very, very cool - and Colin Farrell as well. At the soap awards I got to meet the stars of Coronation Streetand Emmerdale. To be honest, that was much more exciting to me, because I'd pay more attention to soaps than serious films and stuff.
What has been the toughest part?Stress would be a major issue when we're shooting. There's so much pressure on me to carry the show. If the main character isn't up to scratch, then a whole day can be wasted. The three series were filmed in consecutive summers, so I didn't miss any of my classes. But I still missed things such as going on holiday with my friends after the Leaving Cert.
You're now a student in NUI Maynooth. Will 'Aifric' ever make the transition to college, do you think?We're done with the third series now. Aifric is grown up, she's in her last year in school. If we were to try and do Aifricin college, it would be a completely different show and a completely different audience. So we're just going to do Aifricthe film now and that will be the end of it then. Scripts have been commissioned for a film and the producer is hoping for a cinematic release. It's going to be about Aifric finishing up school, saying goodbye to all the characters and things like that. But I can't say too much about it.
• The companion book Aifric, compiled and edited by Dara Jauch, is published by Futa Fata, €14.95