Lola Petticrew plays real-life IRA volunteer Dolours Price on Joshua Zetumer’s FX limited series “Say Nothing,” based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s 2018 chronicle of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. To date, Petticrew’s performance has earned them an Irish Film and Television Award win and a BAFTA nomination. Next, they’re starring on Channel 4’s “Trespasses,” adapted from Louise Kennedy’s 2022 novel about the Troubles.
I auditioned for drama school because of my friend Anthony Boyle, who I knew from back home in West Belfast. He was studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, and I’d missed the deadline to apply. I chickened out because I was so afraid of being rejected; but Anthony sorted it out with the school, they let me audition, and I got in. He tells absolutely everybody that he was the one who discovered me; I’m the Lady Gaga to his Bradley Cooper. Now, he’s my costar on “Say Nothing.”
At drama school, I really struggled with my voice. I didn’t think it was wanted, sellable, or interesting. I thought that people weren’t going to cast me because I didn’t speak in received pronunciation. But since graduating, I’ve been fortunate to tell Northern Irish narratives multiple times on TV, most recently on “Say Nothing” and “Trespasses.” It’s been a gift to bring stories of my home and the people I grew up with to a wide audience. Not many people get to do that, let alone so early in their career.
I’m lucky to have gotten the chance to work with source material I was already a fan of before it was adapted. After I read “Trespasses,” I immediately contacted my agent and said, “This is so good. They’re definitely going to make it into something, and I want to be in it.” We finished filming the series in December, and it’ll be out later this year on Channel 4. I’m just as excited as anyone to watch it; Gillian Anderson and Tom Cullen give incredible performances.
I’m still figuring out how to let go of a character and their emotional tension at the end of a tough shoot. Ultimately, I have to get on with it. I have to be able to load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, and take my dog for a walk. It’s the small things, whether that’s watching “Love Island” and “Gilmore Girls,” making yourself a cup of tea, or taking a bath. You have to get up the next morning and have the energy to do the best you can for everyone around you.
Winning an IFTA Award and being nominated for a BAFTA for my role on “Say Nothing” feels bizarre, but I’m incredibly grateful. I still pinch myself when I get an audition or a job offer or get recognized for my work, or when someone wants to interview me.
My next project is Enda Walsh’s adaptation of Keiran Goddard’s novel “I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning.” I’m working with Anthony again, and we’re both really excited. We used to talk about Enda’s play “Disco Pigs” when we were kids, and how we wanted to perform in it at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Now, we’re playing husband and wife on a series scripted by him, which is another pinch-me moment.
Celebrity culture is weird. I have a lot of feelings around it, but I think it’s a moral obligation to use whatever platform you have to talk about social issues that matter to you. Transgender and nonbinary representation, as well as class representation, are particularly important to me.
My dream role has and always will be Sinéad O’Connor; she’s my North Star. I’d want the project to be in the right hands, of course; but if it happens, I hope whoever plays Sinéad does so with the delicacy and care she deserves.
This essay is by Petticrew, as told to Holly O’Mahony.