Siobhán Cullen on Bodkin, the new Netflix series filmed in West Cork
Siobhán Cullen, centre, with Will Forte and Robyn Cara in Bodkin, on Netflix.
Over recent months, we’ve seen her play a devious writer in Obituary following her role as a member of the wacky Sheridan clan in The Dry. Both series have gone global - and now Irish actor Siobhán Cullen returns to our screens in one of the biggest productions to be shot in West Cork.
Early buzz is building for Bodkin, a dark comedic thriller about a motley crew of podcasters who descend on a small Irish town to investigate the mysterious disappearances of three people.
Of the trio, Cullen plays the no-nonsense Dove, a London-based investigative journalist sent back to Ireland following a massive fall from grace. As the podcasters start to pose questions and pull at threads, a story emerges that is far bigger - and weirder - than they could ever have imagined. Most of the seven-hour show was shot on location around Union Hall and Glandore.
“I had some preconceptions and I felt like I knew what it was going to be and I was totally wrong,” says Cullen of the series. “It kept me guessing all the way along and I hope that's what it does with our audience as well.
“A lot of importance and emphasis was placed on making the world and the town of Bodkin really believable and really authentic because if the audience gets a whiff of falseness, you've lost them. You have to get them on board, and we were so lucky in the cast that we managed to get to play all those supporting characters and world-building characters.”
Bodkin is an international affair. Produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground for Netflix, it was created by British writer Jez Scharf, who is co-showrunner with Alex Metcalf.
Yet in its setting and storytelling, Bodkin is very much an Irish story featuring a large Irish cast and crew. As well as West Cork featuring in all its beauty and glory, the cúpla focail and road bowling feature among storylines.
“That's what I think is so gorgeous about our show is that the creators were keen to make it as real and authentic an Irish show as possible,” says Cullen. “We have Irish language in it. We have idioms. If there was anything in the script that we were like: ‘Oh, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say idiots, I'd say eejits', they were like: ‘Absolutely, put it in’. There was never a question of ‘the Americans won't know what that means’.
“I think it's a confidence in telling a story authentically. If it's good storytelling, and if it's clear, your audience, no matter where they're from, will understand it.”
West Cork, of course, is set to be a major star of Bodkin. While some of the series was shot in Dublin and Wicklow, Union Hall is ready for its close up as the show’s titular town. With audiences set to fall in love with the region onscreen, its actors have already done so, says Cullen.
“Our hosts in Union Hall were incredible. They were the most welcoming and supportive community. We were building shop fronts. Everything was turned from Union Hall into Bodkin. I'm sure that's really discommoding for people. It felt like they were happy to have us. It was just absolutely heaven. I don't know if this is even the case but in my memory we had stunning weather, blue skies. The water was glistening.
“It's such a stunning part of the world. I think Ireland looks just gorgeous in the show. I hope the West Cork community are pleased with the outcome.”
Every opportunity she had, Cullen went exploring other areas around her temporary home. A key tour guide for the cast? US actor Will Forte, who has worked on these shores on a number of occasions.
“He has now travelled the whole coast of Ireland,” says Cullen. “He probably knows it better than I do, so he would take us on road trips. He wanted to see as much as he could while we were there. He planned road trips for us and we’d go exploring as much as we could. We went swimming at Loch Ine to see the bioluminescence. We went out to Schull, we’d fit in as much as we could around our busy filming schedule.”
Cullen, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, shared her parents’ love of drama from an early age. At the age of eight, she was cast to star in a production of Marina Carr’s play, By the Bog of Cats, and was firmly bitten by the acting bug.
“That was my first professional job, and it's mad - I have such strong memories of it,” she says of the experience. “I’ve done other jobs as an older kid or as a teenager that I don't really remember a lot about, but I remember that play so well and the cast who were so good to me.
“I was like: ‘God if this can be a job I'll do this!’ Luckily, my parents are massive theatre fans themselves. They're in an amateur dramatic group and they always encouraged and supported me because I'm sure it's not the easiest thing when your kid turns around and says they want to be an actor. They absolutely encouraged me to do it if that's what I wanted to do. It's really nice, actually - I started off in The Abbey and I'm about to start a play in The Abbey in a few weeks (The Sugar Wife).”
While Bodkin, The Dry and Obituary have made her a familiar face on our screens, she feels that a background in theatre provided the base for recent success.
“I definitely don't think I would have the opportunities that I have now or been the the actor I am now without my foundation in theatre. I've been really lucky in that the three shows, The Dry, Obituary and now Bodkin were shot back to back so they all came at the same time and then just logistically we were able to kind of fit them all in.
“It's been a shift for me but mostly, the big change has been that I've had the luxury of having that time in front of camera, which was my training ground, and to have so much of it compressed back to back.”
In the past, Cullen has spoken about how unstable acting can be as a profession, with actors commonly experiencing fluctuations when it comes to work. With three high-profile TV shows on our screens, have these recent successes made it easier?
“I don't think I'm any more confident in the stability of my career,” she says. “I don't know if that's ever something that will go away. I've talked to older actors who are certainly well established and hugely successful and they sort of echo my sentiments.
“It's something you have to learn to be okay with. You need to get okay with the chaos. It can be the biggest thrill or it can be really frightening at times. You have to try to find some centred place with it.”
- Bodkin comes to Netflix on Thursday, May 9. Obituary is now on Netflix. The Dry series two debuts on RTÉ on May 15. Season two of Obituary will begin filming later this year
