Happy Ever Afters

This video interview with Tom and some of the cast, including the lovely Ger Ryan, for Fingal Community TV at the Dublin premiere, has appeared online.

There is a wonderfully insightful interview with Tom, Stephen Burke and Jade Yourell for IFTN.ie. Read the full interview on the IFTN website. 

So far so straightforward, but what was the experience like on the other side of the casting couch, that of our actors?

Q&A: Tom Riley on bono's bed and a very drunk best man

Describe Happy Ever Afters for us?

It's a screwball romantic comedy about two couples that marry for the wrong reasons and end up in the same hotel for their wedding reception. It's in the style of the 50s, with a very modern Irish sensibility.

The movie was filmed in Wicklow this year. How was it living here and working with a predominantly Irish cast and crew?

"I was at a wedding where there was a partition dividing two parties", explains Burke when asked where he got the idea for the film. "Initially that's what the script was, it was about two weddings divided by a moveable partition and it would get moved back. In the end that ended up being changed in the script and it ended up just being two wings of a hotel."

On shooting the film:

Tom Riley chimes in. "We don't tend to overrun schedules, which is unusual. In these jobs, it's low budget and you pack a lot into the day, so it's the kind of film where you think, 'Oh my God, it's going to go over 20 minutes or half an hour. Everyone is going to have to be paid more. It's not going to work'. In England, everyone would be running around, terrified that was going to happen and shouting at each other. Not here."

In his recent letter to me, as well as sending this gorgeous photo, Tom gave more details about the delays to his film Happy Ever Afters.

Happy Ever Afters is not in post production yet. We got half way through the shoot before disaster struck. The lovely Sally Hawkins and I were doing a very basic stunt in the gardens of a beautiful church on the coast of Ireland, and as Sal fell to the ground there was a giant crack and her collar bone fractured.