Bad Sisters' Fiona Shaw on teaming with Richard Curtis: "Christmas is peculiar for everybody"

Whether she’s popping up in classic films like Three Men and a Little Lady, the Harry Potter series and My Left Foot, treading the boards on Broadway with Medea or stealing the spotlight in hit TV series such as Killing Eve, Fleabag and Bad Sisters, Shaw always leaves an impression.

Now, the 66-year-old is tackling a rare festive role in the Richard Curtis-penned animation That Christmas — though, in some ways, it’s a role closer to home than any before.

This year you're starring in Richard Curtis's new animation That Christmas, which explores festive family traditions — what were yours, growing up in Cork?

We do sea swimming. We used to leave the church when we were young – there were three masses on a Sunday, and we’d leave after one and just drive off. We’d bring whiskey with us, and put it on our toes at the end of the swim – that was very much part of the tradition. Somehow, there’s a pre-Christian Christmas feeling – it’s something atavistic, almost Celtic. We swim to wash away the year, and to start anew. It’s a sort of baptism, isn’t it? You wash it away.

Do you think Irish and English Christmases are different?

Very much so. We’re still completely communal in Ireland. I was lucky enough to be brought up in a small city. We knew everybody, so we met a lot of people at Christmas, it was very social. I think maybe some English Christmases are about people retreating to their homes. But it’s much better when people come out and join each other.

You've been acting for decades — what are the roles that people usually recognise you for?

Well, if I’m in New York, people come up to me about Medea or The Testament of Mary. It’s quite a theatre world in New York, but it depends on the demographic. There’s a huge Killing Eve audience – huge. Nearly everyone in the street says that. With children it’s Harry Potter, and older children its Three Men and a Little Lady. I’ve done quite a few children’s films, I love it. They’re an audience who really watch, and they watch things repeatedly, so they know everything that you did.

You've had such a wide range of roles, how do you pick them?

You look for something that engages you. Most things do not, or are a repeat of something else. But I’ve been lucky enough to be offered unusual things, so I pick the ones that are really unusual, like True Detective: Night Country or Bad Sisters.

What was it like, joining a tightknit cast like Bad Sisters for the second season?

They were so welcoming. They’re an incredibly good group, we had great fun – I loved being The Wagon [the nickname for her character, Angelica]! I hope they do more. I’d probably be out of it, but I hope they do, it’s fantastic. I thought this series was so confident. Sharon Horgan has really been able to spin plates with it. It’s fabulous.

From one great writer to another — as this is your first time working with Richard Curtis, is that something ticked off your bucket list?

I don’t think I ever think like that! But I’m very pleased I’ve worked with Richard Curtis. I was thrilled to be with him, he’s a lovely person.

In That Christmas, you play a fearsome headteacher called Ms Trapper. Was she inspired by any of your own teachers?

She wasn’t – the carapace already existed and I joined and tried to match my voice to it. But I did have two extraordinary headmistresses…

You went to a Catholic girls' school in Cork. Were the headmistresses very austere?

One was called Kate Cahill – she was very austere. And her second-in-command was a woman called Mary O’Donovan, who only died very recently, at the age of 100. And they were both very much Ms Trappers! They were very keen on believing in the power of education – and they knew everything!

Ms Trapper in That Christmas and Angelica in Bad Sisters are both quite isolated and lonely in a way — did you draw on a similar muscle to play both characters?

It never crossed my mind that Ms Trapper was like Angelica, but you’re right. They’re people who are institutionalised. But I don’t think they overlap anywhere else.

Is loneliness a side of Christmas that can get overlooked?

I think so. Christmas is peculiar for everybody. There’s either the absent, or the lost, or something going wrong. I wince at films that say, "Life is all saccharine and joy in everybody’s house but yours." It’s much better to say, "Life is up and down, and Christmas is a really odd time. But if you can find some fun within it, that’s a good time."

Christmas for me growing up was never about running away from people, it was about going towards people. That’s what the message of That Christmas is too – and it’s a good message.

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That Christmas is released on Netflix on Friday 6th December – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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