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Your new movie The
Baby in the Basket - in a few words, what's it about, and what
can you tell us about your character in it?
The Baby in the Basket
is about what happens when a mysterious baby turns up
on the steps of a 1940s nunnery filled with young and (mostly) God-fearing
nuns. I play Valerie, a caring young woman who really looks up to her
Mother Superior and is always eager to do the right thing both by her
sisters and by God. What did you draw upon to bring your character to life,
and how much Elle O'Hara can we find in Valerie? The
film is set during WWII times, so preparation involved research around
that particular year and thinking about how the world around her would
have affected Valerie and her life and choices. I think I can relate to
Valerie a lot, or especially my younger self could relate to her in terms
of wanting to get everything right and looking outside of myself for
guidance. Valerie is on the path of learning how to trust herself and to
look within for the answers. So I guess I could draw on my own experiences for these feelings!
Always assuming you've never been a nun in real life, how does one prepare to play one in a movie? By
watching any nun movie I can find, and reading as much as possible about
what it is to be a nun! – especially back in the 1940s. How did you get involved with the
project in the first place, what drew you to it? I’d
worked with directors Nathan Shepka [Nathan
Shepka interview - click here] and Andy
Crane [Andy
Crane interview - click here]
and the team before on When Darkness Falls
in
2020, and so when I learned that they were casting for another project
based in Scotland, I was so excited! They’re a great team to work with
and they gave me my first ever role on a film set, so I was eager to work
with them again. I was also so keen to work in my homeland of Scotland! Especially with the beautiful setting of the
church as the nunnery. To what extent can you identify with The
Baby in the Basket's approach to horror, and is that a genre at all dear to you?
I’ve worked on a few horror films now, and I’ll always have a special place
in my heart for the genre, as it’s what introduced me to acting life
really – it has given me such a good foundation in the acting world and
taught me so much. Do talk about The
Baby in the Basket's directors Nathan Shepka and Andy Crane, and what was your collaboration like?
Nathan and Andy are lovely. They are SO hardworking, the biggest grafters out
there, and really passionate about what they do – indie filmmaking. Nate
is always working multiple jobs – acting, directing, producing,
coordinating, you name it – I’ve so much respect for how he pulls it
all together. And Andy’s vision is amazing, he is so talented whilst
being really supportive and encouraging. You've worked with Nathan Shepka and Andy Crane
before - so do talk about your previous collaborations for a bit! Yes!
We worked together on When Darkness Falls back in 2020. I got the role
through Starnow at the time, and it was my first proper job on set as an
actor. It was such a good education for me, I was working purely off my
instincts as I had basically zero training other than a few odd classes
here and there at that point, and they were the best team to have around
me as they were super encouraging. The rest of the cast and crew were the
same – shout out to Michaela Longden [Michaela
Longden interview - click here] who I met and worked with for the
first time on the set of When Darkness Falls, what a woman! She was also
super encouraging and has remained so since. The fact that everyone was
just so friendly made all the difference. Working with good people is such
a massive part of what makes filmmaking fun and worthwhile, and I’m
really happy that working with Nate and Andy and their team was my first experience of it.
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Back to The Baby in the
Basket: A few words about the shoot as such, and the on-set
atmosphere? Fun, beautiful, freezing! (We shot In November/December in Scotland, haha.) The
church and its surroundings are absolutely beautiful, it really was a
blessing as Valerie would say to get to shoot there. My fellow nuns along
with Nate and the incredible Paul Barber, as well as the lovely crew, were
so much fun to work with and hang around with on set. Not to mention
talented – I really felt like I was getting multiple masterclasses in
acting getting to act alongside the rest of the cast. Any future projects you'd like to share? My
film Cara by Black Octopus Productions has just been released on
Apple TV, Amazon and Spectrum – it’s a psychological horror in which I
play Cara, a young woman who has suffered abuse throughout her childhood
and now seeks to be ‘free’. What got you into acting in the first place, and did you receive any formal
training on the subject? I was always fascinated by actors on TV and film and had a sort of secret
dream to get to do what they did, but I never really thought it would be
possible. So I studied something else at university and then worked in
another completely different industry for years until Covid hit and sort
of just shook up my perspective. I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing
and I thought I might as well try acting, I had nothing to lose. That was
when I started doing some online courses and applying for jobs on Mandy
and Starnow. In 2021 I decided to apply for drama schools as I was eager
to learn and train as much as I could, and I ended up going to East 15
Acting School 2021-22 to study the Masters in Acting.
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How would you describe yourself as an actress, and some of your techniques to bring your
characters to life? I’d say I still work very much off of instinct. I like to find in myself the
thing that is similar to the character, the element of the character that
I can relate to, and really flesh that out in order to bring myself to the
role and the role to me, if that makes sense. We as humans are already all
unique, so my interpretation of a character is already unique and
doesn’t need to be messed with too much, especially given also that a
lot of the time, ‘less is more’. So I like to do as much research on
the character as I can in order to make sure my knowledge and
understanding of the character is the best it can be, and work on their
particular characteristics of course, but then try as best I can to allow
it to be instinctual and natural and relaxed. Actresses (and indeed actors) who inspire you?
Morven Christie, Ashley Jenson, Vicky McClure, Nicola Walker, Sarah Lancashire,
Kate Winslet, Elizabeth Moss, Florence Pugh, Jodie Whitaker, Jodie
Comer, Viola Davis, Adam Scott, Daniel Kaluuya, Robert De Niro, Matthew
McConaughey – the list goes on! Your favourite movies? The
Outrun, Moonlight, Avatar, Past Lives, The Mirror Has Two Faces (going
through a Barbra Streisand phase at the moment and realising her absolute
genius). Your website, social media, whatever else?
@elleohara__ (Instagram) Elle O’Hara (Facebook/LinkdIn)
Thanks for the interview!
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