Siobhán Cullen has been quietly building a reputation as one of Ireland’s most promising stars, thanks to her roles in Irish comedy-drama series The Dry and darkly comic series Bodkin and Obituary, but her next roles see a departure from her previous endeavors as she steps onto the global stage.
The Irish actress is currently on BBC One in baby loss drama Babies, which began airing earlier this week, and is now filming the Highlander reboot in the female lead of Brenda alongside Henry Cavill’s titular role.
Cullen admits these latest projects are a “massive departure” from her previous work but she’s ready for the change.
“Looking back at the work I’ve done across the past five years on screen, it’s been solely comedy-dramas and dark comedies, and it’s been a real surprise to me that my career has taken me in that direction,” she says. “I suppose when I was a younger actor, I was always drawn to drama more than comedy. Comedy just terrified me and tragedy was always a bit of a magnet.”
So, when Cullen, who has a background in theatre, first read the script for Stefan Golaszewksi’s tender love story Babies, about the emotional resilience of a couple navigating the heartbreak of pregnancy loss, she was keen to jump aboard.
“I think it was one of the best scripts I had ever read,” admits Cullen. “It just moved me in such a massive way, and I’d never read writing like that before. Without sounding too grandiose, it captured the essence of what it is to be a human. I just feel that Stefan has such an incredible insight into people, how they communicate, how they don’t communicate and how they love. It just hooked me from the beginning.”
Cullen is in London when she speaks to Deadline via Zoom, where she’s currently filming the Amazon MGM’s reboot of 1986 hit film Highlander, from John Wick filmmaker Chad Stahelski. At the time, she was also gearing up for a trip to Lille in France, where Babies world premiered at Series Mania.
Cullen stars alongside Paapa Essiedu in the six-part drama, which began airing on BBC One on Monday. The series, which is created, written and directed by two-time BAFTA winner Golaszewski (Him & Her, Marriage), sees Cullen and Essiedu play Lisa and Stephen, a couple in their 30s whose dream of becoming parents is tested as they endure multiple miscarriages. It also stars Charlotte Riley and Jack Bannon and is produced by Snowed-In Productions and The Money Men Studios.
“Even though we’re dealing with quite a heavy subject and some devastating themes, there’s still so much comedy within the show,” says Cullen. “There’s so much lightness and so much joy and I think that’s Stefan’s signature – being able to tread that line between comedy and drama. It’s a knife edge but he’s a genius and he could do it. Loads of what I have learned on The Dry and those kinds of more comic shows has been really useful for Babies.”
The show aims to shine a positive light on what is a very common and painful statistic: It is estimated that around one in eight pregnancies end in miscarriage. To prepare for the role, Cullen admits she drew on stories from friends, listened to podcasts and went on forums to educate herself for the role.
Paapa Essiedu and Siobhán Cullen in ‘Babies’
BBC/Snowed-In/Sam Taylor
“Lots of people in my life were generous to tell me about their experiences,” she says. “It’s an extremely private issue and I’m grateful to those who shared with me, and I hope that the show can create a little bit of space for anyone who is going through pregnancy loss or has gone through it.”
She continues: “It shouldn’t be this veil of silence around us. It should be talked about in the same breath as we talk about pregnancy and delivery and all of women’s health. If there was anyone that was going through this at the time and if they are able to see something of themselves in this show and feel a tiny bit less alone in the chaos of it all, then we’ve done our job.”
While Babies does cover the themes of grief and loss, she’s adamant that it’s very much a coming-of-age story. “It’s about a married couple who are experiencing their first kind of obstacle, their first kind of devastation and becoming adults in the midst of it all. Even if parenthood or loss isn’t something that you’ve gone through, I still think there’s so much in the show that we touch on and explore, such as friendship and difficult relationships with parents. Ultimately, it’s a hopeful story.”
Highlander, meanwhile, is Cullen’s first foray into the action space and while she admits she can’t relay much about the project, she says Stahelski’s version is “definitely one for the fans.” The reboot boasts a cast including Cavill, Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Marisa Abela, Djimon Hounsou and Jeremy Irons.
Stahelski notably played Keanu Reeves’ stunt double on The Matrix and subsequently directed Reeves in the John Wick franchise. “Some of the fighting scenes I’ve seen are just insane,” says Cullen.
The 1986 Highlander starred Christopher Lambert as immortal Scottish warrior Connor MacLeod who was born in 1518. Sean Connery played his mentor, Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez (also immortal) while Clancy Brown played Kurgen, who hunts down Connor in 1980s New York City. Roxanne Hart played NYC forensics expert Brenda, who is suspicious of Connor.
The latest iteration is filming in London and Cullen says that while she loved Hart’s original depiction of Brenda and took “lots of inspiration” from her performance, “our Brenda is totally different.”
“We find her at a different time in her life,” she says. “We find her getting into trouble and when she meets Connor on a pivotal night, as a mortal, she gets swept up in the world of immortals. Because she is mortal in this immortal work, she’s kind of the eyes of the audience because she is being introduced into this whole new world, which totally upends her whole understanding of humanity and time and what’s possible.”
Working with Stahelski and his frequent collaborator and cinematographer Dan Laustsen has been an eye-opening new experience for Cullen. “It’s exciting to work with somebody who is so fluent in the language of action, and it’s like there’s this whole other script that’s happening that is parallel to our dialogue. The subtext and incredible detail to character is incredible and I’m just a keen student.”
Cullen is spending the next few months finishing the shoot and after that, she’s unsure of what’s next. “I’m really enjoying Highlander and the scale of that, and I’d love to do more film. I’d also love to do more scripts like Babies and hope more of those come my way. I just hope I continue to work with people that I really admire and can learn from. That’s the ultimate goal.”