Until three weeks ago, Eanna Hardwicke was filming the upcoming RTÉ drama Smother while Vivarium, the film in which he stars alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, was set to open in cinemas on March 27th.
Now, like most of us, Hardwicke finds himself at home – the filming of Smother has been suspended while Vivarium was released on VOD.
Hardwicke has returned to his hometown in Cork. He’s naturally an upbeat guy. When I ask him how he’s been spending his time in self-isolation he responds: “I’ve been catching up with reading, films I’ve missed and doing a bit of writing.” It’s time well spent rather than time lost. “If you’re an actor or in any way creatively involved, like a writer or artist, you’re used to this – in the micro-sense at least.”
Hardwicke had his first break in 2009, when he appeared at the young age of 12 in the Conor McPherson-directed The Eclipse. From there he studied acting in the Lir Academy, a time he recalls fondly. “I love the place and for me, it was everything I felt I needed. I just took to the rigour of acting training.” On his first day in the Lir him and his classmates were asked – where does acting come from? “I think I said it comes from your gut or some vague answer like that”, he laughs.
In Normal People, I went to drama school with about five of them and am friends with the rest. It did feel quite special to do something with your friends
It’s an answer that’s changed over the years. “Acting”, he tells me, “comes from your imagination first and foremost. This seems obvious now”.
It was the type of thing he came to realise at the Lir. Other ideas, like the Stanislavski method of theatre acting, have stuck with him. “Whether it’s Chekhov or Shakespeare, you come at it from an improvisational point of view – you’re living that scene every night.”
Hardwicke was still in training when he auditioned for Vivarium. The film follows a young couple (played by Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) who, while house-viewing, become trapped in a desolate housing estate where they’re inexplicably forced to raise a rapidly developing, humanlike child. If it sounds a little mad, that’s because it is.
The film, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, seems uncanny in its timing, something that has already drawn much comment. Hardwicke feels that it may open up people to a more “primal response”, though he cautions that “you can overstate these things as well”. He says that “it’s definitely helped get the word around. Maybe people are watching because it’s isolation viewing”. He pauses before joking – “it’s site-specific cinema”.
Hardwicke learned a lot from filming Vivarium. In the scenes he wasn’t in he’d hang back behind the monitors observing the cast and crew, trying to take it all in. The examples of Eisenberg and Poots made a strong impression: “They just kept it light and funny throughout the filming process, and that was a revelation for me to go: ‘That’s a helpful thing, actually.’ On a film set it becomes about being relaxed and at ease and to not feel a pressure to perform.”
Hardwicke on the set of Vivarium with director Lorcan Finnegan.
On top of the filming experience, Hardwicke relished his own role as “The Boy” in Vivarium. His performance is as strange and unnerving as the world in which it is set. “It gives you something quite specific to rise to”, he says referring to the universe of Vivarium. He found his Lir background to be particularly useful: “The drama school training fell into place because my approach to this role became quite physical and abstract.”
Hardwicke’s role in Vivarium is worlds apart from his role in Normal People, where he plays Rob, one of Connell’s best friends from his hometown in Sligo – an important role for those of you who remember Sally Rooney’s novel. Hardwicke knows that his experiences on the set were something rare and special. “In my case, I went to drama school with about five of them and am friends with the rest. It did feel quite significant and special to do something with your friends that’s about your own generation.” On top of that, it provided him with the opportunity to work with Lenny Abramson. Eanna says that Abramson “had a big impact in helping me form my opinions and taste in cinema”.
Eanna was a fan of the book before he got cast in Normal People. “The story alone is such a great story, and such an unflinching look at the highs and lows of coming of age at this time”, he says, describing the book as “on the pulse of a particular generation”.
He adds that people will be able to relate to a lot of the TV show, “whether it’s moving from your hometown to Dublin to go college or whether it’s just transitioning from school to life afterwards”. While this will certainly be a key draw for Irish audiences, he’s quick to emphasise the story’s universality: “I’m really proud of how the show carries all that on and it’s not at the cost of the love story between Con and Marianne but rather sits alongside it.”
I prefer theatre where the language is giving the actor something strong and ambiguous to rise up to
Hardwicke’s recent appearances on the screen have not diminished his love for the theatre and theatre-acting. He feels that, as an actor, this versatility improves him. “They complement each other nicely, because one gives you what the other may not.” The type of theatre that Hardwicke likes to watch is the same that he likes to play: “I prefer theatre where the language is giving the actor something strong and ambiguous to rise up to, and is not necessarily trying to sound too close to regular, everyday speech. Although when you get plays that do both it can be incredible.”
In lockdown Ireland, Eanna finds himself spending a good deal of time writing. “It’s kind of necessitated by being an actor, and invariably you’re going to have time off and gaps in your schedule – ‘resting’, as the term goes.”
It’s clear, though, from the disdain with which he says these final words that he’s itching to get back to work. “If you’ve time off and you’re not acting, writing can flex the same muscle. For me it’s all about your imagination and finding out what this character is thinking.”
Hardwicke will next be seen on screen in Normal People at the end of the month and, after that, probably in Smother whenever that can resume filming and be completed. Smother is penned by the novelist and screenwriter Kate O’Riordan. It’s a project that clearly excites Eanna: “It follows the mother and three daughters in a family. It’s about contemporary Ireland. It’s a genre I really like because it’s a family drama but there’s also crime thriller there – there’s a mystery to unravel.”
