Have you ever had a bad experience when asking a celebrity for a selfie? Glasgow-based filmmaker Ciaran Lyons explores the dark side of this idea in his debut feature Tummy Monster, a psychological black comedy set entirely in a tattoo studio. Rising star Lorn Macdonald plays Tales who gets embroiled in a twisted game when a musician turns up at his parlour to get inked in the middle of the night.
Ahead of its World Premiere at Glasgow Film Festival 2024, I jumped at the opportunity to sit down with director Ciaran Lyons and actor Lorn Macdonald to discuss their inventive new film…
I note that you’re both credited with writing the screenplay along with Orlando Norman. What was your process around collaborating? I guess that there was some improv involved…?
CL – Yeah, it’s partly the improv element. I wrote the first draft and it was always my intention that it would be a very actor led piece. I really wanted to give both Lorn and Orlando scope to flesh out their characters and contribute to the script and they did. They both brought an awful lot to it and they crafted their roles into the characters you see on screen.
How much of the story was there from the original draft?
CL – The story was there – the concept was there and all the story beats were in place. The improvisation was definitely more to do with the characters. There was also a big contribution from Lorn originally as I’d thought of the character of Tales being a bit older and it was originally an autograph that he asked for. It was Lorn’s idea that for it to be a selfie as he’s had some experience of when people approach you that’ve seen you on screen. It was definitely the right decision.
And how was the writing process for you, Lorn? It must’ve been exciting having the opportunity to develop your character…
LM – It was a really brilliant experience from pre-production to the filming of it. Like Ciaran says, the first script that I got had the story and all the bigger ideas which were all really exciting. I suppose there were things that I was looking at if I was going to be playing this character. ‘What does this mean for someone who’s my age who maybe looks the way that I’d like to look for this piece? What drives the character? What’s he up against? How does that change between being 22 or being 27 or being in his early thirties?’ There’s a lot of humour in the idea of being attached to a certain look or a movement. I imagine we’re all similar ages and can remember those kind of groups at school; the goths, the emos, the scene kids, the sweaties. Those cliques are sort of being pulled apart now in culture so I think Tales feels like he’s a dying breed which makes him hold onto these things even more.
Despite having just one location, the film takes us on a journey through the sound and the inventive camerawork – it reminded me in some ways of Stephen Knight’s Locke where Tom Hardy was in his car for the whole film – what was your biggest challenge as a director around this approach to filmmaking?
CL – We did speak about Locke – we mentioned it as a point of comparison so it’s kind of nice for us to hear because that film does that very well. I actually think that when you take the approach that we did, we really gave the actors the chance to let rip. I think it does take a lot of the work to maintain the momentum and the energy. It’s a funny thing because I’ve made shorts that have had as long a shoot as this which seems crazy to me. When you’ve got a bigger budget and things like crane shots and loads of different locations then that’s when it’s actually really hard to maintain that momentum because you’re constantly stepping in the way of the actors doing their job. So actually, like when we felt good about the script and there was a real energy and life to the shoot, you could feel it. The challenge was actually just managing to get it done in that amount of time because it was so tight.
You’ve had really striking looks in films you’ve been in, Lorn, from Beats to The Strange Case of Jekyll & Hyde to this. Do you think putting on the gear really helps you immerse yourself in the mindset of your characters?
LM – 100% Especially with things like Beats and with Tummy Monster I think. What we wear and how we present ourselves is our skin, you know. It’s so important. It’s how we want the world to perceive us and with Tales, it’s probably the most extreme. It’s a safety net really, but it’s also a ‘fuck you’ as well. I think he looks really safe which is such a weird thing to say but I think he looks safe in how he looks. It doesn’t look dangerous. I don’t know how you feel but sometimes if I have to get dressed for some kind of event or something like that, I have to think to myself for quite a while. What version of Lorn am I putting out there? I don’t really know what my normal clothes are, what my normal haircut is. If I’m playing a variety of parts, sometimes I come back to me and I go, ‘well, I know who I am inside. I’m working on it but aesthetically where do I live?’. For someone like Tales he’s got that down and that’s comforting.
I usually change my wardrobe to match the character for the days that I’m filming something or leading up to because I like to kind of just embody the character for a bit and see how other folk view you and register you. It was interesting cutting about Glasgow and having people just look at you slightly differently. I find all of that really helpful and it’s not just about embodying a character but also forgetting yourself as well.
Ciaran, what was the biggest thing you learned from making your first feature?
CL – I think some people assumed that we were going to have cutaways to all the different opposite sides of the phone calls and it was never written like that. That would be the more conventional way, but I wanted to always be with these two characters. Although that is a limitation in some ways, I think that’s a creatively strong decision. I think it suits the piece and I think when you find yourself with like quite extreme limitations and you’re willing to roll with them and not just get like annoyed at them, you allow the film to encompass them and that can actually end up working quite well.
LM- If you’re filming something over five days and it’s meant to take place over one night, you kind film it in that sprint fashion and that does kind of make it feel like you’ve been playing this game over the course of one night but also like you’ve been playing it forever. That’s how it felt by the end of it – that it had gone so quickly but we’d also spent such an intense amount of time together over the course of five days so it did feel like this game was going on forever and ever and will it ever end? But will we also get it done in time?
Lorn, aside from your indie films, you’ve spent time working on big TV like Bridgerton and The Lazarus Project. What have you learned from those big scale projects that you can bring to films like this?
LM – Without putting those shows down because those shows are phenomenal and they are so much fun to do but they’re kind of a perfect example of “actors aren’t paid to act, they’re paid to wait”. There’s a lot of waiting in those shows and if you’ve got a great cast then that’s brilliant. It can just feel like a social event kind of thing…but actors love acting and something that I suppose they’ve taught me is to always be grateful when a director is like “hmm that didn’t quite work, let’s do another one” because getting to do another take and getting to just act is such a gift and so few people are getting to do it, especially on something that they love to do. I feel grateful really when a film like this comes along and you get a character like this, that you can throw yourself into and spend more day and spend more of the day in character than as yourself.
Getting a selfie with someone can often be an awkward exchange. Have either of you had any memorable celebrity encounters? Good or bad…
CL – The only selfie I’ve ever taken was with Dennis Wise in a petrol station in about 2010. That’s the only time I’ve ever done it. He’s the former manager of Leeds United.
Brilliant. If you’re only ever doing one, Dennis Wise is a good one!
LM – I’m luckily at a point in my career where if I’m recognised it’s usually because they like me in something. I go fairly unnoticed but I did get chased down the street by this woman. It was in London and she kind of grabbed me and I was a bit surprised because I had earphones in. I wondered what she’d seen me in and thought she looked like someone who maybe liked Shetland – I did a bit in that…but of course, it was for my two minute scene in Outlander that I did in my very first job after drama school. When it comes down to it, people are only interested in the fact I spent some time with Sam (Heughan).
What’s next for you both?
LM – I’ve got a TV series called Dinosaur coming out in the next couple of months for the BBC and Hulu. It’s a comedy with Ashley Storrie, Greg Hemphill and Sanjeev Kohli just to name a few of the Scottish people in it. It’s a really great cast and that was a lot of fun. Then, yeah, season three of Bridgerton is coming out in the summer.
Will we see more of your character in the new series? I always want to see you in more scenes!
LM – I was meant to be in one scene in season one. I’m not in the books, and I’m still here for whatever reason. I think it’s because they gave the character a name like Albion Finch which is just too good a name for one scene. I’m in a lot more of the season and I get to do a lot more funny, silly things. I’ve definitely enjoyed it this year and I’m quite excited to see how people feel about more Finch!
And what about you, Ciaran? Any projects in the pipeline?
CL – I’ve written the next one but I this has been pretty full on the last year. I’ve kind of got to get this out there and then hit the chase on the next one really…because this one was self-funded and I don’t have money to self-fund another! So, if this does well, maybe there’ll be another Ciaran Lyons film within like a year and a half!
If you were to work together again and had the pick of any actor from the past or present to collaborate with, who would it be?
CL – Jackie Chan!
LM – My pal Katie has worked with Jackie Chan – she played his daughter – so cool.
LM – Oh, like Danny DeVito or maybe Olivia Colman. I’d love to rip up the screen with her because she kind of encompasses a lot of the things that I love about performance, which is where you can be so, so funny but also heart-breaking. I just love it when actors can do that.
A Tummy Monster UK release date is yet to confirmed…
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