Holding | Interview with Amy Conroy (Florence Ross)

Can you tell us about Holding?

Holding is set in a small town in West Cork. It’s a whodunnit. It’s a busy town filled with busy people and a dead body is discovered and it all goes from there.

What attracted you to the project?

It’s a fantastic gig, the story is brilliant, the cast and director and creators are all fabulous and the writing is gorgeous so why would you not?

Had you read the book before filming started?

I had and really enjoyed it. The scripts took me by surprise because even though it’s based on Graham’s book, it’s not exactly the same, so it’s interesting to see the delicate and complex work that’s gone into making this for television.

What’s it been like taking on a role based on a character from a bestselling book?

It’s been great fun. What I had to do was forget everything I’d read and start from scratch to make a real person and that’s been the joy of the job really.

Tell us about Florence

I call her the Queen of compartmentalising. She has a lot going on, she lives with her two sisters on their family farm. She is a teacher at the local secondary school. She fell in love with her teacher as a young person, went to college then came back and entered a relationship with the teacher which was a bit risqué. At this point in her life she’s dreaming of a bit more than Duneen.

Can you tell us about Florence’s relationship with Duneen

I think Florence has a healthy respect for who she is and where she’s from but she’s ready for more and is ready to leave Duneen now and exist in a bigger world.

Can you tell us about Florence’s key relationships in the story

Florence is utterly devoted to her sisters. They’re the primary relationships for her but it is quite dysfunctional. In order for Florence to be her full self she needs to distance herself from them, but she would find leaving them really hard. All three sisters are devoted to each other, perhaps unhealthily since their parents’ death. I think it’s a tricky but recognisable relationship, particularly in Ireland. Florence can say what she wants about her sisters but if anyone else was to speak badly about them, there would be trouble.

Florence adores her partner Susan and has since she first met her although I think Susan does irritate her a little bit. Florence calms Susan down and stops her flapping and says ‘This is what we’re doing’.

Stephen, Susan’s son, is tricky. Florence and Stephen have always gotten on maybe until Stephen hit puberty and now it’s stranger and more difficult. Stephen is becoming his own person and maturing into an adult and what he wants and what Susan and Florence want are not the same.

Can you tell us about Florence’s journey over the course of the story?

Florence is pushed and pulled in every direction and she’s trying to hold her own centre but she has a lot of people who are dependent on her. It’s tricky for her, she’s trying to hold it all together for everybody and hold everyone together and I don’t know how possible that is.

Do you have any of your own theories around who committed the murder?

I think the scripts are so beautifully written that you think you know who it is when you’re supposed to. I’m not saying anything about what I think or Florence thinks about who did it, you’ll have to watch it all the way until the end.

Can you tell us about the themes in Holding and what will the audience enjoy about them?

I thought the complexities of the characters were gorgeous, I think it’s quite bulletproof, they’re just real people. It’s as ridiculous in places as real life is and as tender in places as real life is. I think they’ll respond to the honesty of the characters and lead the audience to ask themselves ‘What would I do in that situation?’.

It has such a strong display of talent, what’s the filming experience been like?

It’s been such a joy and a pleasure to be around such fantastic talent on all sides of the production. Kathy Burke is a rockstar as are Dominic and Karen who wrote it, all the crew and production are amazing. It’s been a gift! I’m sure they’d say the same about me!

What’s it been like shooting on location in West Cork?

West Cork has been a dream. I’ve been living in Dublin for the last twenty years but I’m from Kerry and getting a chance to come down to Munster and live the dream has been fantastic. We had really nice weather, the people of Skibbereen have been so kind to us. We just had a blast and had to keep reminding ourselves that we weren’t there for a holiday and we were there to work.