Saoirse-Monica Jackson

'Derry Girls' star Saoirse-Monica Jackson on Lisa McGee's writing, the season-three finale, the inspiration for Erin's many faces, that kiss with James, ...

I remember writing to the BRIT School (a prestigious performing-arts school in London) at age 12, and you had to be 16 to go there. And I just love the sheer and utter balls of Erin kissing him first; I love that she went in for it. Erin is a mash-up of myself as a teenager, Lisa as a teenager, and the girls of Derry today. I love the idea of her and Bill and Hillary just sat around together with a bowl of popcorn watching Derry Girls. She even says it in that closing speech — that she’s scared of the world and doesn’t feel ready for it all. I almost wanted to see more of them as a couple. She was sort of going through that time as a teenager when no matter what we said — and I think I’m quite a cool older cousin — she was repulsed or acted like we were ruining her life. My brother went to school in the south, and I went to school in the north. My mom was from the south, from Donegal, and my dad’s from Derry, so I think I had the best of both worlds. That nature gets passed on to the young girls — fighting for what you want and what you need, believing in who you are, and having this thirst for the entire world. I think the success of the show was mainly down to Lisa’s writing. But when Jackson speaks, the differences between the actor and her character become apparent: Erin talks at two octaves higher, is much more animated, and will contort her entire body just to make a point or scrunch her face in multiple directions at once to show disgust, awe, or incomprehension.