PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Steeped in Irish mythology, The Morrigan (read our review HERE), written and directed by Colum Eastwood and starring Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea) and James Cosmo (Trainspotting), is about more than just the “queen of the dead.” It’s about the complicated and intricate relationship between a mother (Burrows) and daughter (Emily Flain). It’s about a mother desperately trying hold onto her job while relentlessly helping her daughter reclaim her life.
Follows an archaeologist who travels to Ireland to uncover a long-dead tomb. A threat is released and she will have to fight to keep her teenage daughter from falling under the control of The Morrigan, a vengeful “Pagan War Goddess.”
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Colum and Saffron about the film, working together, and more!
PopHorror: I really enjoyed The Morrigan so I’m super excited to talk to you both about it today. Colum, what sparked the idea for The Morrigan and how did the project come about?
Colum Eastwood: It’s not really a long story. I was working with another writer who is sort of a mentor of mine and he was working on Irish mythology stuff and encouraged me to research it on my end, kind of burrowing into it quite deep. I wanted to make a horror short film. The mythology didn’t super come out in the short film, but I made a short called The Morrigan. People just really seemed to respond to it and then I got encouraged to make a feature. It took me like 10 years, so it was on and off. I just really like Irish mythology and it’s a tricky one to adapt to modern times, but I just really wanted to do something in that world and with that character. I just love that character. Even in the mythology it’s so conflicting and powerful. I find that character fascinating and I just really wanted to do it.
PopHorror: I love when a filmmaker can take a short film that they made and then expand it into a feature length film. Saffron, what intrigued you about the script and the role of Fiona, and made you say yes?
Saffron Burrows: Very good question. I find it to be a very intelligent script that Colum sent. I haven’t seen many horror films with that many layers of storytelling. Obviously, there are the wonderful classics like The Shining, but in modern day, I think it was very smart of Colum to interweave the Irish mythology with modern day tassels that people are having. The storyline of a mother and daughter, the daughter’s kind of individuating like crazy and the mother’s trying to hold onto her, but also how you deal with as a working parent, just how you deal with that pull. That push/pull between caring for your child and your wish to develop and expand. Fiona’s got this appetite. She’s also been undermined, regularly undermined I think, by her male colleagues and so it was great to do a little research and discover that what Colum’s portrayed there is very real. I talked to some women in the archeology field to reconfirm for me that they had difficult experiences along the way and had to push all the harder to have their voices and their work recognized. I loved that that gave me the backbone of Fiona. Emily [Flain as Lily] is such a strong actress. We had a lovely rapport. I really liked the layers that Colum’s woven in.
PopHorror: Colum, Saffron’s character of Fiona is dealing with some emotional and difficult things like being undermined at her job and her daughter and their relationship. How did you approach guiding Saffron through those intense scenes?
Colum Eastwood: My philosophy and I don’t know if it’s the right philosophy or not – I’m still working on my philosophy – is not to get involved unless I see something going wrong or something I really feel I can improve in because I feel like when I was younger, I was always trying to explain everything and overexplaining it. I think with Saffron, Saffron does a lot of research. I sent her all my Morrigan books and stuff, all my research, books, and things. We had an archeologist helping us and things, but from our chats I could see that Saffron at different points in her life had dealt with some of this stuff before and was at least talking in the realm of her own experience, so I don’t try to get involved too much. A lot of people can see a horror script and stuff and don’t see what Saffron saw in it, so for me, with Saffron, it was more don’t say too much and don’t get in the way because I’ve made that mistake in the past.
PopHorror: And Saffron’s a pro so I’m sure it made it easy.
Colum Eastwood: Yeah!
PopHorror: Saffron, Fiona is dealing with upheaval in her job and a shaky relationship with her daughter Lily. Was there anything that you were adamant about bringing to your character?
Saffron Burrows: Most of it’s in there, I think. I think he’s written it really well, so it was kind of getting out of my own way, in a way too. I’m a mother. As you say, I’ve obviously faced workplace sexism and patriarchy since I was 17 or younger, so some of those experiences aren’t a stretch to get to but also, giving herself over to this new land was really interesting because my character’s incredibly expansive but I don’t think she’s traveled hugely. She has a passion for the Morrigan and this mythology, but to actually after years of campaigning for this dig, to actually have it happen and go there, I think she’s also quite in awe of the scale of what she’s organized. That she’s prompted this thing and now it’s happening and I think that’s scary for all of us when we’ve yearned for something for years and then she’s on the brink of it. She can’t fuck it up. She’s got to produce results. There’s a huge pressure on her, but also just for her own self and her own interest in the world and her own curiosity. It’s immensely thrilling to get there and see it. So I think when dark stuff starts to happen, it’s incremental and then suddenly there’s blood. But in the tiny increment steps, I think she probably doesn’t want to acknowledge it because she’s just got to get this job done, just got to make this happen and discover more. So maybe that makes her a little blind to some of the warning signs. I don’t know if you’d agree with that, Colum.
Colum Eastwood: Yeah, I definitely would. Certainly the stuff with Jonathan and things. It’s kind of like, if I can just get past this, if I can just get past that. The oasis is just over the next hill. I just have to ignore this. That’s what happens with her, I guess. I think that’s probably been the story of her life, really. It’s always just, if I can just get past this, if I can just get past that.
Thank you so much to Saffron and Colum for taking the time to chat with us. The Morrigan is now on Digital!
