2 days ago
"We have a brilliant industry here in Ireland and it's growing all the time." Neasa Hardiman on making Untamed for Netflix
You may not be instantly familiar with Neasa Hardiman's name, but you will almost certainly be familiar with some of her work. The Bafta and Ifta-award winning Dubliner has been working in film and TV for more than 20 years, directing shows like Happy Valley for the BBC, Jessica Jones for Marvel and now Untamed for Netflix. Neasa spoke to Brendan Courtney – sitting in for Ray – about her career and her new Netflix show, set - but not shot – in Yosemite:
"It was shot just outside Vancouver. There's 550,000 square kilometres of untouched rainforest in British Columbia and we were filming in the most remote places. There was one place where we filmed – when you get to the end, you'll see a beautiful waterfall – and we had to get in on horseback."
Untamed is currently top of the Netflix charts – a huge feather in Neasa's already pretty well-plumed hat – but what is the show about?
"It's six one-hours and it's a complete, nail-biting rollercoaster ride, set against the backdrop of this incredible North American wilderness. And it's actually set in Yosemite – although we filmed it outside Vancouver – and Yosemite itself is huge, it's bigger than the county of Limerick and it has the same kind of thing, this like, wild landscape."
Here's something that Neasa revealed to Brendan that you probably didn't know: every national park in the US has an FBI agent assigned to them just in case something happens and, well, an FBI investigation is needed. In Untamed, the FBI agent assigned to Yosemite is a man called Kyle Turner, played by Eric Bana, who's struggling with his own issues even before he's called to investigate the discovery of a body in the famous park:
"He's an outdoors man and he's very strong and he's kind of able for everything but he's struck by this very deep grief and he kind of has no language for what he's feeling. And so the deeper story that's there is whether we can learn to live with the kind of powerlessness that we have over the terrible tragedies that will strike us all over the course of our lives."
Neasa, Brendan tells us, began her career in RTÉ. She was hired out of college as a designer – she designed the current RTÉ logo – and then became a producer-director, working on Prime Time, the Eurovision and Fair City. She moved into working in the UK, but always stayed living in Ireland:
"I have always lived in Ireland. My husband's in Ireland, my brothers and sisters are in Ireland, my kids are in Ireland because why would you not? Do we not live in one of the loveliest places in the world and the quality of life here is amazing."
Working in the UK was a step Neasa felt she needed to take in order to get the sort of work she wanted. And when that work is a show like Happy Valley – for which she won a Bafta – you have to think the years spent commuting to the UK were worth it.
Now, of course, Neasa is directing dramas for the biggest streaming service in the known universe. How did that come about, Brendan wants to know.
"Irish people are natural storytellers. We know how to do it. It's really important that you're able to tell a good story. So we have a head start already. So if you're interested in storytelling and if you're interested in image-making and if you're interested in music and you're interested in technological innovation and all those things and you're kind of thinking, 'I don't know what to do,' consider writing and directing for the screen. It's incredibly exciting and we have a brilliant industry here in Ireland and it's growing all the time."
