Lola Petticrew has only watched the harrowing ‘Say Nothing’ prison episode once

Lola Petticrew has only watched that grueling prison-set episode of Say Nothing once.

“I felt like it was important to watch this particular project because of how much it meant to me and it meant to my community,” Petticrew tells Entertainment Weekly about the standout Say Nothing episode. “I wanted to see if we managed to do what we set out to do.”

Say Nothing follows the lives of those growing up in Belfast during the Troubles, a violent period of religious-political unrest in Northern Ireland. Based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, the series centers on the Price Sisters, Dolours (Petticrew) and Marian (Hazel Doupe), and paints a robust picture of the 1970s-1990s in the region, including the involvement of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and the murder of a woman named Jean McConville. The Price sisters’ hunger strike during their imprisonment at Brixton Prison after a bombing in London is a gnarly episode of television and is a brilliant showcase for Petticrew and Doupe’s dynamic performances.

The sisters get caught by authorities for a bombing in London and are held in a men’s prison in Britain after their request to be in a women’s prison in Ireland was denied. The result is a powerful yet harrowing depiction of their fight to survive and get home.

“It was the episode I was particularly anxious about,” Petticrew says, “What these young women went through — let’s call it what it is: It was state-sponsored torture, and I feel like that was the episode we had to get really right in order to be respectful to these women’s experiences.”

Petticrew knew about the episode from the time they signed on, but they remember feeling overwhelmed when it was time to film it. “There were a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of anxiety, but it all came from just the complete care that I had for this project and this episode,” they recall. “I knew that it was going to be hard — I don’t think I knew how hard.”

Isolated from their loved ones (outside of a few visits and phone calls) — and, at times, one another — the young women were forced to communicate through the shared wall of their cells between brief reunions in the prison yard.

Committed to getting home to Ireland, the sisters went on a hunger strike that lasted more than 200 days, eventually force-fed by prison staff for 165 of those. While both sisters went through the ordeal, Say Nothing shows the torture through Dolours.

Petticrew calls the force-feeding scenes the most difficult thing they’ve ever done in their career. “I mean, I’m rubbing my chest because I can still sort of feel it there,” they say while reflecting on the experience.

“I’m quite a physical person, and I believe we all hold our emotions physically in our bodies, and it’s very scary to relinquish control of that,” they say, “I knew that I wasn’t being force-fed, but when you have a wooden bit in your mouth and people holding you down, it’s hard to convince yourself that it’s not reality.”

Understanding the emotional duress involved in filming the episode, Petticrew says producers, director Alice Seabright, the stunt team, and the intimacy coordinator helped create a safe environment for them and Doupe.

“It was particularly important for this episode because it was abuse of the body,” Petticrew says of the use of intimacy coordinators, who were integral to figuring out the choreography and ensuring all the actors felt safe doing the force-feeding scenes.

“As awful as it was for me to have my body treated that way, it’s also hard to treat somebody’s body that way,” they explain of the other actors involved in the scene. “I wanted to make sure that wasn’t forgotten.

The actor finds separating the time spent filming the episode from the end product difficult, but it was something they believed was essential to do. “I wouldn’t say it was a pleasant experience to watch it, but I would say that it was fulfilling in the sense that every department really smashed it and we created something that was beautiful and human,” Petticrew says about re-watching the hour.

While most stories about this time in Northern Ireland’s history are told from an older white man’s point of view, Say Nothing‘s focus on two women’s sacrifice spotlights the commitment by the country’s younger residents to fighting back.

“Dolours’ conviction is part of the chemistry of who she is. From the very beginning, she’s that kind of soul. If she’s going to do something, then she’s going to do 100 percent,” Petticrew explains. “The show is really all about people who have been almost cornered into making these very big decisions.”

Say Nothing has added significance for the actor, who is from West Belfast and still lives there. “All the questions it raises live in every fiber of my being as a person from there. It affects me, my family, and my friends,” they say. “Being able to represent my community and getting to show a version of this story that is rooted in the humanity of it all — I am not sure that I will ever get a feeling like this again.

The community was at the forefront of Petticrew’s mind while filming the series. Conversations on the street and in coffee shops with people who felt represented by Say Nothing deeply impacted the actor. They also screened the first two episodes in Belfast with costar and friend Anthony Boyle.

“I still feel it so much in my body, and I find it hard not to just break down into tears sometimes when people approach me or when I’m talking about it,” they say.

Say Nothing reached a global audience, highlighting for Petticrew how little people know about this piece of world history. “The Troubles didn’t last 30 years. It’s something that’s still ongoing in the sense of the intergenerational trauma being something that’s so present,” they say.

Petticrew says the team’s hope was that the show would be a stepping stone for greater understanding — and they see it happening; viewers have shared with them about seeking out documentaries and books to do more research after watching the series. “We need the global community in order to achieve what we hope to back home with a lasting peace and a shared future,” they explain.

Say Nothing is a chapter ending with awards season, but Petticrew is just getting started. Their next project is Trespasses, based on the novel of the same name by Louise Kennedy, is a love story set in the 1970s in Northern Ireland starring Gillian Anderson. “It’s the backdrop to this romance story, and I hadn’t really done a romance like that before, and that’s what drew me to it,” they say.

“A lot of people heard that I was doing another Troubles story and were kind of surprised. I find that a bit shocking because whenever these guys play soldiers back to back, nobody bats an eyelid. It’s a period of time [that has] a massive tapestry to pull from,” they say. “Life continued to happen. Affairs were had, people had babies and families.”

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All episodes of Say Nothing are available to stream on Hulu.