Taking on male grief with gallows humour at the Oscars in 2023

It's his birthday on Sunday, making it extra special for him to participate in Sunday's ceremony. The short film winner has already won a Bafta and is now in the running for an Academy Award. It's coming out! he says, pointing at a leopard-skin jacket. My name is Robert James, so it would be great to meet someone with the same name as me. I would love to meet Tom Cruise. I enjoyed his movie Top Gun but would also like to meet Robert De Niro. It's no secret that we're both actors, and we can be grumpy on set, so it's a family trait! Previously, Martin appeared in Ups and Downs on BBC One and Marcella on ITV.

Martin's thoughts about girls

In the film, he plays Lorcan, an estranged brother who comes back together following the death of their mother. It's a family farm where Lorcan lives and works. When their mother leaves, older brother Turlough (Seamus O'Hara) returns from London to tell Lorcan he must move in with his aunt, who has Down's syndrome. The idea is unimpressed with Lorcan. It's every girl's dream to be independent, Martin says. There are few roles for people with Down's syndrome on television. Showing what people with disabilities can do is very important. He would only look at him (Turlough) as a caregiver if not for that special bond. Lorcan is very independent, but his love, hate, and emotions for his brother are wonderful.

The life changing moment

Berkeley and White made a big life decision a few years ago that led to the idea of a homecoming. Our paths crossed ten years ago when we trained as actors, lived in London and wrote plays. We began to write less and less as our careers progressed. As we left London in 2019, we made a big decision to return to our respective hometowns, Belfast for me and Gloucester for Tom, and go back to our respective places to write full-time, shifting from theatre to screenwriting. They said it felt a little like returning home, and they were unsure whether we were still from the same place.

Berkeley's point of view

Berkeley attended a football game by chance, which gave them a narrative. A few rows ahead of me watching the game was a couple of brothers with Down syndrome, much like the younger brother in the story. A typical brotherly relationship, quite combative, contrasting with what was typically ferocious, brotherly, was striking when the two watched the game. There was also a layer of responsibility between them, which was this other layer of abuse they were throwing at each other! As Berkeley points out, they became more aware of how people cope with grief differently.

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