“Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just shut up?” Meet Lola Petticrew, TV’s bravest actress | television

FThere are people less frightened by the prospect of turning 30 than Lola Petticrew. “I was so afraid of getting older, and now I think this is the best thing ever,” they say. “I feel like I’ve just come back to myself. It’s a great feeling. I think it’s great as you get older – all the things start to fall into place and what matters to you becomes more focused. I know now what I want my life to be, and I’m very strict about that. I don’t have to care about anything else.”

They tell me this over Zoom from New York, where Petticrew is filming Furious, the new show from Elizabeth Meriwether (New Girl, Dying for Sex). Petticrew plays a character who was sexually trafficked as a child and now seeks revenge, followed by an FBI agent played by Emmy Rossum.

The role is a departure for Petticrew – who also just signed on to direct Netflix’s Assassin’s Creed remake. They spent much of last year playing two Irish women from the Generation of Troubles. In November 2024, they starred as IRA agent Dolours Price in Say Nothing, an adaptation of Patrick Radden Cave’s true crime book of the same name. And in November this year, in Channel 4’s Trespasses, they played Cushella Lavery, a young Catholic teacher who becomes involved with an older Protestant married man, with disastrous consequences. From this broad description, you might think there’s a lot to compare between the two roles, and it’s Petticrew’s biggest role to date.

“The two really couldn’t be more different,” they say. “That’s why it’s so funny when people say: ‘Oh, you’re doing another Troubles story!’ These stories and these characters couldn’t be more different. It’s a funny thing that’s been preserved about Irish actors and Irish stories, for some reason. I’ve never heard anyone say to an American actor: ‘Oh, are you doing another American?’ That’s as strange as it is.

When Petticrew finds something strange, immoral, or unfair, he’ll let you know. They have used their platform over the past year to speak out in support of Palestine, to raise awareness about intergenerational trauma at home – like Dolores Price, who hails from west Belfast – and against classism and nepotism in the arts world. It’s a ‘posh boys’ club’, as they tell me about acting in the UK and Ireland. “There’s no denying that these people are talented. What we’re talking about is making sure that working-class kids have the same opportunities, so that you don’t end up with a group of one type of person in the arts – which we have. When I was growing up, I didn’t feel like a career in this industry was actually possible. When you come from wealth, you think you can do anything. The world is open to you.”

There is pressure on many young actors to moderate the views that Petticrew so passionately espouses. In February this year, Petticrew won Best Actor at the Iftas (Irish Film and Television Awards) for his portrayal of Dolores Price, and used his speech to denounce the government’s inaction on rising suicide rates in the north of Ireland for the generation who grew up in the wake of the Troubles – often called “ceasefire kids”.

They say: “There is a feeling among some people that they should remain silent and stop talking about this matter.” “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just shut up? I’d love to do what other actors do and promote the thing and wear nice clothes and not have to think about all that. But that’s not a privilege I have, unfortunately, because I can’t change the way I was raised or where I come from and the love I have for that and the people who fail everywhere. If someone gives me the space to talk, it might as well be about something important.”

“People want you to be less gossipy and just be grateful. But that’s not divisive. It’s about being on the right side of history. And I don’t think any bag in the world is worth shaking my morals.”

In Transgressions, Petticrew’s Cushella Lavery struggles with questions of morality and privacy, grappling with how to speak for herself in a society that operates overwhelmingly on the basis of cultural omerta. Over the course of the series, she learns to defend herself and her community. That doesn’t necessarily prevent her — or her love story — from being doomed. Although there’s eventual cautious hope for Cushella (and the place she lives in) at the end of the series — “giving the audience room to breathe,” Petticrew says of the show’s ending — her story remains connected to the broader cultural story of the Troubles. “Cushla is quite capable of standing up for herself, but there is a softness to her,” says Petticrew, who devoured Trespasses, written by Belfast author Louise Kennedy, and immediately called her agent to ask to audition for the role, even before the TV adaptation had been optioned.

“I suppose I know both versions of these women,” they say of Cushla and Dolores. “I think that’s what defines Irish people, isn’t it? We’re storytellers, and I think a lot of our homes are very matriarchal. You often find yourself in situations, especially as a child, where a lot of women are talking. I was definitely brought up that way as well, and what a beautiful way to grow up.”

It’s no surprise then that any chance they get, Petticrew will return to his beloved west Belfast home. That’s what they plan to do shortly after we speak, as they board a plane back east in time for Christmas (and their 30th birthday on December 26). “I can’t wait,” they say. “I’ll be straight on that plane, straight home, straight on my sofa with my dog, getting my china from west Belfast.”

What exactly is West Belfast China? Well: salt and pepper flakes with all the veggies. Fried rice, curry chicken breast. Peas, fried onions, soft noodles with broth. Then the chicken balls, hollowed out and stuffed with all the Chinese ingredients mentioned above, which will be used like prawn biscuits to be dipped in the curry sauce I also ordered.

Petticrew explains all of this without taking a breath. I blink. This is probably the most divisive thing they’ve ever said. “If you do it once, you’ll do it every time,” they say, and that’s convincing enough to make me take them at their word.