Adapting novels for screen can’t be easy. But adapting the novels of bestselling author Marian Keyes for a series that you are also starring in? Well, that’s certainly a challenge.
“I’ve almost been inappropriately stalking Marian Keyes,” jokes Stefanie Preissner, writer and actress who adapted Keyes’ novels into a six-part series, The Walsh Sisters, now airing on RTÉ. “I’ve read everything she’s ever done, every interview, listened to every podcast, just to try and lock into her world.”
The Walsh Sisters charts the paths of five Irish sisters – Anna (Louisa Harland), Rachel (Caroline Menton), Claire (Danielle Galligan), Helen (Máiréad Tyers) and Maggie (Stefanie Preissner) as they navigate the ups and downs of their lives as young women.
Viewers quickly gauge that the bond between them can be a source of chaos, but also comfort; and the scenes which feature all the sisters together – bickering, hugging, scolding each other – can’t help but draw us in. “I think that’s where the show really takes off,” Stefanie agrees.
Similar to Marian Keyes, she tackles heavy themes like alcohol and addiction head on, but with the injection of classic, dry Irish wit and humour.
“Marian’s work is deeply confronting and dark in the best way,” she says. “She has pink covers on her books, which lures you to buy them to bring on holidays, and you’re reading on the sun lounger like: oh my god, this girl has a serious drug and alcohol problem!”
The series not only paints a raw picture of the beautiful, messy and sometimes contradictory relationship that the sisters can with have with each other, but also, crucially, with their mammies.
The character of Mammy Walsh has immediately sparked some discussion. She’s a woman who is curt, cool and sometimes critical of her five daughters. Stefanie has found the different reactions to Mammy Walsh among viewers fascinating – the matriarch is viewed as an icon by some and she is intolerable to others.
“It really comes down to peoples’ own relationships with their mother,” she explains. “My interpretation of Mammy Walsh is certainly that she is the source of all the girls’ problems.”
The theme of motherhood cuts through “in a really dramatic way” according to Stefanie, particularly in later episodes, and it is most clearly depicted in the contrasting desires of Maggie and Claire. The former, played by Stefanie herself, is desperately trying to be a mother. The latter is a single mum withered by and struggling with motherhood.
“With Claire, I really wanted to talk about that mental maternal load that is so invisible and so draining. There’s just an expectation that if you have a uterus, you’re supposed to be maternal and love having children and dedicating your life to children.”
Stefanie, who has two children aged one and three, relates to both sisters. “I had a lot of trouble getting pregnant. I had five miscarriages, two failed rounds of IVF, so I really relate to that character in Maggie,” she shares. “But now that I have kids, I also really relate to Claire. I find it really, really difficult. I feel like motherhood is a relationship and everything else around us is patriarchal expectation, like the fact I’m the one who is emailing the crèche about what cake is permitted for my daughter’s birthday on Friday, because I know it can’t have nuts and do they have a list of ones that I can buy.
“My husband is incredible, but he’s incredible because he’s so different to what society expects a dad to be. I was able to film this series and my husband had to be the primary parent, because I was getting picked up at 5am and I was filming until 7pm, and very often, I wasn’t at home for the kids. And everyone’s like: ‘Oh my God, you’re so lucky. Oh my God, he’s amazing’. But if I was doing it, which I always am, it’s just like, well, you’re the mother. That infuriates me,” she says.
Taboo topics
In the screenplay, Stefanie writes about things that are deeply personal and almost taboo – like the idea that mothers could feel regret and resentment towards their children – in a way, analogous to how Marian was writing about the experience of depression and addiction in the 90s.
“Marian was writing about addiction when no one else was writing about middle class women and addiction,” says Stefanie. “What really inspires me about Marian is how she started these conversations that we then continued. So I said to Marian, I’m going to bring them into the 21st century because I think her books are so universal that they lend themselves nicely to being brought forward into the future.”
The first episode makes it immediately obvious that this is modern Ireland we’re talking about. There’s reference to the housing crisis, to an overrun A&E with hospitals bulging with trolleys, not to mention a Walsh sister Whatsapp group chat. “As a writer, I can’t not say things about today,” adds Stephanie. “I’m a social commentator.”
Drinking and drugs is also in the mix. One of the sisters, Rachel, is struggling with addiction, but those around her enjoy partying and late nights out too. “You see Rachel really grappling with the idea that ‘everybody does this’, ‘everybody takes cocaine’. This is not a big deal. And these are the conversations that I think we need to be having now,” says Stefanie.
“I feel like as a country, we have a real issue with what is alcohol abuse. Because it’s part of our culture. We think it’s like good craic, and the more you can consume, the better craic you are and almost that you’re suspicious of people who don’t drink. Now, I do think that the situation is changing. You can go out now and be on the zeros [0% alcohol] and people don’t think that there’s something wrong with you.”
Autism diagnosis
The very honest way in which Stefanie grapples with big themes in The Walsh Sisters mirrors her own approach to life. She talks publicly about her autism diagnosis and posts candidly from her bed to her 73,000 followers on social media. “My followers seem to really appreciate my honesty. I don’t really know how else to be,” she says.
“I find social interaction, like actual face-to-face social interaction really, really difficult,” adds Stefanie. “So being social in one direction on Instagram, and then messaging people privately, is a really nice way for me to connect to the world. And I really love it.”
Given Stefanie’s admission that she finds social interaction difficult, she says she was “so nervous” about filming the series. “I make friends really easily, but I find it hard to keep friends because I might say something wrong or I don’t pick up on a social cue, or I just easily offend people, and sometimes I don’t understand why, and I really didn’t want that to happen on this.
“But knowing that I was autistic this time, my producer and my director were just so good to me, and they were really helpful.”
The first day of shooting also happened to be Louisa Harland’s birthday, so Stefanie organised a little birthday party for her on set. “That broke down all the barriers, and then I didn’t feel like such a weirdo, because I had a mission. I’m good with something to do.”
Even though they were filming for 12 weeks in total and the five women are playing sisters, it wasn’t a given that they were going to get on. Yet, watching the series, the sense of fun and warmth that emanates among them is genuine, Stefanie insists.
“I don’t know how it happened, because I don’t have sisters, but all of a sudden, one day, we were all in my trailer having a pizza party and all of our cycles had synced!” she says, laughing. “We have a WhatsApp group now, and we were texting each other about what we were going to wear to the press night and stuff. It feels really, really lovely. I know from previous things that I’ve worked on, that’s not always the case.”
Having taken over the Sunday night slot from The Traitors, this series has big shoes to fill, and it’s something that Stefanie has “mixed feelings” about. “I was very obsessed with The Traitors, but I also feel it was on very late in the evening,” she says, with a smile. Fortunately, The Walsh Sisters is worth staying up for.
The Walsh Sisters airs every Sunday at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.