Living in Hope - Meet The Cast

Liam McMahon (Liam) on Living in Hope

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Standing on a step ladder on top of one of the tallest bridges in Britain, about to jump was exactly where I envisioned myself to be when considering my career path, dependant on my A-level results. Add to that my street-wise cockney accomplice tied with rope to the bridge and reduced to tears of vertigo, while both of us are caught in the crosshairs of the camera and I have to pinch myself to see if this is just my overactive imagination again.

I had spent 4 years at university in research for the role I found myself playing in Living In Hope. It was on that very bridge that I realised I was finally an actor in a film. The adhrenlin pumped, JM, the director shouted action and I jumped....not off the bridge but headfirst into the long and winding river that is low budget filmmaking.

I seemed to miss the limo waiting for me at Temple Meads train station that was to take me to the plushest of Bristol hotels. Instead I crammed in beside the rest of the lads inside the producer's small red car, which by the way, exploded on screen a few weeks later, and slummed it for following next 6 weeks.

One look at my fellow actors and I realised that further research was urgently required to carry off convincing portrayals of the British student. In other words, we immediately hit the pub, then hit the carry out and continued into the early hours of the morning 'chilling out' listening to Bob Marley hits while by 9pm Footsie had simply hit the pillow.

Arriving on set the next day, a little late (Bristol traffic is chaotic) , our excuse was instantly ignored and we received the wrath of GdeB...the horror of the make-up department's face made it clear that Footsie had taken the research a little too far. I was amazed how one man could look so rough from a pleasant night's sleep. Tom and I sneaked off for the hair of the dog.

Two days later I had sobered up. One must be aware that the opening scene at the airport was not me crying for my lovely Reena but because GdeB has cancelled all alcohol for a week and the line 'I can't bare being away from ye for a day let alone a week' had a whole new emphasis on me, hence the real tears.

I never got to see the plush hotel I mentioned earlier, instead I arrived at the front door to the Bates Motel and I was shown to my room in the basement by a cat. I rolled out my Jack Nicholson, ' here's Johnny! ' poster which I had bought at the Uni poster sale, the same poster I had purchased four years ago while a real student at Stirling, believing it would be a good omen.

The 'omen' however lived upstairs. I was shit scared for 6 weeks. Enough said. As a shareholder in a Tennessee whiskey brewery, a pint of Guinness is as far from my tipple as a cow drinking its own milk. Yes, I may be an Irishman but here's a thought that maybe future filmmakers can ponder over. Not every Irishman drinks the black stuff. So I'm sorry, but I must confess the scene in the pub is a fraud. I'm not an idiot, I don't ignore busty blondes like Michaela or Michaila or Moloko or whatever other name Jade had come up with by the 14th take. I ran out because I simply had to throw up.

So, you can all forgive me for thinking that someone has stolen jewels of my life and set them against the silver screen. I can only say that now, thanks to Fluidity Films, I have no idea where the line that separates reality from the movies lies. So if you see me running around Bristol in full Vietnam combat gear or cruising down Park Street in my star flight cruiser pay no attention. Consider me the weirdo that lives down the hall in the student dorms. Every Uni has them. I will say however that I had the time of my life and can only sum it through the words of another struggling actor whom I appeared with in my previous film 'it's been emotional'.

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