Eva Birthistle and Hazel Doupe on bringing ‘Kathleen Is Here’ to life

For director Eva Birthistle, this project has been a labour of love for the past 10 years. A short film titled Kathleen Was Here – also starring Hazel Doupe – was released in 2020, with the full feature coming four years later. As with the prologue, the story once again centres on Kathleen; a young girl fresh out of foster care. After her mother’s passing, she moves back to her childhood home. She gets a job and even makes a friend, but the emptiness of Kathleen’s life cannot be filled by social media and reality shows. Alone and desperate for a mother figure, she sets out on a destructive path to find one.

Naturally, the story has changed quite a bit from conception to now. “I think the first few drafts were not about a young adult who came out of the care system – it had nothing to do with the care system, but it was about a young adult who had returned home after the death of her mother,” Eva tells me. “It was still very much dealing with the same themes of grief and loneliness and sort of looking at somebody who was trying to connect and fit in.”

Interested in characters or people who are “on the outside looking in”, Eva says that the final draft was loosely inspired by a true story. “I accidentally come across a vlog of a teenage American girl who’s in the foster system, who was putting her story out there in a very sort of candid, honest, raw way and I was really struck by that and why she was doing it. At the same time, I was also seeing posters of the Kardashians everywhere, and I was just thinking, ‘God, the extremes are glaringly shocking and obvious’.” Questioning what would happen if those two worlds collided, the result is Kathleen Is Here. 

First meeting Hazel at a casting workshop, it wasn’t long before Birthistle picked her as her lead. Already impressing in Cork filmmaker Carmel Winters’ film, Float Like a Butterfly, Doupe proved she had the emotional intelligence needed to tackle such a demanding role. “I think there are definitely situations that you go through as a child that force you to mature earlier, and that’s very, very real for people who are going through the foster care system,” says Hazel. “I think I was able to maybe relate in that way and find my footing there for that reason.” 

“She has this innocence about her, this child-like want for a mom. I have a very loving, wonderful mom, and so I kind of put myself in the position of if I didn’t have those people around me. I’m one of three siblings, and we’re all really, really close. I was able to feel the loss of that without actually going through it.”

According to Douple, the juxtaposition of Kathleen’s two worlds was a challenge. “There was one scene that we filmed… It’s where [Kathleen’s] having a glass of wine and she’s talking to somebody who’s not actually there. That was probably one of the toughest things to film, emotionally. To have in the back of my mind the whole time that Kathleen wouldn’t have any of the people around her that were sitting there filming me and guiding me through this experience. She just didn’t have anybody to call on. So, yeah, [it was] a very, very shocking thing to come to terms with.” 

On the topic of social media, Doupe is cautiously optimistic about the future. “I think the next generation of kids are going to be like, ‘Phones – that’s so boring. So 2024.’ I hope that’s the direction we’re going in. I mean, it’s a really nice thing to think that that would be where we’d end up in a couple of generations’ time, because, you know, trends only last for so long.” 

Set to open in Irish cinemas next week, Birthistle is anxious yet excited for audiences to finally see the film and while Kathleen Is Here marks her first time in the director’s chair, it will by no means be her last. “I really, really enjoyed it, and it’s just confirmed what I want to do more of, you know. It felt like quite a natural transition as well. Working with actors is lovely because I’ve always worked with actors as an actor, and I think it was nice to come from that background and bring that experience to the floor. But yeah, it just felt like quite a natural place to be.”

Beyond this project, it’s been a busy year for the Wicklow native who wrapped filming on season two of Bad Sisters back in March. What can we expect from the Garvey sisters this time around? Plenty more mischief by the sounds of it. “Hopefully, it will be as fun and dark and entertaining as the first series was. I think Sharon [Horgan] has yet again, done an incredible —as have all the writers who’ve been on the show— job, seamlessly bringing this story from series one to series two in a really clever and brilliant way. I’ve watched the first few episodes, and yeah, I think everybody’s gonna like it. It’s really good.”

Excited isn’t the word.

Kathleen Is Here opens in Irish cinemas on October 18. Watch the trailer below.

Photography courtesy of Break Out Pictures.