Interview with Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham who play Sarah and Tony and are Executive Producers of Help

9 September 2021

• This interview is for use as part of show features only and cannot run in full as an ‘exclusive’ within any title 

Can you tell us a bit about Help? 

Jodie Comer: Help is a feature-length drama written by Jack Thorne and directed by Marc Munden set in a fictional care home in Liverpool. We follow the story of a young woman named Sarah, played by myself, who has an interview for a job at a care home at the very start of the film. Help follows her journey working at the care home before, and then during the coronavirus pandemic. It’s an exploration of how people on the frontline had to adjust and adapt to the severity of the situation around them at the outbreak of the pandemic and what they were left to deal with. Within that, there are these gorgeous relationships between the residents and care workers, one of the residents being Stephen’s character, Tony. It feels like a very human story, and it’s something that I think a lot of people can relate to right now.  I hope that this film goes some way in telling the unseen and unheard stories of our country’s carers and the horrendous position they found themselves in.

Stephen Graham: To me, this is a story about finding the hero deep inside ourselves. It’s about what people in the care industry deal with on a daily basis – it’s superhuman. For me, this story is about a normal woman who is a bit lost in her life and finds out what her purpose is. She meets this resident and they develop this amazing friendship. They need each other at this difficult time. It really shows what it’s like to become somebody’s carer, and what it’s like to look after someone. She goes above and beyond to try and make sure he’s safe. 

It’s exactly like Jodie said – we have an opportunity to create a voice for those people that didn’t have one in those moments. 

My dad works in a Specialised Education unit so to me our dramatization of Jack Thorne’s story was extremely profound and personal. Although it’s extremely relevant and poignant to all, I feel personally for it. 

Can you just sum up who Tony is?

Stephen Graham: Tony is a beautiful character to play. I did quite a lot of research at the beginning with Jack [Thorne]. It was a gift really. But then I had to isolate in a hotel room for 10 days on my own because my wife and child had COVID. It flew by, because I spent a lot of time talking to people who suffered from early onset dementia and getting a wide and varied opinion for what it was like for them. I really began to get an understanding of what their frustrations were and what it was like for them to suffer from this disease. It took so much from me, and I was grateful for everyone to be able to provide that platform for me. I was even invited to their regular group meetings on zoom. 

Tony is just a normal, lovely fella who happens to suffer from this disease. He’s considered not able to take care of himself, so he’s taken from his mum’s old house, and put into the care system. 

Jack Thorne had said previously that he’d like to write for both Jodie and yourself. How closely were you involved in developing those characters at the early stages of the script?

Stephen Graham: We were at an award ceremony for The Virtues, and I’ve always said to Jack that I wanted to work with Jodie. So, I grabbed the bull by the horns and asked him to do me a favour and let me work with her. And he said, “I’ve had a chat with Jodie already!” and basically, he went off and he started it. 

The project was going to go down one direction at first, about a brother and sister. Jack still wanted to write a piece about dementia, but the pandemic happened, so he decided to steer it in this direction. 

Jodie and I really felt like we were a major part of the process. We got to pass on our own thoughts about the characters and where the story could possibly go. I’ve never been in something so collaborative; we were really there from it being this tiny embryo and got to watch it develop. It was a beautiful thing to experience personally. 

Jodie Comer: I really wanted to work with Jack, and had messaged him directly, not knowing that Stephen was also having similar conversations with him.  To start with it felt like we were workshopping. We did a couple of improvisations early on and Jack just ran with it. When Jack sent us the first draft, I messaged Stephen and said that this was so powerful, even at this early stage. It was so fully fleshed out and brilliant. 

What is the research you did for Sarah, Jodie? 

Jodie Comer: My research was a little different to Stephen’s. I had a lot of zoom calls with carers who work at different care homes across the UK. For me it was really important to hear about their emotions  when this was happening, how it was affecting them and how they felt  about certain things. 

But I also wanted to know what the care homes were like before this disaster struck. Their stories were full of life and laughter, and it was made very clear to me that these care homes were places of happiness before the pandemic hit. It was equally as important to us to portray that atmosphere in our film, as it was to show what happened when the pandemic hit. I’m extremely grateful that they were willing to be that honest and open, when reliving what they’d been through. I have the utmost respect for them.

How did you both first meet? 

Jodie Comer: I met Stephen for the first time ten years ago. Stephen very kindly introduced me to his agent who then became my agent. He made that introduction out of pure kindness in order to help me get more opportunities. Cut to ten years later and here we are Exec Producing and leading a show that we’ve been a part of together. If someone would have whispered in my year when we first met that in ten years’ time, we’d be doing this...! We have been pestering our agent for so long asking if there was anything we could do together. We all collectively made this and made it happen, it was brilliant to be a part of together.

Stephen Graham: That first time we did meet, we had a couple of scenes together in Good Cop and instantly, as soon as we did a rehearsal I was like “woah, she’s absolutely brilliant”. My character was a letch and really horrible to her in a diner, and I remember thinking that she was absolutely amazing and so talented. We had a really good conversation afterwards, and I asked her who was representing her, and she told me. And I made a call to my agent to get her signed. Now she’s like a little sister to me. I’ve watched her career and feel so extremely proud of her. So, when we were in this position with Jack to be able to create so much stuff together, and improvising, I instantly thought we had something special. To top it all off, there was a day where Jodie has this beautiful scene with her father, played by Andrew Schofield, outside a caravan. Andrew was the one who had inspired me, he used to live across the road from my nan’s house and saw me in a play. He said to my parents, “your Steve has some talent, I think you should take him to the Liverpool Everyman”. There was a moment of serendipity because Andrew had passed it onto me, and I had passed it onto Jodie. I have goosebumps now just saying it. Three generations of people who’ve worked really hard from the environment we’ve come from. For us to have worked to have achieved what we have, and for me to be a part of that. It’s come completely full circle. 

There’s an amazing cast of fellow Liverpudlian treasures on this. What was it like filming with them on this? 

Jodie Comer: It was incredible. Speaking to the heart of the show, we had these incredible gods of actors – Ian Hart, David Hayman, Cathy Tyson, Sue Johnston. They may have only been on set for three days but the performances, heart and love they injected into them took my breath away. To think of all the work that they’ve done over the years for them to now read this script, choose to be a part of it and give everything they gave was so special. They have some wicked personalities and the humour on set was wonderful. They all enriched this show in ways we could never have imagined. Stephen and I were both over the moon when we heard that Sue said yes, David said yes and then Ian said yes. It was just as important to them as it was for us. 

Stephen Graham: It was special to work with these bastions of acting, Cathy Tyson, Ian Hart and David Hayman. I’ve known David for a little bit, and he is an amazing actor. Sue Johnson, we all grew up watching her from her Brookside days then the Royale Family, I had to pinch myself a good few times! 

What was it like working with Marc Munden? 

Stephen Graham: I very much enjoyed it. Marc has a vision. His style is beautiful and lavish with slow moving cameras. I loved Utopia and thought it was one of the best things I’d seen. I loved the concept and the style of it, so Marc was someone that was always on my radar to work with. 

His attention to detail is impeccable and he really creates an atmosphere. The relationship between him and Mark Wolf our DOP, was really great. It was a real pleasure to work with him.

Jodie Comer: Marc organised a lot of rehearsals. You could really see why that was important when we started to film. We could establish all those important beats before we got to set. So, when we came to shooting, we knew exactly what we needed to be hitting and at what time. Marc is all about the story and character. It was brilliant, and I loved the experience. 

You filmed it during the pandemic/third lockdown. What was it like? Did it add an extra element of pressure and did you manage to find any lighter moments or any fun? 

Stephen Graham: We had loads of fun. It feels a bit bad saying that, based on the content and the subject matter that we were working on. But in the same respect, I looked forward to going to work every single day. Jodie is funny, she’s like a little sister. I’ve never had one, but I imagine that’s what it’s like!

Jodie Comer: The thing about Stephen is that he can keep his giggles in. He can very quickly go stone-faced and carry on with the scene. I can’t do that, so it’s always me that messes it up. You will never catch Stephen being the one to corpse and cause the whole set to stop. He likes to start it and step back when you are unable to. That’s his tactic. 

Stephen Graham: We had a lot of fun with the rest of the crew too. Because it was such a delicate subject, and the pressure that this kind of story can have on you, our camera crew were lovely, as were the ADs and sound department. It was a wonderful experience and a beautiful collaboration. 

What do you hope audiences will take away from this? What does it mean to you and what would you like to share? 

Jodie Comer: We hope that this will start conversations and hold a space for people who’ve actually experienced this, or who’s stories or points of view weren’t necessarily told or covered in the media. 

Stephen Graham: Hopefully we can inspire appreciation for what these people have experienced, and mindfulness about what they might be going through. Let’s hope that society learns from the mistakes that were made during this period and make sure that they never happen again. Let’s hope we never face anything like this again.