Mackey confirms that Ella McCay is a study of the “human condition”, and tells us that’s partly what drew her to the role. “The film is very much about cycles and cycles being broken, or not in a few cases, and about what you decide to make of yourself,” Mackey tells R29. Throughout the film, her Aunt Helen acts like a driving force in her life, and calls out the behaviour of Ella’s husband. Mackey notes it can be “unsettling” to have somebody by your side pointing out flaws or truths you want to avoid, but in some ways, there’s a “comfort” to it as well. “She’s the truth sayer, and says the uncomfortable thing when I don’t want to hear it, and it’s absolutely spot on every time,” Mackey says. “And we all need one of those people in our lives just to bring us back to what’s real and to make us think about it… and then we’ve got to work with it, work through it.”
