Ahead of the release of Swing Bout, which hits cinemas on 20th September, we spoke with the film’s lead, Ciara Berkeley. Set backstage at a major boxing event, Swing Bout follows Ciara’s character, Toni, a young boxer plunged into a tumultuous journey from the dressing room to her ring walk in a night of deceit, betrayal, and life-altering decisions.
Congratulations on the film! What films inspired you growing up?
To be quite honest, I was addicted to the Pirates of the Caribbean films and the live action Peter Pan as a kid, and me and my sister would watch them way too often. They were sort of the only films I watched for quite some time. But the things that really inspired me were in the Blu-ray special features, like the commentaries and behind-the-scenes footage. I adored seeing everyone on set working together and how much fun they had filming, and I couldn’t believe people got to do this as a job. From a really young age I was just dying to be a part of something like that.
How did you get your start in film?
Swing Bout is the first feature film I’ve ever been part of, but I first started acting for TV with a day-player part in Normal People. I was still at Trinity at the time, and was studying Theatre Studies and English Literature. I first trained at the National Youth Theatre back in 2016 but it wasn’t until 2019 I got my first agent and started booking jobs. There has been a lot of tapes and a lot of near-misses in that time, but I think a “break” is what you make of it. Everything really clicked into place for me when we shot Swing Bout, and it felt like the most comprehensive training I’d undergone so far. This film was a massive break for me as I met such amazing people, learnt so much and had the time of my life!
Theatre and film are such different mediums. What do you do to prepare for your roles in each?
I think the way I prep for a character is consistent across stage and screen projects, except I find you can prepare for your role in a far more collaborative way in theatre. You can carve out your character and their desires against your castmates’ intentions and objectives for their own characters during the rehearsal process. For screen I find the process of building a character is far more insular and introspective, because the way this internalised backstory leaks out in a performance can be far more acute than on the stage.
You’ve had substantial support roles on TV, how would that differ from building a character for Film?
Joining a TV show with an established world and set of characters, (especially when you’re joining for just a few days’ filming), is far different from building a character for a world in film that is, by comparison, unrealised and still a concept. You’ve more freedom in curating your character’s backstory and to an extent, their fate, but it still has to correlate with the reality of the world and its parameters. So it’s a tricky line to walk in the initial character-building stage.
Can you talk to us about getting cast in Swing Bout?
It was super unexpected. I actually had no one to help with the self-tape, so I recorded the other part’s lines on my phone and play to that. Although in my head I thought, “this is for the best – I couldn’t bear having anyone witness me trying to be a tough boxer, there’s no way I’ll be getting cast in this.” So I was delighted but also terrified to find out I’d gotten the part! But all those nerves quickly melted away after getting to meet Maurice, Sinéad and Chrissie.
Maurice told us it was a very different script starting out. From a performance point of view, what had to shift for you?
At first I felt the character of Toni was really far away from me. I was trying to find that path between my lived experiences and who she was, what she’d been through, but it was pretty obscured initially. I think the original Toni was really tough, was visibly intimidating and bore the marks of explicit hardship and adversity on her body. Maurice and I talked a lot about how I was, looks-wise, quite opposite to what he had in mind for casting! So I wanted to focus more on how Toni had internalised this outsider disposition instead, how she was as tough on herself as she was on others, and how it was something she’s struggling to keep below the surface before fighting this fight in Swing Bout.
Can you tell us about Toni?
I was massively inspired by Katie Jarvis’s performance as Mia in Fish Tank. I think Mia and Toni are cut from the same cloth, and Jarvis does such a wonderful job displaying the internal push-pull of a young woman who wants to be seen as tough, independent and impenetrable, whilst yearning for a sense of belonging and guidance from someone that truly cares about her.
We only catch her on screen for one evening, how much backstory do you build for her?
Once Maurice and I had worked out what kind of person Toni was, (informed by our shared love for Fish Tank), we quickly built a pretty comprehensive backstory for her. Toni’s backstory is one of redemption. She’s spent her recent years carving a new path for herself away from those who have taken advantage of her, in order to find an honest purpose in her life, and every decision she’s made has brought her to this swing bout fight.
This was a big cast, with a lot of arcs, twists, turns! What was the process like working on set?
It was ridiculously fun. Because every character was so fleshed out and there were so many plots mingling with each other at one time, we were all constantly on the go and constantly in-between scenes tearing about the place. It was a well-oiled machine but with a really delightful layer of chaos.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
Geek out about it as much as possible. Watch your favourite actors and directors’ work, learn your favourite accents, do an improv course, do a clown course – anything that gives you joy and makes you feel like an actor, do that. Try not to compare what other actors are doing, what courses they’ve taken or what jobs they’re going up for to what you’re doing. I thought doing improv was just a bit of a cringe hobby I had at college, and now I use it in every single audition or job I get to do. If you keep pursuing the parts of acting you really love and honing the craft in your own way, you’re bound to be a really authentic and unique actor, and enjoy the pursuit of it way more.
Thanks so much for chatting with us, Ciara!
Directed and Written by Maurice O’Carroll, Swing Bout is an intense crime/thriller set backstage at a major boxing event, tracing Toni’s tumultuous journey from the dressing room to her ring walk in a night of deceit, betrayal, and life-altering decisions. Toni, like most boxers at the beginning of their fight career, has dreams of being a world champion, but, here on fight night, amid the bright lights and the chance to box in front of a huge TV audience on a major fight card, reality strikes hard and Toni finds herself low on confidence and even lower on cash.
She becomes entangled in a web of corruption spun by her promoters, the Casey brothers. They and her conniving coach tempt her into taking a dive against a hot prospect with connections to the underworld in exchange for a lucrative payoff.
As tensions mount in the dressing room, Toni wrestles with her conscience; a betting scandal brews within the underworld; illicit affairs are exposed involving her coach; the Casey brothers face a potential murder inquiry; and Toni’s only real friend fights for her life due to inadequate medical attention after collapsing post-fight. Pushed to her physical and emotional limits, Toni confronts the brutal truths of the underworld and the sacrifices demanded by her dreams. With its gripping narrative and bold characters, Swing Bout is an independent Irish made film that keeps the audience on edge.
Swing Bout is in cinemas 20th September.
