Sat in my London office on an almost too sunny day in June (too sunny to be sitting indoors, that is), Aisling Bea joins me via Zoom call. Making the most of the glorious weather as she strolls outside, we spend the next 45 minutes or so discussing her latest project, her own portrayals of mental health, and even her firm hatred for carrots—an unequivocal declaration she made herself, without a shadow of a doubt, 100% not fabricated. Aisling Bea is an artist who needs no introduction to the world of comedy. Making an indelible mark as a rising star and going on to win the Edinburgh Fringe’s So You Think You're Funny? From there, she quickly became a fan favourite across panel shows with her chatty charisma and quick wit. Not one to become pigeonholed into a single focus, she transitioned into the world of sitcoms in both the UK and the US. Taking her talents one step further, she wrote and starred in her own Channel 4 comedy-drama, This Way Up. Over the last few years, the Kildare-born comic has been expanding even further on both big and small screens. Her latest adventure sees Aisling centre stage as leading role, Rachael, in Coky Giedroyc’s latest film adaptation, Greatest Days. Based on the Take That musical of the same name, Greatest Days takes the band's greatest hits from the past three decades into an uplifting slice of summer escapism. With Greatest Days' recent release just a few days ago, I wanted to delve straight into how Aisling has been doing throughout its release. We jumped into the interview to talk about the film’s premiere. “The premiere was grand, but definitely busy! I have a lovely stylist and team who I’ve worked with for years, so that’s always nice. Those things are really work nights out though, you know? I remember saying this when I won a BAFTA during lockdown.” Jokingly, she adds, “Yeah, don't worry about it.” As Aisling continued, it was clear this was how events like these were meant to really feel. “What made it special was that I could really let it sink in because it was all online. I was in my garden with a sort of broken arm, and ten friends were over. There were no thoughts of interviews, talking to the press, having pictures taken of me with someone there, or bumping into someone from work. It wasn't a work night; it was a day to celebrate. It was such a relief, having been in lockdown for ages that we could even have people in our gardens again.” When back to ‘normality’, despite what is and will always be an amazing celebration, it feels like the magic seems to have been slightly worn off. “The next time around, it becomes a work event. You have a team coming in; there’s hair and makeup—who are lovely—and you're wearing high shoes and suck your tummy in, worried someone's going to take a terrible photo of you that's going to be in the front of something the next day. They become very much work events.” Given the camera-heavy environment and the spotlights on everyone, I ask if she has grown used to being in such situations. “Yeah, and you know how to do it, especially with the comedic part of my career. It means I'm okay with being thrown in, given a microphone, and asked to speak. But there is always this underlying feeling of, ‘Oh God, is there a wrong way to answer this?’ It's not a safe space; it’s a guarded space, put it that way.” As viewers, we often overlook the buildup leading to a film's release and the gap between completing a project and its actual debut. “You create something, and it feels like the job is done. But in reality, you work on something one year, and it won’t be out until the next. You're a whole different person by the time it airs.” Aisling recalls when she saw a trailer for Quiz, a TV drama in which she starred, focusing on Charles Ingram unexpectedly winning the £1,000,000 jackpot on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. “I saw the trailer and thought, ‘Oooh, I want to watch that; that looks good’. I'd forgotten I was in it! I had such a good time filming Quiz, but it was in the middle of promoting This Way Up. I was pushing the first series of that really hard, and during the daytime, I'd go and film with Stephen Frears. I had such a good time, I sort of forgot it was work. It can throw your head. When you're pretending to be someone else, it doesn't always attach to you in a way that maybe writing does.” Aisling is joining me for her last interview on this PR run, and she tells me how the experience has been promoting her starring role. “Yeah, this is my first and only interview this week, so you're getting a good version of me. It’s my very last one too; last week was quite intense. It's been about a year and a half since I've been talking about anything. You know, you're answering the same questions all the time.” Something you never think about is the exhausting process of having to come up with and repeat the same answers multiple times a day, over and over. “Over the last few years, what’s been different has been interviews like these ones. They’re nicer because you're talking to someone, and it's a whole collection. It’s like, 'Okay, there's a nuance there.’ But it’s the clipped interviews that get you. Someone comes in for eight minutes, they film it, and you are constantly thinking, ‘Oh, what version of this clip might they use?’ Everything just gets used as content, which is obviously designed to be much more grab-able or clickbaity.” I'm curious to know if she has experienced such tactics being used on her in the past. “In Ireland, I jokingly mentioned to one of the camera guys during an interview, ‘I've legally banned my age from being mentioned anywhere; are you taking this out? You better edit that out.’ A few days later, I see The Sun published a headline: ‘I banned my age from being mentioned, says Aisling Bea as she fights back at the industry.’ We talked about how there's a younger version of me in Greatest Days, and that’s when I use it as a bit of a filler joke, that’s all. Then suddenly it turns into this big thing. Of course, that's the nature of the beast.” It's a parasitic beast that distorts people's words into attention-grabbing headlines. Even as readers, you read through half a piece before releasing what you were told has been completely twisted. “You know, ‘Aisling Bea reveals what it was like working with Take That, and then halfway through the piece, you reach “Aisling says, Oh, we only met them for 20 minutes. They seemed very sweet.” Or, ‘Aisling Bea slams award ceremonies for not honouring comedy actors’. And the truth is more “Oh, it's a pity the BAFTAs have no supporting comedy actor awards.” “It’s just lying, essentially, about what you said or how you said it. If we talk for 40 minutes and I bring up carrots once. Then this whole thing leads with ‘Aisling Bea talks carrots and nothing else’. You’d think I sound like a fucking mad woman. It’s an environment you're supposed to feel safe in, you know? I understand it's silly, but it’s more the fact I worry about the people who the thing is supposedly about and what they are supposed to think when they see it. I mean, I understand having to try and sell my work, and I do understand most people are at this point where, do you fight it or just try and play ball?” Going back to interviews that try to build a connection with the interviewee, Aisling says, “Those are the ones that are more interesting to read anyway; you don't feel like you've read them a bunch of times already.” Stepping away from frustrating click-baiters, Aisling’s job revolves around constantly embodying different identities, so I ask her whether she finds that she is able to find the time to switch off. “I’m not very good at it. Some people may go to work, then come home and be done with it all. Maybe it’s because of the hours and scatty schedules, but so much of my life is work. I caught myself clenching my jaw so tightly that I ground away a tooth. It seems that being constantly tense has become my comfort zone.” With the exception of next month, she rarely has the time to take any time off; this is the first long break she has had in over a decade. “I can go to random things I don’t normally have time for, like physio appointments, or just taking it slow. If you've made a lifetime of living a certain way, it doesn't just change the next day. It's like a diet of energy or a diet of focus, really. The idea of being unscheduled is just so nice for a while.”