{"id":1549,"date":"2026-05-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/05\/13\/lola-petticrew-on-i-see-buildings-fall-like-lightning-filming-with-bestie-anthony-boyle-and-actors-separating-art-from-politics-its-a-disgrace\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T08:00:00","slug":"lola-petticrew-on-i-see-buildings-fall-like-lightning-filming-with-bestie-anthony-boyle-and-actors-separating-art-from-politics-its-a-disgrace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/05\/13\/lola-petticrew-on-i-see-buildings-fall-like-lightning-filming-with-bestie-anthony-boyle-and-actors-separating-art-from-politics-its-a-disgrace\/","title":{"rendered":"Lola Petticrew on \u2018I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,\u2019 Filming With Bestie Anthony Boyle and Actors Separating Art From Politics: \u201cIt\u2019s a Disgrace\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tThere\u2019s a long list of reasons why Lola Petticrew<\/a> jumped at the chance to read for Clio Barnard\u2019s stirring kitchen sink drama I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning<\/em>, and Anthony Boyle\u2019s name sits at the top of it.<\/p>\n

\tHonoring Petticrew\u2019s loving nickname for their fellow countryman, \u201cAnto,\u201d star of Netflix hit House of Guinness<\/em>, was already attached to the project. The Northern Irish duo have known each other since they were 11 years old \u2014 they performed together in an amateur drama group called The Rainbow Factory in Belfast \u2014 and became, as Petticrew puts it, \u201cthe best of friends.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tAfter years spent leaning on one another through drama school, Petticrew\u2019s first job (in which they played brother and sister) and back-to-back auditions, Boyle and Petticrew now find those two kids from west Belfast are about to premiere what will undoubtedly be one of the Croisette\u2019s most talked-about films: Barnard\u2019s fifth feature, written by Enda Walsh (Die My Love<\/em>) and adapted from Keiran Goddard\u2019s book of the same name, is a tender deep-dive into class mobility, identity and existentialism.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI got a message from my agent being like, \u2018Clio Barnard wants you to read for this film,\u2019\u202f\u201d Petticrew, best known for their BAFTA-nominated performance in FX\u2019s Say Nothing<\/em>, remembers about the initial call. \u201cSo Enda Walsh has written it, Clio\u2019s directing it, and my best pal is the lead? Like, tick, tick, tick!\u201d they bellow over the phone to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. \u201cDo you know what I\u202fmean?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t \t\t\t\t\tJay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack, Joe Cole, Anthony Boyle and Lola Petticrew in \u2018I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning.\u2019<\/span> \t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCannes Film Festival<\/cite> \t\t\t\t\t \t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\tThat chemistry read with Boyle \u2014 their characters in I See Buildings<\/em>, Patrick and Shiv, are married \u2014 was, figuratively and a little literally, child\u2019s play for the pair. \u201cIt\u2019s the biggest gift ever to go in to work every day and just be looking at your best mate,\u201d Petticrew tells THR<\/em>. \t<\/p>\n

\tIt also helps that Barnard enlisted an almighty batch of Britain and Ireland\u2019s brightest young stars: Joe Cole, Daryl McCormack and Jay Lycurgo round out the core five, all of them anchoring Walsh\u2019s script with a frailty and authenticity you\u2019d expect from talent twice their age. The Birmingham-set indie follows five childhood friends who, as they hit 30, tackle the bleak reality of life in varying ways.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI think it\u2019s British independent film at its best,\u201d declares Petticrew. \u201cThis is just completely the type of project I want to be a part of. It feels like they\u2019re caught on this hamster wheel, and they just can\u2019t get out of it. They can\u2019t see the forest for the trees, and all of the emotions are up,\u201d they say about the boys\u2019 roles. \u201cShiv is kind of like a seer. She\u2019s in the middle of it all, and she\u2019s grounded. I remember reading a part in the book where it was talking about how much Shiv loves her flat, and it just made me cry my eyes out \u2014 I just thought how wonderful it was that she could see the beauty in it all, because that\u2019s absolutely the way I felt about my house and my community growing up, and it\u2019s the way that I still feel about it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPetticrew is a self-proclaimed activist. They speak up on the intergenerational trauma still rife in Northern Ireland post-Troubles, west Belfast\u2019s poverty problem and Palestine. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be interested in being an artist if I couldn\u2019t talk about those things. For me, they\u2019re intrinsically linked,\u201d they say, railing against the creatives who choose to separate politics from their work. For them, I See Buildings<\/em>\u2019 community-focused narrative \u2014 about one\u2019s loyalty to their origins, the resentment that simmers when you can\u2019t escape it, and the guilt when you leave it behind \u2014 tapped into that thirst for change. \u201cThere are a lot of actors \u2014 many whom I really admire \u2014 [that] are now coming out and saying they don\u2019t want to be political,\u201d says Petticrew, who considers it a privilege to be apolitical. \u201cIt\u2019s a sorry state of affairs when artists don\u2019t really believe in anything \u2026 But when they want their BAFTA or their Oscar or their Golden Globe for playing somebody poor or, fucking God forbid \u2014 please, no more \u2014 playing a trans person, or playing somebody queer, then they\u2019ll talk about it. It\u2019s a disgrace.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tI See Buildings<\/em> was an antidote. The cast embedded themselves in Shard End, east Birmingham, where the film was shot. The locals spilled onto the call sheet as pub-goers, parents and school children. It undoubtedly helped all five of them \u2014 three of them Irish, remember \u2014 nail that Brummie accent. \u201cIt\u2019s a really tough accent,\u201d Petticrew admits, \u201cand I know how much of your identity is locked into your accent. So I really, really, really wanted to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tThey\u2019re due back in Rome straight after the festival to continue shooting Netflix\u2019s Assassin\u2019s Creed <\/em>series, and have a Hulu show, Furious<\/em>, coming soon with Jake Lacy and Emmy Rossum. But Petticrew is prioritizing platforming British film, and with Anto in tow, hopes their performance can provide solace to any lost souls in Cannes this week: \u201cWe\u2019re all just trying our best with everything that\u2019s against us,\u201d Petticrew adds. \u201cIt\u2019s OK to give yourself a bit of credit, take a breath, and just see what\u2019s in front of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a long list of reasons why Lola Petticrew jumped at the chance to read for Clio Barnard\u2019s stirring kitchen sink drama I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, and Anthony Boyle\u2019s name sits at the top of it. Honoring Petticrew\u2019s loving nickname for their fellow countryman, \u201cAnto,\u201d star of Netflix hit House of Guinness, was already attached to the project. The Northern Irish duo have known each other since they were 11 years old \u2014 they performed together in an amateur drama group called The Rainbow Factory in Belfast \u2014 and became, as Petticrew puts it, \u201cthe best of friends.\u201d After years spent leaning on one another through drama school, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[307,2,116,1005,164,60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannes-2026","category-hollywood","category-international","category-lola-petticrew","category-movie-features","category-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}