After her breakout role in Everyone’s Talking about Jamie, Lucie Shorthouse was quickly cast as the veil-wearing band manager Momtaz in Nida Manzoor’s We Are Lady Parts. Booked and busy, she returns for Series 2, and to boot, is playing DC Siobhan Clarke in a reimagining of the detective Rebus. She spoke to FILMHOUNDS about gear shifting in her career and bringing brown girl magic to the screen.
Series 2 of We Are Lady Parts sees the characters forge their own paths, so where do we find your character Momtaz?
After a summer of gigs, Momtaz has to keep surpassing the band’s expectations and she is proud but she reaches her limits. It’s the work you don’t see, me asking “Where are the auditions?” while my agent is working hard every day, managers have a rough time balancing everything. She is so aware of the social message that they have as a Muslim band, not in a didactic preachy way, but it is bigger than them.
Especially because she’s not at the forefront, she has to see what she wants to achieve for herself and go down this path to realise what she wants. We get to explore more band biopic tropes, like the rival band and whether they will get too big and have to remember their roots. We’re facing a similar dilemma with our sophomore album series, the audience expectations are high. You want to progress without losing authenticity and I think Nida and her team have done a fantastic job because we came back to these scripts and the warmth and familiarity came right back.
Before Lady Parts, you were the original Pritti in Jamie, which is a really iconic hijabi role. With Momtaz in a niqab, do you feel a sense of responsibility, given that women who practise Islamic modesty are rarely on television?
It was great to see these women in the realm of joy, not oppression. But there is always that responsibility, you want to portray it in the spirit that it is made, with a room full of Muslim writers. There are Muslims in my family through marriage so I grew up around that community, so I tried to do them justice. I hope someday this kind of role isn’t ground-breaking, just as they’re normal for the women who just live their lives.
How was it going from a musical to taking a backseat as band manager?
I wanted to focus on acting so it was a nice break but there’s just something so addictive about performing live, you get to have such a beautiful communion with the audience. With Lady Parts I feel like such a fangirl, these girls are so dedicated to their instruments, and knowing their varied backgrounds in music, like Faith (Omole who plays Bisma) an Olivier award nominee, it is so cool to see these incredible voices adapt to the punk style. Band scenes are the most fun because when we know the coverage is on one person, we’re there in the background going crazy behind the monitor like “You’re doing amazing sweetie”. So as a fan, I don’t feel like a manager but I do manage them as a joke, like when we’re doing press and someone asks if they’ll go on tour and I step in like “We don’t feel comfortable answering that.”
Do you have a favourite song by Lady Parts?
The other girls have such different opinions because they’re the ones playing them but for me: Series One I really like Fish and Chips, is like such a proper Brit anthem subverted and in Series Two, I love Malala Made Me Do It. It was so fun to see a punk band do a Western number and reclaim that genre, and take up that space like Beyoncé has done with Cowboy Carter.
How did you find wearing the niqab for the first time?
It was an adjustment for series one but the experience was such a privilege. It led to a lot of soul-searching about deriving my value from being seen in certain ways and the way I operate in the world. I loved how it changed my perspective because I was so comfortable in myself that when we came back, I felt just like me with a niqab on.
As an actor, it was an expansive experience because TV acting can be quite muted but I could act with my whole body. People asked whether Momtaz would “get her face out” for this series, and as an actress sure you want to be recognised but it wasn’t true to this incredible character at all, she doesn’t owe anyone her face!
It was a learning curve for filming, because there are not many Niqabi women on television and the black garment would absorb a lot of light but we had a fantastic DOP Diana (Olifirova) who made sure everyone’s skin tone and outfits were presented in a beautiful way. In terms of costuming, we were able to be more creative, taking inspiration from stunning Niqabi women on Pinterest mood boards to see how we could still express their personality and stay true to their comfort in their modesty, and PC (Williams) our costume designer did a fantastic job.
How did you find gear switching from comedy to crime shows?
When filming Rebus I’m still a clown, just more off set. Richard (Rankin) who plays Rebus is the same, we can be little nightmares together but we would try and tease out moments, not comedy for comedy’s sake, but dry, snarky little comments that would happen if you’re working closely with somebody. I’ve done guest spots on Line of Duty, and a show called Bulletproof but this felt more traditional paperwork police work and I didn’t get a gun this time!
So who is your character in Rebus?
This is a reimagining of the series set in modern day, not when the books were originally set. Siobhan is called upon to be Rebus’ partner, he’s not too happy because she’s come up through the force on the fast track whereas he’s old school where you have to earn your stripes. There is that kind of tension to reconcile but she doesn’t let Rebus get the better of her, they reach a kind of balance between rude abiding and maverick.
Gregory (Burke) who adapted the book, was careful to make sure that the female characters in the show were well-rounded. As a writer I am not precious about dialogue so it was nice to see he was open to my suggestions and it felt like a collaborative environment.
Did you read the books, or did you go purely on the scripts?
It was a bit of both, if you give yourself too much source material before an audition you can second guess your instincts and confuse yourself. When I got the role I was careful not to betray what I’d done in the audition that got me there but I’ve read them since to appreciate the legacy that came with the show. It helped reading snippets to get a feel for the atmosphere during filming but I was careful not to bombard myself too much and be too like the Siobhan in the books.
As a reader, I can understand the disorientation of a character not being who you imagined but as long as that doesn’t come from a place of hate, I hope viewers can appreciate what I’m doing with this version. This is what the world looks like now and we’re not going anywhere.
Are there any crime shows that you love to watch? It’s counterintuitive but there’s something comforting about them.
I’m a massive true crime podcast fan — the sense of resolution is satisfying and I read a theory somewhere that women consume more true crime because usually in these stories we are the victims so we also get this sense of reclaiming power.
In terms of television, Happy Valley will always be my favourite because it was so well-executed, the cast were stellar and Sarah Lancashire’s character was so nuanced and live-in. You know when you watch something and go, what a triumph, that is a BAFTA right there. There are always questions about whether the genre is saturated but I always think when a British crime drama is done well, it is perfect.
Is there any genre you’d like to delve into next? Any wildly different kind of role you’d like to do next?I’m always striving for a challenge, and as I’m getting older I’m excited to see what roles that entails. I’d love to play a mother because it is the hardest job in the world and just any kind of messy complex human, something like Succession which is so grotesque and over-the-top. My comfort shows are wacky comedies so I’d love to do something silly, like how I got to act on apocalypse days in Henpocalpyse, free to be myself and not look good.
Series 2 of We Are Lady Parts is on Channel 4 from May 30. Rebus is available on BBC iPlayer now.
