Amy Huberman has revealed that Brian O’Driscoll’s cameo in Finding Joy was supposed to be a surprise.
We chatted to the actress about her upcoming comedy series, and she exclusively told Goss.ie that her husband’s cameo was meant to be a fun surprise for fans.
“We were outed on the radio,” she joked.
“That was a really fun little thing, but we wanted it to be a very kind of ‘blink and you miss it’ kind of thing.”
“I was hoping that nobody would have known until that episode was on. I was surprised that we got to this stage without people knowing because people have seen the promos and stuff,” the mother-of-two said.
“It’s just a fun little nod, but he’s not in it until towards the end.”
Finding Joy is a milestone in Amy’s career, as not only does she play the main character in the series, but the 39-year-old also wrote the show.
Speaking about juggling the two roles, Amy said: “They happened at different times so the writing of it was really concentrated in pockets where I was racing to finish episodes. Then there were lulls because you were waiting for feedback. So you’re kind of waving these crests of all these different waves.”
“I was bracing myself. I wanted to be signed off on a few of the episodes before we started filming because I knew that the filming was going to be so intense,” she continued.
“Because I wrote myself into every scene like a total narcissist, I knew it was going to busy. But I knew it was only a five-week shoot, so I was like ‘I just need the energy for five weeks,'” Amy told us.
“But I loved it so much, so you’re nearly fuelling your own energy because I was getting such a good kick out of it. I was like, ‘look if this is the only time ever I get to do this, I want to enjoy every single minute and give it my heart and soul,'” she said.
“I can only ever write for about three hours a day, so that’s actually quite manageable. I have written longer and realised that my brain shuts down a bit. But the filming is intense.”
The actress revealed that although it was a challenging experience, it was exciting to see the series in its various editing stages during the summer.
“The edit has been really lovely, I was in and out of it for the summer. But again, there has been less pressure on me for that stage of it. So I get to swan in and go ‘Show me? Yes.’ It’s on the editor and the director then, so there are all of these different stages,” she explained.
“It’s been hard and it’s been tough. There’s been times where I’ve kind of looked at it and gone ‘I hope it’s okay, I hope it’s good,'” Amy admitted.
“There is two ways your brain goes: Here’s the logistical stuff, here’s the schedule, here’s our cast, here’s whatever. Then there’s like a parallel to it, there’s this voice in your head going ‘What are you doing!? Get out! Run for the exit door!’ I might actually run for the exit door tonight,” she said.
It’s clear that Amy enjoyed the experience of both creating and starring in the comedy series, and the mother-of-two hopes to do more behind-the-scenes work in the future.
“I think I would definitely like to write more if this goes okay. I love it because I’ve got control over my own little bubble and you get to create the world that you want to create,” she confessed.
“You get to create characters and voices and stories that you want to tell. So hopefully I’ll do more, but I love acting as well. This has been a new departure, now that I have got to do it I’d love to do it again and I hope I can do it again.”
When asked if a second series of Finding Joy could be in the pipeline, Amy joked: “Imagine I said ‘yes’ and then you never heard from me again! ‘She’s left the country.'”
“I would love to, if it was well-received, but the proof will be in the pudding for that, so I think we’ll just have to wait and see. Gulp!” she added.
Finding Joy airs on RTÉ One every Wednesday at 9:35PM.
Check out our interview with Amy on #TheDailyGoss below:
