Actors Nell Barlow and Jo Hartley on being Sweetheart’s squabbling mother and daughter

It’s full of firsts. The first feature from director/writer Marley Morrison, Sweetheart is also actor Nell Barlow’s first film and first leading role. She doesn’t, she admits, do things by halves.

It’s also a film about first love, set against the backdrop of the type of family holiday we’d all rather forget. A J (Barlow) is facing the prospect of being stuck in a caravan with her mum Tina (Jo Hartley), her older sister and her partner and her much-younger sister. They all irritate, criticise, don’t understand and won’t let her do what she wants to do. Plus, even though she says otherwise, her mother hasn’t accepted that she’s gay. But things start to look up when a free-spirited lifeguard (Ella-Rae Smith) strolls into her life and A J wants them to be more than friends.

Neither Barlow nor Hartley, who play the film’s mother-and-daughter duo with the fractious relationship, had seen the finished film on the big screen before they chatted exclusively to The People’s Movies’ Freda Cooper. And when they both attended the premiere, Hartley had to “nip in and out” to fulfil some interview commitments. But she describes the enthusiastic reception the film received, both during the screening and afterwards at the Q and A session. For her, the event as well as the shoot, was a memorable experience because “we made the film with all the love in our hearts.”

In the interviews below, the two talk about working together and building that all-important relationship on screen – pure love mixed with irritation and frustration – just one of the aspects of the story that will strike a chord with audiences. Barlow also talks about the experience of playing the lead in her first film and hardly ever being off-screen, while Hartley reflects on playing supporting roles and looks forward to her first ever cinematic lead role in forthcoming comedy, Swede Caroline. She promises to come back to tell The People’s Movies all about it – and we’re holding her to that!



Sweetheart is in cinemas from Friday, 24th September  | Read our review of the film.

About the Author

Freda Cooper

Editor

Freda is a Senior Writer at The People's Movies. A lifelong movie fan and a film critic for over ten years, Freda’s natural habitat is the darkened rooms frequented by fellow cineastes. She can also be found asking questions of some of the biggest names in the business – from Cate Blanchett to Daniel Craig or Mike Leigh to Pete Docter – or crafting reviews for a number of sites and publications, including The People’s Movies. And listeners to BBC Local Radio can catch her views on the latest releases. She always – and probably always will – cite The Third Man as her favourite film of all time. Her top ten? That’s a moveable feast …..

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