Interviews

Interview With Director Ciaran Lyons/Actor Lorn Macdonald (Tummy Monster)

Published

3 weeks ago

Apr 25, 2025

A film we’ve been championing here at MM, ever since it received its world premiere at 2024 Glasgow Film Festival. Ciaran Lyons’ searing debut feature Tummy Monster is finally about to embark on a nationwide UK tour this May. Ahead of hitting the road, we had the pleasure of chatting with the director alongside one of its compelling leads Lorn Macdonald…

Darryl: Thanks for your time today guys. Love to take it back to your world premiere at Glasgow last year. Did you have any particularly fond memories or memorable reactions, during your time at the festival?

Ciaran: Let me think about that. It was just good to play in Glasgow. I think the humour goes over really well. Yeah, i think there was just a lot of excitement in the room after it screened. That was just generally great. Trying to think if there was a specific reaction.. Can you think of anything Lorn?

Lorn: I think for me, the main thing was that it was just such a relief that people laughed. Because i find it funny. I still find it funny the amount of times i’ve seen it, at all these different festivals and stuff. It was quite a big relief that especially in that Glasgow crowd, because that’s kind of the crowd you want to impress the most, in terms of getting them on side from a humour point of view. So the fact that they were like howling with laughter and you know going ‘ARGH’ at all the right moments. That’s kind of what you’re after. Relief was probably.. The relief that they found it funny was probably my biggest emotion.

Ciaran: In terms of like the laugh. The one that actually was funny, because we had three screenings and had an extra one on. On one of the screenings, the biggest laugh by a mile was when Lorn’s character Tales is trying to get his seven-year old daughter to walk home on her own from school and she politely reminds him that there has been an incident. The police have told children that they have to be picked up by a responsible adult. That got the biggest laugh of the film..

Lorn: That’s a dark audience that find that really really funny! I suppose so much of what has been put out, like psychological thriller or something like that. I guess there are obviously those elements to it. But i’ve always thought of it as a dark comedy ultimately. I suppose the genre changes depending on where you go and who sees it, because for some people they may not find that funny at all and find it really really stressful. Then maybe it is a psychological thriller but yeah for me, it’s the humour that i enjoy the most.

Darryl: From the outset. There’s a genuine sense of urgency from its single setting setup. Was it always built as a chamber piece or condensed down from a more sprawling version of it through the script?

Ciaran: Yeah like we’ve mentioned a few times in promoting it, we shot it in five days and we tackled it with relatively, very little resources and that was a known quantity from the beginning. So i don’t think i ever envisaged it as a sprawling epic and knew it was going to be small. But i think it’s quite interesting that when you’re making the script and there’s certain points you’re thinking ‘OK, do we see the other side of these phone calls? Or do we leave the shop? And i think for what it is, it actually does heighten the pressure and the intensity that you just stay in here. You don’t get these outside perspectives. There’s a lot of female characters and lot of voices in the film. But you get the sense that if only they could actually be in there with this idiotic man Tales, things would turn out differently but they never get to join him in the space.

Darryl: With you mentioning it being shot in five days. From a directorial standpoint, how challenging was it maintaining that energy on a daily basis? And for you Lorn as well given your career up to now, how was it for you maintaining that headspace for a leaner period of time? Did it help inform experiences beyond Tummy Monster?

Lorn: Yeah I suppose in terms of the energy of it. Knowing that you’ve got five days and knowing there’s not going to be reshoots. It kind of means you’re throwing yourself into it you know, making bold decisions and then keeping up the intensity is probably quite a helpful thing in a lot of ways for something like that. But a lot of it, I come from a theatre background. So much of it felt like rehearsal that was being filmed as well, so being able to stay in character for a long length of time really benefitted the film. In a way that with many other things, it’s really hard to be on a set where you’re in front of camera for let’s say 20 minutes and the rest of the time, you’re just sitting about waiting. In some ways that’s harder then what we did in five days. It’s a different kind of muscle to be stretched. But yeah it definitely helped the kind of ’12 Angry Men’, things getting heated and these two guys picking on each other and twisting each other in a way. That if we had a longer period of time to do so, i don’t think we would have got the same kind of positive results. And in terms of afterwards. Yeah there’s been things I’ve done since and something I’m about to do. Where they’re going like it’s not a huge budget and we’re gonna try and get it done in 10 days. I’m like that’s *laugh* leisurely to what we have done. We’ll be fine, you know!? But this was very very intense in a kind of really positive way. But yeah i think it made me a better actor.

Ciaran: From my side of things. Hearing Lorn talk like that about it. You can get a sense of how the film was running, how the set was running. Like the energy that Lorn, Orlando and Michael were having to bring. But i would say actually particularly Lorn. I think the character he’s playing is the real sort of firecracker character. Then from the filmmaking team, it was obviously really difficult but it almost felt like we were filming a live event. Like our skill and our focus was on being intuitive about how we shaped things. But also how we respond to this thing that we’re trying to make as real as possible, which is these two guys having a very intense experience over five days. I think i kind of romanticise it now because I’m a bit further away from it and I find myself saying in a Q+A the other week that it was relatively easy. I stepped away from it like ‘that was not true!’

Darryl: That’s a tough sell! *laughs*

Ciaran: That is a complete and utter lie!

Lorn: It wasn’t easy. It just could have been a whole lot worse!

Ciaran: Yeah it did feel like sprinting across a tightrope the whole time. Like we were running so fast and if something went wrong, you knew you were screwed. But the people on it were so good. All the sort of technical crew and the actors, we managed to keep that pace going the whole time and it was crazy and stressful but we did it.

Darryl: There’s an emphasis on tattoos in the film, which are often quite fantastical and mythical in nature. Feeding into the aesthetic of the film as well. Did you have any key points of reference, going into the making of it?

Ciaran: I knew quite early on Tales’ specialism was going to be in sort of monster imagery. I’m really interested in fairytales, so that was an interesting way of bringing that in and i was thinking of things like illustrators like Arthur Rackham. Bringing that kind of feel to the aesthetics. There’s like this world of myth and imagination that’s just there on the walls, while you’ve got this hyper modern pair of guys just vaping in front of it. Like they don’t know that they are part of a fairytale. I kind of liked that idea.

Darryl: Reflecting on that. For you Lorn given the character progression as well. Repressed literally on the ground at one point trying to get the picture and then he becomes this monstrous figure. Was there a lot of dialogue between yourselves, in how it came across in the physicality of the character?

Lorn: Interestingly i picked up an injury in the job that i did previous to Tummy Monster, which meant that i was eating a lot but not going to the gym, going for long walks or anything like that. So i actually got like the biggest tummy that I’ve ever had, in well ever. You can even see in my neck which is great because we’ve got these big tattoos on them, but the canvas itself was larger. And so for me, kind of recognising that I’d just turned 30 and then through a series of unfortunate events. I kind of had this body that didn’t quite feel like it was mine. There was something about leaning into that as well. It’s quite funny to watch it now, because I do feel like obviously the dyed hair and the tattoos are one thing. But just how I’m holding myself and the speech pattern as well that I’m doing. It’s not something that I kind of went in going ‘Oh this is how I’m gonna play the character!’ It’s something that just seemed to happen on the first day and leaned into it. Also I was conscious of what Orlando was doing. Orlando being kind of cool and quite strong. But kind of like he had a flow to him, that i was like the opposite of that should be these sharp edges. And then when I kind of do what he’s doing, it just looks a bit forced and a bit desperate.

Ciaran: It was quite interesting actually. Orlando in his preparation for the role. One of the things we talked about was he practiced Tai Chi a lot, in the lead up. So what he was trying to do was create this kind of effortless grace, but also have this idea that this character has this whole daily routine of self-care in a physical sense. We did sort of encourage Lorn to play on the idea of the exact opposite, that Tales has never ever considered that he actually has to look after himself in that regard. So i think that contrast does come across well on screen, because Orlando’s got this feline grace and Tales is kind of like stomping around the place.

Darryl: Again with the film. There’s this different slant on ‘selfie culture’ and emphasis on social media. But it leans into the compulsion and addictive personality of the everyman, the one chasing that 15 seconds. Rather than the trials and tribulations of the artist. Was that a key driver through the script? Alongside the direction as well, it’s quite confrontational in providing a form of catharsis for the characters. For an audience member, did you want that triggering viewpoint to make them rethink? Not be a rose-tinted version of these artists that we put on a pedestal?

Ciaran: I think for the vast majority of the world. You’re rooted into thinking about famous people will come from the perspective of not being famous. The idea is that this character Tales is ultimately, like very extremely non-empathetic towards this guy who shows up in his shop. He’s really for the most part thinking of him as a real human being. So the film is kind of about taking him on a journey, that’s not actually anything to do with celebrity culture but understand what it’s like to.. You know the selfie request thing. The reason that you would continue to indulge it was because you’re caring what other people think about you. To take him on that journey where someone’s actually maybe broken down through that, is essentially part of the point of the film, which is not so much about selfies. But about the character’s conception of himself. Sorry, that may be a little bit vague. But we’re starting outside it.

Darryl: Tummy (Orlando Norman) talks about this golden thread of creative flow and the retaining of that. Given your respective professions. Like Ciaran this is your first feature, with various music videos beforehand and Lorn as well what you’ve done up-to-date. Was there a particular turning point for you guys, where the career path all made sense?

Lorn: I mean I’m one of those annoying people that’s like there was nothing I ever wanted to do, other than acting. In fact while doing acting, I’ve realised that I really like writing. I really like directing and editing and all those kinds of things. But they were all birthed from acting first. Pretty much being five years old. I had a moment where i was watching.. I think it was.. No I know that it was Jim Carrey. I just don’t know what film it was. It was either Dumb And Dumber or Ace Ventura and I remember having a moment where I thought ‘that man is having the most fun in the world!’ Not even that he was great, which he was. He is. But more just he seemed to be having the best time and I was like when I figured out that it was a job. I was like why would I want to try and do anything else? So yeah, that’s kind of my moment when it clicked and I’m pretty happy to be doing it.

Ciaran: I think, you know. I’ll say this in a light-hearted way. The whole sort of golden thread stream in the film, all this thing about the artist. I’m kind of taking the piss out myself, the worst parts of myself. You know trying to be a film director, it’s unbelievably thankless. But when I actually get the good moments of it, I do really really love it. Like I absolutely love it and you’re kind of fighting with this thing of like the way it sort of steals stuff from your life. Like I’ve never made a penny from anything creatively that I feel good about. So yeah it is about that weird sort of compulsion to stay with it, which I do find incredibly important you know.

Darryl: On that note. Appreciate it’s been a long road getting to a nationwide tour. How are you feeling going into it over the next month or so? What’s the overriding emotion with getting more eyes on the film at long last?

Ciaran: Yeah like I’m really proud of the film. I always aspire to make things that some people love, but not everyone loves. That’s the response we’ve had at festivals. Always people who really love the film and then some people think ‘I don’t really know what you’re doing’ and that’s usually my favourite kind of thing. And I think that’s a sign that you’re doing something right. It actually feels like a really great thing to be closing the festival tour. We want to be give it as much of a life as possible and let those people who might love it find it. But you know it’s a small film. So I feel proud we’ve made this obscure, strange gem.