Check Out Brigid Leahy’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brigid Leahy. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Brigid Leahy is an Orange County native who now lives in Dublin, Ireland. She has co-written and co-produced the award-winning short film Good Chips about a Vietnamese refugee family in 1980s Dublin. Good Chips will screen this October at the Newport Beach Film Festival and recently screened at the Viet Film Festival, where Good Chips took home the awards for Best Short Film and Best Actress.

Good Chips follows a family of Vietnamese immigrants in Dublin, 1989 who struggle to keep their takeaway business afloat. Meanwhile, their 12-year-old daughter strikes up an unlikely friendship with a local Irish boy.

Credits:
Director/Co-writer Nell Hensey
Co-Writer/Co-producer Brigid Leahy
Producer Lara Hickey
Produced by Copper Alley Productions

Brigid attended Aliso Niguel High School and went on to earn a B.A. in History from UCLA, where she was the recipient of the Mary Ritter Beard Award. Brigid moved to Ireland nine years ago to complete a Master’s degree in Public History and Cultural Heritage at Trinity College in Dublin. Her research focused on the commemorative practices of different Vietnamese diasporic groups regarding the Vietnam War, particularly the group that came to Ireland in the 1970s. She had become interested in the subject because her own mother came to the United States as one of the Boat People in 1979.

Brigid’s love of history goes hand-in-hand with her love of acting and storytelling. “History is the study of the human condition and understanding what makes humans tick is an important skill to be a good actor”, Brigid explains.

Brigid and co-writer/director Nell Hensey entered the Virgin Media Discovers competition, where they were awarded funds to make the short. As part of the award, they were mentored by Oscar-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Normal People). “Lenny was an invaluable resource. He taught me to make the script as believable as possible. If the smallest thing doesn’t make sense, you can lose your audience.” Good Chips was also broadcast nationwide in Ireland and debuted at the Dublin International Film Festival. Good Chips is the first Irish film to depict a majority Asian cast.

While Brigid now resides in Dublin, Orange County will always be home. “Coming back to Orange County to screen Good Chips is really special for me. I am Vietnamese and Irish. Sharing a story from both my cultures with my childhood community is something I look forward to.”

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Since Good Chips is the first Irish film to depict a majority Asian cast, finding the right actors to portray the characters was the greatest obstacle. Because not many lead roles have not been written for Asian actors, there is not a big pool to draw from in Ireland.

We worked with casting director Aine O’Sullivan, who did a call out for young actors in Ireland. As you might imagine, finding a young Irish actor with Vietnamese heritage proved a huge challenge. However, Brigid worked as a receptionist in a law firm one summer over seven years ago. She had remembered that one of her colleagues had two daughters that he and his wife had adopted from Vietnam. Calculating Elly’s age, she reached out to him and asked if Elly would be interested in acting.

Lo and behold, Elly was already an accomplished actress who was studying acting and had performed onstage in theatrical productions. We were blown away by Elly’s self-tape, and she was awarded the role of Tam.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Brigid Leahy is a Vietnamese-Irish-American actor and writer born and raised in Orange County, California. Her debut short film, Good Chips, will be screened at the 2023 Viet Film Festival and Newport Beach Film Festival.

Brigid attended Aliso Niguel High School and went on to earn a B.A. in History from UCLA, where she was the recipient of the Mary Ritter Beard Writing Award. Brigid moved to Ireland nine years ago to complete a Master’s degree in Public History and Cultural Heritage at Trinity College in Dublin. Her research focused on the commemorative practices of different Vietnamese diasporic groups regarding the Vietnam War, particularly the group that came to Ireland in the 1970s. She had become interested in the subject because her own mother came to the United States as one of the Boat People in 1979.

Brigid’s love of history goes hand-in-hand with her love of acting and storytelling. “History is the study of the human condition and understanding what makes humans tick is an important skill to be a good actor”, Brigid explains.

As an actor, she has appeared in film & tv productions Silver (Amazon Studios), Disney’s Disenchanted, As Luck Would Have It (Hallmark Channel), Smother (Treasure Entertainment/BBC Studios), Avenue 5 (HBO), Familiar (Fremantle), and Can’t Cope Won’t Cope (Deadpan Pictures). She is also the voice of the character ‘Seigiri’ in Nintendo’s popular video game Xenoblade Chronicles 3.

The first break that helped her land an agent was a small role in HBO’s sci-fi comedy Avenue 5, created by Armando Iannucci (Veep, The Death of Stalin).

“After editing, I ended up only having one line per episode, but it was such a valuable experience for me,” she adds. “I had the opportunity to work with actors whom I admire, including Josh Gad, Hugh Laurie, and Suzy Nakamura, and experienced what it’s like to be on large-scale sets. Working with Armando Iannucci was a dream come true. It was fascinating to see how the writers worked with Armando to refine the storytelling and jokes. I was invited to workshop scenes and got to work with the writers and producers as well.” This inspired Brigid to pursue screenwriting.

Brigid became the recipient of the Virgin Media Discovers Award for co-writing the script Good Chips. As part of the award, she was mentored by Oscar-nominated director Lenny Abrahamson (Room, Normal People). “Lenny was an invaluable resource. He taught me to make the script as believable as possible. If the smallest thing doesn’t make sense, you can lose your audience.”

She is also an alumni of Dublin Fringe Festival’s Weft Studio, an artist collective and initiative for artists of colour. With Weft Studio she developed a concept for a new dystopian dark comedy play that she is currently writing.

While Brigid now resides in Dublin, Orange County will always be home. “Coming back to Orange County to screen Good Chips is really special for me. I am Vietnamese and Irish. Sharing a story from both my cultures with my childhood community is something I look forward to.”

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Ireland’s film industry will hopefully see a shift towards telling more diverse stories. Ireland has come a long way since Brigid moved there nine years ago. As an actress, she has seen more roles open up to minority artists. However, there is still a lot more work to do, and it is rare to see minorities in lead roles or scripts that focus on minority stories. After working as primarily an actress, writing Good Chips was an opportunity to tell an Asian-Irish story, a subject that hadn’t yet been explored. Initiatives such as Weft Studio, where she and director/co-writer Nell met, and Virgin Media’s Discover programme are all instrumental in bringing more diversity to Irish cinema.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @brigidleahy, @goodchipsfilm

Image Credits
Brigid Headshot Good Chips Stills from the film & Movie poster Photographer Simon Lazewski