Q&A with Amy Huberman, star of Striking Out
In Striking Out, the new Irish legal drama from Acorn TV, Tara Rafferty (played by Amy Huberman) is a successful Dublin lawyer living the high life in a corporate glass empire and she is engaged to the man everyone agrees is perfect for her. But Tara’s life is turned upside down when she catches her betrothed in bed with a colleague. Abandoning her wedding plans (and her job), Tara strikes out on her own. Will she establish herself in her own practice—in a disused office in the back of a café—aided by a band of misfits, or will she be seduced back into a world of luxury and lies? We spoke with the star of the series, Amy Huberman.
Striking Out premieres in the U.S. on Acorn TV on St. Patrick’s Day, so I have to ask: Do you have any plans for St. Patrick’s Day this year?
On St. Patrick’s Day there’s usually little parades and festivals, so I’ll probably bring the kids to that. And then there’s a big rugby match happening here on the Saturday—England to play Ireland. There will be a lot of green jerseys out. The England/Ireland match in the Six Nations rugby is always kind of a big one for us. We will hopefully be celebrating St. Patrick and a win for the rugby as well.
Tara is a solicitor (or lawyer, as we say in the U.S.). How did you prepare for this role?
I’ve never played a solicitor. A friend of mine works in HR for a legal firm and she was like, “Come in, come in,” so I went down to the courts with the main partner of the firm and sat in and watched the exchanges with the judges. That was invaluable going forward. We had legal advisers, who were brilliant, but to see that firsthand, you trust your instinct with it rather than being told. I really enjoyed it, actually—pretending to be a serious grownup!
Is being a lawyer something you would ever want to do?
To be honest, I don’t think that I would be great at it. What I’ve spoken to legal professionals about is you have to control how much empathy you can have in a situation. I don’t think I would be strong enough to leave work stuff at work.
But, it was great to get to do it. I was joking with a friend of mine who studied for years to get in law, and it only took me eight weeks! It’s great to get to dip into a world you know nothing about and be able to live it, albeit in a very fictional realm. I really enjoyed being around the Four Courts, which are beautiful buildings in Dublin where our legal hub is.
What do you want to happen to Tara in season 2?
At the beginning of series one, she faces this huge personal life crisis and everything changes because of that. That’s the domino that toppled. What I’d love to see happen is for her to find herself a little bit more. I think that she is somebody who had her life mapped out. Everything probably always went to her plan. She worked hard, she studied hard, she met this guy she’s madly in love with, they worked together, and now suddenly everything is upside down. For us to watch her to continue to grow and figure out who she is in the world will be really exciting.
What do you do when you’re not acting?
I write. I’ve written two novels, but it’s been a while since I’ve written books because I wanted to write for screen and telly, so I’ve had a film in development for a while. I’ve put it on the back burner because I’m writing a TV series at the moment. I love dipping in and out of writing and acting and getting to exercise both sides of it because in one I have control of my own little bubble, but it’s a solitary thing to do, and then I love the freedom of being able to go on set and interact with the whole crew and get that buzz of excitement from working on something collaborative. I feel really lucky to do both.
Watch Striking Out, only on Acorn TV.
Jaime Pond writes about British television and is the editor of Anglonerd.com.