FraFee:FromCommunityTheatretoNetflix’sMostComplicatedCultThriller

Northern Irish actor Fra Fee has spent years earning his stripes onstage. However, thirsty for a challenge, he’s found himself at the helm of Netflix’s Unchosen, a murky, compulsive dive into a modern-day cult in the North of England which begs the question of how different their lives really are to our own. 

 

WORDS: Ciarán Howley

 

When Fra Fee was seven years old, his mother brought him to collect his elder sister Claire from a school rehearsal of Willy Russell’s legendary Liverpuglian epic Blood Brothers. Captivated by what he saw, he attended every performance after that, with a packet of crisps in-hand. “It’s been a light that has never dimmed,” he recalls, a line that lands without a hint of artifice, which for an actor of his calibre is perhaps the highest complement.

 

Growing up in County Tyrone, far enough from Belfast that the city felt like another world, Fee found his footing not in drama schools or industry showcases but in the rich, serious tradition of community theatre that quietly thrives across Ireland. His commitment to roles that required him to do the quiet, less glamorous work of figuring out, put simply, why people do the things they do, has remained a constant in Fee’s method ever since.

 

That question sits at the heart of Unchosen, Netflix’s new series in which Fee plays Sam, a man leaving prison who is, depending on your angle, a victim of circumstance, a conniver, or both simultaneously. It’s murky territory, which is precisely what drew Fee to the part. The show arrives at a charged cultural moment and its exploration of toxic masculinity and insular group dynamics lands with an uncomfortable familiarity. Fee doesn’t shy away from that conversation and even pivots to an upcoming performance in an Alan Cumming-directed play about Liberace, which grapples with similar anxieties of masculinity.

 

It’s no secret Irish culture and talent are having a moment, from Jessie Buckley’s Oscar podium this year to CMAT’s conquering of the pop charts, one cowgirl boot-clad step at a time. Fra Fee is certainly part of that wave, though he’d probably frame it less as a wave and more as something that was always coming.

Ciaran Howley: To get started, I’d love to hear a little about your background in acting and what kind of experience growing up initially drew you to the performing arts. Were there any early experiences that stick out in your mind, and how did growing up in Northern Ireland play a role, if at all?

 

Fra Fee: I grew up in County Tyrone and like so many parts of Ireland, there’s a really rich culture of community drama. Belfast, although only forty minutes down the road felt like a world away, so I wasn’t going to the big city to do acting lessons or anything like that. It was all just very local-based community theatre done at a really high level. I would have been introduced to that by my dad initially. My elder sister Claire was doing a school production of Blood Brothers by Willie Russell. I went to collect her with my mam. I was maybe seven or so and they hadn’t quite finished rehearsing yet so I observed them in rehearsal of the famous ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ song and was just so captivated. I went to every performance, sat there with my packet of crisps in the front row and it’s been a light that has never dimmed.

 

CH: Let’s talk about Unchosen, your new Netflix series which follows a modern day cult in the north of England. There’s obviously this historical obsession with cults, going back to the Manson Family in the 1960s and Jonestown in the 70s, but when you got the script, were you primarily intrigued by that kind of setting? Or were you more drawn to your character, Sam, an outsider who disrupts order in an unexpected way?

 

FF: Both of those statements are very much true. I think we are inherently intrigued by people that live very differently to how we do in a “normal society.” Of course, this is a fictionalised version of one of these communities, but I just thought, what a brilliant setting for a story. And then compounded with this character that I was given the absolute treat of getting my teeth stuck into. I just thought he was brilliantly realised and wonderfully complicated. He’s such a walking contradiction of passions. Some of his actions are deplorable, but I couldn’t help but love and admire his strengths. He’s fiercely intelligent, a master manipulator and some of his gameplay within the story is just… delicious.

 

“Some of his actions are deplorable, but I couldn’t help but love and admire his strengths. He’s fiercely intelligent, a master manipulator and some of his gameplay within the story is just… delicious.”

 

CH: You’ve played such a wide breadth of roles across stage and screen, but more recently you’ve turned towards darker portrayals, like in Unchosen. Is that an exciting challenge as an actor, to really sink your teeth into more morally dubious material?

 

FF: This was the most nuanced role I’ve ever had to tackle. I had to figure out a reason as to why Sam did the things he had done at the beginning of the story. Why is he in prison? How did he get that way? What level of atonement has he reached? He’s on the brink of being let free when the story begins, and then, in an act of self-defense, he commits another act that would keep him in prison for a long time. So he has to escape, but he continues to behave in seriously questionable ways throughout these six episodes. I loved figuring out why and where those impulses are coming from. It’s not as easy as just saying good versus bad. Julie [Geary, the show’s creator] plays brilliantly with the ideas of what is good and what is bad and it makes us all look at the full spectrum of humanity.

 

CH: I also had a more random question related to cults—bear with me. Have you ever had any experience of being inside some kind of club or friend group where things took a turn and felt a bit cultish? Or the experience of feeling like you were in some kind of group where things were a little cultish — not that cults are inherently bad — or just a little bit skewed?

 

FF: I think any sort of group or clique has the capacity to become toxic if you’re not all on the same page. I think we can all remember experiences of being in something that you’re uncomfortable in. I reckon this will be a talking point when the show comes out, because so much of the horrendously despicable behavior is displayed by the men in this group, misogyny, sexism, physical abuse, and we’re in the middle of such a huge conversation about that at the moment, even with Louis Theroux’s Manosphere documentary coming out recently. We’re living in a world of toxic masculinity, but in plain sight. So I think that’ll be a talking point, something that resonates, the idea that all of these things taking place in this private community are also taking place in the real world, often being acted out by the most powerful men in the world, so openly.

 

CH: What’s happening in these groups can be dark, but what’s happening in plain view all around us strikes an altogether more worrying chord.

 

FF: Totally, because it’s so blatant and it’s actually being actively shared and celebrated like they’re shouting it from the rooftops with conviction and pride. You know, which is the more dangerous group? It’s fascinating.

CH: Both Northern Ireland and the Republic are finally getting the recognition they deserve on-screen at the moment. Is that a considerable source of pride for you?

 

FF: It’s an amazing moment for Irish talent and I hope it’s something that doesn’t go away. We’re really being recognised on the global stage because we’ve always had our rich culture. We’ve always had our tradition of storytelling, we’ve always been storytellers and actors in some way. That’s just part of our makeup. So to see it play out on the global stage and Cillian Murphy and Jessie Buckley getting their Oscars, It’s just so, so cool. I’m hugely proud to be part of this community of Irish actors, writers and directors coming through the Republic and the North. Growing up, it was rare to even hear a voice from the North of Ireland on TV, unless it was about the Troubles. I actually used to struggle to perform in my own accent. But I really have changed significantly in that regard and I really love acting in my own accent because actually the closer that I am to the character, the better. I love that I’m using my own accent in [Unchosen]. Originally, Sam was written as having this northern English voice, but when I went to audition, they saw no reason for him not to be from Ireland.

 

 

CH: Your stage credits are also incredibly impressive. Between the US, England and Ireland, I think I counted nearly 30 on-stage appearances including as Emcee in Cabaret. How does acting on stage compare to film and TV? Do you prefer one or the other, or do you love them for different reasons? And what’s been your favourite part to play on stage?

 

FF: When I started off, theatre was the only thing that was around me. Although I loved going to the cinema, I think a part of me almost didn’t even believe that the actors in these things were real people. There’s something very satisfying about telling a story on a nightly basis from A to B. The obvious difference is that you shoot a story completely out of sequence on-screen, so it’s a different beast entirely. It’s such an editor’s game. You can do your best, but your best work might end up on the cutting room floor. But I do enjoy both, for sure. I’m next doing a play up at Pitlochry with Alan Cumming, who’s taking over this little theatre up in Scotland where he grew up. He’s directing myself and Simon Russell Beale in a play about Liberace written by Martin Sherman. Simon Russell Beale is playing Liberace. I play this sort of unnamed young writer who challenges Liberace as to why he wasn’t able to live authentically in his life and yet he’s revered as this famous LGBTQ figure. So it’s a conversation between generations about the inheritance of what it means to be a gay person in the world. It’s really brilliant and to work with those two will just be such a thrill.

 

CH: Liberace is fascinating. I didn’t realise he never really came out.

 

FF: No. He famously won a court case for defamation, the exact same type of case that Oscar Wilde lost and was subsequently sent to prison for. But Liberace won and he was gay. It’s really interesting. It’s going to be a fun one.