Nicola Coughlan Says Society Not Doing Enough To Tackle Toxic Masculinity On Eve Of Launch Of Powerful Channel 4 Drama ‘I Am Helen’

As her powerful drama I Am Helen gets set to launch, Nicola Coughlan has told Deadline society is not doing enough to address the challenges wrought by toxic masculinity. The Bridgerton star spent months working with I Am Helen co-creator Dominic Savage shaping the two-part drama, in which she stars opposite Gangs of London’s Joe Cole. Putting the semi-improvized show together involved plenty of research and Coughlan feels as a society we could be doing more. “No I don’t,” she replied plainly to the question of whether society is doing enough. “It’s clear that toxic masculinity is on the rise among young men. So much responsibility is placed on young women to stay safe and protect themselves from dangerous situations, but we also need to ask who the perpetrators are.” Watch on Deadline In I Am Helen, the latest in Savage’s BAFTA-winning Channel 4 anthology that tells stories from a female perspective, Coughlan is the titular character, who is in a relationship with Steve (Cole), a man struggling with daily life and taking it out on her. The devastating story examines the pressure and expectations placed on women while confronting the realities of toxic masculinity and the damage it can create in modern relationships. Toxic masculinity and the manosphere have come up a fair bit in cultural touchstones of late such as Netflix’s Adolescence and Louis Theroux doc Inside the Manosphere. Coughlan, Cole and Savage all stressed that I Am Helen is an intimate story that doesn’t veer too close to the extremes of the manosphere. “Hopefully [I Am Helen] shows two real people whom viewers might recognize in themselves or in their friends,” added Coughlan. “It isn’t heightened or unrealistic. Joe Cole’s character, Steve, isn’t a caricature of a bad guy. Helen is an ordinary woman who’s been in this relationship for a long time. I hope that normality speaks to people.” In order to prepare, Cole said he “went down the rabbit hole of the so-called manosphere” but found it more useful watching videos from men whose views are slightly more dialled down, yet dangerous nonetheless. “They might be pickup artists or talk about self-improvement,” he added. “They might seem reasonable, but every now and then they’ll say something a little off-key like, ‘A woman should provide for me and stay at home’.” Cole added: “We’re trying to show how a relatively normal person can be influenced by this stuff because life isn’t going the way they imagined.” Savage, who has now made eight I Am episodes working with the likes of Kate Winslet and Letitia Wright, said I Am Helen places women front and center of a toxic masculinity story, a contrast to the likes of Theroux’s doc, which “was more entertaining and you could find it a bit pathetic or laughable even while recognizing the seriousness.” Savage wanted to explore the subject as he felt “there is a disconnect” between men and women in modern relationships. “Things have fallen apart,” he added. “Many women choose not to be in relationships because there can be so many problems. That was the territory we wanted to explore.” Savage’s methods “terrifying” but “freeing” Image: Me+You Productions / Channel 4 Savage’s methods involve meeting with an actor who feels she has something to say about society and developing a show from there, before an intense period of chronological filming that is semi-improvized in the vein of British auteurs like Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. I Am Helen is his first from the anthology that has multiple episodes. All previous I Am shows are available in the U.S. on HBO Max. Coughlan, who wrote her Masters thesis on the work of Leigh and Loach, said the idea “grew organically” out of conversations with Savage. She found filming one of the biggest challenges of her career. “It was terrifying because you’re really hoping you don’t have an off day,” she said. “As actors, we rely on the dialog writers give us as an anchor, and you think, ‘If I can’t improvize well today, is this just going to be terrible?’ At the same time, it was incredibly freeing. The process was very different. The crew was tiny so everyone was involved.” Coughlan needn’t have been terrified. Savage praised the Derry Girls breakout for “being fearless and open to trying things,” while Cole said the “eloquent, intelligent” star “brought all of herself to the role.” Cole, who also tried to shape Steve’s role as cameras rolled, said while Coughlan’s “belief system” is broadly the same as her character’s, he was portraying someone whose belief system is completely different to his own. “I figured this out as I went,” he added. “Nicola brings a lot of energy and asks a lot of questions; she contributes so much to the scenes [as Helen]. Steve can’t always articulate himself as well, so that yin and yang worked really well.” The “yin and yang” comes to the fore almost immediately with an opening scene that tackles the subject of strangulation during sex, touching on a topic that has been in the news of late, with the UK government bringing in legislation last week to ban pornography featuring choking. Cole and Coughlan had barely met before filming the strangulation scene but Cole said the communication was always there and the team worked with an intimacy co-ordinator. “Even though it looks raw, we planned it so everyone feels safe,” he added. “Those boundaries also mean you can push the emotion further.” Cole relished the improvized nature of I Am Helen, what he termed a lifting of the “red tape” that is often associated with bigger productions. “Sometimes, especially in the States, there’s so much red tape before you get to the performance and the heart of what you’re trying to achieve,” he added. “Luckily, Nicola and I built trust right at the beginning.” Savage concurs, saying he would “never make these shows any other way” and that actors are “hungry for different approaches” in today’s peak content era. I Am… In Love Savage and Winslet (left and right) hold their BAFTAs for ‘I Am Ruth’. Image: Joe Maher/Getty The show ends on something of an uplifting note and Savage said it was important to demonstrate “defiance” in Helen’s character. This could feed into his next I Am, for which he said he wants to focus on love. “We’ve become very cynical,” he added. “Many people feel they’ll never meet the person they want to be with and some have never known what love is. I’d be happy if I could spend the rest of my life making work about real, truthful love — not something silly or saccharine — but a serious exploration of what it means to fall in love.” I Am Helen launches next Monday on Channel 4 and concludes the following night. The series is produced by Me+ You Productions, co-funded by Sky Studios, and international sales are handled by NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution.