Ali & Ava: Bradford film's lead actress Claire Rushbrook talks about Clio Barnard's Yorkshire love story

Actress Claire Rushbrook describes it numerous times as “authentic” in its portrayal of romance and it is clear that she is thrilled to be involved.

Having worked mainly in supporting roles on screen since the mid-1990s, Rushbrook plays one of the two leads in the film that was shot on location in Bradford’s Holme Wood area.

“Most of us actors don’t get choices,” says Rushbrook. “I was just delighted to see a primarily complex character that I’d have the chance to explore, playing someone with lots of different stuff going on, but the challenge being to portray that authentically and truthfully without going into cliché or schmaltz or being melodramatic.”

Rushbrook is Ava, a teaching assistant grandmother who meets Ali (Adeel Akhtar) when he joins one of his tenants dropping their child off at school.

The pair bond over music – which itself plays a big part in the film – and share an infectious sense of humour. Ali still lives with, though is separated from, his ex-partner. Ava, too, has a past that could jeopardise their happiness – though it can’t be divulged without spoiling the plot.

Rushbrook says: “The joy of being an actor is that you get asked to explore and play things that you would never dream of doing, or politics you’d never dream of having perhaps. I’ve played all sorts of terrible people and Ava is not a terrible person, by any means, but she made choices that I have trouble understanding.”

She adds: “I think Clio has written a film that very delicately acknowledges those grey areas that many people have in their lives that are not neatly wrapped up or satisfactorily explored even, but they’re there nonetheless.”

It is a “complex story about complex themes”, she says, that “aren’t preached at you or aren’t solved, even, but they are acknowledged – like in life.”

The character of Ava was inspired by a real person called Rio and her portrayal on screen was developed in workshops with the actress Rebecca Manley before Rushbrook, who is from north Hertfordshire, came on board.

She says: “I knew that this lady Rio was the inspiration for Ava and she very generously agreed to meet me and welcome me into her home and we just hung out. I didn’t have a notebook, I didn’t have any questions, really, specifically about her or her history because I think the script stands for itself very clearly. But I just wanted to hang out and get a sense of this woman Clio was inspired by and that was enormously helpful.”

Is there an added pressure on her, given that the character is based on a real person? “I always feel responsibility, without wanting to sound worthy,” she says.

“But particularly when you’re portraying people who have experienced or are experiencing painful circumstances, you’re always aware that there’ll be people watching who are in the same boat or are triggered by certain things that you’re portraying and for me, there will be nothing worse than feeling that something didn’t ring true, or something I did was offensive to them, or hollow or superficial. It’s ingrained in you as an actor to want to be as truthful as you can to give as good a performance as you can but I do feel we have empathy – it’s what makes us do our jobs well – and so that is in my mind very much.”

Rushbrook and Akhtar are an older match than what you would typically see in a cinematic love story. Would she like more of that on the big screen?

“It is a thing that under the many awful injustices of representation in our business, one of them happens to be that older actresses don’t feel represented, and I do agree with that, I can see that for myself.

“We are middle aged in it, but it doesn’t have all the sort of tropes or the assumptions that you’d make about what a middle aged love story is. It’s far fresher and more authentic. Just like it really is in life – no matter what age, you can be giddy and vulnerable and challenged by big feelings.

“So, I don’t care who the story is about as long as they’re about all of us because it gets boring seeing the same stories about the same people.”

Bradford itself is also a star of the film, it could be said, which is the case for various Barnard projects.

Her feature-length debut The Arbor, a documentary about the late Buttershaw playwright Andrea Dunbar, received huge critical success on its release in 2010 and numerous awards.

The Selfish Giant, her second feature film about two 13-year-old working-class friends in Bradford seeking their fortune, launched at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2013 , while her third, Dark River, premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

In Ali & Ava – which was made with Screen Yorkshire investment – Bradford is not overly romanticised, but represented simply as it is, featuring the horses of Holme Wood, the fireworks, the inner-city terrace houses, the tower blocks and the beautiful hilly landscapes.

Barnard has said of the film: “What would happen if you took melodrama as a genre and applied it to a social-realist version of Bradford that’s based on real people? It’s an opportunity to think about what it means to be part of a community. There’s a lot of kindness, generosity and support in Bradford and I wanted to see that writ large on the big screen.”

Rushbrook, 50, says: “Clichés are everywhere and you can get seduced into doing all sorts of nonsense and I know Clio was very excited to show Bradford in all of this, in all of its guises,” adding: There’s no violins, no sweeping moments, it is true Yorkshire. Understated, but deeply felt. Things happen in a very matter of fact, real way but with such warmth and heart.”

She adds: “We were lucky enough to film on location. It was all there for the taking. The people were very friendly and welcoming. But the house that they created for my character, the street we worked on, there was so much there that helped me and my imagination, along with other people I know personally, down the road in Huddersfield, family members.”

Screen Yorkshire and industry partner Bradford Film Office supported the production of the film, which has been nominated at the Baftas for ‘Outstanding British Film’ and Adeel Akhtar for ‘Best Actor’.

Caroline Cooper Charles, CEO of Screen Yorkshire, is credited as an executive producer on the film alongside colleague Hugo Heppell.

She said: “Filming wrapped on Ali & Ava in Bradford in January 2020, so we’ve been waiting some time to finally share this wonderful story with audiences. Inspired by the people of Bradford, Clio and Tracy (O’Riordan, producer) have created a warm and hopeful film which shows how kind and supportive people can be to one another – a much-needed message after the events of the last two years.”

What does Rushbrook, who has recently played smaller parts in Yorkshire director Francis Lee’s Ammonite and Enola Holmes, now expect of her future? “I’m feeling realistic. By nature I’m a glass half-full person but I’m quite level-headed.”

She adds: “Although I’m excited to have a lead role in a wonderful film, I think it’s unlikely to translate in lead roles coming at me left, right and centre. If they do, wonderful, but you know, I don’t care, really, and I never have as long as – it sounds like a cliché – but as long as it’s good parts, even if they’re just a couple of scenes. If it’s a part of something that I feel I can get stuck into and if the story’s good, and the people I’m working with are good and exciting to me, then I’m happy. I really do feel lucky to just keep chugging away.”

Ali & Ava is in cinemas on Friday.