Now I’m curious—how does Irish press differ?
Jackson: Irish press is really, really lovely. I’m obviously well used to it, but I think UK press is such a different landscape.
Mamet: We had so many Irish outlets for our junket day, and it felt like the overall vibe was just excitement. It was like your favorite aunt who’s come to your school recital; that was the energy they were coming in with. I loved it.
Did you guys meet prior to filming The Decameron? I’d love to know your origin story.
Jackson: We hadn’t met before the show, and I was so excited to know that I’d been cast alongside Zosia. I was a massive Girls fan, and I absolutely loved The Flight Attendant, which is another thing that uses genre in such an interesting way and has a spooky, surrealist tone, similar to The Decameron. I was told by our showrunner Kathleen [Jordan] that we were going to get on very, very well, and from the moment that I met her, I just felt entirely comfortable and couldn’t wait for the rest of the scripts to be delivered so we could do these massive story arcs together. It felt like we already knew each other.
Mamet: It was strange, because it felt like all these people in our lives were predicting that we were going to be best friends. One of my dearest friends in LA was also a huge fan of Saoirse’s, and when she found out I got the job, she was like, “I don’t know, I think you’re going to be close, I just have a feeling.” Kathleen said the same thing, and I was like, this is a lot of pressure! And then we met and it was just instantaneous, and by day two we, like, had our hands in each other’s mouths. [Laughs.]
Do you think your Girls and Derry Girls characters would be friends?
Jackson: We’ve actually been talking about it, and I think they would definitely be friends. It would for sure be a role reversal, and I think Erin would swallow Shoshanna whole. She would eat Shoshanna for breakfast. But I think Shoshanna would then have her comeuppance and put Erin back in her box. I think they’d be an epic pairing.
