It's a universal story': Barry Ward on queer fishing village romance On The Sea

Irish actor Barry Ward says his new queer romance film, On The Sea, uses a Welsh fishing-village setting to tell what he describes as a universal story. In the film, Ward plays Jack, a mussel harvester who falls for Daniel, a younger itinerant worker portrayed by Scottish actor Lorne MacFadyen. Jack is married to his childhood sweetheart and lives in a community shaped by the church and the fishing industry, where suppressed desires are brought to the surface. Ward, 55, said the location can stand in for working-class towns worldwide, particularly those marked by macho industrial labor culture. He also discussed the challenge of adopting a Welsh accent for a specific northern region. MacFadyen, 36, praised Helen Walsh’s sparse dialogue and evolving script process.