Erin Doherty | “A Trip to Bosnia Made Me Want to Be an Actor”

0:00You're listening to Travel Secrets with Tanya Rose, the podcast that shares wisdom for fellow travelers.

0:09Welcome to Travel Secrets with me, Tanya Rose, the podcast sharing wisdom for fellow travelers. Each week, I ask my guests to reveal their six travel secrets and the holidays and adventures that surround them. I would just like to say thank you to Mason Rose, the sales and communication agency that represents some of the finest hotels around the world for partnering with Travel Secrets the podcast. Today my guest is the fantastic actress Erin Doherty famed for so many roles but most recently for your unbelievable portrayal as the therapist in adolescence which was just so breathtakingly wonderful.

0:49Thank you. Amazing. Thank you. I loved you as Princess Anne and I actually thought that is how you talked until I have subsequently listen to you in other things and also A Thousand Blows is just brilliant. Thank you. So it is wonderful to meet you and I cannot wait to hear your travel tales. Thanks for having me, can't wait to talk about them. Before we get into the travel secrets perhaps you can just tell us a bit about yourself and how travel impacted the person you've become, did you travel when you were young, let's just talk generally about you and how you got to this place. Okay I suppose I kind of grew up having I did the classic thing well I feel like it's a classic thing of you just go on the same holiday every year like so actually my kind of introduction to travel was pretty low level basic we went to Portugal and that was as I say that was like our family thing that we did with my dad and it was only actually it was one particular trip that I took with my school at the end of my A-levels that kind of shifted everything for me in the sense that we basically we went to Bosnia and I never thought that I would ever go somewhere like that in my life and we took a piece of theatre out there to the Mostar Youth Theatre Festival and I remember being on the plane home from that trip being like I want to be an actor because I grew up doing musical theatre but it was never specifically acting so that was kind of the game changer of a trip for me and it was going somewhere like that that kind of opened my eyes to exploration in such in like the larger sense of the word of like just going out and seeing the world and letting that impact your view of culture and humanity and it just it really really shifted everything for me so that kind of yeah so travel is really special to me in that sense and ever since that trip I've kind of really been desperate to just explore and see and and try things and so that was kind of a pivotal moment that's amazing Bosnia at that young age I know incredible yeah and I remember like going to my dad being like so they want to take us to bosnia and he was like what do you mean like he was like no and then like we kind of explored the whole like breakdown of it and it was all safe and it was all lovely and my drama teacher had been there for years and years and years so my dad was like all right okay then and my sister was coming as well because we both went to the same secondary school had the same drama teacher and it was this kind of culmination of events that we were just both lucky to go on this trip um but yeah that was a real and you grew up in crawley didn't you I did.

3:21So my dad's garage, so he was in the motor business, was in Three Bridges. It was called Target Motor Company. No way. That was where I lived. I was like the last place I lived in Crawley. It was Three Bridges. Because we moved all about, went to West Green, Tilgate for a bit. And then, yeah, I landed in Three Bridges. That's so weird. I know. Such a small world, isn't it? What? That's extraordinary. Oh my gosh. Three Bridges is lovely, you know. Well, we lived in Forest Row, which was up the road, and then his garage was there. How extraordinary. As is. Wow. Let's get into your travel secrets.

3:52From Crawley to Bosnia to the rest of the world. What's the number one destination you think everyone should go to once in a lifetime? I think for me, Sri Lanka has been, again, like just I think we were lucky enough to go and see the temples. We went and saw elephants, the tea factories, but also just like, again, the culture out there is so humbling. and just they're such gorgeous people like that was a real kind of yeah moment for me going there so I would definitely and that as I say I've kind of now got to this place where I want to explore and if I've been somewhere I don't really want to go back there but that is the one spot that I I would go back there in a heartbeat like it really is so beautiful and the people are meant to be amazing genuinely like and the food like I'm such a foodie it was just but yeah particularly the experience of engaging with people it was was really yeah really really special they're such beautiful people do you get time between your filming to go on these trips I'd like to say yeah but I was kind of I spoke to you on the way here about that a little bit I'm really I fall into the trap of just I'm so grateful that I get to my passion is my job and I get to do this for a living that I just kind of I work and work and work and then I look up and I'm like oh god I haven't actually been away for like two years so um I'm gonna try that's kind of like on my like just to-do lists of growing as a person is to just learn to stop because I said at the beginning I mean literally adolescence a thousand blows the crown they've literally been back to back yeah yeah and it was actually only covid that got in the way of those things if like if it wasn't for that I would have there would maybe have been a couple more things in there like I I just, as I say, I really, I just love people and I love what I do.

5:43And I find it so interesting just exploring psychology, which to kind of, yeah, lean on adolescence was why I was so, I didn't even read the script for that project. I just said yes when I found out the kind of like description of that woman. I was like, of course I want to do this. So yeah, I've grown up just fascinated by people that I just find it so easy to say yes. Well, you were amazing as the therapist. And that one scene with you and the boy, it really was breathtaking. It was just fantastic. And not to like, I feel like finally the world is really like, well, to be fair, it was his first job, but not to keep hounding people about Owen.

6:22But he really is spectacular. Like I'm so excited for him. And to be in that room watching him kind of just bloom was so magical. and he really really is like everything that you see on screen he is that special so it was it was a real yeah it was a pillar I think for me and I'll always yeah look back on well it was a pillar for all of us to watch because it was just incredible let's go on to your unexpected travel tale or something unexpected that happened to you I've for me I basically I had never ironically my roots are in Ireland like my family from Donegal, Condona in Donegal we've never been there but a couple of years ago my girlfriend took me to Ireland she's from Ireland we went to Dungarvan in Waterford and we climbed the Cumra mountains and saw these waterfalls and we were just really lucky because I remember we woke up we weren't there for that long and she was like what do you want to do today and she gave me a list of things and I was like let's go let's go to the waterfalls and she was like they might not be doing their beautiful thing but we climbed these mountains and they were and it was just I've never seen anything like it so it was really really glorious and it was like our first proper trip that we went on together so it was really special in that sense and we also then on that same trip went to somewhere called Ardmore and did the cliff walks and we saw dolphins oh that's lovely Ardmore there's a great hotel there called the cliff hotel i'm desperate to go apparently it's amazing yes it is unreal and i follow i'm literally just like i'm desperate to go there so that's like if we go back that will be somewhere that i'll definitely take her but yeah so that was something that i think i don't know what i was expecting but i just was not expecting that and i think everyone always talks about ireland as like this most like you're just in the heart of nature and it is so giving in that sense and And it really, I think until you go and you experience it, it doesn't quite hit home the kind of the depth.

8:27There's just, yeah, and maybe it was, as I say, because I'm from there, there was something in me that was like, yeah, it just spoke to me in a way that I don't think I was ready for. And yeah, it was being surrounded by those waterfalls. I just, yeah, I really had to take a moment. And we stayed up there for like hours and just like sat on this bench. And it was really, yeah, it was really, really special. And you've never filmed an island? Never. I think that was also it. It's because I was like, well, I'm going to go because everything films there and I've just never been. So, yeah, fingers crossed.

8:57Next project. Hopefully. Yeah, someone's got to do something. Listen, everyone, come on. Send Aaron to Ireland. Yeah, please. What's your most underrated or overrated travel experience? And it's quite hard to say overrated because people don't want to be mean. But if you've got something, please tell me. And if not, you can say underrated. I was going to say, I really don't know if I've got an overrated. like I love the opportunity to go anywhere so I would say for me underrated would definitely be the UK like I think my sister lives in Horsham around that area and whenever we can we just go out and we walk and like so all around the South Downs I think the most recent place we went to was somewhere called Sisbury Ring like you walk up this massive hill and you end up looking out all over like Brighton essentially and we did it at Christmas and it was just spectacular like it is you can you just kind of don't until you're kind of zoomed out in that way you don't realize how easy it is to be swept up and caught up in your own stuff but I think there's something about that height that really does just give you pause and like I say I think it's the most underrated thing for me is not needing to get on a plane and just walking out your front door I think this place this island that we live on is really really it's gorgeous and I think yeah for me yeah walking and I'll yeah specifically the South Downs is have you been to Ashdown Forest where we grew up because that's beautiful it's gorgeous that's what I mean I think and I kind of so as I say I kind of grew up going to Portugal but apart from that we'd just get out and you'd go places and you'd be like right let's pack a picnic or even just pack a sandwich and go somewhere like that is it for me like and I think that is yeah that's my happy place I think if I'm out with my sister on a walk I'm just like I don't need anything else when you filmed the crown was that filmed in the countryside or how where was that filmed all over to be fair we did a little stint in Scotland which was amazing we flew to Inverness and like we stayed in these like log cabins and that was pretty special but we also yeah we went all over they also built like Buckingham Palace and Balmoral yeah so they literally yeah again yes we were there for that um but yeah so that was kind of and that was like really because I did a little episode on Call the Midwife but The Crown was my first kind of big tv job so I'll never forget the like when I first met Olivia Colman she was like don't get used to this because she was like this is not a normal job.

11:29Yeah, she was just like, this is, you won't experience this again. And like, fair play to her. I haven't. Like, I think walking into that and like getting to explore all these places and it was, yeah, that was a whirlwind of a job. But again, like it took me to so many gorgeous places around the UK. Did you do two seasons? Yeah. So it was like two years. Two years of my life just kind of traveling the UK. Fun. And yeah, it was, again, like a real. So was Dominic West in it when you were in it? no but I met here yeah he was the next lot but I'd met it strangely enough I got the job when I was working with him on Les Mis for the BBC so I remember him being like oh my god that's gonna be amazing and then it kind of came full circle when I graduated essentially and he took over I was like that's such an amazing full circle moment um but yeah then we met again like at like the rat party essentially and um yeah no he's such a lovely man he's so fun and he was one of the first people i interviewed on this podcast amazing and his wife has got a castle in ireland yeah yeah and they like rent it out and stuff yeah yeah he told a hilarious story that the kardashians wanted to go and his mother-in-law said no no yeah i know i couldn't believe it to be fair though if you can turn down the kardashians then i mean then why wouldn't you wow i'm honestly though i did i heard him talk about it and i was like i need to investigate hate this place no apparently it's lovely um what were you in limits i haven't seen that version were you cosette uh no i was again like this was like pre-crown so i literally was like a couple of like episodes but um yeah so it was dominic west lily collins who's such a lovely person is that emily in paris yes yeah she was unreal and again like we kind of grew up driving to my dad's um listening to phil collins and i never got to tell her how big a fan i am of her dad but my sister was like the minute that I got that job she was like you need to tell her and I was like so to be fair this is it Lily I'm telling you like now I kept my call for this long.

13:28So let's talk about food and drink. Food and drink is so much part of our lives, so much part of travel. What do you like eating? Where do you like eating? What's your favorite drink? What's the best meal you've ever had? Let's just talk about food and drink. I love I love food. I'm the biggest foodie to be fair that is kind of my first port of call when I'm like where do I want to go is what essentially do I want to eat um so for me I this is a really tough choice because I love I genuinely love food so I've had so many amazing meals um but I think because it's most recent we went on a trip to New York and I think again it's because it wasn't planned I love kind of just rocking up somewhere off the cuff and being surprised like that for me makes the whole experience we walked into this place called jeffrey's grocery in the west village in new york and it is literally that like it's not fancy but we had the most amazing meal like we had oysters lobster rolls tuna tartar like it was just stunning and they did me a glass of chilled red like not many places do a chilled red and i'm like that was pretty so yeah again maybe it's just because it's fresh in my mind but But yeah, Jeffrey's was...

14:41That sounds amazing. I'm going to put that on my list for when I go to New York. Is that when you were interviewed by Jimmy Fallon? Yes, that was that trip. So yeah, honestly. And again, maybe it was that. It was just kind of this strange, bizarre, surreal moment in time. But yeah, no, that meal for me was pretty special. And what do you do here? Do you go out a lot or do you cook at home? I'm kind of, yeah, I'm definitely guilty of being bougie. like I because I well basically whenever you work with people I'll always be like tell me your favorite restaurant and that's like one of my favorite questions to ask people because I feel like everyone has such different experiences or different palates but basically I worked with Stephen Graham on a couple of things and he was like you need to go this will come out a little bit later so actually I've only just booked this restaurant but he was like you need to go to Frog um so I'll again highly recommend I've not even been there yet where is it basically I feel like it's just off the strand but yeah so it's like a michelin star place so i'll always go bougie because i'm like i want to i want to taste these things and like i'm so passionate about what i do so to sit down and taste someone's food that like is so passionate about what they do i feel like it's just there so i'll never stop doing that but also i love a home-cooked meal like it really does i think maybe there's something about cooking for someone that is just so glorious so i'm getting into that I wouldn't say that I'm making the best things in the world but you know it comes from love so um yeah and that means it will taste lovely I pray no it does if there's an amazing film called like water for chocolate a Spanish film have you not seen that no it is one of the best films you will ever see in your life it's from a Spanish book and it's about this woman who cooks and when she's sad everyone is poisoned and when she's happy everyone has these orgasms and And it is the most beautiful, beautiful film in Spanish.

16:34I need to watch that. Light Water for Chocolate. On my list. Incredible. Thank you. Very good. I love a good film recommendation, especially about food. Yeah, it's fantastic. And I went to see Stephen being interviewed about adolescence just over the road, actually. And his wife was in the audience, Hannah. Hannah. They were so divine together. They are. They were sort of playing off each other. They were so wonderful. Aren't they amazing? I call them like unicorns. unicorns like they are just these people that enter your life and you're like how are you real like they just ooze generosity and they're just the kindest human beings honestly since they've so it was a thousand blows that um i first got to meet them both um because they produce it yeah um but yeah since they've come into my life i honestly i'm like i don't know where i'd be without them yeah they're really well both a thousand blows and adolescents have been brilliant with both of you so carry on carry on doing things together tell them he needs to do something in Ireland that's it I need to make that happen okay honestly I'll send him a text after this or a little voice note we're big on voice notes me and Steve I hate a voice note why no no I can't bear it because why if I have a voice note and someone's standing next to me I don't know what that person said because it could be terrible and I don't want someone else to listen so I have to be on my own and then that's fine but I'm usually surrounded by people so I'm like I can't open this voice note text if it's really important because I have no idea what that person's going to say to me.

18:02Do you know what I just found out that I didn't realize again I'm such a grandma with technology if you hold the phone up to your ear the voice note plays like a phone call. Who knew? I didn't know that. I thought it had to be shared to the world but no. Ah that's a top tip. Game changer. Oh well my staff will be very happy to hear that because I say don't send me a voice note. I'm telling you. Going on to top travel tips what is your top travel tip? again this kind of happened well it happens luckily out of the fact that I love music and I will listen to a song on repeat like I am that person and I accept that it annoys some people immensely but I just can't stop listening to a song when I love it so what I've learned by accident is that if you attach a song to a location whenever you play that song back like I feel like music carries emotion in a way that like a picture can't nothing else can for me personally so it what I've yeah gained is if I listen to a song on repeat in a location when I play it back like I'm transported back there and you never forget the way you felt in that place and it can be gorgeous or sad or hilarious it just for me it was an absolute kind of yeah I remember stumbling upon that through work because I would travel and I'd attach a specific song to a character and whenever I'd play it back I'd be like oh my god I'm back in Scotland or whatever um so now I do it when I go away so how do you attach it to the place do you pin it well as in like you literally as in just keep listening to it again like you say it happens mentally so I thought you were saying there's an app or something that you can actually pin to a place You probably could.

19:47You could. But again, I'm not that tech savvy. But I literally I just listen to a song on repeat in a location. And then whenever I play it back, I'm like, oh, I'm in this place. And it's really lovely. It's just such a lovely like thing to do. Because then you never forget that feeling of being there. So what's a song that reminds you of a place? so yeah i've got again most recently i was listening to a lot of the 1975 in new york and so i was listening to particularly a song called paris by them um and so now that is new york or that specific i know ironically but that specific trip that's what i mean because you can i've been to new york a multitude of times but that trip the jimmy fallon trip is paris by the 1975 fantastic yeah so it's my little tip and actually people have said to me that they buy perfumes in places that they go to because then that scent reminds them of that as well yeah so maybe that's my thing that's my sense like that carries the most sentiment for me so for me it is it's all about music and so I've learned to just kind of go okay well this trip is this song and you said you did musical theater before so do you still sing I do and I love it and again like it's one of those things that I'm like I'm desperate to do it in the right context so again maybe I'll send another voice note to Stephen and be like, just so you know, there's also this.

21:03A musical film in Ireland. You heard it here first. We'll see what happens. Wouldn't it be amazing if all of a sudden that job came out and you were like, oh my God. That was on Travel Secrets. This was where it started. I want a voice note if it does. Well, and you've got to listen to it through the thing. And I'll, yeah. That's just brilliant. It's really, really, isn't it weird? I kind of believe in like manifestation. I completely believe in it. It's a thing. I'm so cranky. I've got vision boards all over my office. And actually now I'm befriended chat GPT or GBT, whatever it's called. And I now ask it to do things and create these pictures and things.

21:40I've got one on my phone as my saver. That's amazing. And I showed it to everyone. They thought, oh my God, you are a bit mad. I've got a house in the country with three dogs in front of it. Yes. I don't have that house. I don't have three dogs. You will. But I will. I believe it. It's a real thing. It's energy. My husband will be listening to this going, oh my God, I can't believe she's even said on the podcast i'm gonna back you up i back you up 100 manifestation is real let's go on to your most poignant travel memory bosnia like again like i don't think i ever anticipated going somewhere like that um and i got like i say it kind of it was so informative for my life i think that's why it's poignant is because i came back from that trip knowing what i wanted to do and i've never had that feeling before and I've never had that since like it was a real talk about manifestation it was a real kind of moment of clarity where you know I don't really know how else to describe it when things just come into focus and you're just kind of like I I don't know what else like it is but there's just some thing telling me that I'm supposed to do this and I've yeah I've never had it like I've never heard it louder than on that trip um so yeah Bosnia was was a big big deal for me and that's when you decided not to be a footballer not to be a footballer not to do musical theater I literally got on the plane I remember kind of getting it yeah in my head that was going to sit down because my dad was all I've kind of always grown up having these discussions with my dad about what I do and I was going to go to uni but I kind of got it in my head that I was like right I'm going to sit down with my dad and tell him that this is what I want to do and it was just this big big moment in my life and even now like in hindsight looking back like that was a real kind of pivot for me and it has changed everything so was your dad okay was he he did push back a little bit like he's one of the he's like he's a very kind of logical man and he was like but you should have a plan b and i was like i don't want a plan b i don't want to have the safety net i don't want any of that i just want to do this and it was yeah it was the the energy from that bosnia trip that allowed me to just kind of jump off that cliff and go all out and just go even if i fail i've got to do it um fantastic so yeah it was yeah that was a really really big moment in my life amazing I asked you to bring a photo yes can you show me the photo or describe the photo and tell me what that means to you and how that sums up travel to you so it's a picture of me and my sister ironically well yeah it's our shadows but it's when we were we've been on a walk we call each other well we're our we're each other's biggest fans um but we're our one constant so we kind of we grew up exploring the world and going on walks and we just kind of we are each other's best friends and for me yeah getting out going on a walk with her or going to Portugal or going anywhere like I just for me that is my happy place and it always will be and there's also it she also kind of she represents again like she's really big into manifestation and um she for me represents just kind of dreaming and if you want something going and getting it and yeah so we've always said that we'll travel the world together and yeah so that's that's it for me that's wonderful that's a beautiful beautiful photograph and the fact is it's a shadow not even your faces but it sums up everything doesn't it before i let you go where are you going next and what are you doing business wise next what what are we going to see you in excitingly i can talk about this one it's called california avenue um it's with the bbc it's a mini series with helena bonham carter and bill nye uh and tom burke so i'm really really excited so we start shooting that uh this summer uh which will be really where are you doing it In the South Downs.

25:51Oh, how amazing. Yeah, so it's going to be pretty special. And where are you going on holiday next? I suppose you've just come back from holiday. I have. So maybe fall back on to work for a while. Well, I mean, I've already kind of got it laid out. Like I love seafood and sushi. So Japan is the big hitter next. Because again, like so many people go there and they're just like culturally you need, like nothing can prepare you for Japan. So I think, yeah, me and my girlfriend are going to plan. That's our next like big trip. I'm sure I'll do other little bits and bobs here and there, but that's the one that like you sit down and you really kind of go, okay, let's hit this, this, this, and this.

26:28Like you really kind of get a proper itinerary together. Like that's, I'm really excited for that. That's fantastic. And talking of seafood, we're at the Peninsula. They've got a pop-up restaurant July and August, Mediterranean seafood. Amazing. On the rooftop, on the terrace. So you must come back and try it. I'm there. I'm there already. You'll love it. It has been so much fun meeting you. I've absolutely loved going around the world with you. thank you so much it's been wonderful thanks for having me thank you so much for listening to this episode of travel secrets i'm loving making this podcast and want it to reach as many people as possible to build this community of fellow travelers so please do subscribe on your favorite podcast app and share with a friend i'll be back next week and remember this podcast might not change your life but it might just change your plans

27:21Thank you.