Pauline McLeanScotland arts correspondent
BBC
Andrea Bisset hopes to continue her acting career after appearing in a major British movie
She has a condition which causes her to swear uncontrollably – but now a young woman from Lanarkshire is hoping to forge a career as an actor.
Andrea Bissett from Airdrie went viral online for sharing her experience of learning to drive while having Tourette’s syndrome.
She’s since won a role in the film I Swear, which tells the story of John Davidson who became the reluctant poster boy for the then little known condition in the 1980s.
The film also gives a glimpse of a new generation who have been willing to put their own stories in the spotlight to inspire and educate others.
NL School of Motoring
Andrea became a viral sensation after her driving lessons with instructor Nicky Lui were posted on YouTube
Andrea Bissett from Airdrie was only formally diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome a month ago.
Like John, she has one of the most severe forms of the neurological condition including coprolalia which causes involuntary swearing and explicit outbursts.
Last year, she became an internet sensation when her driving lessons with local instructor Nicky Lui were shared online.
Their gentle rapport, interrupted by her outrageous outbursts, drew attention to the condition which is believed to affect one in a hundred school aged children in the UK.
“I knew Nicky had put other lessons online but he was apprehensive about whether to share mine because you never know how people are going to take it,” she says.
Initially the videos were only seen by local audiences but they were quickly shared further afield and that’s how they came to the attention of filmmaker Kirk Jones who was in the process of making I Swear.
They met – like so many of Andrea’s milestones – in a car on an industrial estate in Glasgow.
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Andrea attended the premiere of I Swear
As someone who didn’t have Tourettes himself, she was nervous about the filmmaker’s motives. But she read the script.
“I’m a slow reader but I read it cover to cover and I was crying. Completely inconsolable,” says Andrea.
“It was bittersweet because it was something that I wished was around when I was growing up with it.”
She was cast as “Lucy” in the film, a teenager with Tourettes whose parents ask John Davidson, played by Robert Aramayo to meet her.
The improvised scene in the car is both hilarious and heartbreaking with the final “you ok, pal” from actor Robert, a reminder that this is something Andrea has to deal with every day of her life.
She says it was a thrill to be on set, and to meet John Davidson in person.
“He said he could tell right away that I was suppressing my tics,” she says.
“He told me I should try a month of not suppressing my tics. He said I would notice the difference with my mood, with my sleep, with the lack of burnout.”
“Since then my tics have been living alongside me as opposed to the opposite way around and so it feels now like I have a sort of control over my own body.”
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Andrea (left) with the cast of I Swear – Shirley Henderson, Robert Aramayo, Maxine Peake, Peter Mullan and Scott Ellis Watson
Although she was only referred for diagnosis when she was 18, she’s been experiencing tics – involuntary spasms – since she was 12.
“I spent a lot of time in high school suppressing the swearing tics, and then I would come home and it would cause these extreme outbursts.
Now, I have more motor tics than verbal ones. My toes scrunch or my eyes blink or my head jerks.”
It was her girlfriend Emma who first suggested she learn to drive, to boost her confidence.
Although she’s unable to take her test at the moment because of the unpredictable nature of her condition, she’s glad it has entertained and informed.
And maybe even inspired.
“I’m not very tech savvy so I didn’t really understand “going viral”. It was cool but it was also a bit crazy,” she says.
“I was thinking it was just a driving lesson, a big deal to me but I didn’t think that people watching it would also see how huge it was for someone like me to be driving.”
Andrea has enjoyed becoming a role model for others.
“I met a wonderful family who actually lived five minutes away from me and we just wouldn’t have crossed paths before.
“They’ve got a son with Tourette’s. He was about six or seven at the time and he said that seeing the videos, seeing me driving makes him realise he can do that too.
“That’s the way I saw John Davidson, as someone that had a job and was able to get on with his life and so it’s kind of cool that someone looks at me that way now.”
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Tourettes “poster boy” John Davidson with actor Robert Aramayo who plays him in the film about his life
She believes the film I Swear is an important moment for the thousands of people of live with Tourettes, and the families and friends who support them but it’s also vital for those who know nothing about it.
“It doesn’t just touch on the ticks, it touches on the impact of the ticks: the isolation, the loneliness, the embarrassment of it. There are so many emotions.”
She also says the film has given her new avenues to explore in her own life, including acting.
“I enjoyed myself and I definitely wouldn’t say no to more of it and now I’ve got an agent which may open doors,” she says.
“For years I only ever viewed Tourette’s as a setback so now to have all these opportunities as a result of something I thought was going to hold me back? That’s where this is all means so much more.”
