Interview: ‘Say Nothing’ Showrunner Joshua Zetumer on Political Violence, Creative Risk, and the Price Sisters’ Legacy [VIDEO]

What is the cost of political violence? That’s the question showrunner Joshua Zetumer set out to explore when he began adapting Say Nothing into a limited series five years ago. Based on the acclaimed nonfiction book by Patrick Radden Keefe, the Hulu series offers a harrowing and psychologically rich look at the Troubles in Northern Ireland—a conflict whose themes of division, extremism, and moral ambiguity feel eerily relevant in today’s world.

I sat down with Zetumer to discuss the series, which brings this fraught chapter of history to vivid life. What unfolds on screen is not just a political thriller but a haunting portrait of fractured loyalties and personal cost. Anchoring it all are two complex protagonists: Dolours and Marian Price. Lola Petticrew stars as Dolours, with Hazel Doupe as Marian. The series also features powerhouse performances from Anthony Boyle, Emily Healy and Maxine Peake.

The story opens with the 1972 abduction of Jean McConville (played by Judith Roddy), a widowed mother of ten, by the IRA—a pivotal act that sets the emotional tone for the entire series. Zetumer wastes no time plunging viewers into the heart of the conflict before rewinding to introduce the Price sisters and their radicalization.

“The abduction of Jean McConville really locks you immediately into the cost of political violence,” he insisted. “And you need to see that cost right up front, you need to know that these are stakes of the story,” he said.

“On some fundamental level, you may be locked in emotionally to characters in the IRA, but you are not saying the people in the IRA are the good guys, and you know that because of the kidnapping at the beginning.” He went on to clarify: “It’s not to say that they are inherently bad guys. It’s not a show like that that is out to make moral judgments.”

Zetumer also spoke candidly about his own relationship to the material. “One of the reasons I wanted to do it as an outsider or American, from a thousand miles away, you don’t have a political axe to grind to vilify or glorify anyone,” he said. “I’m just interested in the humanity of the characters and the complications and the messiness of it all.”

That perspective helped shape one of the show’s key creative departures from the book: centering Dolours Price as the emotional core. “As far as what he decided to show on screen or cut, he said he knew early on that the key difference in the show and the book is that Dolours has to be the gravitational center of the story.”

When Zetumer first encountered the book, it was love at first read—followed by immediate doubt that it could ever be adapted. “One, it became my new favorite book instantly and I thought there is no way in hell this is going to get made as a show because it’s not the kind of thing Hollywood usually does,” he recalled. “It’s an epic about compromise versus ideals, about the cost of political violence,” he said. “You’re following these two sisters from days of idealism to disillusionment, it’s a lot to bite off,” he admitted.

Faced with that creative challenge, Zetumer had to make a choice. “Do I want to make something where Hollywood is more inclined to make a more normative project or do I take a real risk on a project that I truly loved but was likely to not make it through development?”

Ultimately, the risk paid off. Say Nothing doesn’t just depict the political machinery of the IRA—it interrogates how people, especially young people, are drawn into movements that demand sacrifice and often leave psychological scars.

“One of the big questions of the show is how people get swept up in a cause,” he explained. As the writing process unfolded, the George Floyd protests erupted across the U.S. “Writers would go to protest and often the person at the bullhorn would be about 17 years old and so there was a question of what does it feel like to be that kid? What does it feel like to be someone who is really getting swept up in a seismic culture-shifting moment?” he said.

“The goal with the show, whether you agree with what the IRA is doing or not, whether you think the Price sisters are either heroes or monsters, kind of depends on who you ask,” he explained.

“People who are out there day to day kind of living their beliefs, for lack of a better word, that is worthy of psychological exploration especially in a world where it’s really easy to repost something on Instagram, what does it mean to be out there in the streets doing things that are morally very compromising in service of your beliefs?”

Say Nothing is now streaming on Hulu. Joshua Zetumer is Emmy-eligible in the categories of Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or TV Movie and Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series.