Exclusive Interview with Natasha Goulden

1 day ago

13 min read

Brief biography "Thank you, I needed that. Uncensored female anger. I felt seen."

That's what audiences said after Cow Farm, and it's what Natasha Goulden makes films for. She wants to put women's uncensored emotions on screen and show how much fun we can have doing it.

Natasha is an award-winning Swedish filmmaker and actress based in Northern Ireland, with credits including Wolfblood (BBC) and Storyland (RTÉ2). She wrote, directed, produced and starred in Cow Farm (2026), an absurdist feminist folk horror inspired by the Huldra, the Swedish forest spirit who pranked bad men and spoke backwards to undo them. She made it while raising two daughters and running a cinnamon bun business.

Natasha won Best Female Actor at HB Film Festival for her role as Sofia in Cow Farm, and the film was also nominated for Best Director and Best Cinematography. Its TV pilot script was a Hollywood Storytellers semi-finalist.

The feature is coming.

Filmography

Cow Farm (2026). Writer, director, producer and actor (Sofia). Won Best Female Actor at HB Film Festival, with nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography.
Cow Farm TV pilot script. Writer. Semi-finalist in the Hollywood Storytellers Script Genre Competition.
Storyland (RTÉ2, 2023). Actor
Wolfblood (BBC, 2016). Actor
Amsterdam Express (2014, feature film). Actor

Watch the trailer

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How would you define your personal experience with cinema as a filmmaker and actress?

Cinema is the one place where being a jack of all trades is a strength. Early in my career I was put in a box a lot, and I watched brilliant people shrink themselves to fit a system just to get booked. But art isn't a checklist. It's more like free painting. You sit in front of a blank canvas, and whatever comes out is the process.

So with Cow Farm I broke the boxes on purpose. It's nonlinear, a fever dream inspired partly by the original animated Alice in Wonderland, pulling you between past and present until you're not sure what's real. That's how a woman's nervous system works. Even now, when I arrive somewhere new for an acting job, my first thought is how I'm going to stay safe. I wanted the audience to feel that hypervigilance.

Because I self-produced, there were no checkboxes. Cast and crew were free to bring their own ideas, and I've never had so much fun. It felt like being a kid again. If we don't let ourselves throw spaghetti at the wall, we'll never find new ways of telling stories. Pulp Fiction proved nonlinear storytelling can be loved, and I want cinema to trust audiences to think for themselves again.

What is your process for creating characters? Could you tell us an experience or moment that changed or challenged you?

Honestly, Sabrina Zaccardi and I were bored of flat female roles and of being cast by how we look. Real women are messy and loud, and we say it how it is. If anything, I find men more complicated, because they internalise so much. So why are women so watered down on screen?

So we flipped the script. I played Sofia, who's angry and numb and definitely not polite or pretty. Sabrina, usually cast very differently, played Nicole, who's soft and romantic. We did it to the boys too. John McInnes always plays the villain, so he played Liam, the guy who helps the women escape and doesn't get the girl. Cesar Sampson always plays the charming hero, so he played Voss, who's anything but.

As Sabrina puts it, you don't put a character on like a mask. The character embraces you.

The funny part is that we'd never met in person. Every rehearsal was online, and we wondered whether the screen would get in the way once we were in the same room. It didn't. It felt like we'd always known each other.

Writing it flowed. The real challenge was being a present mum while writing, directing, producing and acting. What surprised me was that doing something that was mine made me a better mum. I was calmer and more playful with my kids. So to any woman reading this, chase your thing. It doesn't take anything away from the people you love.

When working with people of different nationalities, how do you feel your culture has influenced the way you interpret, think or feel? Could you tell us about any difficulties you encountered during filming?

I'm Swedish, Geordie and Italian. I think and dream in English now, but I still talk like a Swede, dry and to the point. I say exactly what I think, which is a strength and a weakness, depending on who's listening. As a kid, it got me into trouble. I was the one telling a teacher, "I don't think you should speak to children like that." I've always stood up for what's right, and maybe that's why I loved playing my character in Cow Farm so much.

So if I seem standoffish at first, I'm not. I'm just efficient. Give it a day and you'll meet the childlike weirdo with the very dark sense of humour.

Sabrina, my co-writer and associate producer, is from Minnesota, says I intimidated her when we first met. Now we joke that I'm the laxative, because I get things moving, and she's the Imodium, because she stops things going wrong. She's the warmest, funniest person, and we balance each other perfectly.

Our cast came from Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, France, England, Scotland and Minnesota, with a mostly Northern Irish, majority female crew. People assume putting that many nationalities in one room will be tricky. It's the opposite. When everyone's from the same place, there can be a quiet competition, like you're up against yourself. With different cultures, it's like being a kid at the playground again. Everyone's curious and nobody's competing. If there was any culture clash, it's that the British apologise for everything, and as a Swede I kept wanting to say, "You don't need to say sorry for existing!"

The trickiest part was that we had no art department, so everyone became the art department, keeping sets tidy and tracking continuity. One day the clouds kept changing and we ran into overtime, so the next morning we started later and won the time back. We ended up with an almost free last day. So even on a lower budget, I'd always keep a spare day for pickups. Prepare for the worst and assume the best.

Honestly, it's the best set I've ever been on, and I'm so proud it's mine. We all cried when we left (probably from being exhausted, ha).

How has the synergy between the different teams influenced the results, and how significant is the quality of relationships during a film shoot?

Massively. I couldn't have made Cow Farm without our DOP, Thomas McKeown. He was practically an associate producer too, because he brought the whole crew together. When I said I wanted a majority-female crew, he didn't flinch. No ego, just "cool, let's do it." Same with our first AD, Lori. She's incredibly brilliant and takes no crap, and like me, she knows what it's like to be judged on first impressions. People are often surprised I already have two kids and my own film. Never judge a book by its cover.

I didn't micromanage. I trusted everyone, and I asked for help when I needed it. It's okay to lead a team and still learn on the job. I learned so much from Thomas.

We made space for being human, too. I'm an extrovert who's secretly an introvert. I go, go, go, and then I need quiet to recharge. So if someone went quiet, nothing was wrong. We allowed people to have their own time and space.

Funnily enough, for a film that could look like a swipe at men, I've never met so many wonderful men as I did on this set. That was really healing for me. I felt so safe as a woman.

And I adore Sabrina. She's like a sister to me, and I couldn't have done this without her. When I'm down she lifts me up, and when she's down I lift her up. It's the business partnership and the friendship I'd only ever dreamed of. We met through Identity School of Acting's online classes, and we'd probably never have crossed paths otherwise. It shows there are people out there we haven't met yet who are probably our soulmates. I believe we have several in a lifetime, in friendship as well as love.

You can make a film with people you don't get along with. But when it feels like family, you trust each other enough to try things that aren't in the script or on the schedule, and that's where the magic is. Our brilliant cast, Sabrina Zaccardi, Julyia Chatelin, Benthe Wassenaar, John McInnes and Cesar Sampson, all said they were tired of the same roles and the same stories. That's why they came, because Cow Farm is a bit of a wild ride.

What is your philosophy of life with regard to cinema; how would you define art in general, and what role does it play in your life?

On the other side of fear is freedom.

My philosophy is to throw yourself into the deep end and figure it out. You don't need to have it all worked out. I've learned this from my youngest daughter. She walks into the playground, sees something she's never tried, and thinks, cool, I'll figure it out. That's where growth comes from.

When I wrote Cow Farm, people told me to keep a short film in one place so audiences wouldn't get confused. But who decided audiences are confused? Why do we love poetry, or a red dot on a white canvas? Because we bring our own lives to it. Not everything needs explaining. Sometimes you just need to feel something.

Of course we need linear films too. I just want more of everything, the whole rainbow instead of a palette of grey. My husband says I'm the colour to his black and white, and I used every colour in this film.

We're not trees, either. We can move and plant seeds in different places. Maybe that is putting down roots.

Question what you're told “you should want”. My first daughter recently asked if I'd be sad if she never had children. I told her no. If you're happy, I'm happy, whether you do or do not have kids or decide to be a grape with knickers on your head. It’s your life to live. As a millennial mum, it’s important for me that my kids' generation keeps setting boundaries and questioning old toxic societal norms.

Sabrina's favourite film, The Red Shoes, says it best. When the dancer Victoria Page is asked, "Why do you want to dance?", she answers, "Why do you want to live?" That's what art is to me.

Cow Farm won't be for everyone. But the people who've seen it have felt something deeply buried, something wild and animalistic, especially women. How women have been treated for centuries hasn’t been linear and has been mentally and physically violent, so why can’t our women reflect that? Despite all of this women are so fun. We have an incredible gift where we can keep dancing through the flames of life and still instil hope and love.

Fellini once said that "all art is autobiographical." What was the most valuable thing you learned making films? And what would you recommend to those who are taking their first steps in the cinema industry?

Fellini was right. Cow Farm is very autobiographical. It came from anger. I was furious at how women are sexualised and assaulted, and how we're expected to put ourselves aside for everyone else. I survived an abusive relationship in the past, and I saw how little sensitivity there was, and how much worse it was for the woman who spoke up. Why does an outspoken woman become a monster, like Medusa, but an outspoken man becomes a hero? I don't think women are angry enough. We need to stop watering it down. And if I'm making a film about uncensored anger, I have to uncensor myself too.

That relationship is long behind me. I'm very happily married now, and my husband has shown me how important it is to have a partner who gives you the freedom to follow your dreams. I've been in relationships where we competed over our careers, and this is the opposite.

But writing it, I realised it's not men versus women. It's all of us versus the patriarchy. It made me sad for a lot of men, even the good ones, who've been taught to go along with it. In the feature, men and women come together to take it down.

The most valuable thing I learned is that every single person matters. As Sabrina says, cinema is never a solo art form. If one person hadn't been there, Cow Farm wouldn't look or feel the way it does. Create a safe space, and trust people to be brilliant at their jobs. We were lucky to have Lori, who could round us all up when we were floating around on our lunch break, drinking far too much coffee. We need those badass women to keep the ship moving.

My advice is to just make it. Cow Farm started as just me and Sabrina with a camera. Then it grew into a full cast and crew, and I had a little "how on earth do I handle this?" moment. You figure it out. Don't wait for the money. Grab your phone and shoot a scene, because momentum creates momentum. Play the game when you need to, but then make your own thing with your own twist, don’t be afraid to put your own voice in it. We'll never invent anything new by staying safe.

What are your expectations for your career? Share your thoughts on the competition area, their reach, and how you achieved them!

I want to open doors. So many schemes ask for a credit before you can even apply, which makes it almost impossible to start. I'd love to build a programme within Nordic Herd Films for emerging talent, no credit required, and to start warmer, more welcoming groups for women filmmakers. I've sometimes felt less welcome in women's spaces than I expected, and I want to change that.

I want Cow Farm to become a brand. I can already picture people at Comic-Con dressed as Scandinavian creatures. Everyone knows trolls and Vikings, but nobody has heard of the Huldra, Näcken or Kulning yet. I want to tell more stories that uncensor women's emotions and show the fun side of being a woman. Let’s bring back whimsy and yearning! Everything on screen is so hypersexualised now that it's lost its meaning. And I want global casts, not breakdowns asking for General American or RP. The world isn't one accent.

Let people bring their ideas. We thought Voss would be a crazy, evil man. Then Cesar brought his own experience to him, and the character went somewhere Sabrina and I never imagined. It made the short better.

As for competitions, Cow Farm won Best Female Actor at HB Film Festival in Glasgow, my second Best Actress win, with nominations for Best Director and Best Cinematography, and the TV pilot script was a Hollywood Storytellers semi-finalist in 2025, praised by the competition for its "memorable characters and original storytelling voice." And it was meant to be made with no money. We ended up with a $25,000 self-produced budget, and Panasonic came on board with their tech. Our crew had worked on Game of Thrones and Blue Lights, and our Voss, Cesar Sampson, represented Austria at Eurovision in 2018.

Being uncategorisable is tough on the festival circuit, and we're still waiting to hear from more festivals. The senior festival programmer at Grimmfest called Cow Farm "a prickly, uncategorizable film, which is very much a strength and the sign of a defiantly original voice." That's the challenge. So many festivals need a category, and we're a rainbow in fifty shades of grey. But when Cow Farm lands somewhere open to a wild card, it flies sky high. I hope more festivals will make room for films like ours.

Long term, I see myself running Nordic Herd Films with Sabrina, my husband and a majority-female team, producing more and acting in the roles I really love. Performers should try roles behind the camera, because it makes you a kinder and more useful collaborator on set. I want to keep making things and learning as I go. I don't want to sit and wonder.

I have a wonderful agent, Julianna Bautista at Identity Agency Group, who gets me brilliant auditions. I just need that one person who's willing to take a chance on new talent. I believe it will happen when the right person comes along at the right time.

As a bonus for our readers and viewers, can you tell us something about your upcoming films?

The Cow Farm universe is growing. We have the TV pilot and the feature script, and I can see it working on both screens, the way Stranger Things or Peaky Blinders do. Think The Boys meets The Handmaid's Tale, with women farmed by Cows Corp. who escape and discover they can become monsters. This time, the men will learn a few lessons and join them to take down the patriarchy. And yes, there's still a port-a-loo.

It's ambitious, so we're looking for an experienced producer to run with it. Dream casting? Siobhan McSweeney as one of the troll mums, Emma Thompson as the Näcken mum, and Zara Larsson as a little fairy. Everyone has seen Vikings a million times, but nobody has met the Huldra or Näcken. I'd love a Halloween release, and to see people at Comic-Con dressed as the creatures and wearing our darkly funny one-liners on T-shirts.

Music is a big part of it. Cesar Sampson, who represented Austria at Eurovision, will develop the score alongside the script. And the Kulning, sung by our brilliant Julyia Chatelin, the ancient Swedish herding call, stays at its heart. It touches you on a cellular level. Women move in herds to protect each other (just look at the queue for the ladies'), so it felt right that they'd find each other through that sound.

Even with dark subjects, I want to bring back warmth. The films I grew up on, like the animated Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder, had whimsy and heart alongside their life lessons. You'd leave a film about heartbreak or death still feeling hopeful. I want to bring back that yearning and hope.

Once our festival run is over, we'll be putting Cow Farm up on YouTube, so follow us there to find out when it goes live.

We also have humbler, low-budget projects ready to go (see below).

Dream big. You can always come back down to earth, but don't set yourself a ceiling. People who've seen Cow Farm felt seen, and that's what audiences are craving. They want something new, not the same faces and the same stories.

The feature is coming.

Nordic Herd's scripts looking for producers

These scripts are written or in development, and we're looking for the right producers to bring them to life.

Cow Farm (feature film and TV pilot) In a world that farms women's bodies for profit, one woman's trauma awakens the Huldra and a commune of women decide to burn the whole system down.
Until We Say Goodbye (feature film, based on a true story)

A young mother sacrifices everything to care for the grandmother no one else will take, and learns that breaking the family cycle means knowing when to let go.

Nun the Wiser (working title, TV pilot in development)

A Catholic convent and a Protestant women's ministry in a small Northern Irish town secretly run rival drug cartels.

M/ALICE (short film)

Two women fall in love with the same AI boyfriend and deal with the consequences.

On a Cold Winter's Night (one-woman feature film by Sabrina Zaccardi)

A woman runs away to Lake Superior on Christmas Eve to decide whether she lives or dies. __________________________________________________________________________