Renegade Nell’s Billy Blind star ‘physically sick’ on set shooting with ‘bucking bronco'

Following the adventures of 18th Century heroine Nell Jackson (played by Louisa Harland), Renegade Nell sees her running from the law after getting framed for murder. 

She does have magical spirit Billy Blind (Nick Mohammed) on her side, however, who is able to give her superhuman strength whenever Nell’s in danger. 

The Disney+ series often sees a miniscule Billy sat upon her shoulder so they are able to have private conversations, even when her sisters and friends are around. 

But actor Mohammed had to film these scenes away from the rest of the cast, instead spending his days in front of a green screen.

Read more: Renegade Nell on Disney+ stars Derry Girls and Trigger Point alumni

“We were completely separate, I was on my own in a green room with a robotic arm that would mimic sort of either Louisa’s shoulder or the barrel of a gun or whatever size Billy was at that time, and just on wires flying around so all of that was separate,” he told Express.co.uk. 

“They did do some amazing things, the technology is sort of phenomenal now. 

“They can take something of Louisa walking along or in the carriage where I’m meant to be on the shoulder, and they can analyse that motion, feed it to a computer and put it onto what is effectively a bucking bronco, a robo-arm thing. 

“And then because Billy is meant to be ‘this’ big, it scales up what the movement would be if you was ‘this’ big.”

“So I would then sit on this thing and when they put the image of me of what they shot with Louisa, it matches perfectly. 

“But occasionally if the motion was too much, even you [Harland] moving to look at me, and it would suddenly sink down so I was all over the place. 

“Sometimes, they would try it on a stunt performer first to make sure and sometimes they’d be like, ‘No one in their right mind would sit on that and survive.’

Mohammed’s co-star Louisa Harland then chipped in: “And Nick was often physically sick after filming Billy Blind.”

He elaborated: “Genuinely, not too much, once at the start, I was always sick and then I kind of got used to it. 

“There was a lot of talk on how Billy would vanish and appear and one was like he could twizzle out like a firework I guess. 

“And we would practice that a lot and you just get in your head and you’d be going around and that would make me sick.”

As well as Intelligence actor Mohammed and Derry Girls’ Harland, the epic fantasy drama stars Adrian Lester, Joely Richardson, Frank Dillane and Alice Kremelberg.

Renegade Nell premieres on Friday, March 29, on Disney+.