From Viral Driving Lessons to the Big Screen: Woman with Tourette’s Syndrome Forges Acting Career
A young woman from Scotland is defying expectations and embracing new opportunities after a viral video series documenting her driving lessons with Tourette’s syndrome led to a role in a major motion picture. Andrea Bissett, from Airdrie, is now poised to continue her acting aspirations, fueled by a newfound sense of empowerment and a desire to raise awareness about the neurological condition.
andrea Bissett’s journey to the screen began unexpectedly last year when videos of her driving lessons with instructor Nicky Lui were shared online. Their rapport,punctuated by her involuntary vocal tics – including coprolalia,the uncontrollable utterance of obscenities – quickly captured the attention of viewers,shedding light on a condition that affects approximately one in 100 school-aged children in the UK.
“I knew Nicky had put other lessons online but he was apprehensive about whether to share mine as you never no how people are going to take it,” Bissett explained. Initially shared with a local audience, the videos rapidly gained traction, eventually reaching filmmaker Kirk Jones, who was developing the film I Swear.
I Swear tells the story of John Davidson, who became an unlikely advocate for Tourette’s syndrome after his son was diagnosed. Bissett plays a character who experiences tics during a job interview,a scene that resonated deeply with her own experiences. “It was really nice to be able to portray that and to show that it’s okay to have tics and it doesn’t make you any less capable,” she said.
Bissett credits a period of reduced stress and burnout with helping her to better manage her condition. “I was really stressed and overwhelmed with work and life in general, with the lack of burnout,” she shared. “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.”
bissett has experienced tics – involuntary spasms – since the age of 12, initially manifesting as verbal outbursts that she attempted to suppress in high school, often leading to more intense episodes at home. now, she experiences a greater proportion of motor tics, such as toe-scrunching, blinking, and head jerks.
Her girlfriend, Emma, encouraged her to learn to drive as a confidence-building exercise. While she is currently unable to take her driving test due to the unpredictable nature of her condition, Bissett is proud of the impact her videos have had. “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 said. “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.”
The experience has also allowed Bissett to connect with others facing similar challenges. “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 realize he can do that to.”
Bissett believes I Swear is a crucial step forward in understanding tourette’s syndrome, not just for those directly affected, but for the wider public. “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 manny emotions.”
The film has also opened doors for Bissett’s acting career. She has secured an agent and is eager to explore future opportunities. “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 said. “For years I only ever viewed Tourette’s as a setback so now to have all these opportunities as a result of something I thoght was going to hold me back? That’s where this is all means so much more.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ – Example of a viral driving lesson video.
