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It reminds us that life goes on.
And thus in those stories, the narrative is a little easier to understand.
The moral stakes are more legible.A perfectly rational theory on both counts.
Whereas our job is to joylessly move through life getting ready to hopefully make our way out of purgatory.
Was your preacher in real life that kind of fire-and-brimstonePaisleyiteguy?One-hundred percent.
It was very theatrical, very stern.
It was always presented in this visceral way, always around the wordsulfur.
You were going to burn simple as that.
Since the film was made, Ive come across a few photos of them in the late 60s.
My mother had a big pair ofGina Lollobrigidaglasses very sort of sexy trexy and glamorous.
They didnt have the money, but she definitely had an innate sense of style.
And he was very proud of her sassiness.
She was one of 11.
Her mother died giving birth to her.
And, of course, those qualities in people often are very attractive.
And Jamies dry sense of humor was bang in the center of my own fathers.
But ultimately, even I didnt know quite how photographically zingy the pair of them would be.
My wife saw the film and said, Jesus.
hey photograph me like that.
A picture that I love is Clint EastwoodsUnforgiven.
It was the idea of the kid seeing his dad as a mountain.
Thats what he needed to see.
He also needed to see a big Belfast sky as well.
Somehow we started to put those images together.
I read your bookBeginningand was struck by how many scenes in the film come straight from those memories.
But one thing that was different was the portrayal of school.
At one stage, it was in the script.
For instance, I got the cane from a headmaster for walking across some flower beds one time.
But it just felt like too much.
It became a different, almost documentary look.
What was key to Buddy is that we all put up with this.
It wasnt like I was coming home going, I cant believe I got the cane.
My parents wouldve said, Are you broken?
All right, then get on with it.
Did you ever catch up with the girl in real life?I never did.
I always felt that I just wasnt good enough for her.
Do you think if she saw this movie, shed recognize herself?I sometimes wonder.
I would like to think.
Obviously, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
God willing, theyre all still alive and healthy.
But I dont know.
So she may not remember me.
We left when I was 9, May of 1970.
And by the time I left secondary school in the summer of 72, it was probably gone.
I think it was to do with wanting to disappear.
I wanted to just fit in.
They had no interest in additional social status or anything.
They came over, and they did the things that they did back home.
My dad played the horses.
My mother played bingo.
But we were thrown into a very different social class.
From working class, we went to lower middle class.
And it was a world that didnt really understand our world.
As we all became a bit more insular, [my accent] kind of rubbed off.
So for a while, I was English in school and Irish at home.
And then it started happening at home.
My parents didnt comment about it.
I think they felt it was natural enough.
From tomorrow, Im going to be completely Belfast.
And thats what he did.
The next day, it was like meeting a completely different guy.
Whereas I didnt feel comfortable with that.
Ive never been good at doing that totally immersive thing.
I first became aware of you in the 90s.
It wasnt until later that I learned of your Northern Irish heritage.
Were you cognizant of that disparity?
This film, in a way, goes back to understanding what infused my storytelling DNA.
Its very much forged by my background.
You dont have to have been to Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Princeton.
If it speaks to you, it speaks to you.
Im not saying theres anything wrong with that; Im just saying there were perhaps some assumptions made.
In the book, you mention that the phenomenon you call Branagh-bashing began fairly early on.
I was absolutely unaware, though people might say, How could you not be?
Although, no doubt, Im sure I was capable of being cocky and arrogant and stupid.
I had an enormous amount of joy in the work, and I think that always drove me.
That kind of crazy schedulizing went through about 2000, when we madeLoves Labours Lost.
And it was not alone.
I remember thinking,Oh, fuck.That sort of took the wind out of my sails.
I didnt feel burnt-out, but I did feel bashed-up.
Didnt consider it catastrophic, but I knew I had to ease up a bit.
Youll get that response: Oh God, Im so cross with that writerX.
Dont you listen to a word of it.
I dont know what youre talking about, but now I know somebody said something appalling.
You cant be too insulated otherwise, you wont get feedback.
And to be honest, I do respect the contrary opinion.
Do you have a personal contrary opinion?I believe that Tottenham Hotspur will win the Premiership this year.
I would suggest that is contrary tomost peoples opinions.
My uncle Thomas is also a Spurs fan.
Why are there so many of you in Belfast?Danny Blanchflower.
He was a Northern Irishman who won the Footballer of the Year title in 57 and 61.
In 61, he captained the Tottenham Hotspur double-winning side.
Theyve never done it since.
He also captained the Northern Irish team to the last eight of the 1958 World Cup.
That was how singular he was, Danny Blanchflower.
Theres something about that character that is very Northern Irish.
Some would call it belligerence; some would call it strong-minded and sort of inspiring.
He had a strong position and held it even though it might be exceptional.
In early reviews, you were spoken of as an actor who also directed.
I think its probably taken till now, to be honest, to begin to understand.
This film is partly involved with that.
I was surrounded by people who told stories all the time, told jokes, made stuff up.
The telling of tales was something inbuilt.
Sometimes you performed it, and sometimes you watched other people do it.
But the idea that Id ever do any of this [professionally] was so …
I think of that little kid on the pavement reading aThorcomic.
How do you tell stories?
Or you went in the army or British Rail.
The other stuff wasnt on our radar.
Theres been some discussion among critics about the wake scene at the end of the film with Everlasting Love.
The first time I saw it, I just took it completely straight.
But Ive heardother peoplecall it a dream sequence.
Whose idea was it for Jamie to sing?
As you may know, he sang it live at the L.A. premiere.
Ballsy thing to do, but he did a grand job.
Also, its a great lyric for that moment in their relationship.
I would say that its a profound lyric even though its in a pop song.
But thats what we were: consumers of what others might call low culture.
Youve written very movingly about the smells of Belfast.
My mother used to eat cockles, and we would go to Donaghadee Beach to eat whelk.
Wed get them off the rocks; you probably couldnt do it now.
But you get whelks, and you bring them back, and you boil them.
Sometimes put vinegar on, sometimes put butter on.
My mother used to have this deeply fishy smell.
The movie used to have a whole theme of dodgy food that was left out.
The smell of tripe Jesus Christ.
Poached tripe in milk, youd be tasting it for a month.
And the other thing not so bad but rough to look at were pigs trotters.
Cooked for hours and hours.
Youd try and find a piece of meat in there.
Its an incredible mystery to get a bit of protein out of a pigs trotter.
Fish and ham is what I smell.
There was a lot of family curiosity about food, particularly the ingredients that make a fry-up.
They wanted to know if you preferredpotato farlsor soda bread.Both.
Then he used to put the soda bread in, and hed sort of boil it.
And he would press down on the soda bread until it soaked it up.
Then he put the potato farls in there, theyd swim around.
All the pieces would soak up the fat.
Hed take all the bread out, put aside.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
