29 March 2024 The Irish Film & Television Network
     

Straight Talking About 'Garage' With Pat Shortt
04 Oct 2007 : By Tanya Warren
Pat Shortt in Garage
Tackling his first straight role, Pat Shortt’s performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s feature film ‘Garage’ has been described as a “revelation”. The 'Killinaskully' writer/actor/producer chats to IFTN about his experiences making the film, adapting his style and the challenges he faced.

Directed by IFTA winning director Lenny Abrahamson and written by Mark O’Halloran, Garage is the followup to their hugely successful 2004 collaboration ‘Adam & Paul’. Set in an unnamed small town in the Irish midlands, Pat Shortt plays Josie, a lonely caretaker of a dilapidated petrol station. A simple man with a simple life, Josie’s happy with his lot of 20 years but, as times change, his optimistic outlook is ridiculed by those around him. Josie strikes up an unlikely friendship with his 15 year old apprentice and enters unfamiliar territory, finally reaching out to people but struggling to cope with their rejections.

Famed for his comedic roles in 'D’Unbelievables' and RTE series 'Killinaskully', Shortt faces one of his toughest challenges playing the complex leading man. We find out how and why he did it…


Shortt with Garage co-star Conor J. Ryan

IFTN: So the role of Josie was written by Mark O’Halloran with you in mind, was that a big incentive for you to do it?

Pat Shortt: Yes of course it is. When somebody comes along and says they want to do a movie and have you in mind, it’s an honour and with it being a lead role and all that, I was very interested. Once I got the script I was very excited about it. Obviously until you see the script you don’t know what anyone’s talking about, but once I read it I was blown away from the start.

It also frightened me a little bit I must say, because from an actor’s point of view, it’s quite a technical movie. It’s very demanding and of course this is my first lead role in a movie as such and you can begin to worry going “Jesus will I pull it off?”

Similarly you’ve got that leading man responsibility in your TV show Killinaskully. What was it about Garage that made you nervous?

I think every project at that level is the same. Even with Killinaskully I’d be nervous about pulling it off as well. I suppose this being a feature was an added thing to it, it was a different medium. Effectively TV and Movies are the same in that they are entertainment, but film demands different things from you.

So Josie’s character is described as a kindof misfit, an outsider. Being a comedian, did you relate to that?


Shortt in Garage

No I would never look that deep into it. I can see you’re point though, but definitely it was just a character. I’m looking at the image on the poster, the lonely person, and I know the things that might conjure up with the stereotypical idea about comedians that they are like yer man there, on their own walking off down the track [laughs] but it’s not like that. I was talking to Lenny about it earlier, it was simply just an acting role. Equally I didn’t write the story, and I didn’t take on the role because of any darker side of my personality [laughs].

With your TV and theatre work you’re used to being a comic actor. Did you have to adapt your style and techniques for the straight role in Garage?

That would go hand in hand with doing a different character anyway. Take Killinaskully, for example, where all the characters are almost cartoon like, it’s very big in the performance. In this style of performance, it’s very small and you had to bring the character right down.

It demands different things from you as an actor in the point of view of studying the character. Josie is quite blank and expressionless, and the audience are never sure how much is seeping into the character. That was quite difficult because your immediate reaction is to play the emotion out, if he’s hurt or sad. This character didn’t let the audience know what was going on in his mind. That was probably one of the most challenging aspects of the role, to keep the continuity of that throughout.

Did you find you had to consciously focus on that, or did it come naturally?

A certain amount of it comes naturally after a while, but you’re always conscious of it. It’s very easy to get complacent and you find yourself doing something that’s not true to the character. That happened a few times where you had to call yourself back. Lenny is a very good director and he was very definite about what he wanted, so if that happened he would say “no you’re playing that up too much.” Then there were times when he asked me to play it up more – we found some of the comic stuff that way, where Lenny would say “just let it go and lets do a take where you would do it larger than life and we’ll see what comes out of it”.

The film is described as a black comedy, but this is essentially a straight role for you, did you always want to explore that side of acting?


Shortt in Killinaskully

No, it’s not a route I definitely wanted to go down. People have this perception of comedians that they want to be straight actors, and then the same for straight actors that want to play comic roles. It would never be like that with me. I would be more about finding the role challenging and interesting and that’s why I wanted to do it. It’s not like this is my serious role and I’m making a statement that I’m a wonderful actor [laughs].

How did you prepare?

I worked with Lenny and Mark quite closely for the two weeks prior to shooting. We work-shopped quite a bit. I also remember the very first day myself and Lenny spent together down in my studios in Limerick, we put the camera on and tried to find the walk for Josie, that physical aspect. So I suppose I did do research.

In the nature of comedy work it’s naturally for me to be observant anyway. Just watching people. Trying to find that walk without exaggerating it was important because was the one thing I’m used to doing, exaggerating physical attributes like that to enhance a character. In this case it was about finding that physical element but not enlarging it for comedic reasons, more just trying to be true to it.

Do you have that same rehearsal process for Killinaskully?

I would have done the same with Killinaskully, and the characters that I have. I do the same when I shoot it too, I tend to grab a moment before we start shooting to prepare the character. Especially in a series like Killinaskully where I play five characters, you might have to shoot up to a certain scene and then you’re out of that costume and back on set within ten minutes as another character. I try to get away, get the voice, find the character, find the way he or she would deliver.

The shoot for Garage, what elements did you find tough?

I think because I was in every scene I found it tough but I’m kinda used to that with Killinaskully because it’s the same shooting schedule, a 10 – 11 hour day. You find it draining because you’re mentally thinking of the character, learning your lines and getting into the character, meeting new actors coming in and out, working with them.

I found, with Garage in particular, there were certain days if a new actor was coming in for maybe two days - myself and Lenny would meet up with them and try run lines that night after shooting. So you could be working until the late hours at night and then getting up at the crack of dawn to film again. But that’s the nature of filmmaking.

What was the atmosphere like on set?

It was lovely actually because there was quite a small crew. For example, the lighting was minimal and that was the style of shooting, nothing got to do with the budget, it was more the nature of look they wanted. As a result, the turnarounds were quite quick. They didn’t have these huge big elaborate two hour blocks for lighting.


Lenny Abrahamson

With that there was a sense of everyone mucking in to grab something and move it out of the way. There was a great energy to it as a result. What can happen on big shoots is that it’s too big, loads of people, somebody gets your coffee and such, whereas on this you got your own coffee, you ran and mucked in, and it had that lovely vibe to it.

So you had your first nude scene in Garage, how did you find that?

That was cool. I mean when you’re professional working with professionals, everybody treats it professionally. That’s the way it is. I’ve never done it before, but I’ve done mad love scenes, in all places, the BBC Library! [laughs] Because we hadn’t the budget to shut down the library we shot it in one corner of the library with book shelves flying and this mad passionate sexual scene. Meanwhile the library was still operating away as a normal library. That was one of the most bizarre moments ever because you’re coming out from behind the books and there are people looking over their computers! [laughs]

So I’ve been in strange places doing strange things and the nude scene in Garage was one of the least strange things I’ve had to do. You literally stood there with a dressing gown, cleared the set and just people who needed to be there was there, it was almost all male. It was quite funny actually, the wardrobe lady, who is a good friend of mine and I know her quite well, was there. They said “everyone who doesn’t need to be there should leave” so I just assumed all women would walk off set. I had my back to the camera so I didn’t know who was there so I just started working way. We’re shooting and because it was quite cold they didn’t want me to be in the scene any longer than necessary. We shot it about three times and they said “can somebody give Pat his dressing gown”. I looked around and there she is standing in front of me [laughs], which was quite funny. I laughed with her about it. But f*ck it, it’s all professional.

So do you think the Killinaskully fans will respond to Garage?

I think they’ll enjoy it hugely. People like to see other sides to actors. While I’m continuing to do the same work, I’m not moving away from it at all, this is just a separate project and I think anything like this enriches people’s opinions of what you do, especially if it’s something good.


Garage

I think it will bring people back to Killinaskully with a different perspective on what I’m doing. It will enrich and enlighten them to some of the other stuff I do in Killinaskully because there are roles that are really well acted and well done, and then there’s madness that is heightened for comedy reasons. I think what will happen is that they’ll see, for one thing, that I can act. They may have not perceived me as an actor before, just more of a comic. But the two are very similar. You’re acting in that as well, it’s just a different style of role.

There have been recent reports about a Killinaskully movie, is that in the works?

It’s something that’s been bandied about to us but I didn’t make that quote in the paper. I never even spoke to the interviewer but that’s just one of those things.

It is something we’ve talked about and we’d love to do it. I’d be very definite, because I’ve been involved in film and in television, so I’m very aware they are two different mediums and oftentimes something that works on television doesn’t transfer to film. You have to be careful about the different approach to it.

It’s not something I would just lep into because we’re successful on TV. If we do decide to do it, we’d approach it in a very cinematic way. It would have to be right, we may well do it, but at the moments I’ve no plans.

And what about taking on another serious role?

Oh yeah, once the project is right. I’m in a very fortunate position because I do TV, theatre and I’ve got my own production company in Limerick, I don’t need to take on a project to make a living. I can very much pick and choose. I’ll look for something different to what I’m doing at the moment and in the mean time continue to do the comedy roles that I enjoy, and writing and producing the TV show. I’m very fortunate in that respect, long may it last.

  • Garage is released nationwide from 5 October 2007.
  • Episode two of Series four of Killinaskully is showing Sunday on RTÉ One at 8.30pm.
  • View the Garage Trailer in the Preview Theatre




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