Fionnula Flanagan, one of the most respected Irish actresses on stage and screen since the 1960’s, stars as the long suffering grandmother in ‘Life’s A Breeze’, out in Irish cinemas this Friday 19th July.
Winner of two IFTAs and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, the acting veteran shows no signs of slowing down, is an active supporter of the arts and will soon be seen in Irish/Catalan co-production ‘Tasting Menu’.
Ms Flanagan’s Hollywood legacy spans five decades and includes roles in productions as diverse as ‘The Guard’, ‘Waking Ned’, ‘The Others’ and TV’s ‘Lost’, ‘Brotherhood’ and three incarnations of ‘Star Trek’.
Ahead of the release of Lance Daly’s ‘Life’s A Breeze’ this week, IFTN spoke to Ms Flanagan about her recent roles, the issues that she is passionate about, and her plans for the future.
Ms Flanagan, thanks very much for speaking to IFTN. This was obviously a very big year for you at the Galway Film Fleadh with two premieres between ‘Tasting Menu’ and Lance Daly’s ‘Life’s A Breeze’. To start with the latter, how did you find the audience responded at the screening? The audience was very warm and enjoyed it a lot. I know because I was there and that’s important, you know. It’s always good to have something at the festival that the audience can just go with and they did.
A lot of the emotion in ‘Life’s A Breeze’ is drawn from the close relationship between yourself as the grandmother and Kelly Thornton, who joins you in the search for the lost mattress. As a first time actress, what was Kelly like to work with? We got on very well together and we had a lot of time between set-ups to talk. Kelly would ask me questions about what I’d done and I’d tell her stories. I think she’s very good in the picture!
Did you have any words of wisdom for her from your years of experience? I never give wisdom. I don’t have any to give. I can just recount my experience, that’s all. And hope people have a laugh about it!
Would you consider ‘Life’s A Breeze’ to be a strong metaphor for the recession, in the way you lose your life savings like so many Irish people did during the financial crisis? I don’t know. I would never put my money in a mattress. I’d put it on a horse and see what happens! When you’re so involved with something, it’s hard to see really what levels it works on. The audience, who were not involved in the making of the film, could be the better judge of that. A vox pop in the street could answer it more accurately than I could. I was just glad that the audience enjoyed it so much last night!
How important do you see the Galway Film Fleadh in terms of giving filmmakers the opportunity to come together and showcase their projects? I think it’s crucial to have an Irish film festival such as the Fleadh. I know there are festivals elsewhere, but specifically for film it is so inclusive. It gives the same weight and importance to documentaries and shorts - which of course is our forte here in Ireland - as well as features. And it is inclusive of European and American filmmakers too, so it’s wonderful that it reaches out like that. It’s really hard to reach everybody but I think it’s great what they’ve done in the 25 years they’ve been going. They keep making it happen every year and it keeps growing bigger.
Can you tell us about your involvement in raising funds for the Picture Palace cinema in Galway? I’m very involved here in the building of the Picture Palace and I’m on the board. We’re doing the auction to raise money for that and we’re almost there. It’s the most beautiful design by de Paor architects. The design itself is iconic. When this building is completed, people will come from all over Europe to look at it. Architects would come even if it didn’t have a cinema inside. It’s just so brilliantly designed. And it’s going to have three screens, a restaurant, a bar and a bookstore on the space the size of a postage stamp, right in downtown Galway. So I’m very involved here with that and I come to Galway lot. I agreed to auction a dinner with myself, even though I didn’t think anyone would want to have porridge with Fionnula!
Do you have any more upcoming projects you can reveal at the moment? Oh, I’ll probably never work again…
Until the next great role comes along? Haha! No, every actor feels that way at the end of a film and thinks they will never be invited to work again. But actually I’ve written a screenplay and am trying to get it funded right now. I’m sure other roles will come along. Of course they will. I was in Galway only a couple of hours when people gave me four scripts.
What’s your screenplay about? I can’t tell you! It’s a total secret. If I told you then I’d have to kill you! You’ll just have to wait and then when it’s funded and all up and running, I’ll tell you.
How was the experience shooting ‘Tasting Menu’ in Costa Brava? The Catalan actors are fantastic and we had a wonderful Catalan director called Roger Gual who previously made ‘Smoking Room’ which won a Goya award and is hilariously funny and brilliantly made. ‘Tasting Menu’ was one of the happiest shoots I was ever on. It was such a lovely place with a terrific cast and a lovely director and a great crew. Nothing wrong with being on the Costa Brava for six months!
'Life’s A Breeze’, distributed by Wildcard, is released in Irish cinemas this Friday 19th July.
An Irish-Swedish co-production between Fastnet Films and Anagram Produktions, ‘Life’s A Breeze’ is produced by Fastnet’s Macdara Kelleher, Tomas Eskilsson and Martin Persson of Anagram Produktion.
The film was funded by the Irish Film Board, BAI, Setanta Ireland, Film I Vast, Magnolia Distributions, Section 481, Eurimages and The Swedish Film Institute.
• Kelly Thornton’s interview with IFTN can be found here.
• Pat Shortt’s interview with IFTN can be found here.
The trailer for 'Life’s A Breeze' can be seen below:
