Published in GALWAYnow, LIMERICKnow and CORKnow Magazines August 2007
Joanne Hynes is one of the country’s most innovative stars in the world of fashion. Jo Lavelle caught up with the Galway designer on a brief visit to the city to launch her latest fashion venture.
Hailed as one of Ireland’s leading designers, it’s no surprise that Joanne Hynes is difficult to catch up with. Spending her time traveling between London and India, Joanne’s life is a whirlwind of fashion shows, glamour …..and sheer hard work.
A native of Tuam, Joanne attended the Corralea Presentation Secondary School. At 18, she left home to do a BA in fashion in the Limerick School of Art and Design, later graduating in 2001 with an MA in Womenswear Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in London. There, her collection was chosen as the finale collection for the end of year MA show, going on to be sold in Fred Segal LA, The Pineal Eye and Concrete London, as well as boutiques in Japan, Dubai, Belgium and a number of stores in Ireland.
Since making her debut in 2003 with her first solo collection ‘Rue de la Tristesse‘, things have been on the up for the extremely talented designer. It didn’t take long for the fashion world to sit up and take notice and in 2004, Joanne took part in the Designer Bandana Auction held at Selfridges, along with Alexander McQueen, Zandra Rhodes, John Galliano, Chloe and Yves Saint Laurent.
In 2005, Joanne also collaborated with Top Shop to produce a diffusion range called Joanne Hynes for Topshop, sold exclusively in the flagship store in Oxford Circus, London and in Dublin.
Joanne’s creations have been featured extensively in the likes of Vogue, Elle, Harpers and Queen, The Telegraph, Harpers Bazaar and Glamour, with celebrities Natalie Imbrulia, DJ Zoë Ball, Roisin Murphy and The Corrs all fans of the designer’s quirky, contemporary and utterly stunning designs.
Joanne says that growing up in Tuam with her dad, Josie, who owns Hynes Bookmakers, her mum Josephine and bookmaker brother Paul, gave her a definite edge over other designers at college, particularly in London.
“When I was in college in London a lot of people would have had very similar tastes and styles- especially those from bigger cities like London and Tokyo where there is a strong aesthetic in terms of fashion. I find a lot of students from the country are a lot more driven. As well as that, when we lived outside town when I was young, I spent a lot of time on my own drawing and making things, so when I went to college, I was very skilled with my hands and was visually aware.”
Joanne was particularly interested in art and fashion growing up and much of her days were spent down Quay Street perusing all the second hand stores with her school pals. While she had intended on pursuing painting in particular, she says she just kind of fell into fashion design - the fast pace and quick turnover of ideas suited her much better than fine art.
From very early on in her career, Joanne’s ambition was to work for herself. “I always knew I wanted to work for myself and the most important thing for me was to design. I had worked with other fashion designers in London but I always knew I wanted to design for myself. I was offered jobs with various international designers, but I’m glad I never took them. So it began to happen from there.”
While Joanne has been extremely successful throughout her career, she’s not one to rest on her laurels - or waste time patting herself on her back for a job well done.
“I can’t remember the last time I went on a holiday. When I can take two weeks off, I’ll know I’m doing well,” she laughs. “I don’t sit back and think, ‘Oh I’ve done really well’ but I am very happy with the Joanne Hynes range and the new jewellery range called Jewel which is a separate entity to the Joanne Hynes mainline.”
Joanne says that it takes a very confident woman who’s happy to make an impact to wear her designs and says she also focuses on real women when designing. “I design with a lot of friends in mind. When you come out of fashion college, it’s all quite fantasy-based. But now I’m thinking more about real women, the women who will wear my designs and what they want.”
Joanne’s focus on designing for the real woman means that she finds it difficult to understand the current obsession with the very unhealthy and unrealistic size zero.
“I think the most shocking thing for me is the likes of Victoria Beckham who are actually really proud of being a size zero. I don’t have any concerns about a woman being a size zero if they’re healthy; some models are very tall and naturally thin. But there are a lot of girls out there who are misinformed or vulnerable. Also, I think the whole thing has escalated. Irish models are very healthy and beautiful and have a head on their shoulders. It seems to be celebrity-driven and a lot of the girls’ magazines seem to have hyped it up. It’s easy to play on people’s insecurities in the media - it’s the oldest trick in the book. I certainly don’t think you can blame designers though.”
While Joanne doesn’t get to spend much time in Ireland, as she spends half her year in India and is based in the UK for the other six months, she says she will be visiting Galway a lot more with the opening of a new jewellery store called Jewel on Shop Street. She says that jewellery has always been an important part of her label and has always made a big statement. “I’m very excited about the brand new jewellery range we have developed called Jewel which is a range on its own with a different price range. With Jewel I am in partnership with a business person, a local Galway man, so we found the perfect location and I love Galway. There’s also a real hunger for fashion in Galway, so for me it made sense to open an accessories store here.”
The jewellery range signature is what Joanne describes as a ‘spontaneous mix’ of accessories for all situations. “I am not interested in designing traditional jewellery; it’s a style statement as well as design. There are also subtle pieces for the less adventurous and I’m delighted to be able to do that. With Jewel jewellery and accessories, we wanted to reach different age groups, it’s a new customer for me, which is a challenge and the shop caters for 15 to 60 year olds. The philosophy behind Jewel is young, carefree, fresh and interesting. Where as the Joanne Hynes label is different to that- you could say more intense!”
With the focus firmly back on her home town, Joanne is also set to stock her Joanne Hynes mainline clothing label in Galway for the first time in September,when her range will be available in Demora on Cross Street and Joanne feels the time is just right. “Looking around Galway, women are a lot more individual than women in most other cities; there are not so many clones.”
Check out Joanne’s latest designs on www.joannehynes.com.
Published in GALWAYnow LIMERICKnow and CORKnow Magazines February 08
By Jo Lavelle
View the print version (pdf).
On my way to meet with James Brown, celebrity hairdresser and best friend of Kate Moss, I’m bracing myself for lots of air kissing and dahlings. Instead, I am met with a genuine guy, who you quickly realise has zilt time for any of the typical pretentiousness that you associate with celebrity.
We meet in the Unicorn Restaurant in Dublin where James and his PR girl, Jennie are sitting patiently amidst the sea of suits. What was to be an interview over lunch quickly turns into what seems like lunch with mates over a really nice couple of glasses of Châteauneuf du Pape and great food.
Chatting about Galway, which he now calls home, his horses, Supermacs and getting a bit worse for wear at the races while trying to keep up with his beer drinking Irish friends, you get the impression that this Croydon-born chap is now ready to take a step back from the glitz and glamour for something a bit more real. The reason we’re meeting up is that James has just launched his new range of hair products, but he seems reluctant to discuss that side of things, preferring to chat about the possibility of him holding the stations at his house in Ballinrobe and his life as stylist to the stars.
But James’ real friends are those he’s had for years and admits that he meets lots of ‘wankers’, words he kindly puts in my mouth when I ask him how he deals with the whole ‘celebrity’ hairdresser label. “I don’t entertain it at all. At the end of the day, I blow dry hair - I’m a hairdresser, that’s all I do. I’m not saving the world; I’m not saving lives. Obviously, I’m good at it but it’s not brain surgery and I hate being called celebrity hairdresser.” Maybe so, but working with A-list clients like Gwyneth Paltrow, Kirsten Dunst, The Beckhams and Johnny Depp is obviously a tad more exciting than chopping hair in a salon down the high street. “I am lucky, when I find myself moaning, I think, I’m in paradise here.”
Some of his favourite celebs to work with include Sarah Jessica Parker and Demi Moore, “an amazing woman” who is he says is super professional and really nice. Julianne Moore is another of his favourites. “You just feel like you’ve known her forever. Most of them are my clients regularly, so it’s easy. You see them at their most vulnerable because you’re at their house and they’ve just got out of bed and your in their life completely which no one else would ever see in a million years. You’re there in their bedroom or even in the bathroom helping them wash their hair. So they’re in a very vulnerable state but obviously they can trust me.”
When in need of a bit of escapism from the whole scene, James hops on a plane and heads for Killimor, where he’s been coming since a little boy.
“Every time I come here I feel super, super at home like nowhere else I’ve ever been before. When I’d go the airport sometimes, I’d cry when I’d have to leave. A lot of people don’t understand it at all. During the summer, everyone’s going off to Cannes or sailing around St Tropez and I come to Ballinasloe - they can’t understand it. This Christmas and New Year, everyone’s going to Thailand, I’m coming here. I did that for years but now I’d choose this a hundred million per cent any day.”
He says he’d love to have Kate over to stay in Galway, but admits the last thing he’d want to do is bring the wrath of the paparazzi on the sleepy village of Tynagh.
“I am still in that scene and I speak or see Kate every day but I love having that balance and if I can’t manage to get here for some reason then I’ll be in the countryside at Kate’s but I’ll be up and out and still riding there as well - I just love the balance of that.”
Mentions of Kate are dotted throughout our conversation. He laughs as he tells me of how he was dying to get on the phone to Kate to tell her that the guy’s name who was renovating his outhouse in Killimor was called Mossy, his nickname for Kate. I ask him what it is about Kate that has the public in a constant state of fascination. “I think it’s because she has a way of disarming people. She doesn’t get out of a limo with 20 bodyguards and dark glasses on, making an entrance. She’ll get out, put her head down and get in. And the fact that you do see her without her hair and make-up, you do see her in the country with her wellies on. She’s not airbrushed all the time so I think she’s the most relatable out of everyone. You go to work with Kate everyone will tense and then she’ll come onto set and everyone is disarmed immediately - she’ll know every single assistant’s name by the end of the day. She’ll be in the corner chatting away to the caterers; their models and other celebrities don’t do that. I know not a lot of people get to see that but she is super down to earth and normal. She drives her own car, she’ll walk to the pub - she’s normal, as much as she can be for being Kate Moss.”
It was a collaboration with Kate, who he befriended in his late teens, which catapulted James into the world of celebrity and fashion. He dubs as “life changing” the first cover of Vogue he ever did with Kate at the age of 22. “It was so easy because it was a natural process, because I was doing Kate’s hair which I did anyway all the time, my friend Corrine Day was taking the pictures, who was my flatmate, it was just so mellow and easy and great and it ended up changing the whole industry really.”
Following over two decades in the industry, James decided to launch his own product range. “I was always mixing and matching products and it was never quite what I wanted. I just thought, wouldn’t it be great if I did my own products and then I just did it. I think the time was just right basically to do it.”
So what in James’ opinion makes a great hairstyle? “Simplicity. For me, it’s when someone looks like they haven’t tried, that they haven’t spent hours on their hair is the best for me really. You want the hair to be simple if you’ve got a ball gown on. And that keeps you modern and fresh. You never see Kate with huge hair and a huge dress and full make-up. The hair is always super simple but the outfit can be over the top. That’s why she always looks so good.”
How does he rate us Galway women on the fashion front? “I love the city; I think people look amazing in Galway City. You see really well dressed women, kids that have the best style; a lot of the students don’t have any money but the way they’re put together is amazing. It’s so weird now that I see people in Galway and I think God, that’s amazing and a season later, on the catwalk in New York, I’ll see the same stuff. Because the designers are out there on the streets copying what they see. I’m on the firing line of fashion - I’m at a show in New York, on the first week of fashion season and I see where the stuff is coming from and it’s coming off the streets. Women are really well put together in Galway.” I tell him the ladies will love him after that comment.
We head off through Stephen’s Green, and he’s asking me where he might find a pair of white fingerless gloves when we bump into Victoria Mary Clarke, girlfriend of Shane McGowan. She tells him it’s Shane’s 50th, there’s a party for him in London. Will he be there? Absolutely he will. Wonder if he’ll need a break in Killimor after that session?
Published GALWAYnow LIMERICKnow and CORKnow Magazines October 08
If Lulu Guinness could give one piece of advice on style, it would be this - ‘have fun’. The famous British designer talks fashion and style with Jo Lavelle.
Lulu’s career as a designer spans 20 years. It was while she was working in video production in London that she designed her first piece - a multi-tasking briefcase, which was snapped up by Joseph and Browns and Liberties.
“I had an idea for a briefcase for women; at the time there was nothing like that. I designed a brief case that you opened up and it had all these different compartments to show off all your Ray-Bans and Sunny Walkmans and all these little gadgets that people were really proud of showing off. It had pockets and a detachable briefcase and a place for your umbrella.”
It was from this one brainwave that Lulu discovered she had a flair for designing, and began to build what can now only be described as a phenomenal design empire. While Lu Lu’s exquisite, witty handbags and accessories are now probably her most sought-after designs, her perfume, sunglasses, shoes and bed linen are fast catching up. Interestingly, her design portfolio also includes a Lulu Guinness MacClaren Quest buggy, a Sky+ box, a stylish luxury travel bag for the Ford Focus car and a bespoke bag for the PSP Playstation.
“Basically I’m a designer; I like ideas and concepts for products but I also like decorations and application so whether it’s a duvet cover or spectacles, I can do it because I’m a designer. I like a bit of space, a bit of surface area to design on. I find the edge of a pair of spectacles hardest because you can get very little on it. I still love handbags though - at the moment I’m working on these special pieces for my 20th anniversary and I’m really enjoying it. I really enjoy it when I can let go of the commercial side sometimes and do a limited edition for a museum or something.”
Lulu, whose ex-husband is of the Guinness brewing clan (Jasmine Guinness is her ex-husband’s niece and was bridesmaid at their wedding), has a number of successful stores in London, New York’s West Village, Tokyo and Fukuoka, Japan. Her collectable bags have been described as ‘tomorrow’s treasures’ and have been collected by many museums. Celebs can’t get enough of her stylish and feminine designs, with stars like Kiera Knightly, Rachel Weisz, Dita von Teese, Claudia Schiffer and Debra Messing regularly snapped sporting them.
Lulu’s fantastically original ideas are influenced partly from retro glamour and partly from modern chic. “I get inspiration by just being out there. I like doing exhibitions, I like dealing with students. If I go to a vintage fair, I’m likely to find an old collar or scarf that I will use somehow. I’m quite influenced by what’s going on culturally around me. A lot of my inspiration is from the past, but then I make it different for today. You can’t just copy an old piece, there’s just no point - you have to reinterpret it and make it desirable. And with people now spending less with the credit crunch, people need to get excited about what they see.”
So any tips for not letting your style slip into oblivion while short on cash?
“I really like the idea of people customising. I like what Gok does; I agree with all that. I’m very into people being creative and individual about your look - that’s what I stand for. I find that at a time like this, in a time of credit crunch, people have to be more creative with their look, or they need cheering up and our brands are full of wit.”
From the lady who was once quoted as saying, “Dress to suit your mood - don’t keep all your most glamorous things for special occasions”, she believes that her words of wisdom might just have caught on.
“Luckily the world has realised that. People all dress up now, which I love.” Where to draw the line though, between fabulous and dragulous? “If you feel overdressed, it’s wrong. If your gut reaction is that you’re overdressed then there’s no point, you won’t enjoy yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable with that diamante necklace going to the office, then don’t. People are definitely more glamorous these days.”
And lastly, some words of advice from the queen of quirky style; “Find what suits you - don’t be a slave to fashion. You can always be very philosophical about beauty being on the inside but I think the point is, there’s a lot of very serious things in this world and I think fashion and style are to enjoy - it should all be about fun. You should never be agonising over style or fashion - it should feel good, not bad.” Wise words.
Published GALWAYnow and LIMERICKnow Magazines Feb 09
Maura Derrane talks TV, love and why women should embrace their 30s with Jo Lavelle.
Maura Derrane’s career has been a whirlwind of intense and glamorous media jobs over the past decade. From RTE researcher to TV3 crime correspondent and Ireland AM presenter, Maura has never been one to shy away from a challenge. And now the ambitious Aran Islands native is fronting her own reality TV show Feirm Factor, and has just recently started her own pr company.
On meeting the effervescent Maura, it’s not difficult to see how her energy has taken her thus far. From her humble beginnings as RTE Galway studio assistant in 1992, Maura went onto work for Radio 1 and Nationwide, before taking up a news reporting job in the then newly-formed TG4 in 1996. It was when TV3 was launched in 1998, and Maura joined them as reporter, that her career really took off.
“I never ever in my life had any ambition to be on TV,” she says. “It was basically Jim’s (RTE News correspondent Jim Fahy) suggestion that I try TV out; he pushed me towards it, which was brilliant; before that I had no interest in news at all. But I had a great training ground with him; he’s a fantastic journalist.”
After a couple of years working as the TV3 Crime Correspondent, Maura landed the position of co-presenter with Ireland AM, a role she’s probably best known for and one she took to with great ease. “The funny thing was, I always thought I’d like to present; I did enjoy doing news but it is very straight, very po faced and my personality, like anyone that knows me knows, wouldn’t be straight-laced at all - au contraire really. When Claire Byrne left, they had been looking for someone to replace her but hadn’t found anyone they wanted to take on full-time. So I went to my boss and asked them and they were like, ‘You? Present Ireland AM?’ because it was so different to what I was doing every day. But I really got into it; I mean at the beginning, I was so scared it was just the worst - live TV. I was so nervous I actually thought I was going to collapse in the seat. But I was with Aidan Cooney who was presenting instead of Mark Cagney, and he was brilliant; he literally held my hand.
I wasn’t great at early mornings. I’m a really bad sleeper so it was very hard for me as I only got three or four hours sleep a night so it was a hard adjustment period but I just loved the job so much that it was irrelevant; I loved the diversity of it.”
It was during these two years that Maura married TD John Deasy and, tired of the early mornings, the long commute to her new home in Waterford and wanting to be with her new husband, Maura left Ireland AM. “I just got sick of the whole lot and I just thought, ‘I’m married now to John, he lives in Waterford, he’s a TD, he has to stay so I was the one who decided to make the sacrifice to move.”
It’s a move that has, in the past two years, seen Maura taking on a range of diverse projects such as editing the cosmetic surgery magazine, ‘Rejuvenate’ for a year, becoming beauty editor with Woman’s Way, making a four-part documentary series entitled ‘Living With Murder’ for TV3 and presenting Feirm Factor, a reality TV show for TG4, which will be aired this month.
“Feirm Factor was amazing; we had great crack! I was on the road with a very big crew who were really young and vibrant. We travelled all over the country from Cork to Cavan to Galway and we filmed 12 farmers from agricultural colleges who were being put through their paces - everything from ploughing and animal handling, down to the business side of farming. I had such a great time; the most difficult thing was getting up in the morning after nights out!”
Maura’s newest venture, and probably her most significant since her move from TV3 is the public relations and media pr company she has just set up with ex-editor of Radio 1, Ian Noctor. Derrane and Noctor Public Relations and Media Specialists will cover PR and media training, focusing on things such as how to speak in a media capacity and presenting training courses.
Maura’s life has changed considerably since the heady, manic days of her TV career. But having met her own husband when she was 32, and having spend her 20s and half her 30s with a high-powered career, she’s quick to condemn the pressure on women these days to settle down once they reach a certain age.
“I think it’s terrible the way there’s such a focus so much on getting married and having children. I would hate if all my friends were married and had babies; I would just find it all very boring - I love when I’m out that some of my friends are single. We’ve far more to talk about. My sisters are in their 30s and single and I just feel the pressure is unbelievable. I was single when I was 30 and loving every second of my single life. I met john when I was 32 and I just feel, I was just not even half ready to settle down at that stage but I think society says that if you’re not married by 35 then you’re a loser, and I just think well god help us. Women should totally embrace single life as long as they can. And I know that there’s a lot of pressure, but I say just go out and enjoy yourself and then Mr Right will come if it’s the right time. And with regard to the baby debate, women are having kids when they’re older now and there’s nothing wrong with that. In the past, people were scared into thinking that they had to have kids in their 20s, but they’re so many single women in their 30s now that they’re just going to have to have kids in their 30s and 40s now and that’s the way it is.”
I think it’s really unfair the way people pressure on women to have a relationship the minutes they hit 30. A lot of women are working hard at their career these days and if you got married at 25, and had kids, a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do jobs like the jobs I did; it’s not possible.”
So for the woman who stepped out of the spotlight for a quieter life of sorts, does she ever miss her old life?
“I absolutely miss Dublin. I love it, and I lived there for eight years. My lifestyle totally changed when I moved down here - all my friends were in media., I socialised with all media people so my life was all media media media, television, television, television. But it’s only three hours up the road. It was a hard move initially but the other side is it’s great I don’t have to sit in traffic for an hour to get to work. Here is s lovely place to live; you’re right on the sea, it’s amazing.”
…she may have taken a step back from the limelight, but there’s no sign of Maura slowing down just yet…
See Maura on TG4’s Feirm Factor, which will be aired at ?on ?
Published in GALWAYnow, LIMERICKnow and CORKnow Magazines Dec/Jan 07
Having just finished the Cork movie, Strength and Honour, directed by Cork’s own Mark Mahon, Jo Lavelle caught up with Hollywood movie star, Michael Madsen, on the set of what is set to become next year’s blockbuster.
In our exclusive, Michael tells us why he loves Ireland, what he really thinks of Hollywood and why he badly wanted to play the lead role in the movie.
Strength and Honour, which will hit the big screens in 2007, is set in contemporary Cork and tells the story of an Irish boxer who accidentally kills his friend in the ring. He promises his wife he will never fight again, but when he discovers his only son is dying of the same heart disease that took his wife, he’s forced to break his promise.
Best known for his roles in Resevoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise and Donnie Brasco, it’s easy to see why Michael is typically chosen for the part of the tough bad guy. With his broad 6′ 2″ build, dark good looks and his gravely, testosterone-soaked voice exude masculinity.
However, this time around, Michael was happy to take a break from the bad ass guy and play the role of good guy, Sean Kelleher.
“Mostly, I’m pretty much remembered for playing various people - a lot of bad guys and killers and things like that and to be honest with you, I was getting a bit tired of it and I wanted to change. I wanted to be one of these guys who rides off into the sunset, which I don’t often get a chance to do. So originally, I was offered the other part in this movie of the killer, of the ‘Smasher’, but I said no.
“Then when I found out they had Vinnie Jones to play ‘Smasher’, I thought that was a great idea and I finally convinced them to let me play Sean. I think Mark wanted me for Sean all along but I think there was some other people he had to talk into it. And I’m working with people like Finbar Furey, and Patrick Bergin. I mean, these guys are great actors in their own right and it makes my job a lot easier.”
Pulling off the Irish accent is notoriously difficult for actors, with a long list of disastrous attempts down through the years, but hanging out in Ireland for a couple of months was all Michael said was needed to pick it up.
“I leaned a lot more about it from hanging out with the local people than I did from any books or anything of that nature. You pick it up pretty fast just being there, you know? Everybody talks a certain way and pretty soon, you start talking the same way and it just becomes part of your speech pattern after a while. And besides, I’m supposed to be Irish American, which is what John Wayne was when he did the Quiet Man. It was a similar story about someone who kills somebody in the boxing ring and later on, they have to come back and face the realities and what that cost.”
Although the father of six boys, whose Malibu neighbours include Mel Gibson and Pierce Brosnan, admits that Hollywood can be crazy, mad and extremely superficial, he says much of it is overly hyped and overrated.
“It’s a very, very aggressive business and a very manic way to make a living. And you know, Hollywood can be incredibly stale and overrated. The lifestyle is overrated. There’s not a lot of glamour. A lot of that stuff is in tabloids and papers and things like that. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that and been all over the whole scene, that whole Hollywood idea and I can tell you for sure it’s overrated. I just want to make a living. I just want longevity. I just want to work and all the rest of it isn’t important to me.
“I was never one of those people who was chased around by paparazzi and you know slugging photographers and that kind of thing. It wasn’t really my thing. I mean, I had lots of fun but I never became tabloid fodder and I was lucky. I did a million things before I became an actor. So I had life experience. I was an orderly in the hospital. I was an auto mechanic and I built a couple of race cars. I worked for a landscaper and a pipe fitter and I sold Christmas trees, drove tow trucks and worked in construction. I think a lot of the kids that are in Hollywood, they jump into the career and it’s all bullshit. You know what I mean? They’re making a lot of money and they’re living the high style and they never had any life experience at all. At least I have something to compare it to.”
Of the 70-odd movies that Michael has made, he says there are a few he is truly proud of and believes that Strength and Honour is going to be one of those. “I’ve made a lot of pictures and I don’t necessarily think that all of them are good. There’s a hand full of them that are made well and done by good people. I think Donnie Brasco, The Getaway, Reservoir Dogs and Thelma and Louise. I just did a picture in Canada called vice with Daryl Hannah; I play a pretty dark cop. I think that one is probably gonna to make a big deal next year. Along with this one - Strength and Honour.”
Michael says filming the movie was made a lot easier due to a great working relationship with director, Rochestown native, Mark Mahon. “Me and him understand each other very well. I met him on a couple of occasions and he told me about this dream he had to make this movie and you know, I know how difficult it is to raise money to make a picture and I know how difficult it is when you’re not considered to have any experience and how people can not really want to give you a chance.
“I know what it’s like to be the underdog and I know what it’s like to have people doubting you and I think that he went through a lot of that - a tremendous amount of it and so I have this great respect for him that he finally said, “Fuck it. I’m gonna go do this on my own,” and that’s exactly what he did. He had to convince a few people to let me play Sean. But once I showed up over here, everyone realised that he was a little wiser than what they gave him credit for.”
One of the things that undoubtedly surprises a lot of people who knows Michael only from the characters he plays in most movies, is that he writes poetry and has had some books published.
“I think there’s a lot of things that would surprise people but for whatever reason, I’ve played a lot of characters that are etched in people’s minds because of the violence behind them but I didn’t write any of that stuff, I just interpreted it. All the stuff I’ve written is mostly short stories and poetry and biographical stuff and I didn’t really plan on it being a book, it just worked out that way.
“At one point in time, I was just going to destroy it and a friend of mine encouraged me to give it to a publisher instead. What’s good about it is that I look back on it now and I read a lot of stuff that I wrote a long time ago and I’m really glad I put it down because now I can see that there’s a memory of it and there’s a lot of lessons I learnt in my life and I learnt it all the hard way and if I can write that down and help someone else down the road who is going to read it, then they might be able to interpret it for themselves. You’re kind of almost a teacher in a way. You’re not going to learn everything there is to learn and God knows there’s a lot I have left to learn, but if I can pass anything on to anyone else then I’ve done my job, right?”
Leaving for the States just two days after we spoke, Michael says he would have loved to have stayed longer. With this being his first visit to Ireland, he says he’s come to love it so much, including the rain, that he’s planning on buying a place here himself.
“I liked Ireland so much that I didn’t really want to go. I wanted to look at some land and some property so I’d have some place to come back to. I’m just looking for 20 or 30 acres with a small house, some place I can keep a couple of horses. Nothing big, no big deal. I just know that if I had an address here, I’d probably come back and forth more often.”
“I’ve written a lot of things about Ireland, which will probably be in a book some day from my visit here. It would be pretty impossible to be here and not. I mean, it’s raining all the time and everybody has a lot of pub time and there’s the pub-crawl as they call it and there are a lot of things that put you in the mood of a writer. I’m sure that Beckett and some of those other characters got it from the mood of Ireland. It really gets a hold of you after a while. Travelling through the countryside - that was really educational to me and I also learned a lot about the history of the place, the difference between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
Michael names Kinsale pub ‘The Greyhound’ as a regular haunt of his during his stay, along with ‘The Spaniard’ and one of Ireland’s best known restaurants, Man Friday and Italian restaurant, Portofino’s in Kinsale.
“I’m gonna miss a lot of the people I worked here with. I met a lot of great people and made some good friends but when you’re in film, basically you’re just a part of a travelling circus and everyone’s just a bunch of carnival people and we’re all just moving from one location to another and finally when it’s over, the circus just leaves town and there’s a lot of people left behind wondering whatever happened and then you meet a lot of folks you’re never going to see again for the rest of your life so it’s kind of a neurotic way to live your life, but it’s what I’m doing.”
“You know, it’s funny cause I think I’m having more fun now than I ever was making movies cause I’m settled into it now, everything isn’t so serious. I’m more comfortable in my skin than I used to be.”
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