The good, the bad and the lovely
Lies We Tell director Lisa Mulcahy tells of ‘absolute gems’ she worked with while others behaved appallingly
LEADING Irish director Lisa Mulcahy has praised Tom Cruise’s polite professionalism and told how the superstar actor gelled with cast members while filming in Ireland, even joining them in the pub for a few drinks after a day’s shoot.
The director of the criticallyacclaimed psychological thriller, Lies We Tell, also revealed her contrasting experiences working with the stars of two 90s cult classics – epic romantic period drama, Far and Away and the family classic, Into the West.
The Dublin woman, who worked as a second assistant director on the big budget Far and Away, said she has ‘incredibly fond memories’ of the shoot, part of which took place in Ireland.
She told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘There was the American crew and the Irish crew and everybody gelled so well, it was good fun.’
Director Ron Howard ‘was a lovely man’, while power couple Cruise and his then wife Nicole
‘Sometimes actors can be extremely difficult’
Kidman were ‘incredibly professional, very polite, very nice’.
She recalls: ‘A couple of times when we were in Dingle, Tom came with us to the pub and I couldn’t say anything negative about him. There were no antics or no shenanigans – they just did their work.’
In stark contrast, the then film rookie admits she ‘really didn’t enjoy the experience’ of working on Into the West, whose cast included superstars Gabriel Byrne, Ellen Barkin, Colm Meaney, Brendan Gleeson and David Kelly and was also released in 1992.
‘Sometimes actors, when they’re “backstage”, can be very difficult,’ Mulcahy said. ‘Most aren’t, but on that film, without naming names, a few of them were extremely difficult.
‘We were doing night shoots in the west of Ireland in very bad weather. It was quite a challenging job anyway and some people were not the most pleasant to me.’
She said she was ‘unsuited’ to the role of second assistant director and stressed that both Ciarán Fitzgerald and Rúaidhrí Conroy – who played young brothers Ossie and Tito – were ‘wonderful’.
The director said some of the ‘best known’ actors are ‘absolute gems’, while some lesser known ones ‘just behave appallingly – but they are in the minority’.
Irish actor Jamie Dornan falls into the former category for Mulcahy – she has just finished directing the Belfast actor in the second season of the critically lauded drama The Tourist, which is set and was filmed in Ireland. The first season was made in Australia with a different directing team.
Mulcahy said: ‘[Dornan] is an incredibly nice guy. Really good fun; great actor; completely professional. He’s just a delight to work with.’
English actress, and playwright Sean O’Casey’s great granddaughter, Agnes O’Casey received similar praise – Mulcahy directed her in the BBC One drama series Ridley Road, before handing the Lir Academy graduate her first film lead in Lies We Tell.
She said: ‘I’m so delighted for her – she’s getting such good reviews from the film. She’s just wonderful to work with and a lovely person. She is very talented.’
Lies We Tell was adapted by screenwriter Elisabeth Gooch from
J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1864 Gothic novel Uncle Silas, and funded through Screen Ireland’s POV scheme – set up in 2018 to support female filmmakers.
The IFTA-winning Red Rock
‘She’s getting such good film reviews’
director said: ‘It’s impossible to say if it would have been made [without the scheme].
‘The script is great, but it was developed quite intensively through the POV scheme. I’d like to think it would have been made anyway, but I don’t know.
‘It’s quite dark because we lit all the interior night scenes just with candlelight, but there’s no supernatural element to it.’