what is it mistakes are the are the portals to kind of creativity you know and I and I really believe that yeah and you can have really really bad ideas but the person that your collaborator is not going to go I ain't going to work with that guy again because they know you're just you're just figuring it out you [Music] know how are you good man how are you I'm not too bad thanks for asking congratulations on the film I really loved it thank you um how much did you know about these in institions these
laundries when they were open as a child growing up thankfully not that much cuz so the movie set in the as you say the mid 80s and I would have been maybe like nine around that time where the film is set so I didn't really know much about I mean I was raised Catholic went to Catholic Primary School and secondary school and all of that and taught by brothers and um but I didn't know much about it and then through the '90s and the early 000s the the what started as a trickle of sort of
abuse um re Revelations just turned into sort of an avalanche um and it all began to come out about how uh systemic this was and how many women were incarcerated and and it wasn't just the marinal laundries there was like industrial schools and um private schools and religious orders and it it was really uh an awful lot to kind of uh process and um and then I came across the book uh in like 2020 or 2021 when it came out and uh I felt like this is a very gentle but still provocative way of of
looking at this time in in history and I thought maybe this could make an interesting uh quiet but you know uh meaningful film I suppose uh gentle and and meaningful is the are the words I'd use as well because lest people think that this is like a um a documentary or anything right now I just want to give people a little bit of a of an idea of who you play so Bill as I mentioned he's a very stoic man he has a family of his own he has his own sadness that he's lived through
and that his his mother was U the way his mother was treated as an unwed mother the kindness she was shown by a neighbor he comes across one of these like abusive institutions while he's delivering coal he starts to have the suspicions about what is actually happening inside so now that everyone listening kind of knows that um how do you see your character's journey in the film it's interesting because I I decided from the beginning not to play him as a sort of a as a hero even though I suppose on paper you could look
at it as a heroic act but I feel to me as you describe he's under all this he's all there's this sort of Confluence of um crises that hit him at the one time one is all this undal with grief about his mother not knowing who his father is and there's the the idea of raising five girls in this time in in Ireland in this sort of society and then there's obviously the stuff that he encounters on his Co round when he he sees these These Girls and what's happening to them so it's this kind
of sort of personal Reckoning and to me it feels like he's actually in the middle of a of some sort of nervous breakdown you know he can't sleep he's sitting up at night he he he doesn't talk and that's a very familiar Irish Trope is the quiet deep thinking Irish male you know because there was no outlet for these men there was there was nowhere for them to go to really talk about what they were actually experiencing so so it's a lovely character to to play because you're you don't have text really you don't have
Exposition you really have to play him through trying to transmit the emotions um non-verbally and I love that to me that's what you know when films work it's really not what the characters are saying it's how they're behaving and how they're sitting and how they're looking and and I love characters in reflection and in Repose so it was a big big challenge for me uh to try and to try and create this character in a mostly silent way so two questions on that first one is and this might be a Sil question but I've never
acted um oh actually no I acted once but I wasn't very good at it um I I've never acted really when you are having to portray so much with your body um and your in the way you sit and the way you stand as you mentioned in the in the depths of the grief and and um tribulation that this character is going through are you tireder at the end of the day is it is it physically exhausting to do that I mean it's the thing I absolutely love doing so it's incredibly satisfying and know when
you have a good team around you like the the director Tim M needs to take an awful lot of credit for this film um I'd worked with him before on py blinders and I knew he was a real artist so um we we made this together and like he he is just incredible with actors so I had someone that I really really trusted and he really really pushed me uh in terms of going deep with the character you know um so uh it was it was I I loved it yeah you get exhausted but in
the good way you know the way when you go to bed worn out and you're like that was a good day's work you know that that's the sort of satisfaction you get from from really challenging characters I think when you say he had to push you what what weren't you accessing that he had to push you to access it's not it's not necessarily that I wasn't accessing it but it's like going deeper again you think right that that there we have a version of that but let's let's just go deeper and deeper again and let's
push that and you can only do that with someone that you really really trust and like I've said this before but I'm like I'm a Serial uh Rec collaborator and I I've many of the people I've worked with I've worked with for 20 nearly 30 years now and because I feel like when you go into into the work you got this short hand you got this sort of uh sympatico or something that you can really just get to it and there's no like getting to know you or like I hope I don't make a fool
of myself here or whatever you're just straight into trying to find those that really really truthful honest kind of vibrations without sounding incredibly pretentious well I wouldn't worry too much about that you sound you sound Grand don't don't worry about that um but um did you feel any added because I'd know you from I'd know you from the the the films and and TV shows that you're best known from um of course in Ireland they know you from some of the early work you you've done there but did you did you feel any extra pressure
knowing that uh both as a Storyteller and as an actor here you're telling a very Irish story yes I mean there was there was a sense of responsibility towards the novel and then clearly there was a sense of responsibility towards the thousands and thousands of women for whom this was an actual lived experience you know um and there's people walking around today who were born in these institutions or were incarcerated in these institutions or never don't know who their mother and father is don't know who the brothers and sisters are and and and it's there
it's it's that's the legacy of the Catholic church in in Ireland I mean there was many good things that the church brought like an education for example but we also have to accept the legac there's a legacy of abuse and cruelty so I felt a real responsibility towards that because you want a film to be entertaining but when it's a real life event and uh or these institutions really existed you you just have to be very very delicate and careful and uh respectful as suppose have you have you spoken to people who' have survived those
institutions since the film came out who've seen it yes we have actually yeah um yeah we have we've had a lot of lovely um Communications from them yeah and it's you know it's quite it's very kind of overwhelming and very um I don't know it makes it feel very sort of uh it's just like a an actor prancing around the place but these people actually you know lived it but the but it's been yeah it's been it's kind of been emotional for them and I'm sure for you yeah yeah I didn't I suppose I didn't
quite anticipate uh how deep it would go the story you know I knew the book was beloved and it's been T taught on the curriculum in Ireland and you know it's it's a massive um uh it's so many people have read it in the states and in North America and um but I didn't quite realize iiz how deep it would would run but again that's the power of art because there've been so much written about this time in history you know so many AC academic papers and so many reports and but art can just connect
in a different way I think I suppose when I was watching it I'm so I'm from New Finland on the east coast of Canada yeah and um in the late 80s early 90s we went through a very similar thing there um there was a a massive scandal in in monasteries there as you as you may know and and you know abuse of children by priests and abuse of children by brothers and it really rocked similar to Ireland um our our relationship with the church was sort of foundational in our daily Society um and and there
was great intimidation both you know official and and unofficial um and it turned a lot of us like myself included like I think I was pretty devout up until then and then I sort of I couldn't find my way I could find my way to God but I couldn't find my way to that organization if you know what I mean um so I guess the the the question I had was when you said you know I wanted to tell this story um but I wanted to do it in a gentle uh and and meaningful way
I guess why did you want to tell it at all what was motivating you to be totally honest I thought it would make a good film I mean that's the primary motivation um but I like I I don't ever want to see this this film as as an attack on you know faith of course because it really isn't and really and I really think we have to make the distinction between personal faith and the sort of institution of the Catholic Church know they're very very very different and I have I I I bear no grudges
towards anyone that has Faith what I what I suppose I um object to is like the imposition of that faith on people and I and I kind of object to absolutism and control over people's morals and people's bodies and all of those things um so that isn't what that is about and I would hate for it to be construed as that which I don't it has been no so far but but I suppose yeah the really thing is I thought it would make a good film and what come like I really enjoy films or theater
or novels that can be entertaining but then can also provoke conversation that's all you know that's all like and and if you if if you don't want to have a conversation about it that's fine um but if you do to me that's a bonus do you know I understand and I'm not trying to get you to give a un Secretary General speech here about the meaning of the film because there'd be nothing more of a bummer for people who want to go see your film that but but it did I mean we were talking about
it and the people who watching the show come from a different people who work on the show come from a varying degree of of backgrounds and and and we were talking about how in some ways it felt like this I we might relate to this the film seemed to be about having the courage to speak up when things are when things are bad and and it's not easy to speak up for sure yeah and I think that's why people see resonance in it or you know it resonates you know about what's happening in the world
but you know what I think what I what I also liked about the book is the the structure of it in that it's quite radical and that the story really starts when the book ends and when the film ends and and and that it gives an awful lot of power to the audience to go all right so we've seen this and this act has happened and the screen has gone to black but what the hell happens now and the amount of discussion and debate and opposing views that go on after the film is very satisfying
to me that you know people have different points of views and I and I really like that because a lot of stories wrap up and everything is neatly wrapped up in a bow and it's presented to you whereas our film it's completely left open to interpretation which I'm proud of I mean similar to the how there's no there's no happy ending in any of these stories there's no easy tie up to any of these stories I I I I I don't think so can I ask you about the serial Rec collaborator thing sure I I
was curious about that because I was I I know you from I was we were talking about you in in Oppenheimer and we were talking about you with Christopher Nolan and you've worked with him what I think six times that that was the sixth film yes what does keep you coming back to him is it just this is where I can find a gig or is there something there that you that you get out of working with him over and over and over again well he's the guy that writes the scripts and generates the works
so he's the guy that calls me um and you can always say no you can always say I'm going to go lie down of course but no I like I've always said I'll be there I'll be I'll always be there when he calls because I think he's you know one of the greatest living filmmakers I think he's extraordinary unique one in a million talent and and and working with Chris you know changed my life um profoundly started with Batman Begins back in 2004 so it's yeah it's 20 years now um but the the the beauty
of that is that the the working relationship deepens every time you work uh if you get on and and if the work is uh H achieve some level then I think you you you you get this it all come back comes back to trust and shorthand and uh just being able to to to communicate without blathering do you know what I mean I no can can you can you give me an example like I'm I again like I'm not an actor I'd love to know what that means like when you go back five or six
times like how that what deepens deepens means there you both know what is required of the other for example and so there's no getting to know you and you know and you're not a one of the most amazing things I think is that you can walk on Chris's set or any any set where you feel comfortable and safe H and you can just make a fool yourself if you want because a film set is really like a is like is like a little laborator laboratory you know what I mean it's a private little laboratory where
you're you're building this thing in tiny tiny moments um and a lot of the moments will not be used so you're kind of mining for the really special moments and in order to find the really special moments you have to do a lot of foolish things and if you don't trust the people that you're with or you feel tense or there's friction or whatever you won't be able to go and make those foolish moments which then kind of what is it mistakes are the are the portals to kind of creativity you know and I and
I really believe that I understand so the more trust you have with someone the more opportunities you can have to have these sort of spontaneous joyful moments that might lead to something special on the on the thing and that's hard to do if you're reading them for the first time for sure yeah and you can have really really bad ideas but the person that your collaborator is not going to go I ain't going to work with that guy again because they know you're just you're just figuring it out you know um I wanted to ask
you about win in the Oscar uh uh our producer Gloria and I were chatting about this so be me being from New Finland and glor's um so she's a Nigerian from the from the UK and we were talking about how in our circles if we had won an Oscar um I don't know if we'd get like we're so proud of you great job we'd probably be get get made fun of a little bit um as in their sort of way of of good job and Gloria mentioned to me that you sort of talked about that
that there's sort of the the Irish way from your I think your brother and your buddies to you winning an Oscar was different than the way he was received in La yeah but like for me in Ireland like um slagging we call it yeah like take the piss I mean that that is the highest form of affection really I mean uh and my my brother and my best friend came over as a surprise to the to the ceremony and they were there with me and it was it kind of made everything okay because you know
they were just slagging me off and and it was wonderful because it's it's all coming from a place of real love you know and you you know you it's it's the most incredible insane overwhelming bizarre experience to be caught up in that but when you have your buddies there they're also experiencing it and they see the real you in it so it's that it was um that was one of the best parts of it what did they say oh I can't remember some of them the unre beautiful even even even on digal radio um what
changes for you after you win an award like that I asked G Del Toro one time what happens after you win best picture and he said I have to say if you have a shred of tiny bit of Doubt left of or imposter syndrome in you he says that does kind of go away the day after did you find anything like that after you won oh gosh I still have a healthy healthy amount of that I think yeah I think that that's kind of key key to it um I I mean I I set up
a production company and um that was before the the Oscar but but but hopefully maybe in a market you know which is a very crude way of talking about it people are more willing to invest in in in in films uh and and that for me that I'll take that that's very useful and and maybe it gives me little more um Independence in in finding the sorts of stories that I want to tell um but genuinely like in this is completely honest I really haven't thought about it in any uh in any way like I
I went straight back to work as a that seemed to be my coping mechanism I've done three films this year since March so I probably should have a little think about at some point but I haven't because my whole thing is that my old sort of motor as an artist is like move forward like keep going you know you got to keep going and like looking back Nostalgia is death really you know what do you mean I think if you're if you're if you're delighted with yourself and delighted with your work and delighted with your
life I don't think you're going to make very interesting work uh so you got to go right that was good and that was wonderful now let's keep going to the next one I know I know I feel the same but sometimes I wish I could sometimes I wish I could just go that was good we did it good job you know I think that means I think that means you're good at your job you think so really I mind I mean no sorry I don't mean do you think I'm good at my job I mean
do you think that's the this is this whole interview was a ruse for you to get to give me the validation I so sorely needed kilan no CP that no but uh uh um that that that insecurity that voice that not insecurity that voice of keep going don't don't take stock don't look back don't be self-satisfied is a good motor to make great things I I fully believe that yeah like that's sort of insecurity is your security you know if that goes away I think you're you're you're screwed that's just me personally hey I got
you yeah I don't think I'm not gonna carve it in stone or anything I I hear you yeah but I I find you very interesting so I'm happy to hear you I'm happy to hear you say it uh how's the py how's going back to the pey blinders thing how's putting the suit back on um it was strange it was strange but familiar um different but the same um really really happy with the script we've got an amazing cast a wonderful director so uh um how was it putting it on how was physically putting it
on did did you feel something yeah did you feel something when you put it on metaphorically um never no I'm not smart enough for that I it yeah like it doesn't I can't just put the cap on and light a cigarette in your back and you know it takes a while to limber up to it I always it always it always has it hasn't been easy every time cuz he's so bloody different from me and he's so relentless and uh difficult um but but I've I've enjoyed it I you know we figured out that it's
12 years since we started shooting the movie sorry shooting the TV show like 12 years exactly almost and um so that's a long chunk of time like that's a big chunk out of my life so when you when you get going with him it does feel a little bit like he shoves you out of the driving seat and starts driving the car you know oh really you feel like he kind of takes over kind of and again you sound like stop it stop it give it up but but but that's kind of what happens I
think when you've been playing a character for that long it becomes there's something that is H subconscious not not not not not really like it's not really you're not thinking it you know I suppose I'm just trying to imagine like Irish Marlin Brando where he says like know the most important thing is you really have to inhabit a character as long as I don't sound pretentious now or anything like that I it's been um it's the last thing I'll ask you is it's been really um it's been really incredible to watch over the past few
years Irish art really take off in a in an even bigger way I mean you look at the success of someone like Sally Rooney and you look at the success of I mean yourself in music like lanum and EV Vagabond that mean some really I I suppose you've been around now for a while um does this moment feel different and what are you noticing yeah a lot of people ask me this and I find it really difficult to answer you know what is it about Ireland that produces all these I didn't ask that but I'm
you didn't but but I I I I I I I'll still struggle to to answer the question I really don't know I feel like it's a it's a happy Co coincidence um you know you you'd need to write a thesis on it really but you know we're I I don't really know I want to know what it's like I want to know what it's like for you to see it not so much like listen I know what it's like as a new finlander I get asked all the time why are you guys so funny and
why are you guys such great storytellers and I don't [ __ ] know but yeah I would um but I can tell you what it's like to watch the art from where I'm from which is a small place do well like to have people like you know Paul Mesa is just going to crush it now in in Gladiator 2 and you know and Scott and sir shiron and I'm working with Barry kyogen at the moment and as you say this incredible music like the fontaines DC they're just an extraordinary band and there's so much for
such a tiny Island it feels amazing and and to be spoken about in the same sentence as those artists for me is you know really humbling but like all of it's an incredibly high level like it really is like those bands you mentioned like lancom and and Sally Rooney like it they're it's phenomenal in in the truest sense of the word they are a phenomenon you know and so uh yeah it it's a brilliant time and I go and see those guys play you know I go and watch the movies uh and I just get
immense pleasure from it uh I'm a big fan and it's nice to meet you and thanks for making the time for us thanks to meet you Tom is that is there any Irish in that yeah the whole the whole the where I'm from is like settled by Irish people from um I mean years and years back so we were sort of like settled by Irish people who came over uh and didn't make it all the way to Boston I think and uh so yeah it is a funny little accent to get people talking about it
all the time well power is a good Irish name yeah it's good whiskey as well Tom power is a solid I went to Waterford one time and there were like three pages of Tom Powers in the phone book so lovely to meet you thanks for the time nice the chat man see you
