\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s about this event which sort of captures something about the Irish Zeitgeist at the time,\u201d explains the actor about his first leading film role.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe event in question is a period of five days before the 2002 soccer World Cup in South Korea and Japan, when the Irish national team witnessed a bitter \u2014 and very public \u2014 falling out between captain Keane and manager Mick McCarthy (played by Steve Coogan). While training on the tiny island of Saipan and reportedly furious at the shoddy conditions \u2014 and McCarthy\u2019s competence \u2014 Keane gave his manager an angry verbal tirade in front his teammates, told him to \u201cstick your World Cup up your arse\u201d and flew home (McCarthy later claimed he\u2019d fired him).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIn the grand scheme of things, it was a minor event globally, but in Ireland it was seismic,\u201d notes Hardwicke, who was only 6 years old at the time but still clearly remembers the 24-hour rolling news coverage. \u201cI think because it exposed all these kind of fault lines of a country in flux.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tSteve Coogan as Mick McCarthy and \u00c9anna Hardwicke as Roy Keane in \u2018Saipan\u2019<\/p>\n
\n\tHardwicke plays the role with near-terrifying aplomb, embodying Keane as not just the intense, no-nonsense and ultra-focused athlete he was, but someone who could dominate a room without even saying a word. As he notes, \u201cThere\u2019s a sense of the air changing a bit when he\u2019s around.\u201d To maintain this headspace on set, Hardwicke almost went a little method. \u201cWe did have a laugh, but I\u2019m usually at the biscuit table, and I thought, well, that\u2019s got to go, for the biscuits and also for the chats.\u201d Keane \u2014 as \u201cSaipan\u201d very much underlines \u2014 would not be seen dead at the biscuit table (at least not five days before a World Cup).<\/p>\n
\n\tHardwicke, who in a very early role starred as Paul Mescal\u2019s school friend in \u201cNormal People,\u201d has portrayed real-life characters before. Indeed, he underlined his fast-rising credentials in the acclaimed BBC drama \u201cThe Sixth Commandment,\u201d playing a master manipulator and murderer who preyed on the elderly (earning a BAFTA TV nomination in the process).<\/p>\n
\n\tBut Keane is a different kettle of fish entirely. While his glittering career as one of the best defensive midfielders of all time may have come to an end, he\u2019s still a significant figure in public life, a soccer pundit on U.K. TV screens known for his sometimes scathing analyses of performances. But what of his analyses of his own on-screen depictions? (Variety understands that efforts by the production team to have him involved in the film were met with an expletive-filled rejection). There\u2019s a very good chance \u201cSaipan\u201d\u2014 and Hardwicke\u2019s portrayal of one of his country\u2019s sporting heroes at arguably his un-finest hour \u2014 will cause a stir (and especially in Ireland where the incident still very much divides public opinion).<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never made something before about a cultural moment like this, so I kind of know that people will talk about it and have strong opinions about it either way,\u201d says the actor. \u201cAnd at the start there was bit of me that was, \u2018Oh god, there\u2019s gonna be a lot of noise.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBut instead, Hardwicke is channelling his energy into celebrating \u201cSaipan\u201d as a film, and the sort of film that is rarely made about Ireland.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe don\u2019t tend to make films about our recent history or something that speaks to the place that the country\u2019s in. So I\u2019m really excited about that,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\n\tAs it happens, the last major film to hit the festival circuit that did this was 2023\u2019s \u201cKneecap,\u201d made by many of the same producers as \u201cSaipan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe actually went to the premiere of that film in Belfast the day before we started shooting on \u2018Saipan,\u2019\u201d recalls Hardwicke. \u201cAnd it was just so inspiring \u2014 it\u2019s one of the most creatively inspiring films.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portraying someone in an upbeat celebratory biopic is one thing. Portraying someone in a not-entirely celebratory biopic that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,66586,66587,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-119574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-eanna-hardwicke","11":"tag-saipan","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}