{"id":372579,"date":"2026-03-30T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372579\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T07:11:11","slug":"growing-up-in-cork-i-never-understood-why-we-didnt-film-more-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/372579\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Growing up in Cork I never understood why we didn\u2019t film more here’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is the morning after the Oscars and, like many of us, \u00c9anna Hardwicke is proudly talking about Jessie Buckley\u2019s history making best actress win. It\u2019s notable, he says, that Irish \u2014 and Munster \u2014 talent has enjoyed so much success at cinema\u2019s biggest stage in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine, in two of the last three years, a best actor winner from Cork, and the best actress winner from Kerry. It\u2019s quite something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having admired Buckley\u2019s work for years, he was particularly delighted to see the Killarney woman become the first Irish actress to win best actress.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke as Roy Keane in “Saipan”. Picture: Aidan Monaghan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know Jessie, but I\u2019m an enormous fan of her work. From even the youngest age, she strikes me as someone who has such a grounded confidence to what she does. That comes, I think, from real, authentic, genuine love for what she does, and even the way she spoke during the Oscars, she\u2019s a very special person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buckley\u2019s Oscar win is another highlight in Ireland\u2019s much talked about \u2018green wave\u2019 of screen talent, and Hardwicke is finding his own successes in that growth.<\/p>\n

The busy actor has had strong reviews for playing fellow Corkman Roy Keane in Saipan. He recently completed a run of John Millington Synge\u2019s The Playboy of the Western World at London\u2019s National Theatre opposite Nicola Coughlan and Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney. Other recent credits include his award-winning turn in BBC\u2019s true crime drama The Sixth Commandment.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke in the UK’s National Theatre production of ‘The Playboy of the Western World’<\/p>\n

He returns to our screens in No Ordinary Heist, a crime thriller inspired by true events from Belfast in December 2004. It tells a fictional tale of two bank employees pulled into an audacious robbery.<\/p>\n

Forced to orchestrate the \u00a326.5m robbery to save their loved ones\u2019 lives, they are expected to execute the crime without the gang ever stepping foot inside the bank. The film is based on the biggest heist in Irish and British history.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke in No Ordinary Heist<\/p>\n

\u201cI read it and thought this is just a cracking story, and brilliantly told by Aisling Corristine and Colin McIvor who co-wrote it (McIvor also directs). It\u2019s based on the events of the Northern Bank robbery, and I think they use that as a backdrop to tell a very human story about how these two men deal with the pressure and the jeopardy of the situation, where they have to protect their families in this Tiger kidnapping situation. It was very much the human aspect of it that drew me to the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audiences are made very aware of the stakes facing these men early on as close family members are kidnapped.<\/p>\n

Hardwicke\u2019s character, Barry, has to dig deep to find a way through.<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke in No Ordinary Heist<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s thrust into this pressure cooker of a situation, he has to find enormous levels of resolve and courage and fortitude, because his mother\u2019s life is on the line. He\u2019s got to take \u00a326.5m out of the bank in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat, for me, was the crux of the character \u2014 never really believing in yourself, because people have underestimated you and put you down. And now, in 24 hours, you\u2019ve got to find some kind of mettle in you and some kind of stoicism to get through the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story is also given an edge by the fact that the two bank workers don\u2019t get along with each other and have very little in common.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was a central part of the dramatisation of the story,\u201d says the actor. \u201cIt needed that frisson between the two characters. Richard (Eddie Marsan) and Barry (Hardwicke) are two very different men, they\u2019ve led very different lives, and that has always brought them into conflict with each other. It also made it, I think, more poignant. Because they have to find the common ground. They have to find a common language.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke in No Ordinary Heist<\/p>\n

He loved, says Hardwicke, bringing that tricky dynamic to the screen with top English actor Marsan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned so much from working with him. It was a real masterclass with him, and not just how he is as an actor, but how he conducts himself as well. He\u2019s such a brilliant presence on set. We had a lot of fun doing this because he\u2019s a very funny guy, and I think that creates an environment where everyone does their best work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cork actor has spent a lot of time in Belfast, a city he loves, in recent years and has many close friends living there. As well as researching the true events that inspired the film, he wanted to get a sense of time and place. In doing so, he read novels including Anna Burns\u2019s Milkman and Close to Home by Michael Magee.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more about language, actually, communication. It was more about the feel of a place which I think fiction, in a weird way, gives you more than non-fiction, because I could do all the research I wanted, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily give you the feel of a street or the feel of an era.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwicke grew up in Cork City before his family moved to Glanmire, and had an interest in drama from an early age. As a boy, he appeared opposite Ciar\u00e1n Hinds in Irish feature film The Eclipse, filmed on location in Cobh.<\/p>\n

Later, he attended top Irish drama school The Lir, going on to make an impression opposite Jesse Eisenberg in Lorcan Finnegan\u2019s sci-fi thriller\u00a0 Vivarium, and to play Connell\u2019s friend Rob in the Irish international smash that was Normal People.<\/p>\n

In the years since, Hardwicke\u2019s career has gathered steady momentum \u2014 but it was his family and his home city, he says, that fostered the encouragement to pursue acting.<\/p>\n

That began at home, where his mother, a career-guidance counsellor, encouraged him to do something that he loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s exactly what she instilled and does, I think, for lots of students. That was her whole approach and philosophy, really. It\u2019s just about finding something you love and letting that be the compass that takes you to whatever the job might be.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s brilliant at what she does, and always encourages us to do that, which I\u2019m incredibly grateful for because you need that. You need people around you to make it feel viable and also to embolden you to proceed, because it\u2019s so hard, and you need that encouragement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u00c9anna\u00c9anna Hardwicke at the 70th Cork International Film Festival 2025 at The Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins<\/p>\n

He was reminded of that very point just the day before, as he proudly watched his nephew, James, take part in Cork\u2019s annual music and drama festival, Feis Maiti\u00fa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did Feis Maiti\u00fa when I was growing up, but I hadn\u2019t been there since, and it was just brilliant to hear the encouragement, all the brilliant talent that was on show that day, and then the encouragement from their parents and the adjudicator.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a vulnerable thing for young people, he says, to put yourself up on stage or on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then to meet people who will say, \u2018yeah, why wouldn\u2019t you? Why shouldn\u2019t you pursue that?\u2019 It\u2019s not to say that you don\u2019t educate people on the challenges of it as well.<\/p>\n

\n I think it\u2019s only right for every young actor to know that it is incredibly difficult.\n <\/p>\n

He\u2019ll never forget, he says, how other people gave that encouragement to him. He mentions the Cork School of Music, and the teachers there, including Regina Crowley, Ann Barry, and Trina Scott. \u201cThe training we got there was outstanding. And when I look back at the last 10 years, I can see how that inspired me. It\u2019s one of the reasons that I\u2019m doing this today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s Irish Film and Television Awards (Iftas) highlighted the fact that Cork City and county is enjoying an exciting groundswell of breakthrough talent and production activity.<\/p>\n

\n Christy \u2014 which won the best picture award \u2014 was nominated across 14 categories, with numerous acting and filmmaking nods across all the major shortlists. As shows filmed in Cork, including The Young Offenders, Bodkin and horror hit Oddity, go international, stars such as Alison Oliver, Siobh\u00e1n McSweeney, Sarah Greene, Alex Murphy, and Chris Walley continue to notch up key roles. The establishment of West Cork Studios only seems to have bolstered this growth.<\/p>\n

In the months ahead, Severance actor Adam Scott stars in the supernatural horror Hokum from Bantry filmmaker Damian McCarthy, filmed at West Cork Studios and on location in West Cork.<\/p>\n

Screen Ireland is backing that film as well as Everybody Digs Bill Evans.<\/p>\n

While filmed in the county and at West Cork Studios, the film is set in New York in 1961, as the legendary jazz pianist forms his trio and records two albums \u2014 regarded as among the greatest in jazz \u2014 over the course of one night. Cork will also be ready for its close-up in the forthcoming The Body is Water. Vicky Wright\u2019s drama stars Saoirse Monica Jackson and Stephen Rea. Does Hardwicke feel that Cork is having a moment, and why does he think this is happening now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to point to one thing. It feels like a lot of work that\u2019s been going on for many years, and then a lot of it is right place, right time. I saw Brendan Canty\u2019s short film Christy years ago, because a friend had recommended it to me. I saw his first video for Hozier ( Take Me To Church), which was just beautiful and cinematic.<\/p>\n

Then I saw his first short, which captured the spirit of Cork City and the northside unlike anyone has. Then to see the long process of that going into a feature film which, as always, takes many years. It\u2019s about all of the people who help you along the way,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about taking that seed of an idea, developing it, and nurturing it. I think he\u2019s an amazing example of that. It\u2019s no accident that it turned out so brilliantly and so rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwicke also feels the opening of West Cork Studios has been key.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there for the turning of the sod about two and a half years ago. Two years later, they have made at least four films. Films set all over the world, including Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which is set in California, and just won a huge prize at the Berlinale (film festival). I remember growing up in Cork feeling like there was a wonderful arts scene, but never understood why we didn\u2019t film more here.<\/p>\n

\u201c The Young Offenders kickstarted that. Only now do we see the fruits of that labour. I think the only secret is that it\u2019s been people plugging away for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

No Ordinary Heist is in cinemas now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the morning after the Oscars and, like many of us, \u00c9anna Hardwicke is proudly talking about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,1693,60,2625],"class_list":["post-372579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-insight","tag-ireland","tag-oscars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}