![\"David](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/61219fc8-a25f-4a5f-adc9-df14cf2c46da.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs he prepares for role in new Irish film, the comedian has some advice for Barry Keoghan\n<\/p>\n
As he chatted about his ups and downs during roles across several films and TV shows, McSavage had only good things to say about the James Bond star after he appeared with the Meath man in the 2016 tech thriller I.T.<\/p>\n
\u201cPierce Brosnan is the sweetest, coolest, most charming guy and he\u2019s exactly where he should be in terms of his success as there\u2019s no cynicism about him,\u201d McSavage said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the set of I.T., he strolls over to me as I was rolling a cigarette and asks for one. We get talking and he says, \u2018So, where are you based?\u2019 And I thought, \u2018Well, that\u2019s a rich man\u2019s question\u2019, so I told him I wasn\u2019t based in Dublin, I was stuck in Dublin. So, then I asked him, \u2018Where are you based?\u2019 And he simply said, \u2018Malibu\u2019. I\u2019ll never get there, but it\u2019s nice to meet somebody who lived there.\u201d<\/p>\n
With acting, it\u2019s not my area of expertise. Actually, I don\u2019t know if I have any area of expertise<\/p>\n
Back to the here and now, the comedian has been cast in a new thriller, The Sandy Banks, which stars Susan Lynch, Pat Shortt and Gary Lydon. The film marks O\u2019Donnell\u2019s direct\u00adorial debut, and production has begun in Ballycastle, Co Mayo.<\/p>\n
Set during Christmas in a remote area in the west, the story is about the discovery of a woman\u2019s body 16 years after her disappearance, \u201creigniting tensions between neighbouring families and pushing her brother towards a reckoning\u201d.<\/p>\n
Acting is not something McSavage relies on to make a living, and he admits it is not quite his forte \u2014 he has only a collection of small parts to his name.<\/p>\n
McSavage (60) previously appeared with Christopher Plummer in the historical drama The Man Who Invented Christmas, George Clooney in the satirical anti-war TV mini-series Catch-22 and Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain in epic drama The Forgiven, among others.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David McSavage says Pierce Brosnan is a ‘sweet and cool’ man. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n
\u201cThe acting jobs are so few and far between, and if I had to rely on acting as a way to make a living, I\u2019d be truly f**ked,\u201d he said. \u201cI have an agent in the UK and occasionally they send me for auditions. I never get them, but it\u2019s nice to be considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cI auditioned way back in the day for Game of Thrones, and I didn\u2019t get it. With acting, it\u2019s not my area of expertise. Actually, I don\u2019t know if I have any area of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
McSavage is on the road every weekend doing comedy gigs and says it has finally become financially rewarding.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do a tour once a year, around 40 or 50 dates, and most of them have been selling out,\u201d he said. \u201cThank God for Instagram and for the ability to connect with an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Discussing the recent comments by Barry Keoghan about how people can be hurtful on social media, McSavage is somewhat dismissive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand what he\u2019s talking about, as he\u2019s a very successful actor, so just don\u2019t read the comments,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople overestimate their importance as actors. Ultimately, you didn\u2019t write the thing, you\u2019re learning words. Just go in, do the job and don\u2019t bump into the furniture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just because you don\u2019t like something, you can\u2019t make a decision to withdraw a sketch on behalf of other people<\/p>\n
In terms of TV comedy, McSavage\u2019s only appearance in the last decade was on Amazon Prime show LOL: Last One Laughing Ireland, and he says the television landscape is diff\u00aderent from his heyday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we were doing The Savage Eye, you could say stuff, knowing that people were going to get offended, but nothing was done about it. Nowadays, people are a bit more militant about it if they don\u2019t like something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s quite condescending. Just because you don\u2019t like something, you can\u2019t make a decision to withdraw a sketch on behalf of other people. Good comedians know where the line is and we can tread it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McSavage is 23 years sober, and said: \u201cI haven\u2019t had a drink since 2003 and thank God, as I know people who had died due to alcoholism.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his love life, he said: \u201cI haven\u2019t had a relationship in a good while, but I\u2019m open, very open. It\u2019s trying to find the right balance, as I don\u2019t know if I would ever live with someone again. My house is very much a man cave.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As he prepares for role in new Irish film, the comedian has some advice for Barry Keoghan As…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49654,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-383401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-barry-keoghan","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383401","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=383401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}