Caitriona Balfe Channels Her Mother’s Authentic Irish Experience In ‘Belfast’

Written by admin on January 09 2022

Beloved for her role in Starz television series Outlander, Caitriona Balfe is not a total stranger to the big screen. Her turn opposite Christian Bale in Ford v Ferrari was certainly noticed, but it’s only now, with Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, that she’s been given the chance to really show off her big screen chops alongside Dame Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds and Jamie Dornan. A fictionized memoir, Belfast follows Buddy (Jude Hill), growing up during the onset of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Balfe, as Ma, combines the heart and strength of home. Here, she recalls her own Irish childhood and how she implemented Branagh’s vision.

DEADLINE: I am so thrilled to see you in this meaty role. How did it feel for you, stepping into this?
CAITRIONA BALFE: I mean, it’s like a gift, it really is. I feel like I haven’t really had an opportunity in film. I’ve done so few of them and you’re always trying to get something good to do. I feel like with Ford v Ferrari I got a great role. But again, it was quite a small one, but that was the first time I felt like I really got to do something in a film properly. I feel like with this, with the role of Ma, she just felt very familiar to me. The minute I read the script, I felt like I understood her, like I knew her. And aside from the fact that it’s the most beautiful story, and all of the people who were involved, and the fact that Kenneth Branagh had written it and was directing it, as a role, the fact that she was Irish, that I would get to do something Irish, it all just felt really, really special, like a gift.

DEADLINE: You grew up closer to Dublin, right? In the countryside?
BALFE: I grew up right on the border. I was born in Dublin, but where I grew up, it’s very far north. It’s a very different experience. I think being in Belfast, being in the middle of The Troubles, is a very, very unique thing. But being from the border is also a very unique thing, because you feel that presence in a different way. As a kid, we were constantly going in and out of it. So, especially in the ’80s, for some reason, the Irish pound was stronger, I think. I don’t know how it works really, with the currencies. But stronger than the pound sterling. So, everybody in that border region would go shopping in the north. And then in the ’90s, it sort of flipped. And everybody in the border region in the north would come shopping in our town. So, there’s always a seesaw, I think, in border counties. Because of that though, from a very young age, it was very normal for us to go through these British army checkpoints. And it’s not something you sort of think about until much later on, about how bizarre that was. It’d be all galvanized sidings, and soldiers with machine guns, and helmets, and camo. There would be those big crow’s nests, and they would helicopter the soldiers in and out. And so, you’re very aware of the conflict.

DEADLINE: In terms of the accent, regionally, it’s a little different. So, how did you get your head into that?
BALFE: It’s such a fun accent to do. For other people who aren’t from the U.K. or from Ireland, the fact that accents change so drastically every 15 miles, is maybe kind of hard to understand. But definitely, the Monaghan accent is so different to the Belfast accent… Occasionally, there’d be words here or there that Ken would be like, “I think it’s not that. It’s this.” So, I mean, you are surrounded by people from Belfast on that set anyway, so it was very easy to stay in it.

‘Belfast’ Actress Caitríona Balfe Was Discovered at a Supermarket

Written by admin on January 09 2022

We were considered blow-ins. Though my family had moved just two hours north of Dublin when I was a toddler, most people who lived in Tydavnet had roots there dating back generations.

We had relocated in the 1980s because my father was a police sergeant who was transferred there. It was the peak of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the village was near the border.

One of my earliest memories was the wife of someone my dad had arrested or stopped coming to our front door and telling my mom that we should go back to where we came from. From an early age, I felt like an outsider.

Tydavnet is rural and spread out, so there were lots of fields and woods. When I lived there as a child, there was a church, a school, two pubs and a tiny post office. Not much has changed.

We lived first in a small cottage and then built our own home—a two-story, red-brick stand-alone that was quite pretty, with a beautiful garden that my parents kept up.

I’m the fourth of five children. When I was seven and my youngest brother was four, my parents decided to foster two children, so there were seven of us. It was a boisterous house and we had lots of fun. All of us got along.

I was probably the most emotionally overwrought of the bunch. Most of my siblings are quite science-minded or they’re a little more subdued in their personality.

I liked to carry on and was restlessly curious about the outside world. I knew from an early age I’d leave as soon as I could. Meanwhile, my observational qualities developed early.

My dad, James, was often busy with his officers patrolling the border, which was heated. My mom, Anne, assumed the bulk of the child-rearing.

As kids, we got around on our bikes and went fishing or built treehouses with different levels. I became quite good at it. We spent a lot of time hanging around in those finished treehouses, smoking stolen cigarettes.

Dad involved me and my siblings in a lot of local cultural activities, including a marching band, from the age of 6. I also was part of a theater group.

In primary school, I wasn’t a popular kid, and I didn’t think I was very pretty. We had a bad bullying problem in our school and not much was done about it.

My father’s position in the village didn’t help. In fact, that was part of the reason for it. The police weren’t necessarily respected or well-liked.

In high school, I appeared in plays and met people who were more like-minded. After graduation, I attended the Dublin Institute of Technology to study acting.

Out with friends one day at a supermarket to raise money for multiple sclerosis, I was approached by a man who gave me his card. He was with a Dublin modeling agency.

I was embarrassed. The checkout girls were watching and talking. One of them started shouting to all her friends at the other checkouts, “A woman just got asked to be a model!”

To ensure that everything was on the level, my oldest sister, Deirdre, came with me to the office. Soon after I signed on, a French agency hired me to model in Paris.

I was drawn to modeling immediately. It was my ticket out to see the world. My family wasn’t wealthy and never went on foreign holidays or anything like that.

Paris opened my eyes to so many cultural and aesthetic things. It gave me this sense of history and beauty, and hinted at what might be out there in the rest of the world.

Though modeling was the antithesis of acting, it helped me adjust to being rejected and not taking it personally. After 10 years, I moved to New York and took acting classes.

My first American film was “Super 8” in 2011, directed by J.J. Abrams. Though it wasn’t a speaking role, it was confirmation that I hadn’t been deluded, that acting was the right road for me. A series of small roles followed.

Then came my co-starring role as Claire Fraser in the “Outlander” series, which streamed in the States. It was my proper break.

Today, my husband, Tony, and I and our son are slightly nomadic. We split our time between Glasgow and London. When I’m working on “Outlander,” we’re in Glasgow.

In Glasgow, we live in a lovely Edwardian terrace apartment with high ceilings and moldings.

There’s something beautiful about historic buildings. At home in Scotland, I often find myself wondering about the lives of people who lived there before us.

What’s “Belfast” about? The film centers on a young boy, Buddy, growing up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the late ’60s unrest.

Your role? I play Buddy’s young mother.

What did you learn from Judi Dench? That humor is vital. She has the most delicious, wicked sense of humor. Apart from being utterly brilliant, she has a beautiful, youthful spirit.

Best part of working with director Kenneth Branagh? Seeing how much this project meant to him and how much love was on that set.

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Caitriona Covers Vanity Fair’s Awards Insider Issue

Written by admin on January 06 2022

Presenting V.F.’s Awards Insider issue—and its cover star, Caitríona Balfe.

Already beloved thanks to #Outlander, Balfe took a step toward movie stardom as the luminous and fiercely protective mother at #Belfast’s heart. Now, the Oscars are in sight.

🔗: https://t.co/aW3ahAQyfm pic.twitter.com/PP0wmi80Ba

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) January 6, 2022

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Outlander: Season 6 Sneak Peek – ‘You’re an Angel’ |

Written by admin on December 27 2021

Caitriona Attends The 24th British Independent Film Awards

Written by admin on December 06 2021

PUBLIC APPEARANCES > 2021 > DECEMBER 5TH – THE 24TH BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe find some joy in reliving ‘The Troubles’ in ‘Belfast’

Written by admin on November 23 2021

For Jamie Dornan and Caitríona Balfe, making “Belfast” felt like coming home. When writer-director Kenneth Branagh approached the Irish actors about his new drama amid pandemic closures last year, it was an easy decision.

“It was a beautiful take on that place and the people who are from it at that time in history,” recalls Dornan, speaking with co-star Balfe during the London Film Festival. “There was so much very fast positivity around the whole idea of the project — who Ken was already talking to, the other cast. It just felt like this gift, really, that fell upon me.”

“I remember my agent calling me and saying, ‘Look, there’s this project and this is who’s doing it and who’s already attached,’” Balfe adds. “He was like, ‘I’m going to send it over for you to read.’ I was like, ‘I’m going to say yes before I read this.’ It’s such a beautiful script. The way Ken had written it, there was so much love in it and so much emotion. I had been looking for something to do in Ireland for quite a while — thinking we would film this in Ireland. Once I read the script, I was in tears by the end of it.”

“Belfast,” which actually filmed last fall in Surrey, England, is a deeply personal story for Branagh, who based the script on his own upbringing in Belfast during “The Troubles.” The film is set in 1969, as the 30-year Northern Ireland conflict began to affect the city’s communities. It follows a young boy named Buddy, played by Jude Hill, as he realizes his tightknit neighborhood might not be the safe haven he’s always known.

Dornan and Balfe play Buddy’s parents, dubbed Pa and Ma, respectively, and they are joined by Ciarán Hinds and Judi Dench as Pa’s parents, whose decades-long relationship shows genuine warmth and often comic relief. The familial connection between the actors wasn’t manufactured; the cast lived in a bubble while shooting and found a real sense of commonality — aided by Branagh.

“On the first day of rehearsal, Ken brought Jamie, Judi and me into a room,” Balfe remembers. “He just asked us lots of questions about our childhoods, about our parents, about how we would react to different situations or how our parents would react to different situations. Instantly, then, we all knew something very intimate about each other. That breaks down a lot of barriers and creates an instant bond. He’s very clever, Ken. Just in a subtle way he’s needling out the things he wants you to start thinking about or bringing into your performance, without it feeling like he’s giving you a directive.”

Balfe, who grew up about 90 minutes outside Belfast, and Dornan drew on their own experiences being raised in Northern Ireland to find the conflicted emotions of their characters. Branagh’s story juxtaposes moments of joyful celebration with marital tensions, and political and societal tumult, allowing Ma and Pa to experience a complex range of reactions to their situation.

“This focuses on the beginning of a particular conflict that lasted for 30 years, a conflict that had a huge influence on both of our lives,” Dornan says. “We were both born into it. That is something that has shaped us, growing up in a conflict environment and a post-conflict environment, which it still very much is today. It’s a world that we recognize in a big way compared to other worlds we’ve tried to inhabit with our work.”

The actors looked at YouTube interviews and news reports from the late ’60s, and binged the BBC Two series “Pop Goes Northern Ireland.”

“There’s so much footage from that time of real people,” Balfe notes. “You hear them talking and arguing. It was really emotional going back and watching all that stuff. To see the inception of something that lasted for so long and is still not resolved, there’s a sadness to it.”

Along with Branagh’s careful direction, Balfe and Dornan found an immediate ease with each other, which resonates throughout their performances. Despite the surrounding cast, their work feels undeniably like a two-hander.

“Ken’s cleverly crafted his cast,” Dornan says. “He puts people together he thinks will make sense, energy-wise, based on whatever algorithms he’s concocted in his mind. Sometimes you’re working with people where it’s more of a challenge to make it feel like you’re friends or you have a relationship or whatever. But we just fit.”

Balfe responds, “You and I have a very similar approach to what we do. You do all of your research and you do all of your prep, and then you come to set and it’s like, ‘Let’s play. Let’s not overthink. Let’s not make it more difficult than it has to be.’ You just show up, and you’re open and you’re ready to try whatever is needed.”

The two are aware it’s a once-in-a-lifetime project, and while everyone involved took the work seriously, it’s also the most joyous experience the pair have had on set.

“I want to have fun all the time at work — you don’t become an actor not to,” Dornan says. “Some things you do on paper probably aren’t that fun, but this is one of the ones that it felt like you should be having a laugh and we really did.”

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