{"id":216536,"date":"2025-12-05T09:26:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/216536\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T09:26:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:26:12","slug":"bye-folks-im-off-to-hollywood-nepo-baby-or-not-im-an-excellent-actor-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/216536\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye, folks. I\u2019m off to Hollywood. Nepo baby or not, I\u2019m an excellent actor \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you go to see the excellent new film Eternity<\/a> you\u2019ll be struck by a few things. It\u2019s the story of a recently deceased married couple, Joan and Larry, who find Joan\u2019s hunky first husband, Luke, waiting for them in the Junction, a strange realm between death and eternal life. Joan and Larry are played by Elizabeth Olsen<\/a> and Miles Teller. Luke is played by Callum Turner.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a supernatural romcom that lands somewhere between Powell and Pressburger\u2019s A Matter of Life and Death and Ernst Lubitsch\u2019s Design for Living. It\u2019s excellent: moving and funny and thought-provoking and charming and wise.<\/p>\n

Also: I\u2019m in it. I play the part of Junction Announcer, an oddly charismatic figure who makes announcements on a Tannoy in the strange train station\/holiday-resort-style afterlife \u201cjunction\u201d. I am unseen but often audible.<\/p>\n

Unsophisticated viewers think this is a small role. Discerning critics* quickly realise that Junction Announcer is, in fact, the most important character in the film. (*I am a critic.)<\/p>\n

Cynics will say the only reason I got the part is because the director and cowriter is someone called David Freyne<\/a> \u2013 who coincidentally has the same second name as me and who is, even more coincidentally, my brother.<\/p>\n

The cynics are, of course, completely correct. I totally am a nepo baby, and not just because I look really young for my age or because I\u2019m sexy in a \u201cHey, baby!\u201d sort of way. Even though both those things are true.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m one of life\u2019s nepo babies. In the past, while editing his films The Cured<\/a> and Dating Amber<\/a>, my brother has called to ask me to say a few lines into my voice-notes app to be used as background content on fictional news reports and whatnot.<\/p>\n

I am, as you know, very shy and reluctant to step into the limelight, but will do so from time to time out of love for my fellow man, like Jesus.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Eternity review: This charming comedy is Irish director David Freyne\u2019s best film yetOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This time David said they\u2019d probably rerecord the parts with another actor later, because my voice is so beautiful and lush that it might distract from the other performers. I think those are the words he used. <\/p>\n

I just laughed. I knew that once the production team heard the rich timbre of my voice they would feel unable to change it. Having a voice like an earthbound angel is my curse. People are constantly falling in love with me.<\/p>\n

I am a professional, however. I went method and spent a week developing a complex backstory for Junction Announcer before sending David the voice note. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Patrick Freyne: The main thing I\u2019m learning from Obsession is that having an affair is way easier than I thoughtOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t go into it here, because David says my backstory is distracting and that in future I should \u201cfocus more on learning my lines as written\u201d and, \u201cseriously, Patrick, just say the lines,\u201d but there\u2019s a lot more depth to the character than what\u2019s written on the page. I think that comes across onscreen.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later David rang to say, a little grumpily, \u201cYou\u2019re in the edit a lot more than I expected.\u201d Of course I was.<\/p>\n

This being a much bigger production than my previous roles, I was invited a few weeks later to reprise the part in a fancy audio studio in London. I played hardball for a while, but in the end I agreed to the terms as presented to me, because my negotiation style was \u2013 and I quote David \u2013 \u201cmaking me lose interest in film-making\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Eternity:Eternity: Patrick Freyne (second right) with his brother David (fourth right) and family Senan Cummins, Cillian Cummins, Walter Freyne, Stephen Kelliher, Joan Freyne and Anna Carey at the film’s London premiere <\/p>\n

My wife, who wanted to be an actor when she was younger, is not happy with my success or my constantly telling her I\u2019m a professional actor now. I only do it when the subject comes up organically, of course. Like when I wake up in the middle of the night, think of it and shake her awake or just whisper in her ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might win an Oscar,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t win Oscars for voiceovers,\u201d she says, in her customary spiteful manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy voice is so rich and resonant that people won\u2019t notice I\u2019m not physically onscreen,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

I genuinely think I might win an Oscar.<\/p>\n

My nephew Eli \u2013 who has performed in pantomimes \u2013 and I have a WhatsApp group called \u201cProfessional actors only\u201d. Some might say we set it up to taunt my wife, but we actually did it because we have special actor stuff to talk about.<\/p>\n

Recently my family went to the premiere in London, which was attended by the very talented stars Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller, Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph<\/a> and John Early. It was a big day for me and also, as my family insisted on reminding me, for my brother David Freyne, who had just directed and cowritten a very big film. (You probably know it as the Patrick Freyne vehicle Eternity.)<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Elizabeth Olsen on making Eternity: \u2018I\u2019ve always wanted to be involved with an Irish mafia\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

When the film rolled, my nephews Cillian and Senan were surprised to hear my voice. \u201cWe thought you were joking,\u201d they said with joy or possibly horror. (It\u2019s hard to read the expressions of teenagers.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWait for the after-credits scene!\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Sadly, someone had accidentally removed the after-credits sequence I had sent them. (The light comes up in a dark room. It\u2019s me at a microphone, wearing sunglasses and smoking a very long cigarette. \u201cComing soon: THE JUNCTION ANNOUNCER.\u201d) <\/p>\n

Nonetheless, I do believe my brother\u2019s next film is probably going to be called The Junction Announcer, because you have to give the people what they want. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Patrick Freyne: Nature programmes don\u2019t tell you animals are duplicitous bastardsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Indeed, the first draft of this article was basically a resignation letter to The Irish Times. The headline was going to be, \u201cBye, f**kos. I\u2019m off to Hollywood,\u201d but my wife convinced me not to do it, because it might look \u201cboastful\u201d. <\/p>\n

I still think it\u2019s true, though. Nepo baby or not, I am an excellent actor.<\/p>\n

Eternity is in cinemas from Friday, December 5th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you go to see the excellent new film Eternity you\u2019ll be struck by a few things. It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[117486,116143,18,60748,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-216536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-da-vine-joy-randolph","9":"tag-david-freyne","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-elizabeth-olsen","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115666248663935010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}