{"id":44334,"date":"2025-09-05T01:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44334\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T01:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T01:03:16","slug":"i-was-able-to-bring-christy-into-myself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44334\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I was able to bring Christy into myself&#8230;\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"contextmenu internal_BodyInitial\">Christy, a drama set in Cork City\u2019s north side, opened in cinemas last week and is receiving a strong, positive reception from both audiences and critics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Directed by Brendan Canty from Ballincollig, the film already impressed viewers at the Berlin Film Festival, where it premiered, and won the award for Best Irish Film at this year\u2019s Galway Film Fleadh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It follows 17-year-old Christy as he leaves the foster system and returns home to Knocknaheeny, and the movie stars Danny Power, a 24-year-old actor from Gurranbraher and best known for playing Gavin Madigan in The Young Offenders.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4767833_1_articleinline_Copy_20of_20Christy_2024.jpg\" alt=\"Brendan Canty and the cast at a special preview screening of Christy at the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. Picture: Brian McEvoy\" title=\"Brendan Canty and the cast at a special preview screening of Christy at the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. Picture: Brian McEvoy\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Brendan Canty and the cast at a special preview screening of Christy at the Lighthouse Cinema, Dublin. Picture: Brian McEvoy<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Power, who previously starred in Canty\u2019s short film based on the character of Christy, says it was a large step to transition from a short film to playing the lead in a feature, but he relished the opportunity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt was a big leap. I didn\u2019t think much of it at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cI had done the short and I thought I would have no bother doing the feature, but a feature is a whole lot different. There\u2019s so much more involved, and you get really tired, but it was great.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI loved it. I couldn\u2019t have asked for anything better.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI was able to bring Christy into myself and carry his emotions from the short to the feature film, which really helped me find the character.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Christy doesn\u2019t remember much of his childhood. How did Power understand a character who doesn\u2019t fully know himself?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Power says discovering what made Christy tick was part of the workshop process before filming commenced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cEveryone has been lost at some point in their life, or they forget the way their life used to be. We know what Christy did when he was five and older [after his mother died] but what happened in his past life? What doesn\u2019t Christy know that he should know?<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWhen we were doing the film, it was about looking for the soul of Christy, and the reason why he feels the way he does, and why he wants to know what he wants to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It is hard to believe that anything could be more Cork than The Young Offenders, but Christy is giving Jock and Conor a run for their money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It isn\u2019t just the accents in the film that capture the essence of the north side. It is the local phrases, the sense of humour, and the strong sense of community spirit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cThe Young Offenders is really Cork and I would have never thought that something could be more Cork in my life, but when I read the script for Christy, it shows how the north side is,\u201d said Power.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt\u2019s a big community, everyone knows everyone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cA lot of us knew each other from before, but during filming, we became a tight family.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4767836_1_articleinline_Copy_20of_20Christy_1_.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from the film Christy, which has got a great reception from critics and audiences alike\" title=\"A scene from the film Christy, which has got a great reception from critics and audiences alike\" class=\"card-img\"\/>A scene from the film Christy, which has got a great reception from critics and audiences alike<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cWe all liked each other, we all talked together all the time, especially when we were filming in Knocknaheeny, which is such a tight-knit community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The film stars award-winning actors Chris Walley and Alison Oliver, along with a talented group of newcomers from Kabin Krew, a musical collective based at Kabin Studio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Power says it was a joy to work with the younger actors, particularly as a former member of the Kabin Krew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cI\u2019ve been with the Kabin Krew since I was nine years old. I\u2019m 24 now, and I know lots of the kids from when they were babies,\u201d he said.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI knew they had so much talent from rapping. They have no fear of getting up on stage, rapping in front of people, and writing their own raps. Being able to see them portray themselves in the film is absolutely amazing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cA lot of them are like first-time actors, but they look like seasoned actors. They\u2019re so talented, it\u2019s incomprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Power did not intend to become an actor; it was a chance encounter at Kabin Studio that led him to the screen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThe only thing in life that I wanted to do was to go to the army,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI always said that I would have gone to the army, and you wouldn\u2019t have had to pay me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI was set on that, but when I was 17, Brendan and Alan [who wrote Christy] came to the Kabin looking for people to do auditions for a short film. I was used to cameras from rapping on stage, so I went for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            \u201cI didn\u2019t get the part of Christy; some other actor did, but he didn\u2019t turn up, so they offered it to me.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">It appears that acting runs in the blood, as Power\u2019s five-year-old son, Keano, plays young Christy in the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cAny time he sees himself, he says, \u2018Look, it\u2019s me. I\u2019m famous, I\u2019m on the telly\u2019. He absolutely loves it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt was great that we could spend a moment like that together. I was really glad that we had the opportunity. He is a little legend.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">With the film receiving such positive reviews, Power says that he feels proud, but also thankful to his parents for supporting his acting journey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to do all this if I didn\u2019t have my mam and dad,\u201d he said. \u201cThey look after my son when I\u2019m filming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cThey\u2019ve boosted me on, and they help me with self-tapes; my dad reads the other lines for me. I can\u2019t thank them enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cAs for the reviews, it\u2019s crazy, because we wanted to do this film for so long, and we always thought that it was going to be something big, but we never, ever expected it to be as big as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Christy is on general release in cinemas now, rating: 15a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christy, a drama set in Cork City\u2019s north side, opened in cinemas last week and is receiving a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[33310,33309,33308,3262,18,117,19,17,33307],"class_list":{"0":"post-44334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cork-entertainment","9":"tag-cork-film","10":"tag-cork-music","11":"tag-downtown","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-stevie-g"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44334","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=44334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}