The only Irish actress to ever win an Oscar, Brenda Fricker has told Miriam O'Callaghan on The John Murray Show why she delayed retirement for one last, special film.
Speaking this morning to O'Callaghan, Fricker explained how Virginia Gilbert cast her in A Long Way from Home: "She had sent me a script of a film she had written called A Long Way from Home.
"This was just before I had decided to retire so I was kind of throwing scripts in the dust bin.
"I had been talking to her on the phone and she seemed quite, you know, alright and she had a bit of a brain and I thought, politely, I'll read it!
"By page four I thought...this is just fantastic stuff, she's a superb writer and an exciting writer and she'd written in the way that very few people write for film.
"She'd written to let the camera know to...go to the actors face and let the actor do a bit of acting and say what the words are and they don't do that nowadays. So I was really happy and just phoned up and said 'Yes let me do this please'.
The My Left Foot Oscar winning actress added: "I've retired since...because I'm fed up with all the nonsense that goes on in films, I'm too old for it."
Written and directed by Gilbert the film follows a couple who realise their life-long dream of retiring to the South of France however their lives are changed when they cross paths with a younger couple.
Listen back to the interview here
Tune into The John Murray Show with Miriam on RTÉ Radio 1 88-90fm from 9am to 10am weekday mornings, listen via the RTÉ Radio Player here or via the RTÉ Radio App on your mobile.
