While Sam waited patiently in the wings, his mother Sue sang his praises to Ryan Tubridy. Sam, you see, is a young Irish filmmaker and his short film Silent Starling has earned him an award. So Sue is, understandably, a very proud mum. She emailed the show to let people know how well her son has done.
"I just felt it was a huge accomplishment for somebody so young and just finishing college."
So what exactly did Sam do to make mum Sue so proud?
"He had to do a short film for his end-of-year project. And him and the crew, they finished it before lockdown. So, then during lockdown, he decided he was going to put it in to different film festivals. So, one of the film festivals was the Los Angeles Film Awards and he won Best New Director."
No wonder Sue is beaming. What mum wouldn't be proud of her 21-year old son being named best anything at all from the Los Angeles Film Awards? Sam – an only child, but not a lonely child – is, according to Sue, Ryan's type of guy. Why?
"He's very nerdy. You know, he's into reading and all that kind of thing. He did go to a rugby school, but of course he had no interest in anything like that… He was editor of the newspaper."
"Is he my son?" spluttered Ryan – kidding, of course, but Sam certainly ticks a lot of Tubridy-shaped boxes. When the young award-winner was allowed to join the call, himself and the 'young fogey' got along very well indeed. And both Sam and Ryan agreed that there are some people who thrive in their own company, meaning that lockdown hasn't been as difficult as it has been for some. But Ryan wondered if Sam, as an only child, feels he missed out on the benefits of having siblings. Not having a control group Sam to measure things against, Sam could only hazard a guess as to whether he missed out of not:
"To be honest, like, I never really felt too lonely about things because I always had like a decent circle of friends that I could, you know, kind of hang out with, chat to and just talk about the stuff that was kind of on my mind."
So, not lonely and hasn't missed out. Grand. But what about the film? Written and directed by Sam, it tells the story of a girl who thinks that her voice is cursed, because every time she speaks to someone, bad things happen to them. During lockdown, Sam entered Silent Starling to the LAFA on a whim. And what a good whim that was. He's now June's Best First Time Director. Proud mum Sue is justifiably proud.
To hear the full chat with Sue and Sam, including Sam's first job working with the Muppets, go here.
Niall Ó Sioradáin