Irish Actor Chris O'Dowd Goes Indigenous In "The Sapphires"

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 05:00

Written by Brad Balfour

When The Sapphires director Wayne Blair joined actor Chris O’Dowd for a roundtable to promote this touching and groundbreaking musical film -- based on a popular 2004 Australian musical. 

Extrapolated from a true story, it tells of four indigenous women, Gail (Deborah Mailman), Julie (Jessica Mauboy), Kay (Shari Sebbens) and Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), who are discovered by a talent scout (Chris O'Dowd), and form a music group called The Sapphires which travels to Vietnam in 1968 to sing for troops during the war.

Born in October 1979, this Irish actor/comedian is best known across the Atlantic for his role as Roy in the Channel 4 comedy The IT Crowd. On these shores he has appeared in several Hollywood films, including Gulliver's Travels and most notably Bridesmaids. Following that star turn the 33 year-old County Sligo native recently starred in the hit HBO dramedy, Girls.

O'Dowd recently wrapped up promoting The Sapphires with director Wayne Blair, capping off a harrowing journey after shooting the film in Australia and Vietnam.

Q: Welcome to America Chris… So what do you think of this country and city in particular?

CO: Take what you can and get out of here [chuckles].

Q: Did you ever imagine that you would be doing a movie in Australia about Vietnam with Aboriginals co-stars performing Motown hits?

CO: That was always on my mind -- to have done an Aboriginal musical. That’s a joke. Laugh whenever you feel like it. 

I have never been to Australia. My sister just migrated there, so I just wanted to hang out with her.  It was a good working holiday.

Q: How did you relate to your character? Were there any traits that you relate to, that you two shared?

CO: I used the same tighty whiteys [laughs]. Sleeping in a car or on a sofa and living like these people makes you feel connected to the character.

Q: How did you get the part of Dave Lovelace? The Irish and Australians, there’s a close relationship between the two cultures.

CO: We are very similar. We like to ridicule and drink.

Q: And the film needed the Irish audience.

CO: The Irish are the highest cinema goers in the world because it's so bloody cold out there!

Q: Speaking of drinking what are your plans for St. Patricks Day? Are you staying in New York?

CO: No I'm actually working. I will be salsa dancing for a movie I'm working on.

Q: Will you be sneaking in a pint of Guinness?

CO: Because it's St. Patricks Day, I won't be sneaking it in. I will be bringing all kinds of controversy in front of them.

Q: Were you at all familiar with Australian history -- especially what the white Australian settlers did in throughout their history of snatching indigenous children from their families and training them in British ways to eradicate their culture?

CO: I didn't know about The Stolen Generation. It was so educational and sad. More than anything it was ethnic cleansing, and this was not the 17th century, it's 1968, and we are trying to wipe out an entire society. So it was great to do a film that dealt with those things and still makes people laugh.

It kind of takes the pressure off you when you know it is more wide reaching then what you are personally bringing to it. If that make sense. I feel that this is a very important film.

Q: Are you more interested now in making more social conscious films?

CO: When I'm reading scripts now I am looking in more universal themes.

Working with these girls taught me brutal honesty. Not to take yourself too seriously or you may get murdered. Laughter is good medicine.

Q: What music did you grow up listening to?

CO: I was going through a phase listening to Sam Cooke. I'm a loud singer. What I lack in quality and tone, I make up for in volume.

Q: Have you seen the Irish musical movie The Commitments about a soul band made of locals?

CO: If you were 13 or 14 years old when The Commitments came out in Ireland, soul music was the only music that mattered.

Q: Did you have your dance moves?

CO: I could bop my head. I have a good head of hair for swaying.

Q: Are you going to be doing any Irish Step moves?

CO: Nobody wants to see that. Not even the Irish.

Q: Who was that one Irish step dancer that made it famous?

CO: Michael Flatley [founder of Riverdance and Lord of The Dance]. He’s a hell of a beast.

Q: Will this lead to making music for you?

CO: No, but I want to do musicals like Rent.

Q: Do you see yourself writing and directing?

CO: Yes, I'm writing a TV show called Moone Boy set in Roscommon, Ireland [a semi-autobiographical takes on a young boy growing up in Boyle, County Roscommon in 1989].

The first season is already on TV. As times goes by I will spend a lot more time removed from the camera, It’s a lot easier.

Q: Are you living in LA, Westcommon or an aboriginal home?

CO: They have given me my own township, but I'm in London most of the time.

Q: What’s the next project that you are working on?

CO: A new series called Family Tree [an upcoming mockumentary created by Christopher Guest and Jim Piddock which will premiere on May 12, 2013, on HBO and the British network BBC Two, and the next season of Moone Boy.

Q: Do you see a Sapphires 2 movie coming out?

CO: Well, yeah… The Sapphires go to Korea [laughs].

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