Dec 24, 2024
Nov 15,2024
Ever since Blindboy published his first book of short stories, we've had it in the back of our heads to adapt one into a film. His stories have these unforgettable images in them, combined with characters that, even though they are flawed and frequently awful people, Blindboy finds the humanity within them.
Erskine Fogarty is one of those lads. A man in 2009 broken by the crash, who loses everything - job, family, house - everything, apart from his double wide American Fridge Freezer. He’s bringing that back to his hometown of Limerick to show his old neighbours that he’s still the bigshot that made it up in Dublin.
We started writing the adaptation more than two years ago. Adaptations are tricky, because you want to retain the heart of the story and the characters, but turn it into a different medium. For this, it was about working out how to chart Erskine’s internal emotional journey visually. As we wrote the story we always had Robert Sheehan in mind to play Erskine, he’s so deadly at expressing what’s going on inside his characters, but to be honest we never expected him to say yes, but he did. And he was absolutely brilliant.
The film was shot entirely in Limerick, which stretched our small budget, but was completely worth it. Blindboy’s stories are so rooted in this place, that filming anywhere else would have ripped the heart out of it. Limerick is a fantastic place to film - you’ve got heaps of different locations - city, river, country, industrial, all five minutes from each other, and everyone was really sound and helpful. We couldn’t have made it without Limerick people going above and beyond.
The cast, the crew and the story are top notch, so if this isn't good, it’s on me.
Sharon Cronin, our producer, pulled together a dream crew filled with creative, experienced people, who absolutely wrecked themselves to tell the story of Erskine. Making a period film about a man dragging a fridge through a post-crash wasteland is a tall order at this budget.
There were so many highlights of the shoot - shutting down Henry Street for a morning, launching a raft into the Shannon, filming a trippy dream sequence inside a fridge. But it was working with such a talented cast that was truly unforgettable - Rob, Peter Coonan, Siobhan O’Kelly, Lalor Roddy and two amazing newcomers, Robyn Dempsey and Thomas O’Halloran.
Thomas plays Titmilk, one of Erskine’s old friends, and was so brilliant, he ended up improv-ing dialogue that sounds like it came straight from Blindboy.
Working with Rob was so much fun. His character analysis and capacity to express complex emotions is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. He’s one of the most talented actors ever to come out of Ireland. And he’s sound.
Post-production happened in a blur as schedules meant we had to film ridiculously close to transmission. Blindboy also composed the soundtrack and you can feel the emotional crossover between the score and the story.
I really hope we made something special with this. The cast, the crew and the story are top notch, so if this isn’t good, it’s on me.
