Bring Them Down: Nora-Jane Noone on starring in the gritty thriller with Barry Keoghan
Nora Jane Noone in Bring Them Down with Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott.
In the gritty new Irish thriller Bring Them Down, Christopher Abbott steps up to the Irish-accent challenge - and then some. Not only does the US star deliver an accent that will leave many convinced he was born on these shores - he also learned Irish for many key scenes with his Irish-language speaking father (Colm Meaney).
Irish accents have eluded many stars over the years, but Abbott’s is one of the very best, prompting co-star Barry Keoghan to say, at the film’s world premiere in Toronto: “He sounds more Irish than I do.”
Bring Them Down actress Nora-Jane Noone was also highly impressed with her co-star’s ability to get into character, aided and abetted by voice coach Peadar Cox. The star of films including Poor Things and indie drama Martha Marcy May Marlene has been on her radar for a while, she says.
“I think he's one of the best actors out there," says Noone. "I'm just so impressed by all of that and his previous work as well. It's hard enough to play an emotional character, where there's all this going on underneath, with an accent in English, never mind to learn another language. It's kind of a shame sometimes that when people are so good, it looks easy.”
Of course, Noone and Abbott also share the screen with Barry Keoghan. The Dublin actor's megastar status didn't phase Noone, not least as she has worked with him before Hollywood had spotted him.
“I actually worked with Barry on a short film with Cathy Brady," she recalls. "It was her second short film that I had done with her, and he was only 18 or 19. She has such an eye, she was like: ‘There’s something about him’. She could always tell.”
This time around, she was happy to find that Keoghan hadn't changed much. “It was great, and it didn't feel much different, I have to say, because I think I just know his energy, and I know how he works and what to expect, to a certain degree. We don't know each other that well, but I think there is sort of an understanding with us."
Noone, too, shines in Bring Them Down, a tense thriller about two warring families set against the harsh landscape of the rural west of Ireland. When an ongoing rivalry between farmers Michael (Abbott) and Jack (Keoghan) suddenly escalates, it triggers a chain of events that take increasingly violent turns, leaving both families permanently altered. Noone, who has close connections to both men, is one of those impacted in Christopher Andrews’ feature debut.
“She's someone who allows the other characters, the men in the story, to unveil their vulnerability. Her connection to all of them really gives an opportunity for them to show that side of themselves. Michael was her past love and they had a traumatic experience together. With her son (Keoghan), the parent-child relationship is the most intimate and often vulnerable.
“You really feel her story and the backstory and the impact of her living in this place, this very toxic place. It's become very violent and tense and aggressive. She got to bring the feminine perspective and impact of no matter who you are, even if you're not involved in the conflict, you're affected by it.”
Having lived in London for over a decade and in LA for nine years, Noone recently moved back to her native Galway with her young family. Living abroad enabled her to have an international as well as local perspective as Irish stars and storytellers grew their impact on the world stage.
“There's definitely a different reaction. It was always a very positive reaction in the States but now there's very much the idea of what Irish is and how it's unique, especially with the storytelling,” she says, referencing the international success of Kneecap. “You've got all these Irish stories. People are understanding our identity more clearly, which is really lovely. There's a real standard here that's very impressive, and I'm so glad to see it celebrated elsewhere.”
Moving back to Ireland has also led to working on more projects here, including Cathy Brady’s well-received Northern Ireland drama, Wildfire, opposite the late Nika McGuigan. She is currently filming series three of crime series Hidden Assets, in which she plays the no-nonsense detective sergeant Claire Wallace.
Noone was just sixteen in 2002 when she was cast in a leading role in Peter Mullan’s powerful drama set in a Magdalene laundry. It marked a high-profile debut for the teenager and while other roles followed steadily, she struggled with imposter syndrome for a time, she says.
“Obviously, The Magdalene Sisters started me out on this whole journey, and changed my life in many ways. It's hard to imagine where I'd be without that, and it meant so much. But for me personally, that was just the beginning, and then I was kind of thrown in the deep end with opportunities and in a career that I hadn't prepared for.
“So I felt like it took me the next decade to really feel like I knew what I was doing and to learn all the skills and to do all the courses and the classes and it took me that long to learn what it was to really be an actor and to feel confident in it.
“I think I definitely had a lot of imposter syndrome up until a good seven to 10 years in. Maybe because I wasn't trained, and I had such a hang-up about that, I didn't appreciate my own intuitive ability as much as I could have.”
In recent years, she has gotten to feel truly fulfilled in the projects she’s working on and it’s incentivised her to follow another long-held passion, for writing. She has completed two TV pilots, and is in the early stages of writing her first film screenplay.
“Wildfire was really such a special experience, and Cathy's one of my best friends in the world, and it was just such an incredible experience with Nika. That also opened me up to writing. I got so excited and inspired by creating worlds, watching it fall into place, absorbing all this knowledge and then allowing something to alchemise. That’s opened me up to this next chapter of my life and my creativity.”
It feels like a full-circle move, she says. “I started off loving writing before I acted, in my teens, I loved reading and stories. So it made sense again, I found that once I found my own voice, and I think it is very natural for a lot of actors to go that way. At a certain point, when you've been doing it long enough, there's more you want to give of yourself, or more parts of yourself that maybe have never been tapped into.”
- Bring Them Down is released in Irish cinemas on February 7
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