Patrick Dempsey: I love Irish culture, scenery and people, but I wish I could have visited a pub
Patrick Dempsey. Picture: Matthew Thompson, Inis Meáin.
Disenchanted star Patrick Dempsey has been gushing about his love of Ireland to fellow Grey’s Anatomy alum Ellen Pompeo.
Dempsey, who stayed in Ireland earlier this year while filming the sequel to Disney’s Enchanted, told the Tell Me with Ellen Pompeo podcast that his experience of the country was “everything you would imagine it to be” during that time.
“I fell in love with the place, I was everywhere,” he said, reflecting on his whirlwind tour of the country when breaks in filming allowed.
“It was locked down, pretty much. I had a 14-day quarantine when I got there - I've had over 30 days of isolation quarantining this year alone - so I ended up staying in the north of Ireland, which was fascinating. I learned a lot up there.
“And then I was in nature. It was in the spring of the year. You have all the lambs and all the cows and the calves and everything. It's everything you would imagine it to be.”
The only downside to his stay was the closure of pubs and restaurants due to the pandemic but Dempsey said he made the most of the great outdoors instead - even the rainy weather, which he loved.
“The people are great. The problem is you just have this barrier because everybody had their masks on. You couldn't go to the pubs. You couldn't go to the restaurants. Everything was locked down so you didn't get a chance to see that.
“But there’s great hiking, great culture, really rainy, miserable weather at times, and then it gets hot. It gets in the 80s (fahrenheit) and people melt down completely. They can't handle it but I loved it. I love the rain and the cold. It goes with my personality.”
Dempsey told Pompeo he was excited to finally sing in a role, having turned down the opportunity in the musical episode of Grey’s Anatomy (Pompeo recalled how much they did not enjoy filming that episode: “we were horrified”) and he said it was “fun” to discover his singing voice.
“I absolutely loved it. I had so much fun, I was petrified because I can't sing. I don't really think I have a good voice. But they figured out how to help me find the voice and support it. It was just really liberating.
“I hadn't done a comedy in such a long time. And then a musical on top of it. It was really liberating and fun to just have something that you didn't have to take too seriously. It was all about play. You know, that was really nice to see.”
No doubt Dempsey will return to our shores someday for a long-awaited pint of the black stuff.
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