Stellar performances project our stars into the spotlight
Jessie Buckley — runner up on I'll Do Anything — at her homecoming in the Cathedral Field, Killarney. Credit: Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin
Wednesday December 31 2008
FOR two Killarney stars, 2008 will be remembered as a major milestone in their showbiz careers. Michael Fassbender and Jessie Buckley shone on the big screen and small screen respectively and neither have looked back since.
It was the year that Fassbender was transformed from supporting actor into a major Hollywood star who can carry a picture all on his own.
Playing IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, Hunger received universal acclaim in what was a seriously demanding role that brought method acting to another level.
The Fossa man underwent a dramatic weight-loss programme, supervised by doctors, for the role. It paid off as the movie was awarded the Gucci Group Award at the Venice Film Festival, just weeks after it received the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Directed by visual artist Steve McQueen, the storyline profiled Sands's last days at the Maze prison in 1981 and the famous blanket protest. Fassbender received rave reviews for some seriously long and intense scenes depicting arguably the most emotive period in Ireland's recent history.
Fassbender is currently working with Quentin Tarantino on the set of his latest flick, Inglorious Bastards. The WWII movie is set in Nazi-occupied France and also stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers and Nastassja Kinski, with Hostel director Eli Roth also on board.
Best known in his early days as 'that man in the Guinness ad', Fassbender has come a long way since then. Having played Stelios in epic historic movie 300 last year, he recently completed Creek, directed by Joel Schumacher who worked with Colin Farrell in Phone Booth.
Other movies include The Devil's Whore and British thriller Eden Lake with Kelly Reilly. Fassbender has also been lined up to play Heathcliff in the classic, Wuthering Heights.
MEANWHILE, a star was born over the summer months, with the emergence of local actor and singer Jessie Buckley who earned a place in the hearts of millions of viewers as she finished as runner-up on I'd do Anything on BBC.
The show was a search for the next Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh's new West End production of Oliver! with the man himself — along with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Barry Humphreys — judging the performances of contestants every week.
Jessie, who starred in Killarney Musical Society's production of Carousel last March, blew the judges and the public away each week with her show-stopping performances, earning her a place in the final two in the series.
Her achievement is even more astounding given that she was unable to avail of the home vote, with Irish viewers prevented from participating in the phone and text vote. Jessie's parents, Tim and Marina, supported her each week as part of the live studio audience.
Jessie arrived home in Killarney to a hero's welcome and she delighted the crowds in Tralee at the Rose of Tralee festival and performed on the National Lottery's first-ever millionaire raffle draw.
She is currently appearing alongside Maureen Lipman in the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory fringe studio theatre in London.
And, by the way, she also managed to pick up an AIMS (Association of Irish Musical Society) award for best female actress for her role in Carousel.
- KEVIN HUGHES
