Was this a year of potential Oscar nominees attempting not to pay attention to the nominations’ announcement? We’ve already heard from Supporting Actress nominee Aunjanue Ellis, who didn’t turn her phone on until 11 PM that day out of fear of disappointing those closest to her. Now, speaking to Ciarán Hinds, we learn the “Belfast” star discovered he landed his first nod while going through security on his way home to Paris.
READ MORE: Caitriona Balfe On “Belfast” And That “Terrifying” Everlasting Love Moment [Interview]
“I put my jacket and everything on there. Then, suddenly, my phone at the last moment, and the phone went ping. It had been quiet all morning,” Hinds recalls. “And I guess it was probably around 1:00 PM or so in London. It went ping, and I just saw it as I was going through the security ramp, and I noticed it was from my agent. And I went, “What’s that about?” It had been his birthday, and I’d sent him just two bottles of wine the day before. So, he is probably ringing to tell me to thank you very much for it. So, then it went on, and went through the security thing, and went down and down. And I went to pick it up, and I saw there were six more messages. Then, somebody said, ‘You have to go down there to go through passport control, and do all that.’ So, I got through passport control, looked at it, and now there were about 20 things to pick up. And it had really literally just exploded all the news from everybody who’d heard it. And so I was being assaulted from all sides without even realizing.”
Hinds has had a remarkable career having appeared in such films as “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover,” “Road to Perdition,” “Munich,” “Miami Vice,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” “Silence” and “First Man,” among others. And despite over four decades in film, he was still anxious about landing Academy recognition.
“As far as I see, I never entered a competition a year and a half ago when I made this film. I went to work, and we made a story,” Hinds says. “And now it’s turned into whether it’s a competition or a race or whatever, but I was like, ‘Who put me in this?’ And for me, honestly, it was just about supporting the film because I do believe in Ken’s film. He’s made such a beautiful film. He’s the creator, he’s the conductor, he’s the man that made it happen, and whatever support we could give him to support the film would be useful. We didn’t know along the way that, suddenly, we might feature so heavily when came to the awards time. Although, I get it when I see the performances of Caitriona Balfe and Jamie [Dornan] and Judi [Dench], Jude [Hill]. I get that. And it is quietly thrilling and very gratifying in a way.”
Over the course of our conversation, Hinds discusses what drew him to the role, how his own experiences leaving Belfast influenced his performance, and director Kenneth Branagh‘s skill at pulling out a superb performance from the 10-year-old newcomer Hill.
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The Playlist: Where were you when you found out about your Oscar nomination? Did you watch the nominations live, and what was your reaction?
Ciarán Hinds: I was going through security at King’s Cross Station in London on route to Paris. As I went through the security, I’d forgotten completely about the nominations, because I was being challenged domestically. My wife [and I], we live in Paris. So, I was on my way there. And this is how I remember it. I put my jacket and everything on there. Then, suddenly, my phone at the last moment, and the phone went ping. It had been quiet all morning. And I guess it was probably around 1:00 PM or so in London. It went ping, and I just saw as it was going through the security ramp, and I noticed it was from my agent. And I went, “What’s that about?” It had been his birthday, and I’d sent him just two bottles of wine the day before. So, he is probably ringing to tell me to thank you very much for it. So, then it went on, and went through the security thing, and went down and down. And I went to pick it up, and I saw there were six more messages. Then, somebody said, “You have to go down there to go through passport control, and do all that.” So, I got through passport control, looked at it, and now there were about 20 things to pick up. And it had really literally just exploded all the news from everybody who’d heard it. And so I was being assaulted from all sides without even realizing.
Did you tell the passport control person there to let you through quicker, since you’d just been nominated for an Academy Award?
Oh, no. He was French. It doesn’t matter.
Obviously, you knew it was a possibility. You’d been on all these lists. You’d won the National Board of Review’s Best Supporting Actor. Did it hit you later? What are your feelings about the nomination now?
It did hit me later. I was rather anxious about it because, as far as I see, I never entered a competition a year and a half ago when I made this film. I went to work, and we made a story. And now it’s turned into whether it’s a competition or a race or whatever, but I was like, “Who put me in this?” And for me, honestly, it was just about supporting the film because I do believe in Ken’s film. He’s made such a beautiful film. He’s the creator, he’s the conductor, he’s the man that made it happen, and whatever support we could give him to support the film would be useful. We didn’t know along the way that, suddenly, we might feature so heavily when came to the awards time. Although, I get it when I see the performances of Caitriona Balfe and Jamie [Dornan] and Judi [Dench], Jude [Hill]. I get that. And it is quietly thrilling and very gratifying in a way. Yeah.
It should be. You’ve done such incredible work for so long. I hope you can have fun with it.
I hope so, too. The idea of making a prat of myself in public doesn’t appeal to me, but anyway. We’ll see what happens when the time comes.
You were born in Belfast and grew up there. When Kenneth reached out was it a slam dunk?
It was. We were in lockdown, and I was in France at the time. And I got a message from my agent saying out of the blue, “Ken Branagh would like to have a word with you. Can we arrange a Zoom?” I said, “Yeah, sure.” We’d said hello to each other maybe five minutes in our lives, even though we’re from the same neck of the woods. We really had never crossed in work. And he was so warm and gracious. He said to me at the end of the conversation, he said, “Well, as I said, I’ve written this script.” Then, he said, “Would you mind if I sent it to you? Would I be putting you out in any way if I was to send…” and I said, “No, send it to me.” There was something about how he was talking about it that I thought, “I bet you this is going to be a fascinating read,” and it was. And that was from immediately the script because I felt it deep in my core I understood these people. Having left Belfast 45 years ago, yeah.
Did you see yourself or any of your family members in any of the characters?
Yes. I did. I didn’t see myself, of course, because I still think I’m about 25, but you realize you’re miles from 25. Miles. Yeah. I saw how he had written, and the rhythm of how he spoke, and what Pop did, and how he behaved. Because Ken was [saying], “I don’t want you to impersonate my family or me to tell you what they were like. What’s important is that the six of you with Lewis McAskie, who plays the older brother, form a family bond. A real family bond in a very short time. That’s what I’m trying to look for because I’ve asked you all to be because of the different things you bring, but then we connect it all to family.” And he gave us the atmosphere to be able to do that. But there was something about between the actions of what Pop got up to, what he did with his hands, working away, put me in mind of my mother’s father, my grandfather. There was something about the way with his rather dry humor put me in mind of my own father. It was an amalgam of people, but they were Northern Irish men. Even though Ken and I come from different sides of whatever the religious divide or different sides of the thing, it doesn’t matter. These are people who are from a long line of “This is how we behave here, you know?” And I understood that even though I had gone away it was still in my core. Yeah.
I spoke to Caitriona Balfe and she said even she was surprised by what a joyous event the Belfast premiere was. Have you ever worked on a project that meant so much to maybe a town or a group of people in this manner?
I might have once. But to a small village, when you go there and you film there, and it’s such an event for them. Because nothing happens. The fields get plowed, and cows are brought in, but apart from that, the idea of that, it’s that excitement. And you realize there are very long, boring days is what it’s about. But with Belfast, that’s our city, that’s our home. It big. It’s not a massive city, but it’s a big, solid Northern European city with a breed of people who are quite stoic and have a very wry, dry sense of humor. Take most things with a pinch of salt. All that stuff. So When you bring a film that happens to be entitled Belfast to their hometown, there’s not much more you can claim, is there, in a title. And it was very sweet. They did a little red carpet, but it’s not London, it’s not New York. It’s not L.A. It’s Belfast so there’s a little red carpet, and we did a little talk and some photographs. And as we were going up, Jamie Dornan said, “I’m really nervous about this.” And I looked at him and said, being the older man, I went, “Yeah, I know. It could go either way.” Really. Because that’s what you feel when you feel that this has been accepted in other parts, but the reaction in London, et cetera, it wasn’t really open to the world yet. But when you bring it home, how will they take it? It was, apart from maybe one or two people, which I wasn’t surprised at all about because they have political agendas, whatever they do. And they can’t actually just remove themselves, try and see from a nine-year-old child’s perspective if you imagine. But for the heart of the people who were there, who remembered that time, who felt the behavior of people that time, it was joyous. And it meant an awful lot to us. And Van Morrison was there.
It’s also been a huge hit in the UK at the box office. Does that mean anything as well to you, that people are willing to go out to the theaters and go and see it, not just wait for it to come on streaming, and catch in a theater?
I think it’s huge, especially at this time from the last two years of COVID, and people now getting used to the idea of that wonderful, shared experience of people going into a cinema together. Like people going into a theater together. As we all come in as individuals to watch what we want to see, popcorn or no popcorn, we just got to see what happens. And then when you see a whole place starting to feel. And being human, our extra little sensors that we hardly use as we bustle through life, are starting to come into cooperation. And then there’s a breathing, and then there’s collective sighing. And then there’s an engagement, and all of a sudden, the art of storytelling and the heart and humanity of human beings plays out in front. And that was really, really satisfying.
As someone who said such a rich career and worked in so many different types of projects, can you put into words how difficult it is for Kenneth to direct Jude Hill, just 10-years-old at the time, and pull out such a fantastic performance?
What I will describe, Greg, is the fact that while we may call Ken a director, the director of the film, he didn’t, as we would know, direct. As in direct people in certain places.
Sure.
“Do that, go there.” There was none of that. You talk about the camera, whatever. It was a revelation for me to watch Ken talk with Jude as they were doing scenes. Certainly, there were obviously a lot of scenes I wasn’t in, but anytime I was around, and how he conversed, how they spoke to each other. It was with us as well. He didn’t direct us. He guided. He listened. He watched. If he had something to say, he might say it very lightly. If not, let be. Because what he was trying to see was people connect themselves without being told how or where or when to connect. Just to be as human as they can be. Now, that problem is with the 10-year-old, how do you do that? Well, they told stories. They wound [him] up. You’d hear Ken talk, and go, “Well, what do you think?” He said, “Well, I would think, maybe if he … I don’t know. What do you think?” And then usually you’d have these two people connecting to each other. So it’s not patronizing. It’s not school teaching. It’s actually trying to get the heart and mind. But then Jude is blessed with a very natural intelligence anyway, and obviously, that soul is so open. But another thing they had in common was Jude hated Ken’s football team. He’s a Liverpool supporter, Jude is, but Ken has been a Tottenham Hotspur supporter. So there was things of Tottenham Hotspur on the set and it was difficult for Jude. He said, “That was the hardest bit of acting I had to do was to pretend I was a Spurs or Tottenham Hotspur supporter.” But when you see the relationship of how they came together, and Jude has said that, and Ken convinced him to say, “Your name is Buddy. And as you know, because you’re smart, it’s supposed to be based on a young me. I want to see a lot of you in there. So whatever I’ve written, and whatever you are, whatever you feel, let’s mix them up, let’s put them in, and then we get something fresh. We don’t get all of you. We get something living, breathing with your own.” And Just to hear Ken, see, I was quietly on the corner going like, “Deeply moving, man. Here you go.”
Were there moments in that context, especially in the scenes with you and Judi and him, were you improvising at all, or was it just a traditional shooting process in that way?
He knew the lines. Not sure that I did all the time, and that’s the thing of a young brain. It just goes … There, we’re in there. With the old brain, it’s like, “What was it? What did I say last time?” Or “I didn’t say that.” He said, “Yes you did. I advise you not to say that again.” But, yeah, he was extraordinary. But also Ken didn’t direct him, but he instructed him in the art of listening. A good lesson for all of us actors.
Yeah.
Not to act. Listening, thinking, “What am I saying next?” But to actually really listen. And it’s difficult because there’s cameras there, there’s people around, and there’s things that you’re focused on, “What am I supposed to be doing?” But that idea of really listening. So the joy of playing those scenes with Judi and that face on her behind the glasses, and Jude with that open, beautiful, angelic honesty, innocence. And then a little worry crossing him. And you go about that. You just know that you’re in a very happy place to be able to work and communicate with two lovely souls like that. Yeah.
Well, listen, you are a very busy man. I know you’ve been working on a lot of projects. I’m assuming you’re going to be able to go to the Oscars. Are you also going to be able to go to the SAG Awards? “Belfast“ is nominated for Best Ensemble.
Yeah. We are. We’re going to support the film and all be together as well. It’s lovely. We’ve been doing Q&As, and Caitriona has become a mother just recently like four months ago. Five months? Four months. Jamie’s got three lovely daughters. So, they’ll be juggling family acts, but we want to support Ken and his film. We meet now and again, and we might do a Q&A. And that’s really lovely when we see each other. It’s very fresh, really lovely.
“Belfast” is in theaters nationwide and also available for digital download.
