IRISH actress Kerry Condon has revealed the touching way she honoured her mum in her latest blockbuster role.
The Tipperary native stars alongside Hollywood A-lister Brad Pitt in the action-packed F1 drama which is set for release on June 25.
Kerry is taking on the role of Kate McKenna, the race director of the fictional APXGP team and the first female technical director in Formula 1.
The actress has shared that it meant a lot to her when the directors encouraged her to keep her Irish accent for the role as she’s keen to represent Irish women on the big screen.
She pointed out how rare it is to hear a female lead in a major movie speak with an Irish accent and she was delighted to bring that authenticity to her character.
Kerry told the Irish Independent: “I’ve always wanted to do a blockbuster movie, and obviously this is the female lead in a massive blockbuster movie.
“And then they wanted me to be Irish. I thought, ‘Jeez, I don’t think I’ve seen that before, the Irish accent in a female lead, in a big massive movie.”
She also opened up about a heartfelt nod to her mum in the film.
Kerry confessed: “I wanted to wear my Claddagh ring in the movie too, one that my mother got me and I wear all the time, so my character got to wear that.”
The film star recently revealed how she transformed into a movie villain, by trying to look like one of the mass-murdering Manson girls.
The female killers were among a group of followers who were brainwashed by cult leader Charles Manson in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Kerry said she used various sources of inspiration to play Doireann in her new film In The Land of Saints and Sinners.
The Co Tipperary-born star explained: “I wanted to not be pretty. I went with one of the Manson girls for the hair.
“I saw a picture and there was something a little creepy and so I ran with that idea.”
The Manson Family were confirmed to have murdered nine people — but it is thought the death toll was actually double that.
Three female members of the group — Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel — were killers with pregnant movie star Sharon Tate, the 26-year-old wife of director Roman Polanski, the most high-profile victim.
Kerry, from Thurles, said that in order to stand up to Liam Neeson in the thrilling flick she was also influenced by Joe Pesci’s character in Goodfellas and the evil mum in The Goonies.
VILLAIN-SPIRATION
She continued: “Initially, I was a bit like, ‘Oh, jeez, my work’s going to be cut out for me because Liam Neeson’s really tall’.
“Tall to a regular person, and I’m pretty small, so he’s really tall compared to me.
“When I’m standing beside him the audience have to believe that Liam would feel me as a threat.
“Then I remembered various villains in the past that I was affected by, like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. They might not have been physically menacing but there was something about them that was really nerve-wrecking.
“Personalities that feel a little unhinged, and unpredictable. So I started to tap into that.
“I remembered the mother in The Goonies was a strange-looking person. I thought about the idea that people who think negative things, physically they’re not smiley and bright and their energy isn’t nice.
“All these negative thoughts and negative vibrations manifest in your body.”
