Martin McDonagh Talks with Patrick Radden Keefe

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martin McDonagh burst onto the London theatre scene as a young playwright in the nineteen-nineties. At one point, he had four plays running simultaneously on stages across London. But McDonagh also aspired to work in movies, and he eventually shifted his focus to directing films such as “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” “When you sit down to write something, how do you know if it’s a movie or a play?” the staff writer Patrick Radden Keefe asked McDonagh at The New Yorker Festival. “If it has four characters, and it’s set indoors, it’s a play,” McDonagh replied—“if it doesn’t have any donkeys or dogs.” McDonagh’s new film, “The Banshees of Inisherin,” starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, is his first feature set in Ireland, and it prominently features a donkey. “Banshees” traces the story of a friendship breaking apart in the beautiful, remote hills of the country’s west. “I just wanted this [movie] to be sort of plotless in a way,” McDonagh said. “Just to have the unravelling of this breakup be what the whole story was about.” The film is now nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. This segment originally aired on October 21, 2022.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:04.2	The Banshees of Inich Sharon, a bittersweet ode to the demise of an old friendship,
0:10.2	is a major player at the Academy Awards this year. It's earned a total of nine nominations,
0:15.6	including Best Actor, Best Picture, and Best Director for Martin McDunna.
0:21.0	McDunna, who also wrote the film,
0:23.1	has been consistently making original and thoughtful movies,
0:26.5	like In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,
0:30.7	which have managed to connect with big audiences
0:33.1	without ever sacrificing his unique voice and perspective on the world.
0:37.9	The Banshees of Inneshaeran is set in 1923,
0:41.6	and it takes place in the remote hills of a fictional island, west of Ireland.
0:46.1	It's a showcase for its lead actors, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleason.
0:50.1	It's also a master class in screenwriting.
0:53.2	Now, I'm sitting here next year, and if you're going back inside, I'm following you inside. And if you're going home, I'm following you there too. Now, if I've done something to you, just tell me what I've done to you. And if I've said something to you, maybe I said something when I was drunk and I've forgotten it. But I don't think I said something when I was drunk and I've forgotten it. But if I did, then tell me what it was, and I'd say sorry for that too, Colin.
1:28.3	Donnie. I was drunk and I've forgotten it, but I don't think I said something when I was drunk and I've forgotten it. But if I did, then tell me what it was, and I'll say sorry for that too, Colin. With all my heart, I'll say sorry. Just stop running away from me like some fool of a moody school child. But you didn't say anything to me. And you didn't do anything to me. Well, that's what I was thinking like. I just don't like you no more.
1:32.3	You do like me. I don't.
1:46.0	Did you like me yesterday?
1:49.0	Oh, did I, yeah?
1:51.0	I thought you did.
1:54.0	Martin McDonough spoke to New Yorker staff writer Patrick Raddenkeef
2:00.9	at the New Yorker Festival last year.
2:04.8	It's kind of a breakup movie.
	...

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