THE RED carpet at Dublin’s Savoy cinema was swapped for blue last night reflecting the theme of the night as Chris O'Dowd attended the premiere of his latest movie The Sapphires.
A comedy about an all-girl Aboriginal soul band set in 1960s Australia, it features the Roscommon native playing Dave Lovelace, a struggling Irish musician whose attention is caught by three sisters and their cousin who perform at an outback singing contest.
Describing the film as “similar to The Commitments in that there is singing in it”, he said “its not as funny, and deliberately so.
“There is much darker stuff going on.”
The film was shot in Australia and Saigon last September, and ODowd received the script just a week after his hit movie Bridesmaids was released.
“I was getting a lot of sort of rom-commy stuff and I knew that it would have been very easy to fall into the trap of getting slightly better pay cheques for slightly worse movies,” he said.
“I wanted to go home and do something so I started writing Moone Boy; and I wanted to get the hell away and do something small.
“I didnt know that much about the aboriginal struggle and I wanted to find out more.
“I love the music and I thought it was genuinely funny, which fewer scripts than you would imagine are.”
His co-stars Jessica Mauboy, Deborah Mailman, Shari Sebbens and Miranda Tapsell were also in Dublin for the premiere.
Attending with his new wife, the broadcaster and journalist Dawn Porter, ODowd wrapped filming of the second series of Moone Boy in his native Boyle on Friday.
“Im really proud of that show … the fact that there has been a great reaction to it is very heart-warming.”
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