Finding his feet on the red carpet

The whirl of Cannes has prepared actor Pádraic Delaney for the Irish premiere of his first major film tomorrow, he tells Michael Dwyer

Even if you are just another member of the audience attending black-tie gala screenings at the Cannes Film Festival, there is something special about the ritual of it all: ascending the red carpet, with gendarmes lining the steps, photographers in formal dress on every side, and hundreds of local people and tourists surrounding the entrance to the Palais des Festivals.

As a newcomer to movies, Pádraic Delaney did not know what to expect at the world premiere of his first film, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, in Cannes last month, where he was joined by fellow actors Cillian Murphy, Liam Cunningham and Orla Fitzgerald, producer Rebecca O'Brien and director Ken Loach.

"As soon as we came out of our hotel that evening, people were taking pictures of us," he says, still bemused by it all a month later. "I thought: 'Why are you taking photos of me? I'm just a farmer's son from Wexford.' When we got to the red carpet, French TV reporters were asking us questions. When we were going up the steps, all the photographers were shouting at us to look this way and that way. Orla and I started waving for the photographers, and when I asked Cillian why he wasn't, he said: 'Waving is for the queen.'

"The music was pounding out. I didn't even notice the gendarmes until I saw the clips on TV the next day. And I didn't know until later that the festival jury and Nick Nolte and Elijah Wood were already seated inside and watching us arriving on the big screen in the cinema. It was incredible.

"As soon as the credits came up at the end, the camera crews started moving in close to us in the dark. Then the lights came up and we got this amazing 10-minute standing ovation, and I could see people all around with tears in their eyes. We were all hugging each other. I got a text that night asking me if I had a good time and I texted back that it was the best night of my life. Nothing can compare with that."

The screening was followed by a relaxed dinner on a beach along the Croisette, after which many of the guests went on the party circuit until dawn. Despite all the excitement of the night, Delaney was quite sensible, getting to bed relatively early because he was facing into a day of back-to-back interviews with the international media the next morning.

"Cillian and I were partnered together for the interviews," he says, "and because they were in groups, everyone was trying to get a word in. Cillian got most of the stupid questions. Some guy from Bulgaria asked him if he related more to his character in The Wind That Shakes the Barley or to his character in Breakfast on Pluto! Cillian just looked at him as if to say, what do you think, you gobshite?

"The magazine reporters try to push you into giving the answers that they want, but Cillian is quite cool about it and well able to handle it. It was a good learning curve for me to be doing the interviews with him."

ON THE CLOSING night of the festival, the jury awarded Loach the coveted major prize, the Palme d'Or.

"I always felt it was a very special film," Delaney says. "I think we all knew that while we were working on it. And the stakes were high. We had to do justice to these people we were playing, who represented people who were younger than I am now and had given their lives for what they believed in. We constantly had to keep in mind the sacrifices they made, the situations they were in, and the conflicts after the Treaty. I applied what I apply to everything I do, which is to give it 100 per cent."

Delaney acquits himself admirably in what is his first substantial screen role.

"I play Teddy, who's a very single-minded individual," he says. "His main concern is getting the Brits out at all costs, and he'll do anything for that to happen. He's very pragmatic. Rather than sitting around and talking with the idealists, he's more likely to pick up a gun."

Now 28, Pádraic Delaney grew up on his father's farm in Adamstown, Co Wexford. He decided to study civil engineering, but dropped out after four months, opting instead for the risky profession that is acting.

"I went to Dublin and started working in bars and studying acting with Betty Ann Norton a few nights a week," he says. "I applied for the theatre studies course at Trinity and got accepted. I threw myself into that. I loved it. The atmosphere was great. They really nurture you and look after you."

In early 2004 Delaney got to play Hamlet at Cork Opera House.

"It was tough going," he recalls. "Some days we did three performances, two for kids who were studying the play for the Leaving and then another at night for the adults. There was only one really rowdy school and they were firing these little hard-boiled sweets at us. There was a scene I had with Joanne King, who was playing Ophelia. I grab her and start shaking her when I know Polonius is watching and the kids started shouting 'ride her, ride her'!"

Before he was cast in The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Delaney's only screen appearances had been on TV, in episodes of The Clinic and Pure Mule.

When Ken Loach began casting his film, he was determined to employ as many Cork people as possible, professional and non-professional, and Delaney is one of the few non-Cork actors in the movie.

"I got an audition," he says. "Of course, Ken, as always, turns the rulebook on its head. He doesn't call them auditions. He calls them conversations. Ken was there with Una Kearney, the casting director, and that's what it was: a conversation.

"About two weeks later, I had a proper audition, or conversation, and this time it was with an actor. We had to improvise a scene where we were having a disagreement and challenging each other, and about halfway through, our roles were reversed. All the while Ken kept his distance. Una said they would want to see me again.

"The next time I improvised a scene with two other actors, and the following day I got the call to say I had the part of Teddy. It was terrific news.

"It took a while for it to soak in, but I wasn't going to let it go to my head. I knew there was a lot of hard work to come."

AS SOON AS he had finished working on the Loach film, Delaney was committed to a short film project in Germany, based on Synge's Riders to the Sea. While he was there, his agent called to say he had an audition for a new six-hour RTÉ drama series, Legend. It was successful and he was given the leading role.

Although the title sounds more appropriate to a historical epic along the lines of Gladiator or Troy, Legend is set in Tallaght, Co Dublin. The screenplay is by Ken Harmon, the playwright of Done Up Like a Kipper and Wideboy Gospel, and Charlie McCarthy and Robert Quinn have directed three episodes each for the series, which begins transmission in September.

"My character, Fridge, is a man whose wife has been killed in a hit-and-run accident," Delaney says. "The first episode opens on the day of her funeral. Part of the mystery of the series is how she died and who was responsible for it.

"Fridge has to bring up their two children by himself and he has to deal with the local crime boss and the neighbourhood troublemakers. Fridge is like the downtrodden Jimmy Stewart character who eventually stands up for himself. The series has the feel of a modern-day Western about it."

There are several other prospects on the horizon for Delaney, in cinema and theatre, but the Loach film continues to dominate his life for now. He is particularly enthusiastic about the film's Irish premiere in Cork tomorrow night.

"My mother's coming to it and she's been looking forward to it for weeks," he says. "I hope she doesn't find it too overwhelming because she's heard so much about it. When I was working on the film I don't think any of the family realised what an important film it would be. They were all delighted that I had been on TV, because I had done ads for St Ivel desserts and for Guinness, and they wanted to know why I wasn't doing more ads or acting in Fair City, even though I never got an audition for it in the first place.

"But the premiere is going to be an incredible night."

• The Wind That Shakes the Barley has its Irish premiere at the Mahon Point multiplex in Cork tomorrow and is on release from Friday