Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary
Irish star Barry Ward (Bad Sisters, The End of the F***ing World) has a busy work schedule, but he visited the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) last week to introduce one of his latest films
Ward has actually attended the Czech festival several years in a row now. “I was invited in 2023 to be a jury member for the main competition and had the time of my life,” he tells THR. Another member of that jury was Slovenian director Olmo Omerzu. “Over the course of the week, he cast me in his next film. So, some months later, we made his film Ungrateful Beings and almost a year to the day of meeting him, we wrapped on that film [which premiered at San Sebastian], and we came straight back to Karlovy Vary for the next festival to celebrate.”
This year, Ward traveled to Karlovy Vary with British documentary director Grant Gee’s fiction feature debut Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which premiered at Berlin and stars Norwegian actor and Joachim Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie (Sentimental Value, The Worst Person in the World), Laurie Metcalf, Bill Pullman and Ward. He portrays jazz legend Bill Evans’ older brother Harry. The Irish actor introduced a jam-packed screening at the Czech fest and found time to chat with THR about the movie and upcoming projects.
As an international co-production between the U.S., U.K. and Ireland, there were auditions for Irish actors for Everybody Digs Bill Evans. “I was sent the script and asked to tape for it, and I loved it,” Ward recalls. “My character was in two scenes, but I loved the scenes. It was a Mark O’Halloran (Adam & Paul, Viva) script, and I love his writing, and I just loved the world of it.”
Courtesy of Shane O’Connor/Cowtown Pictures Limited/Hot Property
The fact that this is a supporting role gave him no pause. “They gave me a one-page treatment, you know, ‘This is what it’s about, this is where it’s set,’” he shares. “And I just thought, ‘Oh, this is a job I would fucking love.’ So, I worked harder on that audition than I have on many others over the years, sent in the tape and got offered the part.”
Ward portrays Harry Evans as a deeply torn character. “He finds himself in that really difficult position, a dilemma – namely looking after his younger brother, whom he loves, and trying to take him into the family home. And he obviously loves and wants to protect his family too. And then he is finding that the two don’t really fit together so well, and ultimately he makes a decision: ‘I can’t give you the help you need. You have to go elsewhere for that.’ And he has to send his brother away. And it’s heartbreaking, because he is a good man trying to do good things, but finding himself in an impossible situation.”
And he finds himself having to live with his tough choice. “He has to live with that forever,” Ward says. “And it’s his younger brother, where we are duty-bound and instinctively, genetically bound to try and protect younger siblings. Theirs is a complicated relationship as well, because there’s a lot of love there, but there’s also a lot of competition, perhaps some jealousy.”
Ward enjoyed diving into this tricky brotherly bond. “They are both complicated characters, and they are both dealing with very different kinds of mental health issues, for which neither of them has a great understanding or a vocabulary,” the actor explains. “Nor was that perhaps as widely understood and available societally as it is nowadays.”
How does such societal change affect diving into a character? “That’s a challenge – trying not to apply what we know now about those things to back then,” Ward shares. “There’s a level of ignorance, for want of a better word, and there’s an unknowing that you have to try and channel. They are good people doing the best they can, but under unfavorable circumstances.”
Courtesy of Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary
Was there any video or other material that he could study to prepare for the role? “After Harry’s death, his wife wrote a kind of biographical [text] about Bill and his brother, or a kind of pamphlet – like a chapter in a book about their relationship, and a lot about their childhood and how close and closely bonded they were. With both being great jazz pianists, Harry was the better player, the movie suggests, up until a point when Bill took over. They were also both keen golfers and really good, almost semi-pro.”
Plus, there was a YouTube clip. “It was about a half hour of an episode of American television,l in beautiful black and white,” Wad tells THR. “There is a presenter, but he hands over the floor to Harry Jr. and Bill Evans, and there’s this half-hour dialogue between the two of them. Harry went into academia and was a music teacher, so he assumes that role in a way in this TV show. Bill plays and improvises, and Harry talks about it. So it’s this dialogue between these two musical geniuses, and it gave me a wholly new appreciation for jazz.”
The lack of much video footage meant that Ward took a different approach from the film’s lead. “Bill Evans is much more iconic and well known. So I think Anders had no other choice but to really try and do a good imitation,” he explains. “For me, it was much looser, and we made choices early on that totally contradicted that footage I saw. The written literature around that footage actually said he really wasn’t himself in that interview, because the cameras were on. So, we created our own character in a way. We were less biographical and beholden to those details. But there were certain elements that I tried to bring in.” All in all, “it was like a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Ward concludes. “It had the best of both worlds.”
Ward has been shooting The Flying Mountain from director Nicolas Steiner which also stars Moe Dunford. It tells the story of two Irish brothers who seek life’s meaning and travel to Tibet’s peaks.
“It’s based on a novel about two Irish brothers who go from the West Coast of Ireland to the Himalayas of Tibet in search of a white spot, which is basically the last place on Earth that has yet to be mapped by Google Maps,” Ward explains. “So the two of us embark on this adventure. It’s an interesting concept with brilliant creatives across the board and a stunningly beautiful picture.”
Courtesy of Swiss Films
There was also an Irish crew since some parts of the movie were shot in Ireland. “We just got back from eight weeks filming in Nepal,” Ward tells THR about the state of the production. “And we finish it in October in Switzerland up on the mountains. We’ve still got crazy endurance climbing work.”
In addition to his film work, Ward has also continued with series roles. “I have a Netflix TV show called Grown Ups coming up, which is being edited at the moment,” the actor tells THR. “It is an Irish [family drama] story based on a novel by Marian Keyes, who is an Irish author who has sold millions of books worldwide. And it’s adapted by the amazing Samantha Strauss (Apple Cider Vinegar), an Australian writer and showrunner.”
What’s Ward’s role in the family drama that filmed in and around Dublin? “I’m one of the brothers of the family in this dysfunctional family,” he says. “They struggle, so there is a lot of drama. And it is about family dynamics with an amazing cast. Robert Sheehan (The Umbrella Academy, Misfits), Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Get Away) and I are brothers and sisters, and Sarah Greene (Bad Sisters, Normal People) is the lead character who’s basically outside of this family, looking in.”
Before Ward must go to his next appointment, we have to briefly discuss Ireland’s screen success and production boom. “We are enjoying a golden age of film and TV,” he acknowledges. “And we have never had as many international breakout stars as we do now, both in front of and behind the camera. And all these people are paving the way for others.”
The production infrastructure has expanded and improved over time. “When I made my first movie in Ireland, it was with Cillian Murphy, there was one studio, and it was lying empty for 10 months of the year,” Ward recalls. “Now there are four, I think, and there are about three in development. So there’s a huge industry now where once, not so long ago, there was none. So it’s been a huge phenomenon.”
