'Nowhere Special' dialogue coach Brendan Gunn to take part in Ardhowen Q&A

Ahead of the screening Brendan – who lives in Belfast but has family roots in County Fermanagh, with both of his parents originally from the Derrylin area – spoke to The Impartial Reporter about how lecturing in linguistics led to a job in the film industry, enjoying pastries with actor James Norton whilst working on ‘Nowhere Special’, and developing a particularly notable dialect with Brad Pitt.

Brendan first started working in the film industry as a dialogue and dialect coach after he was offered an opportunity to work on a film whilst he was lecturing in linguistics at the University of Ulster.

“My immediate boss, the head of the department, was asked to do a film and she didn’t want to do it.

‘Joined the circus’

“It was supposed to be for two weeks [in America] and I’d never been there, and I went for two weeks and then I got another job before I finished that job, so two weeks turned into five months [of dialect training], which turned into 35 years – I ran away and joined the circus,” said Brendan with a laugh.

Talking about his work on ‘Nowhere Special’, Brendan explained that he had previously worked on several projects with the director Chris Martin, who then approached him to work on the film.

“He’s a dynamic producer here in Northern Ireland. I was working on something else but he asked me to do some sessions with James Norton, and so that’s what I did.

“[James] is very professional. It was one of those occasions that he came over to the house; people come and work in my house if they are not on set, and we did several sessions.

“He brought croissants and Danish pastries, we drank coffee and went through the phonology of what he was expected to do, and then we tweaked it as he went through the shoot,” said Brendan, explaining the process.

When asked why he thinks it is so important to get the dialect and accent right in a film, Brendan responded: “It’s about the character’s background, where they are from.

“I remember doing a film in Dublin years ago about a drug dealer in Summerhill, up on the North side.

“Unfortunately, the actor had been doing some [dialect] lessons in South Dublin – Dublin 4 – and had a very posh Ballsbridge accent.

“I had to go in and kind of change it because it wasn’t right for his character’s background.

“It’s not that the speech has to be an absolute, accurate mimicry [of a dialect and accent] – it’s about making the actor feel comfortable in the role with that speech; that the clothes, the family, the environment are all real, or as real as possible,” he said.

Throughout his career Brendan has worked with many famous actors, including Brad Pitt, helping them develop their accents and dialects for particular roles.

“I did three pictures with Brad, I did a film called ‘The Devil’s Own’, then ‘Meet Joe Black’ and finally, ‘Snatch’, which was very popular – a cult favourite,” said Brendan, noting that he helped Brad develop the memorable dialect of the notorious ‘Snatch’ character, Mickey O’Neil, a Traveller boxer.

‘Gimmick’

“We did it together; it sort of developed as a gimmick in the whole show. It started off very clear and then we looked at some recordings of bare-knuckle fighting from Crossmaglen.

“Mickey’s been damaged a bit so it just became part of the fun; the criminals think he’s stupid but he’s actually getting one over on them,” he laughed.

Brendan will be joined for the Q&A by Hugh Odling-Smee, from Film Hub NI.

Tickets for the screening of ‘Nowhere Special’ on December 8 at 8pm can be purchased directly online via the Ardhowen website.

Under-25s who are interested in a career in the creative industries can apply for a free ticket for the Fermanagh Film Club screening via the Nerve Centre as part of BFI Film Academy, supported by National Lottery funding for this Film Hub NI Collective tour.