Sinners’ Jack O’Connell Explains the Whole Irish-Vampire Thing

And what’s it like having half a guitar hanging out of your face?

You just think, “This is demented.” That was all done with magnets, and… Obviously, [per] vampiric lore, vampires are quite reactive to silver. So that smoke you see coming out of Remmick’s skull, that’s not VFX. They rigged all of that up, and we shot that live.

You’ve got a couple of accents to work with: the Southern twang, and occasionally Remmick drops into an Irish brogue. How do you find accent work?

It helps when the accent is very definitely something. If it’s generic, or hard to place, I often find that more difficult. So it was great that Remmick was at least pretending to be from North Carolina. And when it came down to his Irishness, I just wanted that to base that from the region my family are from—sort of Kerry, sort of Munster. It’s a part of the job that I really enjoy… It’s a great entry point for your characters.

Had you ever played the banjo before Sinners?

Not really, man. I’ve got a couple of guitars, so I found it was translatable. But yeah, brilliant team around us, and plenty of time on your hands. I got in there early, and picked up one from Denmark Street.

And you’ve got a couple of great music numbers. Were you apprehensive at all about singing on screen?

I was massively apprehensive. I still am. But I think you just gotta fucking go for it, haven’t you? I love the idea of doing a musical. This is the nearest thing I’ve got to it. [It’s an] amazing arena to be doing that in, working with [composer] Ludwig Göransson, Serena Göransson—they’d get a tune out of anyone, them two. If we weren’t shooting on set, more often than not we were in the recording studio, either trying to find it, or just laying it down. Maybe a little bit of whiskey, just a touch.

Did you work with a vocal coach to find the singing voice, or was that all natural?

I was in a privileged enough position with this that the style of music, the traditional Irish stuff, it’s kind of in my bones—through Irish dancing as a kid, and then developing a vast kind of appreciation for the great recording artists in this genre of music. Liam Clancy, Luke Kelly… Definitely just belting it out in pubs, and things.

You know, it’s a music that I have a strong connection to, and it’s a bit of a gateway for me in terms of my heritage, and my relationship to my dad, who’s passed away. It’s all of that, and I guess that’s music for you.

Remmick gets stuck into an Irish dance late into the film. Did that come back naturally?

I think last time I would’ve done that is probably five or six years ago, down O’Dwyer’s Bar in Derby. Couldn’t even tell you if it was a weekend or not. But obviously, I did it loads as a kid.