Mad Hatter Q&A - Colm Bairéad: "I am a divil for eating crisps. Kettle Chips, Mature Irish Cheddar and Red Onion, the yellow pack"

Who would be the last person you would invite to your birthday party?
Ron DeSantis

Who would be the first person you would invite to your birthday party?
Adrianne Lenker

Favourite saying?
When I was filming in Mountjoy Prison back in 2015, a prison officer was describing something that happened early in his career. He prefaced it by saying, “This was back when the Dead Sea was sick”.

Favourite record?
Time Out Of Mind by Bob Dylan.

Favourite book?
Adventures Of A Suburban Boy by John Boorman

Favourite film?
Ikiru, directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Favourite author?
Claire Keegan.

Favourite actor / actress?
Ben Mendelsohn / Frances McDormand

Favourite musician?
Adrianne Lenker of Big Thief.

Most embarrassing moment of your life?
It’s been swallowed by my subconscious and it no longer happened.

Favourite food/drink/stimulant?
I am a divil for eating crisps. Kettle Chips, Mature Irish Cheddar and Red Onion, the yellow pack. The king of all crisps.

TV programme?
There’s an amazing Polish TV series from the 1980s called Dekalog, directed by the great Krzysztof Kielowski. Set in a housing complex in late-Communist Warsaw, the theme of each episode concerns itself, ostensibly, with one of the ten commandments. It was so good, they released two of the episodes in expanded form as fully-fledged feature films.

Favourite TV personality?
John Kelly.

Favourite item of clothing?
My latest pair of Nikes. Baby blue and yellow Air Max.

Most desirable date?
Cleona Ní Chrualaoi (my wife!)

Favourite method of relaxation?
Going to the cinema on my own.

If you weren’t pursuing your present career, what other career might you have chosen?
Failed novelist.

Biggest thrill?
Making An Cailín Ciúin.

Gala screening of the film An Cailín Ciúin to open the 20th Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Biggest disappointment?
Always coming second in the 100m sprint on primary school sports days.

Your concept of heaven?
Having TIME to do everything I want to do.

Your concept of hell?
An office, 9 to 5.

What would be your dying words?
Can you turn it up a bit?

Greatest ambition?
To keep making films.

Period of history you’d most like to have lived in and why?
Ancient Greece, to visit the Lyceum and hear Socrates and Plato teach.

If you weren’t a human being, which animal would you have chosen to be?
A bird (despite a mild fear of heights).

If you were told that the world was ending tomorrow morning, how would you react/what would you do?
Spend the day with Cleo and our two boys. Fall asleep together.

Your nominee for the world’s best-dressed person?
I read an article recently about how the King of Spain wears the most perfectly-fitted suits and has an impeccable dress sense. I was sold.

Favourite term of abuse?
“Stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder” – Princess Leia.

Biggest fear?
A shark attack. Thank you, Jaws.

Humanity’s most useful invention?
The Leatherman.

Humanity’s most useless invention?
The TFI app that replaced the Dublin Bus app.

• Oscar-nominated director of An Cailín Ciúin Colm Bairéid talks to producer Katie Holly at Electric Picnic’s MindField spoken word arena this weekend.

Read the full, extensive Electric Picnic special feature in the current issue of Hot Press: