Banshees of Inisherin role was extra special for Mary Jo

An Athboy woman who took part as an extra on the Banshees of Inisherin says she didn't even recognise herself in the scene due to drastic hair and make up work!

Mary Jo Needham was one of over 100 extras cast in the Hollywood blockbuster directed by Martin McDonagh starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson that was filmed over six week on Achill Island.

Mary Jo, originally from Achill, appears in the pub scene as one of the villagers, nodding and clapping along to the trad music session as Colin Farrell's character peers through the window.

But when the clip was played on the Late Late Show when Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson appeared as guests ahead of the film's release, Mary Jo did not spot herself alongside the famous actor.

"I watching it with my husband when the clip came on and I said I don't know any of the extras there John," she said. " I went upstairs then and I came back about a half an hour later and my phone was alive!

"I was in the clip but I actually didn't recognise myself. There were at least three hairdressers around me during that scene with hair spray and all sorts of things, I didn't see myself on the day so it really didn't look like me!

After filming one night a number of extras were selected from the bus for a last minute scene just before it pulled off to leave as Mary Jo explains:

"When the extras were finished for the day, we'd go to wherever the depot was that day and we would be bused off. We were on the bus ready to go and a guy Calumn who was in charge of the extras came in and picked me and three men and another woman but I was the only one who appeared. The camera was directly on me in the pub, I could feel the heat of it. The music was playing in the background so I felt like there was something up!"

The Athboy resident applied to be an extra on the set for four days but ended up taking part in filming for three weeks, an experience she describes as "fantastic."

"I'm from Achill Island and I go up and down regularly. I saw the ad in the Mayo News and I had been involved in three other movies before and I said sure look it what am I doing for the summer, it was only for four days they were looking for people with maybe a day or two extra in October

"They gave me a day to get set up with costume and they decked me out with my clothes for the duration was a very heavy underskirt and a very heavy over skirt and wooly socks. The shoes had been in multiple productions so they were a bit worn!"

The extras were all treated exceptionally well which made the experience even more special according to Mary Jo who said;

"They treated us so well, when it was cold we got shawls and when it was wet we got rain coats. There was ongoing food there from breakfast to lunch to dinner. Martin McDonagh was very nice, he thanked us at the end of the day like we were doing him a favour even though he was paying us.

He kept me back for the scene in pub, there was five of us and afterwards he came out and he shook my hand and I was so shocked, that was the first time in 18 months that someone had shook my hand because we were in covid times. It was a fantastic experience."

The enthusiastic extra says although she was around the stars of the movie regularly she didn't approach them.

"I didn't want to interrupt Colin because he was always acting out his work in between scenes," she said. He was working the same as the rest of us, there were over a 100 extras in the film, some of them did approach him but I didn't. He used to send his stuff home in his car and he used to run home. He opted to take a house in one of the villages rather than on the beach and he liked to run through the villages. He shopped locally in Sweeneys Supervalu!

Filming caused huge excitement on the island and unusually large crowds of people on the roads in the early hours according to Mary Jo.

"We went off on the bus each day to the different locations, Purteen Harbour to Gort Na Mara or to Ashleam.

"There was a few mornings that we had to be on the set at 6am because they wanted to get the sun rising over the mountains and I remember that morning I was up at 4am and I was heading off in my car and I got to the top of my road and it was like the M50, for a sleepy little place, it was so strange, it was a great buzz for the island."

Mary Jo who has been involved in local panto and theatre productions in Athboy and who also took part as an extra in An Cailín Ciúin, a feature film made in Meath and short listed for an Academy Award says she is delighted the movie had such success at the Golden Globes winning three major prizes.

"I had no idea how big the movie was going to be. I wasn't expecting at all. I'm so happy for them because it was such an enjoyable experience being a part of it and they looked after us so well."

Locals in Athboy cheered Mary Jo on when they went to see the Banshees of Inisherin on the big screen late last year.

"I'm part of the Women's Group here in Athboy and we all went to see it in Mullingar the Friday it was released. On the Sunday the extras had organised a private viewing of it in Castlebar so we all watched it together and it was lovely."