Hollywood star Ethan Hawke has revealed one of his highlights from 2020 was filming in Northern Ireland during the pandemic.
The actor and writer was in Co Antrim in October and November working on upcoming historical thriller The Northman by director Robert Eggers.
Set in Iceland in Viking times, it stars Alexander Skarsgard as Nordic prince Amleth and Hollywood heavyweights Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe.
Hawke, 50, told Brendan O’Connor on RTE Radio 1: “One of the highlights of my Covid experience was going to Ireland.
“I had a role in a Robert Eggers film that we shot in Northern Ireland in Belfast.
“I had a wonderful experience doing that.
“I mean it was really hard, everybody’s got a mask on, I could sit next to the director on a bus and not recognise him. We had rigorous protocol.
"It was the first time in my life I went on a movie and I never had dinner with anybody – there’s no cast parties, there’s no crew get-togethers.
“Everybody had their different colour vest on and their face masks on and I was getting a Covid test every other day.
“It was pretty intense but I was proud of us for getting the work done.”
Co-star Nicole Kidman has also hailed Belfast as one of her favourite places following filming.
Speaking on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast she said: "I was shooting in Belfast. I love Belfast now.
"The weirdest thing was, I'm in Belfast, and I have this way of always going, 'maybe I should move here' - I'm that person.
"So I'm in Belfast going, 'this place is really special.' There's something about it, I was just drawn.
"I have Irish blood. Part of my family came over to Australia in 1839 on the SS Susan."
