Illustration by Alice Wilson

Lenny Abrahamson is (fortunately) no longer Ireland’s best-kept cinematic secret. The Emerald Isle’s love for the writer-director and Trinity graduate is well documented: three films, three Best Director IFTA awards. Ever since he burst onto the scene with 2004’s unsentimental, deathly funny, junkie odyssey Adam and Paul, Abrahamson’s name has become synonymous (alongside the McDonagh brothers) with everything that is right about Irish film.  And while 2007’s Garage gained even more traction (picking up the Essai Cinema Prize at Cannes) Irish Cinephiles feared he would not hit the heights of Sheridan and Jordan. Then What Richard Did happened. The IFTA sweeping, slow-burning examination of guilt, shame and jealousy among Dublin southside teenagers catapulted actor Jack Reynor into the Transformers franchise, and Abrahamson into the big leagues. “It is always impossible to know while working on a film how it will be received when it’s finally put in front of real audiences, or even how myself will feel about it,” Abrahamson candidly admitted. “I knew Richard was interesting but I really didn’t think it would cause much of a stir, certainly outside of Ireland. When it started to get strong reviews internationally, sold to a lot of territories and got invited to a bunch of excellent festivals it felt great.”

Was he suddenly overwhelmed? “I have been getting a lot of scripts from here and particularly abroad — the UK and US. Word that I was making Frank came out around the same time, so the industry knew I was interested in making films with a potentially bigger audience and also that I can attract stars to my projects.” Ah yes, Frank. Abrahamson’s follow-up to Richard boasts an all star cast — Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy and Michael Fassbender in the titular role, who wears a papier mache head throughout the film. Based on Jon Ronson’s book, the story follows an impressionable young man with music interests (Gleeson) who joins an eccentric band led by Fassbender’s Frank as they begin to hit the big time. Early reviews from Sundance and SXSW have lauded the shaggy dog filmmaking style.

“I could see that there was a great film in there, although a really challenging one to get right, narratively, tonally and practically. Daunting, but too tempting to pass up.”

“We’ve radically changed the script since I got involved, but what is still there is a kind of free-wheeling storytelling style and tonal freshness that really appealed to me when I first read it. There were some great sequences in the middle of the story, where this dysfunctional, semi-avant garde band hole up in the middle of nowhere to write an album. I could see that there was a great film in there, although a really challenging one to get right, narratively, tonally and practically. Daunting, but too tempting to pass up. And Jon [Ronson] and Peter [Straughan] are great writers. One of the biggest pleasures for me in the whole process has been spending time with them, hammering out the story, testing out ideas together.” It wouldn’t be wrong to argue that a film detailing the trials and tribulations of an avant-garde band, led by a recluse wearing a mask, draws comparison with a certain Frank Sidebottom. “I remember him on Top of the Pops but I wasn’t a big fan, no. He was just one of those novelty acts that came around from time to time. It’s only now that I see how original and creative he was. I should say that this film, while inspired by Frank Sidebottom, is a totally fictional story. The real Frank was a comic creation of Chris Sievey, while our Frank has morphed into an outside musician with some class of unspecified psychiatric dependence on the mask.” Surely the studios were sceptical at the thought of the film’s biggest star hiding his impressive facial features for the entire running time? “From a publicity point of view, it’s really intriguing for people. Within a day of us releasing the [first] still, it was everywhere.”

It is no secret that Michael Fassbender is sought after, his IMDB page reading like a Christmas shopping list. “It was exhilarating to work with him,” Abrahamson explained. “There is no pretension with Michael; all he cares about is the work and he will go to any lengths to make it good. He’s mercurial and he will challenge you up front if he doesn’t agree with how you are approaching a scene — but I welcome that and it almost always leads to better work. I think if I were just starting out, or was a nervous director then it could be tough. So he’s demanding, but not about his trailer or his car, only about the things that matter. And when he hits his groove and the scene is working properly around him, he is something to behold.”

Abrahamson doesn’t attempt to deny the fact that Frank is quite a leap, not just in terms of star power and budget, but also in scope and studio expectations from his previous works. “[On Richard] most of the actors were young, and just starting out, and the relationship with me was clear and lovely. They trusted me enough to hand themselves over fully and go with the way I wanted to work,” he noted. “We had a long period of work together before we shot, a year on and off, and so we knew each other extremely well when it came to working under the shooting schedule.” How does Frank compare? “My relationships with all the cast members were really healthy too, and that’s not always the case on films like this, but there is a big difference when you are working with people who already have big reputations and vast experience on a film set. I think you have to earn their respect and their allegiance. Shooting in two countries (Ireland and the US) was pretty challenging. Apart from eating up lots of money in travel and having to run two crews in parallel for big chunks of time, it meant I had to travel a lot in the lead up to the shoot, which made me more tired than usual.” Not surprisingly, the US leg proved to be the more challenging: “The units there are much bigger than on this side of the Atlantic. It’s wall-to-wall 40 ft. lorries and so many people that by the end of the shoot there were still scores of people whose names I didn’t know. It works differently, at the sharp end around camera there also, and takes some getting used to. All my experience to date has been in the European system so it was like learning to drive a car with the clutch and brake swapped over.”

When questioned on the state of the Irish film industry, and his newfound position as an elder statesman, Abrahamson remained characteristically humble and optimistic. “There are some very interesting directors up and coming: Ken Wardrup, Carmel Winters, Ivan Kavanagh, Brendan Muldowny, Juanita Wilson and several more, including some who have yet to make a feature but whose talent is already very clear.”  When informed that his name is often mentioned alongside Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan in film students’ conversations regarding the greatest Irish directors of all time, Abrahamson is somewhat taken back, “Both Jim and Neil have had a lot more international success than I have so I’ve a long way to go. I admire them both greatly; they made huge careers at a time when there was so little happening here and took incredible ability and drive.” With Frank, Abrahamson looks set to take his place alongside those he admires.