Stephen Rea reveals how new Irish movie Black 47 reminded him of Michael Collins

The legendary Irish actor made a fantastic comparison between the two movies.

Stephen Rea is pretty much synonymous with Irish cinema.

While he has had a hugely impressive international CV - from Interview With A Vampire to V For Vendetta to recent TV hit Counterpart - his homegrown work is even more jaw-dropping.

It is difficult to think of a great Irish movie that Rea hasn't been a part of, including Breakfast On Pluto, Kisses, Ondine, and his own personal favourite, The Butcher Boy.

However, when we sat down with him and director Lance Daly about their new movie Black 47, Rea made a comparison between Michael Collins (recently voted Ireland's favourite Irish movie in a JOE.ie poll!) and his new project.

Daly jumps in when we told them that Michael Collins had won the poll, telling Rea: "Don't miss an opportunity there. You were just making parallels between Michael Collins and Black 47, just when we were outside! So I'd love for him to say it again!"

And Rea was only too happy to oblige: "This film came out of Lance's really honest dealing with the material."

"I had the same sense [that I had] when we did Michael Collins, it was a strong feeling of fantastic optimism in the country, that we were actually telling our own stories, and it wasn't Kevin Costner and a Hollywood crew doing it, which had been mooted at one point.

"And I feel this way with Black 47. It is our story, and we're telling it, it is our view of it. It's not some outsider saying 'Oh, let's adjust that, let's do this', y'know?"

Our full interview with Lance Daly and Stephen Daly will be up on the next episode of The Big Reviewski this week, so be sure to check that out.

Black 47 is in Irish cinemas right now, and you can check out the trailer below:

Clip via WildCard Distribution