In Dublin for a screening of Stanley Kubrick's Ireland-shot Barry Lyndon at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, actor Ryan O'Neal has been telling TEN about what happened when the American director received word that he was on an IRA hit list.

Based on William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, the film tells the story of an 18th-century Irish rogue and adventurer (O'Neal) who enlists in the British Army and later marries into wealth.

Of filming scenes about the British Army in Ireland as the Troubles raged in 1973 and early 1974, O'Neal told TEN: "It never affected us truly until suddenly, after 10 months here, there was a phone call that came in - one of the hairdressers got it - a threat to Stanley to get out of Ireland. He was given 24 hours. He was gone in 12."

O'Neal said of the production's relocation to England: "And we followed him - carriages, horses, wardrobes, actors - we followed afterwards. We don't know if it was just a disgruntled extra or if it was the real thing, but he didn't mess around."

Of his own reaction, O'Neal said: "We were in Dublin Castle and I was getting made up and she [make-up artist] said 'You heard the phone call?' And I said, 'No, oh my God. Well, where's Stanley?' [She said] 'He's in your dressing room', which was one of the rooms in the next castle.

"So I went in and he said 'Get down!' because there was a window. I said, 'What, they're going to shoot me?! I'm not even English!' He said, 'Get down, get down!' So he took things very seriously, and that was the end of Ireland for us."

You can watch the full interview by clicking the link above.

Barry Lyndon screens at the Savoy Cinema on Saturday March 21 at 1:30pm as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, with O'Neal and Stanley Kubrick's producer Jan Harlan in attendance. For more, see: www.jdiff.com.