Jason O’Mara has opened up on how he prepared for his historic role in The Siege of Jadotville, and what it was like working with Jamie Dornan.
The Siege of Jadotville is a film based on Declan Power’s book, The Siege at Jadotville: The Irish Army’s Forgotten Battle, about an Irish army unit’s role in the UN peacekeeping mission in the Congo in September 1961.
Goss.ie caught up with Jason at the 2017 IFTA Film and Drama Awards, where he won the award for Best Supporting Actor In A Film.
On working with Jamie Dornan Jason said, “Jamie’s great, you know. He realised as well quite early on, as I did, how important it was to get this right. To honour the memory of these men. Because many of them aren’t around anymore.”
He continued, “Besides anything else Jamie’s just a great guy, great to work with. We had a lot of laughs.”
The actor admitted that the film was “hard to shoot”, and that the battle scenes were “tiring and exhausting.”
He continued, “A lot of those bullet hits, they’re not real bullets obviously but they’re plastic, almost like paintballs but a little bit smaller and a little bit harder. A few of those would hit you in the day and you’d come home with cuts and bruises.”
“There wasn’t much acting required, it really felt intense and the emotions were going off. It was a very moving experience.”
