Where There’s Muck There’s Brad

The Pitt lad. Or is it GG…?

he lad did the Irish nation proud, of course, with his fine portrayal of bare knuckle Irish boxer Mickey O’Neil in the 2000 gangster comedy Snatch…

A character we’re first introduced to as he steps out from behind a caravan having just had a break and a quick crap, followed by a firm handshake.

And now the 62-year-old actor is in sunny Ireland to shoot his latest film, The Riders, up in the Wicklow Mountains. At Lough Tay, to be precise, also known as the Guinness lake.

Only the Irish weather has decided to stop play. As it so very often does.

Having shot some scenes in Dalkey last week, plans for filming in the wilds of Wicklow have been disrupted more than once by that fairly constant rain. And Storm Chandra, of course.

That 20mm of rain meant track mats had to be introduced, to try and keep the crew and their equipment mobile on the sodden Luggala ground. Only to have a bunch of those mats form a landslide out to the lake.

Mercifully, the weather is moving away from wet to chilly as the weekend approaches.

Teaming up with Swiss-Austrian director Edward Berger – who won critical acclaim for All Quiet On The Western Front (2022) and Conclave (2024) before last year’s Colin Farrell dud, Ballad Of A Small Player – Pitt will appear alongside the Emmy-winning Julianne Nicholson (Boardwalk Empire, Paradise) and relative newcomer Coco Greenstone (Windcatcher). But only when, of course, that crappy Irish weather decides it’s okay.

Lough Tay. Pic: Rafal Rozalsk

Based on Tim Winton’s Booker Prize-winning 1995 novel of the same name, The Riders is set in 1987 and follows an Australian man getting a new life in Ireland ready for his family, but when his 7-year-old daughter turns up at the airport alone, the two begin retracing their journeys across Europe to try and find her mother.

Pitt is said to be staying in Dalkey during the weeks of filming before moving on to Cork and Kerry for more shoots and then heading on to sunnier backdrops on the continent, including the Greek island of Hydra in late February to mid-March.

Brad has asked us personally for the women of Greystones – and some of the lads – to please refrain from screaming or dog whistling whenever the cameras are rolling.