Kathleen Kennedy Looks Back at Shooting in Ireland for ‘The Force Awakens’
Kathleen Kennedy was chosen to receive this year’s Maureen O’Hara Award at the Kerry Film Festival, in Ireland. Hence, she participated in an hour-long interview with producer Rebecca Flanagan, in which the two of them talked about Kennedy’s career, her meeting some of the most important filmmakers in the business, like George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, as well as her participation in now some of the most beloved movies of all time, including E.T., Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Jurassic Park.
The conversation, of course, also included bits from her involvement as head of Lucasfilm. The first movie she produced as president of the studio was The Force Awakens, which of course shot its final moments on the Irish Skellig island. From Independent.ie, she said:
“When we were doing ‘The Force Awakens’, we were housed in Dingle [a town in Count Kerry] and we shot out on Skellig which was truly one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. There were all the puffins that were running around the island. There was just a small group of us that were actually allowed to go out onto the island and I think back on that shoot a lot because we had fantastic weather and everyone in Dingle was telling us that it’s never like this. That was great, to be able to spend some time in that part of the country.”
She then added what an honor it is for her to receive this award:
“I’m very proud of my Irish heritage so hearing that you [Kerry Film Festival] were going to honour me was something that meant a great deal to me. Maureen just embodies one of the most important actresses of our century and so hearing that this was the Maureen O’Hara Award, that meant a lot to me.”
The interview is no longer available to watch on video form, so we have to stick with what was reported by other sites. This marks yet another award for a highly decorated filmmaker whose line of work will last for many decades, even if her Star Wars contributions are taken out of the equation. She has been nominated eight times as a producer for Best Picture, but never won. However, in 2019, the Academy gave her the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, which is periodically given to “creative producers, whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production” at the Governors Awards. She also received an honorary BAFTA for her body of work in 2020.
Congratulations to Kathleen Kennedy.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
