Michael Fassbender "understood the assignment" when playing an exiled IRA member in Kneecap's highly-anticipated self-titled biopic which has blown critics away on both sides of the pond.
Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí could be heading to the Oscars alongside co-star Fassbender with the "blistering" Irish language feature selected to represent Ireland in the International Feature Film Category .
The Inglorious Bastards actor, who is a native Irish speaker and grew up in the north of Ireland to an Irish mother and a German father, is used to the accolades. The 47-year-old has already been nominated for two Academy Awards.
Despite his mega stardom, Fassbender didn't try to steal the limelight from the hip hop trio whose story of growing up in West Belfast and trumping police, politicians, and paramilitaries to make music in Irish , is a huge success.
"He understood the assignment," Mo Chara, real name Liam Óg, told IrishStar.com . "He understood that this is a film about the three of us. He knew it wasn't about him and so he didn't try to come in and take our shine away .
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"People like him are professionals and that's the sign of a good actor - how they make other people look on screen. He could've very easily made it all about him and then other people in the screen suffer but if you're a generous actor, you help others shine. If someone's doing well on screen, everyone does. He always teed things up for us."
In the film, Kneecap become the unlikely figureheads of a Civil Rights movement to save their mother tongue. Schoolteacher JJ meets "low life scum" Naoise and Liam Óg and together, they create a hip hop act like no other .
The flick lays down a rallying cry for the defense of native cultures , fiercely upheld by Fassbender's character in the movie. Fassbender plays Arló Ó Cairealláin, the semi-absent father of Bap on the run from the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the controversial former state police force that patrolled Belfast throughout the Troubles until 2001.
Móglaí Bap, real name Naoise, went on: "It was all very symbiotic. He [Fassbender] didn't take a backseat. If he had an idea for a scene, he'd always chip in and actively give his view .
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"He was very invested in the story. He wanted to get the best version of it out there . It would've been awkward if he had a really s*** north accent but he didn't. He played Bobby Sands before so he's had practice."
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Kneecap hit US theaters on August 2 and Irish cinemas on August 8. Kneecap’s debut studio album , ‘Fine Art’, is out now.
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