What is it like playing Roy Keane in the Saipan film? | OneFootball

Saipan, a new film, revisits Roy Keane’s clash with Mick McCarthy before the 2002 World Cup, with Eanna Hardwicke as Keane. It is on general release from January 23.

According to NY Times, McCarthy’s part was written for two-time Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, while Hardwicke auditioned for Keane and leaned on shared Cork roots.

Ireland paused in Saipan to acclimatise. Keane railed at the training pitch and late kit, and the dispute ended with him leaving, whether dismissed or by choice. Ireland reached the last 16, then lost to Spain on penalties.

Hardwicke took in documentary detail, then focused on Keane as a Cork man on a global stage. He kept the intensity high on set and played five-a-side to carry that feeling into scenes.

Writer Paul Fraser, long-time collaborator of Shane Meadows and co-writer of Dead Man’s Shoes, saw chaos, ego and national context. He casts Keane and McCarthy amid the Celtic Tiger and a third World Cup in four editions.

Fraser also revisited a 1992 flashpoint on McCarthy’s last tour of America over Keane’s drinking, with the younger hedonistic and the older far more professional.

Directors Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn approached both. Hardwicke and Fraser have not met Keane, but Coogan spoke to McCarthy and pushed to represent him, including a late-film call based on McCarthy’s account that Fraser understands was previously unheard. Team-mates expected Keane to return, with a plane ready.

Source: NY Times