‘Young Offenders’ actor delighted to be tipped by Bafta as star in the making
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have picked Cork’s Chris Walley in the Bafta Breakthrough Brit awards, marking him out as one of the most promising actors this year.
Selected by an industry jury including Gemma Arterton and George MacKay, he joins 18 other talents in the fields of television, film and theatre to benefit from Bafta support over the next crucial 12 months of their career.
“I’m so happy to be chosen,” the 23-year-old told the Irish Examiner. “It does so much for a young person’s career, as we see in the people who’ve won it in the past like Jessie Buckley — another Irish actor — Josh O’Connor, Florence Pugh and Tom Holland.
“You get full BAFTA membership excluding voting, support for international travel, and they offer you mentorship and set up meetings with anyone in the film industry. A past recipient joked that they wanted to meet Brad Pitt and it happened — they had a four-hour meeting with him.”
“I want to take advantage of opportunities like that. There’s a lot of directors I’d like to meet like Lenny Abrahamson, a great Irish director, Shane Meadows and Christopher Nolan. And now it could happen.”
The news comes days after he earned an Emerging Talent nomination in the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for his part in a production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore at the Noel Coward Theatre alongside Aidan Turner (Poldark) and Charlie Murphy (Peaky Blinders).
Alongside co-star Alex Murphy, Walley shot to fame as Jock Murphy in Peter Foott’s award-winning film The Young Offenders and its spin-off series.
Now based in London having completed training at Britain’s premier acting institution, Rada, and with his British profile growing, he’s choosing his next projects carefully.
“I was lucky enough to get a few opportunities off the back of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, but it’s about trying to make the right move,” he said.
“It’s scary to turn something down in favour of the unknown. You’re taking a risk every time and you might live to regret that.
“But you take that decision based on a gut feeling and once you made it, you just have to live with it.”
Chris will be reprising his Young Offenders character of Jock soon — though he’s tight-lipped about whether that will be for a second TV series, a second film, or another format.
“We filmed a bit — we did 10 days of filming,” he explained.
“For what, I’m not able to say just yet, but it will be announced soon. It’s for The Young Offenders definitely.”
Also chosen for the Bafta accolade is Fodhla Cronin-O’Reilly, a producer who worked on documentary film My Generation with Michael Caine. She grew up in Co Kerry before moving to London aged 18.
“It is a huge honour; what a beautiful present to get,” she said. “It’s really important to me to access a new community, meet new people and exchange ideas.”
Other Breakthrough Brits to be commemorated at a reception next Wednesday include comedian Luisa Omielan and Mr Selfridge star Ria Zmitrowicz.
