money 'My Left Foot' and 'Home Alone 2' star Brenda Fricker says she's 'old and alone' and Christmas can be 'very dark'
Oscar-winning actor Brenda Fricker, the star of films like Home Alone 2 and My Left Foot, has said that Christmas can be 'very dark' for people who are old and live alone.
The 75-year-old, who lives in Dublin, made the comments in an interview with The Ray D'Arcy Show for RTE's Radio 1.
“I would be lying if I said that it would be a nice and happy Christmas because... I'm old and I live alone. It can be very dark,” she said.
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“I just turn the phone off and put the blinds down. I do pre-record some good programs and films, and I have my dog and I get myself through it that way.
She goes on to say: “I don't find Christmas all that difficult. What I do find very difficult is New Year's Eve. Well, all the bells are ringing and there's no one to turn around to, to hug or smile at. [Laughs] And I can't get away from the bells [where I live], there are churches everywhere.
“I don't want to be sounding kind of negative, but it is a different kind of Christmas, that's all. I put up Christmas lights, so come on, give me marks for that.”
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D'Arcy noted the irony that people would be watching movies like Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, in which Fricker played the reclusive pigeon lady who befriend's Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister, with family, while she is alone during the festive period.
“Well, the pigeon lady was very much on her own,” she said.
As for Culkin, Fricker added: “I worry about him, but I’m not in touch with him.”
Making her name as nurse Megan Roach in Casualty, Fricker won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first Irish woman to do so, for Jim Sheridan's 1989 comedy-drama My Left Foot.
She went on to star in movies like The Field, A Time To Kill, Cloudburst, Veronica Guerin and Albert Nobbs.
Her last movie credit was in 2013's Forgive Me.
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