He says he is an idiot who got lucky. But neither luck nor idiocy is what persuaded Donal McCann and Pierce Brosnan to star in Eugene Brady's first film. Maybe they could see potential in his desire to spearhead a generation of film makers that wanted to bridge the gap between the old and new worlds.
Proof of that commitment can be found among his heroes, particularly Alan Parker, who came out of advertising to make big-budget movies. Also, unlike other Irish directors, he has not come to the cinema via literature or theatre. He worked out on television commercials for coffee, describing it as "refining his skills".
Now he stays in top hotels and is getting paid to do something he loves. So Brady - or Joe Schmoe from Bray, as he likes to call himself - must be doing something right.
Someone once said that the best popular art in any medium is made by people who believe in it. Certainly audiences can smell insincerity from the back row and can sense when somebody is in it for the money. It's not an accusation that could be leveled at Brady, who says he loves his work so much he would do it for free.
Brady's new film, The Nephew, has its world premiere in Dublin next month. Produced by Brosnan, it is a straightforward tale of a young man who returns from America to visit the Irish island where his mother was born. He is black, a fact which causes some consternation in such a traditional community.
McCann, playing his uncle, has particular problems, especially when romance blossoms between the young man and an island girl. Brosnan, in addition to his production role, appears as the local shopkeeper.
Brady stresses how much help all these people have given him. When Brosnan first contacted him, he said he had never produced before; fine, Brady told him, I've never directed before, let's lose our virginity together.
After that and during the months of pre-production, Brosnan called from the $18m set of Dante's Peak to ask if there was anything he could do to help. McCann, too. was generous with his time and experience, particularly with the younger actors. And Parker came to a private screening.
Brady is still ecstatic about Parker's interest. "He's a guy I look up to and respect. a guy who made time for me when he didn't have to.
"This is the man who made Midnight Express and The Wall, and he said to me: 'Eugene, you stand for everything I do.'
"He wrote letters of recommendation, opened doors. It was thanks to him that people like Pierce took me seriously. So after the screening I'm shaking, thinking this is Alan Parker, he's just made Evita and broken every rule in the book and it works.
"Then Alan said: 'Eugene, I'm more nervous of this movie than of my own.' The lights went down. He laughed, he cried, he laughed again. At the end he came up, in tears, and hugged me. He told me what a beautiful movie I'd made, hugged me again and wouldn't let me go.
"He went on and on: 'You've made a great film, you've made a mature film.' And now, if anyone slags me off, I think of him. I just remind myself that Alan Parker said that I'm kind of okay."
Maybe Parker sees something of himself in Brady: unashamedly populist, but never tacky, at odds with the arbiters of taste, but able to reach past them to the public-, emotional and uncomplicated, with no time for intellectual game-playing. cocky, street-smart and tough. Brady returns the compliment.
"I want his career," he says. "I want to make films like he makes. I aspire to making, a Commitments or a Birdy. I don't think you have to worry about being commercial, but you always have to be to have depth. I meet people who have read loads of books. I didn't read a book until I was twenty.
I'm a normal guy, but I had a massive chip on my shoulder about my intellect. I failed everything at school. But what I learned from Parker, McCann and Brosnan is that it's from the heart, it's from the soul. When you have that, you're tapping into something very special, you're making a connection with people.
"But I haven't got the right to talk about that yet--I'm still learning. Come back to me when I've made 10 movies.
Brady is determined as his mentors. He worked to go to art college in England, worked to do a film course in Los Angeles, picked up jobs as assistant director, took anything that was going while he tried to get the Nephew made.
He quotes another influence, William Friedkin, who made the French Connection. "he advised me to direct anything: porn, traffic, anything," he says.
"It shocked some people, but he was right. I'm still practising: an advert is a sprint and a movie is a marathon. You're got to keep in training.
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