Young Offenders actor receives BAFTA honour

The Young Offenders star Chris Walley has been honoured as part of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' (BAFTA) 'Breakthrough Brits' celebrating the next generation of British-based talent. However the Corkman revealed to RTÉ Entertainment he is "definitely not the British contingent, but the Irish contingent".

"You're allowed to be considered if you've lived here, if your base is out of Britain," Walley explained. "So I'm lucky that I've lived here for the last three years, but obviously I'm very much Irish and a proud Corkman. So I've kind of managed to tiptoe around it that way."

Walley is one of 19 talented newcomers across film, games and television. Kerry producer Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly is also among those in this year's line-up. Previous recipients include Walley's fellow Irish actors Jessie Buckley and Martin McCann, The Black Panther's Letitia Wright and The Amazing Spider-Man star Tom Holland.

The rising star is considers it to be a "big honour" to be included, knowing the significance this program has on actors' careers. When asked about being a 'Breakthrough Brit', Walley said "We'll let them call it that if they want to, but then I'll be sure to inform everybody that I talk to that I am most definitely not British, but Irish."

Although the actor found another advantage of this great honour. Walley is looking forward to his year's BAFTA membership. "You get to go to all the BAFTA events, all the screenings, mentorship programmes. They can set up meetings with filmmakers that you're really interested in meeting - someone jokingly put Brad Pitt down on it one year and then ended up sitting down talking to him for four hours," he continued. Unfortunately for Walley, it is a non-voting membership. "So unfortunately I can't vote for myself," the Irish actor added.

Walley took to Twitter to show his appreciation, saying "So delighted to have been chosen for this program. Feel very fortunate. Thank you ! X".

So delighted to have been chosen for this program . Feel very fortunate . Thank you !
X#Bafta https://t.co/uKb9R6Zgak

— Chris Walley (@WalleyChriss) November 1, 2018