Dear A24 fans who, let’s be honest, are the only ones reading this,

The awful thing about filmmaking is you spend years persevering for that brief period between pre-production and lock. However, the joy of that time sustains you for the next one.

So now that we are on the eve of the release of Eternity, I feel like it’s time to reflect with a list of things I most miss. This is in no particular order but the first one is insufferable so I should just get it out of the way.

1. I really miss travelling business class. Now that A24 are no longer footing the bill I’m back to economy and it sucks. If you are on a plane and hear someone wailing like they’ve been put in stocks, it’s probably me. How did I survive all those years with modest leg room and the unwarranted sense of superiority that comes with upper class? I know this isn’t a “big” problem but, well, this is a list of things I miss and I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss turning left on the plane.

2. My crew. On every film you meet like-minded people that you spark with. People that bring the best out of you and you in turn bring the best out of them. I was so lucky to have some of them with me from my last film but, on Eternity, I feel like I’ve completed my set; from my producers through to my composer. Their passion and talent has been incredible and getting to create my afterlife with them has been the greatest joy of my life. I appreciate that makes me sound like a creep who has a collection of humans but I mean it in a sweet way.

3. My cast. I miss working with this beautiful group of people. Obviously we are in the press window where I’m obliged to say that (even if Elizabeth Olsen likes to kick kittens and Miles Teller made me test his food for poison). It’s oft said and largely ignored that comedy is the hardest thing to do for an actor. Although, for me, the holy grail of an actor is one that can delicately balance comedy and drama. There is a reason Irish funerals can have so much laughter. Life is a comedy drama. It gets to the essence of what it is to be human. This cast could flip from hilarity to heartbreak within the same sentence. They took a film set in another world and explored what it is to be essentially alive. And, in turn, they have firmly burrowed into my heart. I need to ask Yorgos Lanthimos what form of blackmail he uses to keep his actors hostage so I can use the same tactic on my cast.

4. I miss the mountains surrounding Vancouver. They make Irish mountains look like mere speed bumps.

5. I miss spending my time thinking about love. This is a film about happiness and love and what that is to you. So for four years, with my wonderful co-writer, Pat Cunnane, my producers and then with my cast and crew, we just spoke about what love is to us. We spoke about our relationships, our parents and our grandparents. We spoke about our loves and our losses. It has made me both more grateful for my life and less scared of death.

I guess I could summarise all this by saying I miss making Eternity. It’s a film in which I got to say so much of what I wanted to about what it is to be alive. And I got to fulfil my childhood ambition of building my own afterlife. It’s a far cry from the Catholic one of my youth which told me exactly what to expect and that, for me as a little gay boy, was damnation. Yes, my junction has it’s flaws. It’s filled with bureaucracy and red tape but it is also a place where you get to choose your happiness, whatever that may be. Are you sick of people? Hermit World. Love Cabaret but wish the Nazis didn’t ruin everything? Weimar Germany with 100% fewer Nazis.

Earlier this year, I was quite unwell. In the words of Da’Vine’s Anna, “that is a story for another time.” But I feared I wouldn’t see our release. It was a weird feeling as if, after four years of living and breathing this film, I wasn’t going to see it through to the end. I recall Miles comforting me by saying, “The fun is in the making of it. And we had so much fun.”

I just hope you have fun in the watching of it. I promise it’s really very funny.

With love,

David Freyne