Johnny Ward shares message Barry Keoghan sent before DWTS final
The pair worked together on Love/Hate, which saw Keoghan launch into international stardom. But Johnny said the pair occasionally keep in touch, with the Dubliner revealing the sweet message the Banshees of Inisherin star sent him before the final of Dancing With The Stars in 2019.
He said: 'I thought that was so lovely. He hasn't forgotten who he is and his background."
They co-starred in the 2016 film Mammal, directed by Rebecca Daly.
Ward remembers filming with Keghan in Luxembourg for the 2016 movie Mammal and being keenly aware of the Dubliner's star potential.
"I remember looking at him and going, 'This guy' - it's like a disease, but in the best way possible, because there's no way someone can be, without any effort, just so talented. I was sitting going over lines, wondering, 'What emotion can I do here?' whereas he would just do it - he's absolutely phenomenal,' he told Sunday Independent's Life magazine.
The Dubliner also opens up dealing with grief since the death of his father John, who passed away from cancer in 2019.
After Ward completed RTÉ's Ultimate Hell Week in 2022, the first person he called was his dad, getting through to the answer phone before the realisation hit him.
Recently, he was in a shopping centre and Coldplay's Viva la Vida came on.
"I hear that and the music will give me shivers because, oh God, we were doing a routine, and I'll just think of my dad and what stage of death he was at.
"You get those little things, and it's normal," he added.
"But I know that if my dad was alive, he'd be saying, 'Look after your mother, and that's what I'm doing."
Ward splits his time between living and caring for his mum in Walkinstown, Dublin, and his home with his wife, Brenda, in Kilcullen, Co Kildare.
"It's kind of half and half, and then at the weekends we'll all come together," he said, adding that he sees it as a chance to try and repay all the support his mum gave him growing up.
"She's the reason I'm sitting here," he says emphatically. "Without her, I definitely would have given up acting a long time ago. I wouldn't have stuck to it."
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