Irish legend Brenda Fricker says she threw her Oscar in a swimming pool

Brenda Fricker speaks about her Oscar

Irish star Brenda Fricker has revealed that she once threw her Oscar into a swimming pool in front of a group of bemused Japanese tourists.

Fricker has had an acclaimed career and the highlight was arguably when she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in the 1989 movie My Left Foot.

However, although the Dublin born star is very proud of her award, she hasn’t always been ultra-careful with the statuette.

In a hilarious interview with chat king Ryan Tubridy, Fricker told the host how she threw her Oscar in a pool after having too much to drink.

The Veronica Guerin star said: “I threw that into the swimming pool in Renvyle Hotel in the west of Ireland in Connemara.

“It was wintertime and there was a group of Japanese tourists around. For some reason I changed my clothes that day.

“The hotel gave me a sort of Hawaiian-looking shirt with two big pockets in it. For some reason, I had a lot of cash on me and nowhere to put it, so I put it into the two pockets.

“We were all drunk around the pool and they wanted to see the Oscar and I threw the Oscar in the pool and then I thought, ‘Oh Jesus, I better get it back!’

The tourists may have been quite surprised at what they had seen but they were quick to lend a hand to the star.

Fricker continued: “And I jumped in and all the money [fell out] and all the Japanese tourists jumped in to get the money.

“It was heroic of them, it was amazing. So, it has many stories to tell!”

Take a look at the video below.

Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcallingJoin our community