US author reflects on her journey from Hollywood to Holywood: I started to cry when my husband told me we were moving to Northern Ireland

Writing for the Hollywood Reporter, Adena Halpern explained how she moved to Holywood while her husband Jonathan Goldstein worked on the new Dungeons & Dragons movie which he wrote and co-directed.

She said: “When my husband told me we’d be moving to Belfast for seven months I started to cry. I had been promised London. I knew nothing about Belfast and sobbed, ‘Do they even have dog groomers there?’

“Turns out, with its wooded trails, hidden creeks and sea front views, Belfast is a best-kept secret. And now that I’m back in Los Angeles, I miss it a lot.

Adena said that her 10-year-old son and dog came on the trip too: “My family rented a house just outside of the city in a town called, improbably, Holywood. I wanted to make sure I was in a walkable area, because the thought of driving on the left was daunting. Every day I walked down to the high street where there was a pharmacy, restaurants, two butcher shops, two small markets, pubs, a manicurist and an ice cream shop.

“It was simple enough to get there via the street, but early on in our stay, I discovered a beautiful forest path that was nearly hidden by the trees that shrouded it. It was a quiet, green trail. Extremely safe and very un-LA. It was like something out of a Jane Austen novel where Elinor Dashwood and Mr Ferrars would sneak off to hold hands.

“You could also take Seapark, which is a winding, walking path that goes for 16 miles along the Belfast Lough. It’s extremely calming and a place to reflect or wind down after a day on the set.

“It rains about 37 inches every year in Belfast. By way of comparison, in 2020, Los Angeles got 5 inches. It was also cold and constantly overcast (when the sun comes out, Belfastians call it “a hole in the clouds”). Coming from a place where it never rains, I didn’t mind the weather and no one I was with complained either.”

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She added: “If you know anything about Belfast, you know about the Troubles. While the immediate danger is blessedly many years gone, there are places where you still get a sense of what it must have been like during that time, like west Belfast, where giant walls still divide the Catholic neighborhoods from the Protestant.” She concluded: “So should you find your production heading to Northern Ireland, don’t cry. Yes, it will be a dramatic change from life in LA or New York, but you may come out the other side missing the place and its many charms.”