Matt Damon says lockdown in Ireland feels like a fairytale, that the country’s taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is a “badass” and that he worries about returning to the United States because of inadequate testing for coronavirus.

The actor has been staying with his family in Dalkey, a seaside village of south Dublin, since March after filming in Ireland for The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott, was shut down.

Local radio station Spin 1038 scooped Irish media by nabbing an interview that must have brought smiles to Ireland’s tourism agency.

“It feels like a fairytale. When I first came in, people were saying, ‘Well, Bono lives over there, Enya lives over there’,” said Damon. “It’s been incredible. This is one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever been. Obviously what’s going on in the world is horrible, but I’ve got my whole family; I’m with my kids and we have teachers with us because we were planning on missing school for about eight weeks.

“We’ve got what nobody else has, which is live human beings teaching our kids, so we feel guilty. We’ve got this set-up in this incredible place. It’s absolutely gorgeous. Even in the 2km lockdown, we’ve got trees, and woods and ocean. I can’t think of any place you’d rather be in a 2km radius of.”

Damon called Varadkar “a badass” for returning to medical work during the pandemic. He said he was a “little worried” about returning to the US. “We don’t have adequate testing, so there’s going to be another surge it looks like back home.”