The Man In My Basement: Welsh house used in new Willem Dafoe film

The house was scouted by a film crew because it looks so American

It looks more like something from the American Wild West than western Wales.

That's why this quaint wooden house in Carmarthenshire was recently used to recreate a piece of the USA on these shores.

The wood-built Grade II-listed property in the village of Llandybie became the setting for an upcoming movie starring Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe.

Not that a visit from Hollywood royalty was enough to faze the elderly couple who live there though.

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"We got a note through the door last year from someone saying they wanted to make a film in the area," said Marjorie Welsby, 82, who has lived at the unusual property with husband David - also 82 - since 2006.

"Our house was exactly what they were looking for and they asked if they could shoot there.

"No one had ever put anything like that to us before, so we were intrigued."

The former secretary added that the house, located on Ammanford Road, is one of two built in the late 1800s by a local man who'd returned after emigrating to Pennsylvania.

Inspired by the architecture he'd seen stateside he set about recreating that clapboard-style design back in his Welsh homeland.

Dafoe has been nominated for an Oscar several times

It was that very look which attracted the makers of The Man In My Basement, an upcoming film featuring Platoon star Dafoe and The Walking Dead's Corey Hawkins.

A thriller based on a Walter Mosley novel, it tells the story of someone who, threatened with losing their family home in New York's Long Island, accepts a lucrative offer from a mysterious stranger.

"We initially thought they just wanted shots of the house's exterior, but they ended up filming inside too," said Marjorie, who moved there from Cornwall with David in order to be closer to their grown-up children.

And to make room for the production the pair were packed off, all expenses paid, to a rented cottage in the nearby port town of Burry Port for a week.

"They stripped out our whole downstairs and put it in storage - all the fittings and furnishings - in order to turn it into an antiques and quilting shop for the shoot," Marjorie added.

"We managed to have a peek at what they'd done and it was a very strange feeling to walk into your own home and feel you've never been there before.

"But, by the time it was all over, everything had been put back in exactly the same place as where we'd left it."

Marjorie said she didn't really know who Dafoe was

During filming Dafoe made headlines by posing for photos with fans at a number of restaurants around south Wales, and even appearing at Wales' rugby clash against Scotland at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

But despite having played host to such a celebrated actor - after all, the 68-year-old has appeared as everyone from Vincent van Gough to Jesus during his long career - Marjorie said she wasn't star-struck.

"Neither David or I are big film fans - we've just always been too busy," she said.

"As a result we didn't really think to ask for a photo or an autograph, although everyone seemed very nice.

"But I do love the fact everyone knows our house now - it's become famous too.

"And we had enough left over from the money we were paid to get ourselves a new carpet, which is great."

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