Exclusive: Robert Sheehan: 'I was nearly an X-Man!'

Love/Hate heartthrob Robert Sheehan has exclusively revealed to Hot Press that he was originally cast as Banshee in X-Men: First Class. Sadly, scheduling conflicts with his E4 show Misfits scuppered his dreams of starring in Matthew Vaughan's 2011 blockbuster.

"It's true," he tells Roe McDermott. "I was cast in X-Men. I was going to be Banshee, originally an Irish superhero, and Jane Goldman wrote it for me. Wrote it for little ol' Rob! So yeah, that did sting a bit. There was a four or five week crossover with Misfits, and the studio came back and said, 'No, we need full and free availability', and all of a sudden I was un-cast."

Though the part eventually went to American actor Caleb Landry Jones, Sheehan can console himself with his involvement in the upcoming Mortal Instruments film, the first in a planned series of big screen adaptations of Cassandra Clare's hugely popular young adult novels. His star rising, Sheehan took time to ponder the nature of fame.

"It's something I've had to think long and hard about," he says. "I heard David Baddiel talk about fame recently, asking, 'Is it fame in itself that's noxious, or is it your relationship with the concept of fame?' And he used Bill Bailey as a perfect case in point, because he's been the exact same hilariously eccentric and peculiar guy from before he was famous to now... So it must be your relationship to fame, not fame itself. So you just adapt. And I don't find it intrusive. I haven't got anyone going through my bins.... yet!"

Read the full interview in which Robert discusses Love/Hate, mounts a defence of his Demons Never Die co-star Tulisa Contostavlos and how he clashed with Anita B. director Roberto Faenza in the new issue of Hot Press - Electric Picnic cover - in stores from Thursday.