Hot Press meets Robert Sheehan

It’s a move his fans and co-stars have long seen coming. Though viewers of Love/Hate were devastated when his character was killed off in the finale of series three, Robert Sheehan says the show’s creator had actually prepared for the actor to leave the series earlier, so sure was everyone that the Laois native would be moving on to bigger and brighter things.

 “Stuart Carolan, having finished the second one, said, ‘Well, we’ve lost you now, haven’t we?’ And my representation and the people around me were all saying that two series was enough and we should leave it. But I wanted to see what they’d do with the third series, and Stuart’s enthusiasm is just infectious. He got me really excited about doing a third series. So it was a no-brainer, and I was delighted to be in it. But there was an understanding that three series would be it. I’m glad I got to go out on a high. It’s an amazing show.”
Sheehan admits he does miss the comfort of the ensemble cast. He keeps in touch with his old co-stars, even flying back to Dublin to see Tom Vaughan-Lawlor (aka Nidge) perform a one-man show of Howie The Rookie in the Project Arts Centre last month. But it’s obvious that it was the right time for the actor to leave – and to answer Hollywood’s siren call.
In fact, the transition to the big screen is even a little belated. Sheehan reveals exclusively to Hot Press that in 2010, he was cast in Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class alongside Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, and even had a character written specifically for him. Unfortunately he couldn’t take the part because of his shooting schedule for Misfits.
“It’s true. I was cast in X-Men. I was going to be Banshee, originally an Irish superhero, and Jane Goldman wrote it for me,” he recalls wistfully. “Wrote if 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.”
That’s got to hurt. But if the young actor was looking for a franchise, he’s found one, as even before its release, Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones has been green-lit for a sequel. Sheehan says that the prospect of starring in a couple of blockbuster movies was part of the project’s appeal.
“I did love the script, there was a great sense of adventure about it, so I chased it feverishly. But yeah, maybe there was a part of me thinking I wanted to do a big, exciting movie that could maybe be turned into a series of movies. That’d be immense.”
Based on the novels by Cassandra Clare, the Mortal Instruments stories have a huge tween following in the States, and all going well, the film could rocket Sheehan to fame there. Though he’s now an instantly recognisable face in both Ireland and the UK, he says he’s thought about how a Hollywood crossover and the attention it brings could affect his life.
“It’s something I’ve had to think long and hard about, my stance on fame. 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 where he’s ridiculously famous, certainly in the UK. 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!”
Since the start of his career, Sheehan has always had a grounded approach to fame, and the self-described “natural show-off” seems to in fact thrive on getting to meet new people. He also appears to enjoy the nomadic lifestyle that comes with filming. “I’m a gypsy,” he remarks. “I’ll never settle anywhere.”
Still, his sunny disposition doesn’t leave him blind to the pitfalls of fame. At the time of our interview, Sheehan’s Demons Never Die co-star Tulisa Contostavlos had been arrested after The Sun in the UK alleged that she’d arranged drug deals for her friends.  
“It was kind of despicable, I think. I haven’t sold drugs in my life, but I have done some shit,” he remarks candidly. “And to go to such elaborate lengths to expose some petty crimes that Tulisa did in her past is fucking despicable. Celebrity doesn’t give people a free licence to trick you and deceive you and destroy you, and that’s what they’re trying to do to that girl. So I say, ‘Fuck them!’ The media, certainly in the UK, love building people up just to knock them down.”
The Irish press, though, can be just as manipulative. Sheehan also talks about the recent scandal surrounding Bressie and his comments about drug legislation in Hot Press, which were taken completely out of context by Irish tabloid journalists – many of whom admitted to not even reading the original interview.
“That kind of awful, backward-thinking journalism is why people in the public eye are so reserved in the media, because they’re scared of that happening to them. And they should be wary. You should be able to feel free to express your opinions and views on life. Because what’s the point of publishing anything if you can’t be honest?”
Wise words. Though Sheehan still retains his infectious humour and playful nature, there’s a passionate maturity that shines through when he speaks about his vocation, and his upcoming projects demonstrate a desire to constantly challenge himself. In The Road Within, he will play a man with Tourette’s, followed by a surreal, arthouse Ari Gold project that will, amongst other things, see Sheehan running through ameadow eating tomatoes, naked.
Most strikingly perhaps, he’s set to star in Anita B., a drama based on Edith Bruck’s novel Quanta stella c’è nel cielo. Eline Powell plays the lead, a young woman who escapes a concentration camp to live with relatives in newly-formed Czechoslovakia. Sheehan plays the “nasty bastard” Eli,who forces Anita into a relationship before abusing her, becoming violent and forcing her to abort his child. Sheehan admits that after filming, he needed to take a break to exorcise the intense mindset of the character.
“You do have to commit to your character and understand them, no matter how nasty or cruel they are, and get on their side, even if it takes you to a dark place. You have to, because that’s really all you have, creatively. You have to look after your own guy because no-one else will – especially not in this film. So it takes a while afterwards to relax and deconstruct and wind down. But I love that, trying new and challenging material.”
Sheehan also experienced his first trying relationship with a director, Roberto Faenza. The Italian film-maker is known for his weighty political dramas rather than his people skills, as Robert discovered.
“Yeah, he’s not exactly an actor’s director! He’s quite an odd character, to be honest with you. He kicked me out of a scene once! We were always arguing – well, challenging each other, anyway – and we had some heated interactions. So I had one disagreement when I thought I knew what my character would do in one scene and he threw a tantrum and kicked me out. I mean, it was the end of the day and I was being unhelpful. He’s an intense guy. He just has very set ideas about things. Originally, he wanted the film to be called Welcome To Freedom, which is just so tacky and overt, but thankfully we convinced him to change it!”
Arguing with directors, offering creative input – it’s clear that Sheehan is getting more comfortable bringing more of himself to projects. He even found himself thinking like a veteran actor when it came to his co-star, relative newcomer Eline Powell.
“I had my doubts about her,” he admits. “I was wondering whether she could pull it off, because she’s relatively new and she’d been to drama school, which sets off alarm bells for me. Drama school can fuck people up. It rids them of their natural instincts. They just talk all day about acting, and then when they finally do something they’ve put so much weight and importance and gravitas on it that they close up. Constantly being told that what you’re doing is wrong, and to theorise it? It’s such an awful, vacuous, discouraging environment. She was marvellous, I needn’t have worried.”
He laughs. “And who am I to be patronising her and worrying about ‘young actors’ anyway? I sound so old!”