Robert Sheehan: Boy in the hoody
He retired Nathan’s orange jumpsuit after two series of Misfits and Darren’s blue hoody after three of Love/Hate. He’s restless, he says, and doesn’t want to be typecast. After Misfits he got a lot of scripts for quirky, Nathanesque characters. “There are actors who do various different shades of a similar character, which is fine. But I prefer the Cillian Murphy school of doing something that takes you so far outside yourself that it’s an incredible challenge and adventure.”
He recently finished filming The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, an adaption of the first of a series of bestselling fantasy novels by Cassandra Clare. “On the first day I was doing a scene with Lily Collins [Phil Collins’s daughter]. The whole street was cordoned off, and they had hundreds of extras and hundreds of crew. It was just a gigantic operation, moving incredibly fast. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was huge, logistically, and incredibly impressive. It was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.”
This year he’s due to star in a film about Tourette’s syndrome called The Road Within and in David Blair’s supernatural film The Messenger (he worked with Blair on an acclaimed episode of Accused). “It’s about a guy who can speak to the dead. It’s not horror, like The Sixth Sense. It’s more a guy that’s pissed off because he has these dead people badgering him.”
Tonight he will be in Dublin for the Iftas, at which he has been nominated in the best-actor category for Love/Hate. “It’s nice. It’s a reunion of the Love/Hate gang, which will be lovely. And it’s also acting as a family reunion, because I’ve got about 10 of my family into the aftershow bash. There’ll be serious Sheehans around the place. You won’t be able to move for Sheehans.” And the blue hoody? “The manky blue hoody I wore for the whole series? Funnily enough, my local theatre wants to get it and frame it and put it on the wall. I’ll get it for them.”
He laughs, then yawns, then laughs again.
