Mark Huberman: From a family that is so well dressed, I would be the scruffiest

Those who saw the Gate Theatre's much-lauded production of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, directed by Alexander Wright, will never forget Mark Huberman's outstanding performance as the ebullient, arrogant Tom Buchanan. It earned him rave reviews and a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2017 Irish Times Theatre awards.

With an impressive curriculum vitae and a long list of stage, TV and film credits, the Dublin actor – whose most recent work includes the role of Alistair Pendal opposite Victoria Smurfit in The Secret Market and George Gavan Duffy in TV3's Trial of the Century – shares his career as an actor with another as a waiter in Pichet, a popular Dublin restaurant in Trinity Street.

Actors are great storytellers, on or off stage, and Huberman, though reserved, is no exception. He describes how two weeks before the Gate opening, a man walked into the restaurant “the size of a buffalo with a girlfriend, a real little New York princess, and he was phenomenally polite, but made you immediately aware of his belief in himself so that you would never forget him; it was a sense of polished wealth”.

The experience helped him with the Buchanan character. “There are levels of performance that go down quite deep, testing hugely marriage bonds for instance ... and in a restaurant you are learning how to perceive and engage with people. It has made me better at dealing with people.” Being always thought of as shy, he says that he and his sister Amy were sent as kids to Betty Ann Norton theatre school to develop confidence.

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We’re here in the new Iveagh Garden Hotel where he is obligingly modelling Arnotts SS18 menswear, to talk about fashion and costume and how they relate to each other. An interesting aspect of his approach to acting is the use of watches. For Buchanan, Huberman bought a period one from an American dealer. “As often as I can I will wear a beautiful watch and there are not many watches from the 1920s, but Tom Buchanan who is from the east coast of the US and hugely believes in America, at the same time tips the hat to Europe. Wrist watch wearing became trendy then.”

For the role of Gavan Duffy, he bought a fob for his three piece suit. Today he is wearing a Swiss Army watch, a gift from his father Harold “who is obsessed with watches and now I have got watches for every performance. It becomes so personal – you can wear a shirt and lose it, but if you lose a watch ... ”

While men don’t wear much jewellery, “my dad and myself place such importance on watches as there are only so many things men can put on to personalise an outfit”, he says. Watches aside, another fascinating way into a character, he reveals, is the use aftershave or fragrance, neither of which he wears off stage. “A smell can be such a trigger – and the aftershave of Gatsby helped me to get into the character. It’s Acqua di Parma which is from 1906 – so wearing it signals that he has been to Paris. Music can help but smell is so evocative. The effect is instant.”

With a degree in science from Trinity, Huberman began a career in acting almost reluctantly. "I was scared to admit to myself that it was what I wanted to do." His first appearance was in 1999 in Borstal Boy, directed by Peter Sheridan. He cites the experience of working in Players in Trinity as seminal. "You could do any of the classics and at 19 playing in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, you felt like a professional actor."

Costume is about ownership and detail, he says. "The moment you look in the mirror and you see someone else, you make yourself believe that you are someone else." Sometimes costume may influence subliminally his personal style off stage. He recalls a period buying green jumpers and khaki trousers after his appearance in the US war drama Band of Brothers, noted by his mother Sandra.

“From a family that is so well dressed and a brother who would wear three piece suits to bed, I would definitely be the scruffiest,” he says with smiling glacial eyes, looking superfit and not the least bit scruffy in his jeans, quilted jacket and runners. “My dad is 80 and is still unbelievably stylish and my mum was a model so they connected through their mutual understanding of and respect for clothing.”

He says he’s not a high street shopper and quotes his father’s maxim that good style is better than good fashion. “I am not drawn to spending money on clothes, so I am almost lazy in terms of fashion. I would wear a lot of runners and Levis jeans – as long as they fit – with T-shirts.” He has suits he wears to weddings, but he shrugs off any further details.

Huberman faces a busy professional period ahead. He will appear in a US movie filmed in Dublin and based on Henry James's novella The Turn of the Screw which will go on release next year, a role in a TV comedy for RTÉ and another in the theatre. Meanwhile, he continues waiting in Pichet which he has been doing since it first opened.

“It is great to be part of anything that is done really well and Stephen (Gibson, owner of Pichet) won a Michelin star in L’Ecrivain before he opened Pichet. And my brother-in-law (Brian O Driscoll) both prove that it is possible to do things at another level entirely.

“The best people in the world are kind of obsessive. And show that you can do amazing work if you really care about it.” And it is obvious that is what also drives him.

• Photography Naomi Gaffey assisted by Cathal Dooley; styling Corina Gaffey, grooming David Reynolds at Zeba, Arnotts.
• All clothes from the Arnotts Menswear Department, Henry Street, Dublin www.arnotts.ie
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