Breaking legs: the new Irish acting talent

It has been quite a week for Irish actors. Domhnall Gleeson secured a role in JJ Abrams's upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII, and on Broadway Chris O'Dowd and Sarah Greene received Tony Award nominations for their roles in Of Mice and Men and The Cripple of Inishmaan respectively.

What is it about Irish actors that sees them punch so much above their weight? For a small country, the number of household names Ireland has produced is impressive: Gabriel Byrne, Pierce Brosnan, Brenda Fricker, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea and Colin Farrell. And now a new generation is achieving similar successes.

It’s a combination of factors, according to people in the industry: a lot of television being filmed in Ireland in recent years has given local actors opportunities; there’s a new confidence among younger actors; there are new outlets for actors to find roles and for agents and casting directors to find actors; and successful Irish films are bringing talent to the fore.

Derick Mulvey started working as an agent in London in 1994, returning to Ireland in the last decade to head the Irish arm of the MacFarlane Chard agency. He represents Saoirse Ronan, Jack Reynor and more. "American agents and English agents are actively seeking Irish talent more than they used to do," Mulvey says. "Agents are open to the idea instantly. Most of my clients are co-repped, and us [Irish] and Australians are their big favourites. Because so many have done so well . . . now they're looking for more."

Is there something about the Irish disposition that is particularly in tune with screen acting? “If I knew that, I’d have more of them. I honestly can’t tell you,” Mulvey says. “It seems to be an innate ability within the new breed to just be great actors.”

What has improved the pool of young actors in Mulvey’s opinion is the emergence of the Factory, the screen-training centre located in Grand Canal Dock. Now, unfortunately, Nama wants to sell the building, and has served the creative tenants with notice. “What changed it for me was the Factory. Untrained kids with no money to go to drama school could turn up, play around and be directed by established directors, and then break through. [Prior to that] the talent didn’t know how to get found and we didn’t know how to find it. ”

Ros Hubbard is an Irish London-based casting director at Hubbard Casting. The agency has cast everything from The Hobbit trilogy to Father Ted. "There are, at last, a new bunch of Irish actors [coming through]," she says, pointing to improvments in the structures for training actors such as the Lir and the Factory as a factor, as well as the big productions coming to Dublin.

There is a sense that today's actors are slightly more low-key. Maria Doyle Kennedy has quietly become one of the country's finest television actors, with roles in Downton Abbey, Dexter, The Tudors and, lately, Orphan Black.

Andrew Scott shuns the limelight to mix his theatre work with his award-winning role as Moriarty in Sherlock.

Jack Gleeson might have been sneering brilliantly from the cover of Entertainment Weekly as King Joffrey in Game of Thrones, yet seems just as happy to experiment with the Collapsing Horse theatre company. In a recent interview, he said: "The lifestyle that comes with being an actor in a successful TV show isn't something I gravitate towards."

Jamie Dornan – who takes the lead in the upcoming adaptation of Fifty Shades of Grey – was out wheeling a buggy the morning after the Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs). For this generation of Irish actors, it's about craft and graft.

“I’d say it’s the opposite of being more low-key, because I’d say they’re getting quite starry younger,” says Hubbard. “They have that confidence”

She tries to put her finger on what continues to make Irish actors soar. “They’re particularly natural and they suit screen very well. They’re not overtrained, which is what we want. We really don’t want a lot of Shakespearean strutting. We want natural, we want believable. I love forgetting I’m watching an actor. ”

Producer Ed Guiney (The Guard, What Richard Did, Frank) established Element Pictures with Andrew Lowe. He points to the number of productions active in Ireland that offer actors something training can't buy: experience. "There's been such activity here in the industry over the last decade or more, whether it's Irish companies or incoming stuff, in both cases it'll look for Irish acting talent. Ripper Street – which we're involved in but it's controlled out of the UK – they'll cast Irish. Game of Thrones is an American show but they're casting Irish.

“There’s been disproportionate demand for Irish actors, so there’s no substitute for that ultimately; the experience of being in front of camera and actually acting rather than being in a theoretical environment in acting school. It’s a sharper environment in which to learn.”

Element's latest success, Frank, features Irish men in prominent roles, but that wasn't intentional. "I certainly feel Irish actors do seem to do unusually well," Guiney says. "When we were doing Frank, neither the parts Michael [Fassbender] or Domhnall [Gleeson] ended up playing were Irish parts. We were talking about making a film internationally and going out and working with the best in the world, and we ended up with two Irish actors playing two of the main parts. Honestly, there was no inherent bias on our part to cast Irish actors."

Guiney points out that successful Irish male actors seem to be more numerous than females. “I’m really glad to see Sarah [Greene] get a nomination because she’s absolutely amazing. But in terms of international profile, we don’t have many women. Maybe it’s because there are fewer parts for women to shine in.”

Indeed in 2013, out of the 37 Irish feature films released, just eight had leading female protagonists, compared with 24 male leads, and five that you could loosely identify with joint male and female leads.

But there’s also something more subtle that’s allowing people to go for it, says Hubbard, “One of the things that has changed is that people don’t smirk at you when you’re saying you’re going to be an actor, like they did when we were kids. There is a new level of respect in general in Ireland for acting.”