Love/Hate star John Connors has revealed he got the role by accident – and because the casting crew thought he looked like a hard man.
The IFTA-winning actor and writer admits he never auditioned to play pipe bomber Patrick Ward on the hit RTE crime drama.
He makes the revelation on tomorrow night’s episode of Living with Lucy which sees presenter Lucy Kennedy move in with John at his family’s campsite.
He said: “I remember I was rehearsing for my first film, King of the Travellers. I was up in Darndale Boxing Club and a casting director came up looking for tough-looking guys.
“I said I’d do it just to meet the Love Hate director. When I got there he said ‘there’s a couple of lines here, who wants it?’ and I said ‘me’ straight away.
“There was a bit of a connection there because he lived in London and I had lived I London so I ended up doing it.”
Lucy goes swimming with John near his home in Darndale, north Dublin – but ends up knocking in to his aunt for a shower because he forgets to turn on the hot water in his chalet.
His granny Chrissie brings her to the grave of John’s father who took his own life when he was just 30 and John, the oldest of five kids, was “age four or five”.
Recalling his IFTA acceptance speech in which he dedicated his award for Cardboard Gangsters to his late father, John said: “I didn’t plan it, the only thing I knew was I was going to dedicate it to my father.
“I think creativity can save lives, I really do. I think a lot of people are missing it from their lives, doing something creative.”
John also told how the show which made him a household name – Love/Hate – also threw him into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
He said: “One day I was unheard of, next day I was like a f***ing Beatle.
“So while journalists were asking Tom Vaughan Lawlor and Peter Coonan what’s your dream role, I was asked to account for rural crime and this Traveller stereotype and that Traveller stereotype.”
Living with Lucy is on Virgin Media One tomorrow at 9pm.
