He could have gone into politics, but Chris O'Dowd found a better stage for his talent. The actor tells Frank McNally about becoming a hot property in British television
If he’d played his cards right, Chris O’Dowd might have had a career as a speechwriter for the Labour Party. He dabbled with it at University College Dublin, where he studied politics, and seemed to have some talent. But such a glamorous calling was not to be. His life took a wrong turn somewhere and he ended up an actor. From there he was on a slippery slope that would bring him to where he is now: aged 26 and one of the hottest properties in British television.
The main thing is, he’s not bitter. "I’m very interested in politics and the whole evangelising element of trying to get others interested in a cause. A friend at college used to write stuff for a number of Labour politicians, on student issues, whenever they outsourced that. I was just helping him. But, yeah, it’s something that really appealed to me." Then the auditions for the drama society happened, first as a laugh after a few too many at the college bar. He "wasn’t into it at all" initially, and, even after he realised that he was enjoying this new form of expression, he didn’t think of it as a career. The turning point was an audition at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he beat the long odds to get a place. It wasn’t a sign from God, exactly, "but it was doing better than all the other signs I was looking for".
Graham Linehan didn't want an Irish actor to play Roy in The IT Crowd, his Channel 4 sitcom, which is threatening to do for computer geeks what Father Ted did for priests. He was still resisting it long after O'Dowd's charms won the producers over. Finally, Linehan was persuaded, too, and the part is now played by a man who, were there a competition for looking and sounding as Irish as possible, would be a live medal prospect.
O’Dowd concedes that he sounds "very Irish", courtesy of an accent as broad as the River Shannon. Like him, the accent comes from Boyle, in Co Roscommon. Even in Dublin it sets him out. "I used to get slagged at UCD by the southsiders. The northsiders never had a problem with it." Having missed out on a career evangelising for the Labour Party, therefore, he at least has the consolation of being able to bring another marginalised and misunderstood voice to a wider audience.
Before Linehan bowed to the inevitable, O’Dowd tried playing Roy as English, with London and English-middle-class accents. He can do them all right, "but I think that if they wanted Roy to be British, they’d have got a British actor". The outcome is a small triumph for Connacht. "There’s not a lot of west of Ireland voices on British television," he agrees. He mentions Stephen Rea, who for a time avoided doing other accents because his own, Belfast accent deserved to be heard.
Despite the evidence of The IT Crowd, O'Dowd is, he insists, not a comedian. He played one in Festival, the film that won him a Scottish Bafta, and he did a little stand-up as research. This was mainly because Dara O'Briain told him it would be a good idea (adding, on a lighter note, that Irish comics would "kick the shit" out of him if he got it wrong). Contrary to rumour, the unpleasant character he plays in Festival is not based on any Irish comic, living or dead. "You can say Buster Keaton if you like." Not being a comedian, he expects The IT Crowd to be the last comic thing he does for quite a while. Comedy is less forgiving of imperfect scripts than drama is, he believes. But he also wants to challenge himself continually. He happily quit The Clinic, RTÉ's acclaimed drama, when his character had run his course. The next job will probably be in theatre.
Having said that, he's not finished with The IT Crowd yet, or so he hopes. It would be "an absolute disaster for everyone involved if there isn't a second series". And if and when it happens, he'll be "in like Flynn" to reprise the role of Roy. Of course, there's always the danger that his commitment to artistic freedom will be compromised by success, and the possibility that people will offer him vast sums of money to do things he wouldn't want to. He says with a laugh that this would indeed be terrible, then turns serious again. "I'm not in it for the money. If I was I'd be doing something else. But hey, look it, you don't know what's going to happen. The good thing is that the decisions are completely up to me." .
The IT Crowd is on Channel 4 on Friday at 9.30pm