Factfile Occupation: actor Age: 41 Lives: Sandymount, Dublin Why in the news: is the star of a hard-hitting police drama, Making the Cut, beginning on RTE tomorrow night
There are many anecdotes concerning Sean McGinley, star of RTE's major new crime series, Making the Cut, that reveal more about what makes him tick than the modest, almost diffident, Irish actor ever will.
One goes back to the very beginning of his career. A group of dedicated individuals in Galway were converting a warehouse into a 120-seater premises for a fledgling Druid Theatre company.
Sean had stayed behind, clearing rubbish, hammering nails. When his co-workers encountered him the next morning he was fast asleep, covered by a pile of coats. It was not the first time that Sean McGinley had stayed overnight to push the dream of a proper home for Druid a little closer to reality. He used this peculiar brand of doggedness to achieve his current status, according to Druid founder, and close friend of the actor, Garry Hynes.
"He has a persistence, he always has, and that has paid off. It is not an accident, or a combination of good roles, that has made Sean McGinley the leading actor of his generation. He has put in the work with enviable results," she says.
The latest of these can be viewed tomorrow night in a twohour pilot of a hard-hitting police drama, Making the Cut. E. The crime series is the biggest commitment to drama that the station has embarked on. McGinley plays maverick detective Carl McCadden and joins a cast that includes Brendan Gleeson, Andrew Connolly, Gerard McSorley and Jim Norton.
Based loosely on a novel by Waterford writer Jim Lusby, it features drug barons, crime bosses, disturbing story-lines and lots of other activity not normally associated with the bland beast that is the RTE drama department.
Series producer Paul Cusack had long been a fan of the actor. "I've been watching him since he started in the Druid 20 years ago," he said recently. "You feel when you watch Sean working that there is a great power there, but you also know there is something you will never know."
This ability to be both compelling and unknowable has become a trademark of the 41-year-old Donegal-born actor. His first experience of drama was as a young schoolboy in Ballyshannon.
His mother had taught him in primary school. The classroom was her stage as she acted out vital moments in Irish history for the benefit of her pupils. If young McGinley wasn't bitten, he had at least been touched by the bug.
It wasn't until he was studying for an HDip in University College Galway that a career as an actor suggested itself. On a whim he auditioned and won a part in a Dramsoc production. Garry Hynes and Marie Mullen, actress and co-founder of Druid, talent-scouting for their new company, liked what they saw.
Along with Marie Mullen, now his wife and mother of their two daughters, he became a key member of the company. His first role was in a lunchtime show called, coincidentally, Sean, the Fool, the Devil and the Cats. Other roles followed. He stayed with Druid for almost 10 years. Among critics he is seen as an example of an actor who has gradually developed his craft, maturing as a person and performer over the years.
"When he began his career there really wasn't any indication that he would eventually emerge as the wonderful character actor that he is now," says a prominent theatre critic. Early productions saw him in quiet and gormless roles like Sean Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World. "Weedy types," as the actor has said.
McGinley's watershed is largely seen as occurring in what was his first non-Druid performance. Garry Hynes, who in 1986 had recently taken over the directorship of the Abbey Theatre, cast him in her production of Tom Murphy's Whistle in the Dark.
"Suddenly the actor was giving this violent, psychotic, incredibly forceful portrayal of a character. Those who had followed him were shown that Sean McGinley was capable of a whole other side. It is a mark of his intelligence both as a person and as an actor," says one critic.
McGinley subsequently secured roles in The Iceman Cometh and The Three Sisters at the Gate. A nine-month contract with the National Theatre in London saw him appearing in several productions, including A Long Day's Journey Into Night.
"It is sort of odd that he has played such baddies because you couldn't think of a nicer or more gentle kind of guy than Sean," says a friend.
In real life he may be a good guy, but Sean McGinley is now one of the first Irish actors casting directors reach for when seeking the archetypal nasty piece of work.
He was unforgettable as Charlo, the menacing patriarch, in Roddy Doyle's The Family. The attention he received after the TV series disturbed him somewhat, say friends. "He is essentially a very modest person," says one acquaintance. "You might almost say shy."
Other film and TV work has included parts in Minder, Hanging Gale and Braveheart. He is currently working on John Boorman's The General, which will be finished at the end of this month.
McGinley is happy with the way things are progressing. "I have been doing this for 20 years," he says. "It has never followed a pattern, and I have never wanted it to."
Film excites him. He has come through a sort of apprenticeship, he feels, gaining in experience and confidence, a process which, he says, ultimately leads to more control.
When not consumed by his latest role he likes listening to music, drinking Guinness and visiting friends. In social terms, however, he is viewed as more an observer than a participant.
With Making the Cut, McGinley is spearheading what could mean a crucial change in direction for RTE drama. The pilot tomorrow night and the following four instalments could open the doors for a flood of other innovative projects. But he is not nervous about tomorrow night:
"Until it is out there, until the critics and audience have reacted, it hasn't been born. But then you have to let it go. You move on," he says.