Actor Brían F. O'Byrne chats to Linda McGee about his new television series 'FlashForward', coming home to Cavan for Christmas and burning turf!
Linda McGee: We haven't seen any of 'FlashForward' over this part of the world yet so for viewers who are planning to tune in next January, how would you describe the show? What can people expect?
BFOB: Gosh, you know what, it's got elements of so many different types of shows. It's not a sci-fi show, yet the premise of it is a sci-fi type premise. The world blacks out for 2 minutes 17 seconds and we see six months into the future. We're not in a blackout but we see a glimpse of our future, six months from now. So it has elements of that. It has elements of a procedural show I guess because there's a big FBI investigation and the main characters are based in an FBI office in Los Angeles. His (lead character Mark) wife works as a doctor so there's a medical aspect to it because she's in the hospital. And then you've got kind of ancillary feed-off characters, like me. Joe (Fiennes) is kind of the main guy. I'm his sponsor in AA so I'm his buddy that he confides in and I have my own story got to do with my daughter, who is in the military. Then you've got a bunch of scientists who come in and are doing crazy stuff as well. And yes, even though it's dealing with this big event, it very much, for certainly the first nine or ten episodes, focuses on the personal relationships, so it's a drama in that way as well.
LM: What about your character – from what I've seen so far he seems to have a lot of demons and comes across as a bit tortured, would that be fair to say?
BFOB: Yeah. He is. And as the episodes go along more of that is revealed. We just finished shooting episode 14 and that focuses very heavily on my character and you see a glimpse of his past and some of the reasons why perhaps he has those demons... It's a bit of a wait though, 14 episodes is long way away!
LM: So you've been shooting right up until your Christmas break now, have you?
BFOB: Yeah, until I guess Thursday (it's now Tuesday). I was shooting on Thursday. So I just jumped on a plane and came back here to Ireland.
LM: So are you planning on spending your Christmas break at home in Cavan?
BFOB: I am, yeah. I'm back here in Cavan and hopefully Donegal for the New Year.
LM: Are you one of those people who loves getting an opportunity to come home, even if it's just for a few days?
BFOB: Well, you know Christmas is Christmas. I mean if you can get home for Christmas that's great. Certainly, nothing would stop me coming home for Christmas, if I can. But I've worked a lot in theatre and in theatre in New York we work Christmas Day a lot of the time as well. And so that precluded me from coming home a lot of Christmases, because I would be doing a show. When I get the chance to come home now at Christmas I leap to it.
LM: What do you miss most about Ireland when you're Stateside? Is there any one thing that you think 'Aw I wish they had that over here'?
BFOB: Well, you know what... someone recently asked me that question: "What do I miss?" or "What do I like best?", which is almost the same question. For this time of year, because this time of year is very different, and I said: "You know what I'm doing right now, I'm sitting in front of a turf fire." You can't beat it, can you? In fact I used to buy... they used to sell, at the duty-free going back, they used to sell, which is a great idea, they sold these little horrendous-looking marketing things really – but they sold these little thatched cottage cardboard boxes, but inside were little things of turf and you could burn them like incense. So I have packs of this over there, well I lived in New York, you know, until I had to move to LA to do the series – so it was in New York and any time I was missing home I'd say "You know what I need to do, I'll just burn a bit of turf over here in the corner! That immediately just bring me home... I'm a bog man, what can you do?!
LM: Are you working on other projects in the New Year or are you straight back into shooting for 'FlashForward' when you go back?
BFOB: Yeah, we go back. We're just finished episodes 13 and 14. We shoot two episodes at one time so we go back and we shoot episodes 15 and 16, out of 24. I think we've got 24 episodes to shoot so that will take me up until the middle of March I think or April. And then I'm not sure what I'm doing. That will be dependent on whether the show is picked up again for another season.
LM: There's an amazing cast on this show. How was it working on it?
BFOB: Yeah, they couldn't be nicer. It's kind of boring. I wish I could give you a scoop or something. There's nothing except a bunch of really nice people. Everyone realises that, certainly in the economic current climate... everyone's very thankful to have a job and to have a job that's well-paid and we all know that because a lot of us come from theatre backgrounds and stuff and a lot of us don't live in LA all the time. We're over there and the weather is beautiful.
LM: So you're counting your blessings?
BFOB: Absolutely! I mean, are you kidding me? Yeah, absolutely. No complaints, it's just great. Lovely bunch, lovely bunch of people. And actually that goes with the whole lot, the producers have been fantastic. You know I couldn't, even if I wanted to bitch about something, I just couldn't. There's a really nice bunch. ABC have been great. And you know, it's a really nice job, and that has nothing got to do with the finished product. You could be in a horrendous job and have a fantastic finished product or a wonderful job and have a dreadful finished product – all I'm saying is we've got a beautiful working environment.
LM: And that's got to make going to work a little bit easier…
BFOB: Well, I'm fortunate. I do what I love to do so going to work is not a chore.
LM: Audiences would know you from a range of productions across theatre, television and film but what is your own preference? How does working on a big-budget TV show compare to that thrill of getting instant gratification from a live theatre audience? 
BFOB: You know, I often hear actors say "Hey, you know, it's kind of the same and it doesn't matter what you're doing" but they're not really for me. I mean, as you get older you take different things from each medium. The theatre is still the actor's medium. You get a chance to really work with the writers, you get a chance to have a huge input into it and you get a chance to go out there and you are the director and the editor, on the night of your own performance. So, therefore, there's an immediate sense of whether things are working or not working. So there's an immediacy to theatre. But I've been fortunate enough and I've done a lot of long-running plays on Broadway and I've done a lot of year-long runs and worked in several places for several years. When you're doing eight shows a week, six days a week for years, you know, you don't have a weekend off or anything, it's kind of like… I joke to my friends here down in Cavan, it's kind of like milking cows almost. You know what I mean? You just can't get away from them! You're living a fantastic life on one level, particularly if you're in a hit in New York City, it's the greatest place in the world to have a hit show, and you're living an unbelievable life and then in another bizarre way life is totally slipping by because you're in a kind of a Groundhog Day. It's kind of the same all the time. So you're being fulfilled in one aspect of your life. Film is wonderful, in that you can go to different locations. And you have time on film sets that you don't have on TV. TV you walk in and you go 'Today we have to shoot x amount of pages' and you get one or two takes for something and you move on and you're dealing with new directors coming in, particularly when it's a new show. Everyone's trying to find their way. The actors are trying to find who everyone is, the directors are trying to find their way and also continue to get called back, so they have to produce for their production company. And you're very much aware of working very hard and all that and that you have to churn out product and you know, there's a stopwatch, as soon as you get on set, it just runs the entire day. That can be frustrating or, in an odd way, it can be very liberating, because you know it's gone. You know you're only going to get a couple of takes and that's it and so, therefore, in some ways, you can be bolder. I don't know if bolder is the correct word but certainly it relieves you of a pressure. You only have x amount of chances. Film is really interesting. I mean, I'm starting to enjoy the film process. I don't know. It's all totally different. I love them all for very different reasons. I mean, I worked for so long in theatre. The last two years have been film and TV. I still have, despite my advanced years, a kind of naivety towards film and TV, in that I enjoy them still. I mean, I'm not new to it but, because I'm a theatre actor, it's still fun.
LM: You talk a lot about beginning your acting training in Trinity, and how it lead to so many opportunities for you. Do you still look back on this time fondly?
BFOB: Well, it is where it all began. I didn't want to become an actor, or anything like that. I kind of stumbled into it. I literally stumbled into the course. I was totally lost as a 20 year old when I went in. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. It was 22 years ago, in 1987, and Ireland is now rapidly returning to where we were then. It was a very different place. It was just like 'Where is everybody going to emigrate to?' those years, and I didn't know what I wanted to do. Nothing at school had peeked an interest because I went to a Christian Brothers school with zero arts. There was no arts. I didn't go to museums. I'd been to two plays in my life. I'd seen two films. There was no cinema around here. So I never experienced any creative process. I mean, I did lots of local little stuff here. It's a very strong little community here, little community dramas and stuff like that. But I never experienced anything like that. So when I stumbled upon it, and when I experienced it, it was just wonderful, you know, the passion that you have in your early twenties for something. You are able to just absolutely shut out the world and self-obsess with a bunch of mates, who you think you're going to be friends with forever. And it's wonderful… and it was a horrendous time as well. It was kind of experimental… I finished the course and had a good look at myself and said "I'm not good enough" and I went "I'm not going to act". I went " How come someone from Cavan even think of doing this?".
LM: Did you really feel like that?
BFOB: Oh, I still do to a certain extent… I've been asked to do something really, really sweet. There's tiny little town hall here and they've done it up and next week, on Sunday I think, they've asked me to cut the ribbon to open it and honestly it's one of the biggest things that could ever have been given to me, as an honour... I met a girl in the shop yesterday, just in the shop across the street, and she said...
"How are you doing?"
and I said "I'm grand"...
"You're home for long?"
"I'm home for a while."
"And you're busy?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm kept going."
And then she said... "Well, sure you weren't for long enough!"
Now I've been working non-stop in theatre. I don't know anybody who's worked more in theatre than me. I've had year-long runs on Broadway and stuff. I've worked forever. It's the fact that I now have a show on the TV but I've never worked less than right now! You want to go "No, you've no idea. I work very hard". Last year someone said to me "And is that all you do?"... (Laughs) I'm not 22, I'm 42! So I have to keep explaining myself. But that's just it. There's no reference here.
LM: It's all part of coming home, isn't it?
BFOB: It certainly is!
'FlashForward' begins on RTÉ Two on 4 January at 9.00pm.
