Irish actor and filmmaker John Connors, the co-writer and star of 2017's box-office hit Cardboard Gangsters, has revealed that he has shed three stone as he prepares for his latest role in a boxing biopic.
Connors, who came to fame playing Patrick in the acclaimed RTÉ crime drama Love/Hate, is set to star as Irish boxer Joe Egan in the biopic The Toughest White Man on the Planet which films this summer.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Connors, who was an Irish champion boxer in his teens, said it feels like "serendipity" taking on the role.
"When I got into acting I always said I want to play a boxer because all these actors play boxers and they’re terrible because they’re training for a few months, it’s just not going to work", he explained. "So I can accurately play a boxer because I was an Irish champion, I could have gone pro, so I want to do it for that reason.
"But also, this boxer that I’m playing, I’m a dead ringer for him. The same height as him, the same size hands, same size feet. He was an Irish champion, I was an Irish champion boxer underage. So I think I’m sort of born to play him. He grew up just five miles away from where I grew up, so I think it’s a bit of serendipity."
The 29-year-old actor revealed that his preparations for the role, which include just one carnivorous meal a day and boxing training, have caused him to lose weight.
"I’ve lost three stone since January first, I’m on a diet and I’m training a bit. So I’m looking forward to getting back in front of the camera and giving it everything", he said.
Connors is currently touring his one-man play Ireland's Call, which he is taking to New York city in early March before touring in selected venues around Ireland. He will embark on a second leg of the tour at the end of the year.
He won acclaim for the play, which is directed by Jimmy Smallhorne, when it debuted at Dublin's Fringe Festival last year.
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He said the play, which he has written and stars in, is about "people on the margins, people from the lower classes and what they experience every day in Ireland."
"It’s told through the voice of James who is sort of a reject because he grew up with the stigma of his mother and father being heroin addicts, they both died when he was young", Connors stated. "Then he has a friend named English because he was born in England and came back when he was two years old and he has an identity issue.
"Then he has another friend named Patrick who was named after the patron saint of Ireland and Nigeria and he’s insecure too because his father was Nigerian. So it’s three rejects and they get into a life of crime and you see how they fall into that life. We explore themes of class and abuse and identity.
"In Ireland we don’t like talking about a lot of stuff, and I’m talking about a lot of the stuff that we don’t like to talk about."
He continued: "It’s done in a very personalised way instead of a preaching way. I’m trying to just tell a story at the end of it all, because besides the politics I love storytelling and it’s fun and I want to give a good story to a audience.
"That’s been the challenge, intertwining the political edge but making it just a good night out."
Connors says that he feels ostracised from the film industry despite co-writing and starring in the critical and box-office hit Cardboard Gangsters.
He said: "It is frustrating. Not to sound braggadocious, but any time I’m given the chance I bring the goods. A lot of it is being a traveller in this industry does not help.
"It’s an elitist industry, people who come from the same schools and backgrounds and what have you. So I think it’s a conscious bias from the funding level and from casting directors and then there’s an unconscious bias as well.
"I want to act more as well and I’m not getting opportunities to act. I love acting, acting’s what brought me into all of this. There’s so many roles I want to play and there’s so much I’ve learnt as an actor, to better myself as an actor and to better myself as a person as well, that I can bring into the next role if I’m just given the opportunity."
Connors concluded: "I’m just trying to keep focused and disciplined and structured. That’s the big thing, structure. I’ve learned from the past few years that structure is so important.
"Discipline is so important; routine, focus, determination, all these things. So I’m trying to just stay on the straight and narrow, you know."
Connors is currently touring Ireland's Call.
