"Is he a sleaze?" Barry Ward considers my question about cheating cop Jason Mohan, the man he plays in new RTÉ thriller Clean Sweep, and says, "That's really not for me to judge, that’s for the audience but some of his actions would suggest that.
"Some of his behaviour could be deemed sleazy, there’s no doubt about it. He is doing something that breaks many rules and regulations . . . "
We’ve been watching Detective Mohan, a man keen to prove himself by cracking a murder case on his beat and nail a promotion, for the past two weeks on Sunday night on RTÉ but something is not quite right. It’s fact it’s very, very wrong.
Thing is, he’s married to the killer, his wife Shelly (Charlene McKenna) - a haunted, hunted woman who is desperate to keep her dark past hidden.
They say actors always defend the character they’re playing, and 42-year-old Dublin actor Ward is no exception.
"Jason is a little lost in this sea of domesticity and he’s going thought something of a mid-life crisis," he says. "It feels like the workplace for him is quite staid and I guess this fling on the side ignites something in him that he seems to need until this murder case comes along.
"That gives him a new lease of life and new focus. Some of his sleazier behaviour is checked at that point."
Ward, who began his career as a child actor in the RTÉ/BBC series Family in 1994, impressed as exiled Irish socialist James Gralton in Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, and starred in the first series of IFTA and Bafta garlanded Bad Sisters, has plenty of form when it comes to playing a man in uniform.
"I’ve played detectives in the past and I’ve done a little bit of research then," he says. "I did an RTÉ show some years ago called Taken Down and I was a detective in that and there’s Kieran O'Reilly, an ex-guard acting now. He was in Love/Hate, lovely fella, lovely fella.
"I’ve kind of chatted to him a bit on these things but when it came to Clean Sweep, I started the very next day after another job, so I didn’t have much time to do research at all, but I did lean on past experiences of playing guards.
"I do love the research process but often I find that it’s procrastination cleverly disguised as research. I’ll end up reading a book and not learn my lines!"
So, what is the most important thing to get right when playing a law man?
"I think first and foremost it’s the character in the man you’re playing, and his job is just one facet of a multifaceted thing," Ward says,
"So, I think you an retain some kind of honesty and integrity in terms of the character and their objectives it doesn’t matter if they’re a baker or a teacher or a guard. It will all fall into place.
"I have been lucky when there have been guards present on set so I will take the opportunity to try to chat to them and hang out with them. And you hope by osmosis some of it will come to you."
Jason and Shelly aren’t exactly playing for the same team when we first meet them and as McKenna has said, getting the chemistry right of the Mohan family, which also includes teen son Derek (Rhys Mannion), daughter Caitlin (Katelyn Rose Downey), and Niall (Aidan McCann), was all important for the success of Clean Sweep.
Ward has worked with McKenna before and he’s full of praise for the Monaghan star. "She is amazing craic everywhere, on set and off," he says. "She has incredible energy, and she brings so much to set every day. In many ways she was dragging a lot of us along in our slipstream.
"She has a lot more experience than a lot of people involved in the shoot, and it was great to see her get that executive producer credit because it just gives the voice she has extra weight. I’ve known her for quite a while, and I’ve worked with her a couple of times and she’s one of the best in the country without a doubt."
Ward will shortly be seen in Sunlight, which he also executive produced, opposite Fair City's Liam Carney, and Our House's Maureen Beattie.
He plays former-addict Leon, who takes his terminally ill best friend Iver (Carney) out for one last day in Dublin, hoping to convince him to live.
The film is already winning great reviews but many Ward watchers will want to know if he will be back in the second series of Bad Sisters. "I hope so, but I don’t know," he says. "I think they’re writing at the moment, but I certainly hope so.
"It’s a great show and a brilliant team and well awarded and well deserved. Here’s hoping it goes again and I’m part of it. that would be wonderful."
Alan Corr @CorrAlan2
Clean Sweep continues this Sunday on RTÉ One at 9.30pm. Or watch all episodes now on the RTÉ Player.
