Cork-born actor Dónal Finn has said that he sees his character in Amazon Prime epic The Wheel of Time as "a reluctant hero" who springs into action when the time is right.
27-year-old Finn, who is one of eight children from a farming family in the village of Dromina near Charleville, takes on the role of Mat Cauthon in the new season of the sweeping fantasy, which returns to our screens on 1 September.
Speaking via Zoom from the Old Town in Prague, where he is in the middle of filming the third season of the show, he tells RTÉ Entertainment that Mat may be a simple farm boy, but he comes into his own in the new season of he Wheel of Time.
"He could be described a reluctant hero or someone who doesn't really see himself having the quality of the skills to do that but yet when the time comes, and the pressure is on, he steps up and I think that’s another reason people connected to Mat on the show."
Based on the best-selling Robert Jordan fantasy series, the drama follows a humble farm boy, Rand al’Thor, who learns he is The Dragon Reborn - a dangerous figure from history destined to save the world . . . . or break it.
Finn is actually replacing fellow actor Barney Harris in the role and taking the place of someone who had played an established and well-liked character was challenging.
"I’m kind of grateful for my journey of being cast and stepping into the role," he says "Because it was a whirlwind of getting cast in a role I didn’t know much about due to confidentiality reasons and then getting the call to join the show all happened really fast and I’m grateful for that because it didn’t give me time to stop or sweat or think.
He adds, "I jumped in. I was in Morrocco at the time, filming a different project, and then I came straight to Prague to do a reading. Then there was a costume fitting and then they cut my hair and before I knew it, I was on the set."
Speaking about Cauthon, he says, "He is a character, if you’re in any way familiar with the books, who is innately loveable. He describes himself as a farm boy, which is something I know all too well, but he’s also someone who is a bit of a hellraiser who wants to grab life by the collar and enjoy it and milk it."
Finn recently completed a run of Sing Street on stage in Boston, playing Brendan, the character played by Jack Reynor in John Carney’s film version, and he says he hopes theatre will always be a part of his career.
And the stage was where he first caught the acting bug as a boy, travelling to Cork City most evenings to take part in drama groups and musical societies.
"I got the bug for it through doing local plays and musicals, but I didn’t really think you could start working as an actor without going to drama school first." he has said.
With the support of his parents and his drama teacher, he applied to several UK schools, and was given a place at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art, whose alumni include John Lithgow, Rita Wilson and Brian Cox.
In his final year, he won the Sir Alec Guinness Award and after graduating, Finn picked up several film and TV roles, including Film4’s How To Build A Girl, Netflix’s The Witcher and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore.
His recent roles have included playing Eoin McGonigal, a Dublin-born soldier who served with the Royal Ulster Rifles and was a founding member of the SAS, in Steven Knight’s BBC miniseries SAS: Rogue Heroes.
But it’s The Wheel of Time that will be keeping him busy for the next few months.
The show, which also stars Rosamund Pike, is what they call high fantasy and it really a sweeping epic, all world-building with a huge cast.
Finn says he was staggered by the sheer scale of the production as soon as he arrived on set.
"The minutiae of the detail is phenomenal. I’ve been with our showrunner, Raif, and he’s getting a text from the hair and make-up department asking how long this character’s fingernails have to be.
"Our designer here, Andres, a phenomenal man, has to harness the detail - if there is something wooden in the room, what is carved into it, what is the imagery, and how is that foreshadowing something that might come later for the character?
"We have amazing departments in all areas. There’s a stunts team here in Prague that trains me for hours and hours across months, which speaks again to the scale of things. There is a deep commitment for everyone."
He starred in SAS: Rogue Heroes but he wasn’t quite ready for the amount of action in The Wheel of Time.
"I wasn’t but the little child in me who would have watched Rush Hour with Jackie Chan or The Matrix, enjoyed it. it was an incredibly fulfilling experience for the kid in me to have this opportunity to learn these martial fighting skills."
Season two of The Wheel of Time is available on Amazon Prime Video from 1 September
