Actor Paul Ronan said that while it was "very sad" filming his final Fair City scenes, there was also "great excitement" on set - especially around last night's dramatic fight scene.
The Irish star, who played the conflicted Anto Collins in Carrigstown, was killed off in Friday's episode of the popular RTÉ One soap.
Speaking about his departure, 60-year-old Ronan said it wasn't his decision to leave the show, but he admitted he was "happy enough to trust the writers" to send him off with a bang.
A previous storyline saw his character Anto set fire to the Rafferty development in a bid to solve daughter Hayley's (played by Rebecca Grimes) money problems.
"I thought when I burned down the factory - and I believe I was on the run in Portugal somewhere, and then I went over to the boys in England - there was such a long period of time, and I understood because Rebecca was on maternity leave," Ronan explained.
"But then they came to me and asked me if I'd do a six-week stint with the big goodbye at the end of it. I wasn't told with the fire that was it, but I had a feeling it was. When they called me and asked me, I didn't really ask about the plotline."
Ronan, who is the father of Hollywood star Saoirse Ronan, said he likes to be "surprised within the job" and said Mondo, played by George McMahon, did just that when he threw the shocking punch.
"I was happy enough to trust the writers to do a good job and send me off. I thought my character was going to kill himself - I was kind of guessing myself - but little did I know good old Mondo was going to put my lights out forever," he said.
The Dublin man, who lives in Carlow, said that while he enjoyed filming his final scenes, it was also "very sad". He added that he felt deeply grateful to work with a director who showed such great sensitivity.
"It was fun running into it and very sad too," he said. "I was glad that Eleanor [Cunney] was the director - really, for all different reasons out of all the directors. But she's got it all, really. She has the sensitivity, the way she looks after the actors, and really cares for them. She was the right one to do it."
He continued: "It was emotional for the six weeks running up to it, and then for the last week, every day felt like the clock was ticking down to the end of a job. It's the natural state of an actor to be changing jobs all the time. But because I've been in this job longer than I've done any job - any kind of job ever - we are very close to each other. When you work so intensely with people on a job, it's got to work."
Ronan complimented his co-star McMahon for throwing an especially impressive on-screen punch and giving viewers ample entertainment on Halloween night.
"I think it's great how it's done - and Mondo of all people to throw a punch, and it be accidental! But the way we staged and choreographed the fight and the actual punch, it really came down to me losing it with him and pushing things too far. He doesn't have a killer punch. He just hit me, it went wrong, and I hit my head on the tiled part of the bar, which led to the death," he said.
Ronan said everything rested on getting the punch scene right and praised the stunt coordinator for trusting him.
"We filmed that on the Tuesday before I finished up on the Thursday, and there was so much involved in getting the punch right. I've done a lot of stunts and fight scenes before. I used to be a kickboxer and did karate and all that. The stunt guy, Pat Condren, knows me well. He's had me doing stunts in all kinds of films - I even jumped off a block of flats in Ordinary Decent Criminal - so I'm used to that kind of thing."
He recounted: "When we set it up, George didn't really know how to throw a punch, so I had to show him. I told him, 'When I push you back, just let it go.' What really bugs me in fight scenes, and I'm a bit of a nerd about this, is when it doesn't look real. If there's a push and the person being hit just stands there waiting to be punched, it looks fake. It had to be quick and natural."
Ronan said the excitement around his action-packed exit scene helped to distract from the emotion that came from his character being killed off.
"There was a big thick mat behind me, and when George went to let the punch go, I looked up at him, he looked down at me, and we both knew we nailed it on the first take. I said, 'That was perfect!'
"I dare any nerd to slow that down and watch it frame by frame. His fist actually hit me; it was that close! It looked completely real. When we watched it back on the monitor afterwards, we loved it," he said.
"There was great excitement on set, and it helped distract from the emotion of me leaving and my character dying. We had something physical to focus on, something we had to get right. We didn't have time for the boo-hoo stuff."
Fair City airs on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
