JONJO O’NEILL

​Your career moves between stage and some of television’s biggest productions. How do you navigate that shift as an actor?

I have to mix it up. If I only worked onscreen I would feel unfulfilled, and if I only worked on the stage, I’d probably go crazy. They’re very different mediums, but they inform each other. I feel most at home onstage though.

“They’re very different mediums, but they inform each other.”

Did that sense of home on stage really begin once you started performing Shakespeare rather than simply studying him?

He’s definitely my favourite. I’m not sure I would even call him a writer — his words were written to be spoken and heard. He wrote pieces of theatre. When I studied Shakespeare at school I found it difficult and quite alien, but performing it in front of an audience changed everything. That’s where the connection happens. It gives me a great feeling and, in many ways, I think he taught me how to be an actor.

Does where you’re filming inevitably shape the feel of the whole experience for you?

For Fortitude we filmed in a small town in Iceland with a population of around two thousand, so it wasn’t exactly a nightlife capital. We spent evenings walking, playing games or sitting in the hotel. It was a beautiful place to be, just very quiet. Belfast, on the other hand, is buzzing these days — incredible pubs, great energy. Not really a fair comparison.

“The best experiences feel accidental, driven by curiosity.”

Do you ever feel drawn towards creating your own work, beyond acting?

Something in between, I think. Maybe a memoir that slips in and out of reality, with drawings, poems and true stories mixed together. My favourite book of recent years was Patti Smith’s Just Kids. It felt so sad to turn the last page.

How does reading fit into your life now?

People should do more of what they love, whether that’s cooking, playing music, rock climbing or reading. School nearly put me off books for life. Any time someone tells me I should do something, it spoils it. The best experiences feel accidental, driven by curiosity. These days I tend to read things that simply feel right — often memoirs or books about the mind. Alan Watts is someone I come back to a lot.

“If you’re just considering it, then don’t do it.”

Does the stage still have a way of pulling you back at different points in your career?

I’ve played John Proctor in The Crucible at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, and it’s one of the most challenging roles an actor can take on. After spending time away from theatre, there’s always something that pulls you back — that connection with an audience, that immediacy. It’s very different from screen work, and it’s something I always come back to.

For anyone thinking about acting as a career, what would you tell them?

If you’re just considering it, then don’t do it. You need to love it, to feel like you have to do it. Beyond that, learn your lines.

Jonjo O’Neill is an Irish actor known for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and for roles in The Crown, The Fall and Fortitude.

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Interview by Carl Marsh