HERO WORSHIP

Jack Donnelly on life as a legend

How did life change for you after your part in the first series?

I was on a massive comedown as soon as it finished, but it was good. It’s been nice not to have to go back to waitering work like I’ve done after other acting jobs. I did bits and pieces inbetween, and then in the weeks building up to the second series it was back into training, learning to sword fight and everything that comes with it.

How does it feel to suddenly have this heartthrob status?

Weird. I’ve not really encountered it that much. I get told about it and I hear about it but so far no one’s come up to me and been like “[ gasps] You’re a heartthrob!” Apart from my brothers and they’re taking the piss.

Medea is an important figure for the Jason of legend, is that the case in the show?

I knew Amy [ Manson] from drama school, she was in the year above me. There’s a connection between the two of them. Medea in our story is very much an outsider who doesn’t really fit in anywhere, doesn’t know who she is, and she’s led to the dark side. She and Jason find each other as kindred spirits. As it’s progressed, it does seem that she could potentially be a rival to Ariadne.

We hear you were the victim of an epic prank during production…

Mark and Rob keep playing pranks on me. They had me believe that the final episode was a musical episode and this involved my agent, Rob’s agent, the producers here and a real singing teacher from London that they set up an email account for. Everybody was in on it. So I was off practising singing, thinking I’m going to ruin it, that this is the end of my career. And then at the last second they gave themselves away.