My father said I was mad to quit the ESB, says Game Of Thrones’ Liam

GAME Of Thrones star Liam Cunningham has revealed that his father was horrified when he told him he was giving up his secure, pensionable job as an ESB electrician.

The star also admitted that his change of career was ‘tricky’ for his wife.

On his father’s reaction, Cunningham says: ‘He was reading the paper and I stood at his left shoulder and said, “I’m jacking in the job, I’m going to be an actor.” He did not move his head and said just three words. “For f***’s sake!” That was his contribution.’

The 55-year-old star, right, who plays Davos Seaworth in the fantasy drama, said he had become bored with his day job after returning to Ireland following three years working in Zimbabwe running the electricity system at a safari park.

He saw an advert for an acting school and took it up as ‘a hobby’.

But he tells John Kelly on RTÉ’s The Works Presents that he soon realised he wanted to act full time.

He said his father was a ‘button man,’ a docker who queued up for work unloading ships every morning. ‘He was treated with anything but dignity and I remember thinking at the time I would not allow that to happen to me.’

And he said Cunningham Sr was delighted when his son got a job for life with the ESB. ‘He was semiskilled and I had reached the dizzy heights of being a skilled worker. He was very proud of me.’

Cunningham says his wife Colette also had to get used to the idea of his new career. ‘My wife married an electrician and ended up with this bloke on the telly. It has always been tricky for her,’ said the Dubliner.

His career soon took off with films like War Of The Buttons in 1994, A Little Princess in 1995 and First Knight the same year.

The actor, who later starred in Hunger and The Wind That Shakes The Barley, says if he had the choice of winning an Oscar it would be for Best Supporting Actor rather than Best Actor because those parts were ‘usually more interesting and you’re not chasing the girl’.

The father of three also says he liked to pick interesting roles rather than take parts for the money. ‘It is very tricky when you have a mortgage and a couple of young kids and your missus is a manager in McDonald’s and you have been offered a job that would pay quite a few quid and you have just said no to it,’ he said.

‘It can be very narcissistic. You are doing things for yourself. You are saying no to things that could make life a little bit easier for people in your family.

‘But you are saying no because it does not suit you. Those things are a little bit tricky.’

The Works Presents: Liam Cunningham is on RTÉ One, tomorrow night at 11.10pm.