I owe it all to my boss at the bookshop who let me skip off for auditions
Barry Ward is warming up for a blockbuster and a top drama but he’ll never forget who helped put him there
NEVER let it be said that Barry Ward isn’t the nicest actor in the business. When he landed the coveted lead in Ken Loach’s film Jimmy’s Hall in 2014, he made sure to call his old boss - a fellow Loach obsessive he had lost touch with – to help him enjoy his good fortune.
‘I had worked as the manager of a bookshop and I’d say to my boss, “I’m really sorry, I’ll need to leave early as I have an audition in town”, and Mike would say, “don’t worry. Don’t ever forget me when you get your first lead in a Ken Loach film,” he recalls. ‘It was a running joke between us and he must have said it a hundred times. We fell out of touch after I left the bookshop but four or five years later I got to ring him up and say, “ask, no questions, wear a nice suit, and meet me at this cinema in London on this date”. When he got there he was like, “lovely to see you, what’s all this about?” and I told him I’d see him in 90 minutes and to enjoy himself. It didn’t dawn on him until Ken Loach walked out on stage, and then I walked out beside him. He was gobsmacked!’
The Dubliner’s appearance in the 2014 movie proved to be something of a career turning point. For years, Ward had led the classic double life of a struggling jobbing actor. He had worked, famously, as a 13-yearold with director Michael Winterbottom and writer Roddy Doyle on the BBC drama Family in 1994. Later, he starred opposite Cillian Murphy in his first film role, 2001’s Watchmen. Minor successes on stage and screen followed – a stint on The Bill here, a role on Silent Witness there – but Ward often had to juggle his dreams of acting with day jobs. He worked in retail, in teaching and as a bike courier, cycling around London in December’s unforgiving blizzards. He was working as a lifeguard when he met Ken Loach. And that was precisely when his fortunes experienced an upswing.
The after-effects of appearing on Jimmy’s Hall, Ward says, he is enjoying to this very day. In 2015, he was offered a role as Dr. Spencer in The Fall opposite Jamie Dornan and Gillian Anderson. A part in Maze, opposite Tom VaughanLawlor, followed in hot pursuit. The casting director for Sky’s forthcoming epic series Britannia had also spotted Ward in Jimmy’s Hall, leading to a dream scenario for any actor: being offered a role without so much as an audition.
With the ball now fully rolling, another exciting role came in: playing Suranne Jones’ husband in the forthcoming Sky Originals thriller, Save Me. What’s more, Ward’s series The End Of The F***ing World has premiered on Netflix this month. Suffice to say that the Blanchardstown native is already set to enjoy a bumper 2018.
Talk of becoming a big star in 2018 leaves Ward uneasy. “It’s kind of meaningless,” he reasons. “You try and not get carried away, and I’m always about the next job. You have to be focused about that.”
Still, his excitement at appearing in not one but two Sky Originals series is palpable. In Britannia, set in the year 43AD, Ward plays Sawyer, a salt farmer and dad of two whose world is turned upside down when the Imperial Roman Army arrive and invade Britain, determined to crush its Celtic heart to a pulp.
‘I loved the scripts and I loved that women were at the forefront of the story, and you don’t often see that in this genre, where it’s mostly men beating each other up. And apart from anything, Sawyer is a strong, playable character,’ he notes.
For Jimmy’s Hall, Ward had “worked the land” to try and get the physical build of an Irish farmer. To play Sawyer, he similarly had to work to assume the physique of a man of the land.
‘I’ve always been a bit of a whippet,’ he explains. ‘There was a stunt team out training people in sword fight so I was taking them aside whenever I could to do other physical training bits with them. I love doing this kind of filming, and even though it requires discipline, I’d love to do more of it.’
The overall production of the bigbudget historical drama is both grisly, powerful and slick, and is sure to appeal to fans of Rome, The Borgias and Game of Thrones. Of course, these are precisely the types of series that engender ardent superfans.
‘I’ve no idea what that’s like,’ Ward smiles. ‘I wouldn’t know what to expect, so I guess I need to take that as it comes.’
Of the prospect of becoming a small-screen sex symbol, he squirms. ‘I don’t go onto sex symbol chatrooms or websites,’ he laughs. ‘I don’t think I’ll be recognised going down the street without the man-bun and the beard and without the top off.
‘When I worked with Lennie (James), we did talk a little bit about his involvement with The Walking Dead, and that kind of fandom,’ he adds, referring to the hit US show’s legion of obsessive followers. ‘I suppose if Britannia becomes super popular I can always call up Lennie and ask him where the best hiding place is.’
Lennie James is the writer and star of Ward’s other forthcoming series, Save Me. It’s a huge change in pace from Britannia, with Ward starring as Barry, a music promoter married to Claire (Suranne Jones). When Claire’s 13year-old daughter goes missing, all fingers point to her ex Nelly (James), a local man who is the life and soul of his local boozer. When he is accused of his daughter’s abduction, things take an intriguing turn when Nelly instead points the finger towards Barry.
‘I really like this character, who gets kind of caught up in this situation through no fault of his own,’ says Ward. ‘As they’re trying to solve the kidnapping of his stepdaughter, you find that in the course of the series, when the finger of suspicion is doing the rounds, you find that his wealth and selfmade status have not arrived through entirely legal means. It’s a brilliant piece of writing.’
It’s Suranne Jones’ follow-up to the phenomenally successful Dr. Foster, and the smart money says that public interest in Save Me will be high.
‘She was a really brilliant mentor, and we just got on immediately,’ enthuses Ward. ‘She’s at the top of her game so it’s just great to come into that kind of orbit and learn from it.’
By now, Ward has ratcheted up an impressive roll-call of co-stars and
I don’t think I’d be recognised without the man-bun and the beard and the top off
directors; sure enough, he has learned a thing or two from them.
‘The one constant I’ve found from working with all these very different people was that they all work very hard – in fact, the more successful the actor, the harder they’ve worked. It’s all about the craft for them, and fame or thoughts of fame aren’t even on their radar,’ he explains.
Similarly, Ward would prefer to work steadily as an actor than chase a spot on the A-list.
‘I just see fame as a by-product of a certain career,’ he observes. ‘Someone like Michael Fassbender’s career I would love, but mainly because he’s making great work and he’s a brilliant actor. If fame was the price you have to pay to do that work, so be it.’
Ward did briefly get a tantalising taste of the Hollywood game in the aftermath of Jimmy’s Hall. As is customary for young actors who have their image on the poster for a critically acclaimed film, he signed with a Los Angeles-based agent and was flown out for a week of pressing the flesh with directors and producers.
‘A job with that kind of profile definitely opened doors,’ he reflects. ‘I spent some time out there introducing myself, and hopefully when Britannia comes out it will open new doors in many ways. I’ve found it’s not about who you know, but who knows you. (In LA), there’s a bigger pool of people doing the same thing as you, and there seems to be a limited number of jobs. I don’t know if I like the city enough to live there, but look, if a job came up there on a six-month shoot, I’d gladly take it.’
For now, Barry is based in London with his three-year-old son Tom and partner Laura Kavanagh, herself a production manager at Focus Features (“she’s way up in the big leagues”).
‘Working away (from them) can be very tough, but as tough as it is for me missing Tom, it’s obviously tough on his mum, who is on her own having to look after a boisterous three-year-old,’ he smiles. ‘I do get full periods of Daddy Day Care every so often to make up for it.’
It’s a far cry from the youngster who grew up in the West Dublin suburb of Blanchardstown, where few dared even dream of a life in showbiz.
‘City suburbs all over the Western World share similarities despite, or maybe because of, their apparent lack of opportunity,’ he observes.
His first role in Family happened entirely by chance.
‘I was in school on Deco’s (St Declan’s College, Cabra) and BBC casting directors were going around the schools and streets of Dublin looking for someone to play the character (of John Paul),’ he recalls. ‘I remember a teacher popping his head around the door and calling a few of us out, the real messers. I was thinking, ‘oh God, what have I done now?’ I was like, ‘it wasn’t me, Sir, I wasn’t the one smoking, I was just holding it for him’. But we did a meet and greet with these BBC producers, and over the course of a few months we got called to auditions, and a few improv sessions. They just kept whittling it down and down, and eventually they said, “we want you to do this job”. I was like, “well, what do I do now?” Up to that point, we were just having so much fun, going into town for the day (for auditions). The funny thing is that two of my classmates got really close to getting the part.’
At the behest of his parents, who always put a huge value on education, Ward went to NUI Maynooth to study English and Philosophy. Around this time, he landed the role in Watchmen opposite Cillian Murphy.
‘He was a bit older than me and he very much knew that this is what he wanted to do,’ says Ward. ‘He was brilliant and so enthusiastic and I guess I got caught up in that and thought, “okay, so maybe this is a viable thing”. It’s largely to do with him that I pursued (acting) and stuck at it.’
While Ward waits to see if both Britannia or Save Me get recommissioned by Sky, he will head to Finland next month to shoot a project with his cousin, film director Fergal Ward. Also on the cards for 2018 is a Masters in screenwriting. The hope is, of course, is that the days of juggling auditions and minor roles with a day job are officially behind him.
‘It all gave me a new respect for acting because I remember thinking, “this is a better job for me. The pay is better, the perks are better and it’s more satisfying than doing these other things”,’ he says. ‘The fact that I had to do a 40-hour work week in addition to the thing I loved makes me work so much harder now. It really does.’ ÷Britannia will air on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW TV on 18 January. Save Me will air on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW TV in February.
It wasn’t me, Sir. I wasn’t the one smoking. I was just holding it for him