Barry McEvoy

Barry McEvoy (53) is a writer, playwright and screenwriting teacher. He wrote and starred in ‘An Everlasting Piece’ and has acted with Sharon Stone. Born in Belfast, he lives in Stoneybatter with his wife, Sarah, and their son, Arlo (six)

My son, Arlo, comes in to wake me up at 7am. He and my wife, Sarah, get up a bit earlier. I shower, and have a boiled egg and toast and then I take my tablets. I had a heart attack in 2015. It was a huge wake-up call. There was life before the heart attack and life after.

I was born in Belfast, but I lived in America for 20 years. We moved back and forth a lot. It was almost like The Wizard

of Oz. One minute, it was in colour and the next, it was in black and white; one minute, I was in the sunshine playing Tee-ball [a children’s game, similar to baseball], the next, I was at Bobby Sands’ funeral. I liked the adventure of it.

One of the things that I missed most about Ireland was a big dirty fry. We used to go to the Irish import shop in Hollywood, and I’d spend a fortune on food to make big fry-ups. When I came home to Ireland, I had a fry every day for the first year. That might have contributed to the heart attack, so I don’t have them any more. When I was in Hollywood, I ate like I was in Ireland, and now that I’m in Ireland, I eat like I’m in Hollywood. I have to mind myself.

I was 49 when I had the heart attack, and I had a one-year-old kid. After I got my stents put in, I went out for a smoke in front of the Mater Hospital, with wires hanging out of me in the rain. I was bad, and I thought, ‘This is rock bottom’. It was hard, but I quit the smokes.

I do the school run with Arlo. There are 19 ramps between our house and the school. Driving in Cabra is hard. We love to sing in the car. I have him singing all these dark punk songs, like Teenage Kicks.

Then we also make up songs. We have one about the lollipop lady. I try to make him laugh. I like to get him starting his day with a smile.

Then I go home and start work. I have from 9am until 1.30pm to get stuff done. I do a few different things. I do screenplay analysis — editing, developing and I give ideas about how to make the script really good. I’ve been a screenwriter for 20-something years, and I’ve been an actor reading bad scripts for 35 years.

In acting, I was at a level where I wasn’t getting the Brad Pitt parts. I was getting the scripts for the terrible TV shows that never got picked up. I became a master of crappy screenplay readings, so that kind of inspired me to start writing.

I wrote a film — An Everlasting Piece — and I played the lead in it. It was directed by Barry Levinson, who did Rain

Man. It was an absurd black comedy about hairpiece salesmen in the middle of the Troubles. In the beginning, it was rejected by almost everybody. But I kept putting on readings of the screenplay.

Finally, Steven Spielberg got hold of it, he loved it, and DreamWorks made it. It was in the cinemas in 2000, but it was pulled after a few days. Even though it got some great reviews, it was a commercial flop. I was devastated, and it took me a while to get over it. When that happens, you have to fight to get back in the door.

Since the film came out, I’ve sold four scripts that never got made. Now, as well as the screenplay analysis, I write and teach screenwriting two evenings a week for Flying Turtle Productions on Pearse Street. I love teaching. I’m not into acting any more. I’m not into the hustle, the headshots and the self-tapes. I’m not into dropping everything, spending three days learning five scenes, and then not getting the part.

I was in a film with Sharon Stone called Gloria. She was really intimidating but I liked her a lot. She was supposed to be a damsel in distress and I was playing the tough guy. She was supposed to be afraid of me, but before we shot the scene she said, ‘Why aren’t you nervous? This is your first film and you’re walking around like you own the place. You’re making me nervous’. I said, ‘That’s because I’m acting’. I’m from Belfast, so I’m used to tough women. I like them.

I write in spurts. If I’m writing something, I’m a ghost for those two or three weeks of a deadline. I walk around the house and I don’t even see Sarah and Arlo. If you’re working from home, you need to fight for the time to work.

Soon, I’ll be directing my own play —The

Letterist. It’s a black comedy about a crossword-puzzle constructor who sells his soul. It’s going to be on later this year. Judder Theatre Company are doing it. I’m casting a giant at the moment. I need an actor who is at least 6ft 4in.

It’s much easier to write a play and stick it in front of people than make a film. You hear their reaction. And in theatre, it doesn’t cost as much to take the risk.

I pick up Arlo at 1.30pm, and I’ll take him to a park, just to do something physical. Later, I’ll put on the dinner, and then Sarah gets home and we’ll eat together. I’m married to an angel. We met on the set of An Everlasting Piece.

I need to be doing something creative all day. Every second of my day has to be full of me trying to create something for pure pleasure. If I don’t do it, I get anxious, cranky and unhappy. It keeps me grounded all day long. I have to do it all the time.

At night, when everyone is in bed, I take out my tattoo machine and start tattooing melons. Doing these designs is my new hobby. I say to Sarah, ‘Did you realise that we were going to have this life? Did you sign up for this?’

She laughs and says, ‘Yeah, I had a fair idea’.

“When your film is a flop, you have to fight to get back in the door. Now I’m putting on a play”