Meaney takes imaginative ‘Journey’ as Sinn Fein leader

For Dublin-born Colm Meaney, “The Journey” (opening Friday) is a rare opportunity to be onscreen for virtually the entire film.

Meaney stars as Northern Ireland’s controversial IRA Sinn Fein political leader Martin McGuinness, who is negotiating a peace agreement with his rival, Timothy Spall’s British loyalist Ian Paisley.

McGuinness and Paisley were architects of the 2006 St. Andrews Agreement that cemented the Northern Ireland peace process.

In screenwriter Colin Bateman’s speculative version of how this might have happened, “Journey” puts the two in an SUV for a ride in the Scottish countryside.

“We’re not pretending this is a documentary or factually accurate,” Meaney, 64, began. “What we’re saying is these two guys who are so polarized in their positions did find a way to reach an agreement, and it’s extraordinary considering where they started out from.”

But filming for weeks in a real car on highways?

“We spent a long time in that car,” the “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” veteran acknowledged.

“Fortunately, Tim and I got along extremely well. It might have been a different story if we didn’t. I’m an actor who doesn’t like to talk, it either happens or it doesn’t, and it just flowed.

“Sometimes Freddie (Highmore, as the chauffeur) was actually driving, and the camera would come into the car with us. Sometimes we were being towed on a loader.”

Next month, Meaney costars in TNT’s new series “Will,” about William Shakespeare.

“I play James Burbage, a carpenter who builds the first theater in London. I find it not dissimilar to the character I played on ‘Hell on Wheels’ — he’s the boss.”

Next month also marks Meaney’s return to the stage as Big Daddy in a starry West End London revival of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” with Jack O’Connell (“Money Monster”) and Sienna Miller.

“I don’t often do theater because it’s usually a very long commitment and very hard work, and I tend to be a bit lazy,” he said. “And the last place I wanted to be was in London in the summer.

“But I made the mistake of re-reading the play and found I couldn’t resist.”

ROAD TO PEACE: Colm Meaney (above, and top left with Timothy Spall as Ian Paisley) plays Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness in ‘The Journey.’ The film looks at how two enemies may have come to an agreement that led to peace in Northern Ireland.