CHRIS O’DOWD

The Irish actor, 37, from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and the Netflix movie Mascots, stars in Get Shorty, premiering Aug. 13 on Epix. He plays Miles Daly, a hitman who tries to become a Hollywood producer in hopes of leaving his criminal past behind. How is this different from the 1995 movie with John Travolta

and Gene Hackman? It’s the same premise—a bad guy in Hollywood— but it’s quite different. It’s probably closer in tone to the Elmore Leonard book than the movie. It’s a little darker, a little grittier.

Who is Miles Daly? He’s a bit of muscle. He works for this matriarch who has a casino in the back arse of nowhere. He’s going through a divorce from his wife, whom he met when she was a stripper. He’s also trying to win his daughter back, who is the Shorty in the Get Shorty story. Has your acting career exceeded your dreams? Yeah. My expectations for myself were never that high. I just fell into it a bit. When I was 19 or 20, I wanted to be a political speechwriter. I was studying political science in university. What besides acting are you passionate about? Right now, it’s all just family, family, family. I’ve got a newborn and a toddler, so we’re just nesting right now, getting ready for all of that mayhem.