‘I gravitate to stories about connection’

Playing everything from Viking royalty to a young man with schizophrenia, Moe Dunford isn’t afraid to take risks. Now the Co Waterford native chats about Irish film, being bitten by the acting bug and becoming a Gaeilgeoir in a single week

Moe Dunford doesn’t have happy memories of childhood trips to the theatre. “I’d go to the odd show with my mom in The Park Hotel in Dungarvan. I’d begrudgingly go along,” says the 36-year-old, who hails from the Co Waterford town. “I didn’t really see what it was all about — wanting to be an actor. I just thought: ‘Why would anybody want to get up in front of other people and perform? What the hell is all this about? Why am I watching these people speaking to themselves on stage?’ I was quite happy to be nowhere near theatre or the performing arts. I felt that there was a lot of ‘hoity-toity, we’re in the arts’ sort of thing and I didn’t want to be any part of that.”

There was, however, a more accessible side of the craft that appealed to the young Dunford. “The flipside was I always loved film. I always loved movies. I loved Americana and I grew up watching Spielberg and all that.”

He credits Anthony Kelly, one of his teachers at his Christian Brothers school, for fostering that love of film. “He showed us so many movies, spaghetti westerns and Cinema Paradiso — great movies that you remember. I wasn’t the best student in school. I dossed a lot of the time and I mitched a lot.

“The irony now is that I am friends with two of my teachers from school. One of them is my old Irish teacher, who is coaching me for this film I’m doing at the moment in Connemara.”

Based on a book called The Lake by Sheena Lambert, Dunford says that the movie is a murder mystery set in the 1970s in a small town. “I love the themes of small-town rural Ireland and I’m from a small town myself.

These days, I gravitate to stories about connection. I think we’re all looking for a bit of connection.”

He’s had to brush up on his cúpla focal for the Irish-language project. “I told them that I didn’t have a word of Irish but that I’d love to do it and I’d work my ass off. So that’s what I did. I locked myself in a room for seven days and when I »

» left, I had the Irish. I know that sounds extreme but that’s how I do it.

“I love my job and I love working with people and telling stories. When they ask if you can ride a horse, every actor is going to say yes, even if they haven’t a clue. I’m a textbook case of how to get a job: you do it, and you act and you learn. ‘Can you drive a car?’ You say, ‘Yeah’ and then you go off and get lessons. I was driving since I was

16, but it wasn’t always with a full licence. It’s the same with the Irish.”

For Dunford, it’s always about pushing himself. “If you’re very comfortable and you want to sail through life and never go outside your comfort zone and never discover new things within you, good for you. But I realised over the years that I do my best work when I’m outside my comfort zone, and I think many people do. You have that sense of fear — or you might even have imposter syndrome before it starts — but slowly and surely, you learn new things. They are always the jobs that are worth doing. You don’t want to settle for mediocre.

“I believe that’s connected to the mindset of when I became an actor. A lot of people were saying: ‘You can’t do that because you’ve got nothing to fall back on.’ And there’s nothing sadder than wanting to do something yourself but never taking the opportunity to do it because you fear the risk of failing. You actually have to switch the mindset of this life, because there are no guarantees.

“Acting is a job, and it’s a profession, and I’ve made a living from it. But to do it, you have to be open to failure. When I was in school, and people were trying to tailor you into accepting something, I remember thinking that I wanted something bigger — I didn’t want to have a quiet life. I just wanted to pay attention to my imagination.”

Over the past 15 years, Dunford has carved a fine career in the acting world. He went to the Gaiety School of Acting (more on that later), did some theatre work, some Shakespeare and a lot of profit-share shows. He got his big

I told them I didn’t have a word of Irish but that I’d work my ass off. So that’s what I did. I locked myself in a room for seven days and when I left, I had the Irish

break with the lead role in Terry McMahon’s 2014 film Patrick’s Day, about a man with schizophrenia. He’s had a lead role in Vikings and played a detective in RTÉ drama, Dublin Murders. He was in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the 2022 instalment of the horror classic franchise, as well as having roles in Irish movies such as Rosie, Handsome Devil and Michael Inside.

While every actor has, at some point, dreamt of Hollywood, Dunford has come to appreciate the quality of the storytelling that’s being done closer to home. “One thing that did change things for me was seeing the Irish movie Garage; seeing the mindset of the characters in the pub and how belittling they were, and how Pat Shortt played that [main] character. When I saw that on screen for the first time, I thought, ‘Wow’. That changed my perception of Irish films and the stories that can come out of here. I

left after seeing Garage saying that I wanted to do more Irish work. I wanted to be part of that story because it’s relatable and worthwhile.”

We’ll next see Dunford on screen in the second season of TV series The Dry, written by Nancy Harris. He plays Jack, the rogue ex-boyfriend of recovering alcoholic Shiv Sheridan, played by Roisin Gallagher. Though he was nominated for a best supporting actor IFTA award for his role in series one last year, when Dunford was first offered the part he wasn’t very keen.

“I wasn’t too impressed by the character,” he admits. “I was impressed with the writing and the flow, and how easy it was coming to me because it had such a rhythm over and back between Jack and Shiv. You couldn’t help but enjoy it and go with the flow. But the actual character? He was obsessed with getting her to go for a drink, and he was aware that she was an alcoholic trying to stay off. I thought: ‘Who the hell is this guy? I don’t want to play this guy’.”

For many jobbing actors, no is not a word in their vocabulary because they are glad of the work. But Dunford wanted more. “It was slap-bang in the middle of the pandemic. I was going up for a few things in my isolation. I was reading scripts and I was saying no on the grounds of, ‘What conflict is there within the character?’ These days, people are obsessed with things being either black or white. But what’s amazing about Nancy Harris’s writing in The Dry is that there’s conflict within each and every character.”

At first, it seems like Jack is a bad sort, a charming womaniser and nothing but trouble. “Then I got to see more of the scripts and I got to see the relationships and the journey in the Sheridan family, and I couldn’t help but be moved. I did a complete 180, and I thought this is such a worthy project to be part of and I love how Dublin is reflected in it. I was blessed with the opportunity to come back in season two.”

It’s been a fun character to play. “Jack is a live wire and he lives for fire and he lives to bring out fire »

» in other people. Jack is a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed doing the scenes where he takes her out for dinner and runs off without paying. I was having a lot of fun as Jack in season one, because he was breaking the rules. So many people hide their feelings of wanting to be wild. You can’t be wild anymore. I loved playing Jack for those reasons.

“Before I got to see the script for series two, I was hoping to see a more broken-down Jack — someone who has lost more. It was important for me to see another side. I wanted to show that there was more to Jack.”

Stories like these have something to tell us about ourselves, he believes. “In The Dry, everybody is hiding something. It was like in the pandemic when people would say, ‘How are you?’ and the reply was always ‘Great,’ when it was anything but. People often hide things, and I find that fascinating.”

The pandemic has affected how he sees the world away from work, too. “I saved up money and I got a house a couple of years ago. I enjoy the peace. I love being home. I have a really great family in my hometown and when I’m not working, I spend as much time with my family as I can. So I just enjoy a quiet life right now.”

He also enjoys fatherhood. “I have a boy, a wonderful boy. He’s 14. I enjoy simple things. I’m veering close to 40. And I just want to enjoy my work and take risks. We’ve all been through the crazy time of the pandemic and finding out our new selves and readjusting. I’m listening to my son at the age that he is and how he is curious about things and taking risks. So I’m trying to take more risks again in my job.”

In his own teenage years, Dunford confesses he was a bit lost. “Growing up, I always did voices and impressions but I had no channels to filter that through. So you’re not going to be picked first on the team if the boys are playing football and you’re doing your best Eddie Murphy impression.”

But one day, something happened in school that made him become serious about acting. “I saw a Shakespeare production in school when I was in third year, and there was a bunch of my mates up on stage. There were chairs in the back, and the lads used to give this terrible, negative groan. I remember that, because it used to send shivers up me — they were like sheep. People would go along with it, and it would become like a community. I was in the middle of the crowd and I said to myself, ‘I’m in with the crowd that are booing, and my mates are up there expressing themselves. Look at their braveness. They are getting on with the show.’ I just thought, ‘if it scares me, do it. If I have a love for it, do it. So think outside the box’. That’s when I had the idea of going to study acting.”

But that wasn’t plain sailing. “I tried to get into Trinity College but I didn’t get in. While there, I remember meeting an actor, Ger Kelly, who was holding the door open for auditionees. I asked him if he had any advice. He said, ‘I just landed on the floor with my two hands like I was holding guns and then I just pretended to jump through a window’.”

Dunford later auditioned for the Gaiety School of Acting. “I did a piece from Sive and [school director] Patrick Sutton said it was the worst choice of audition scene he’d seen in 20 years and he was going to give me one more shot.

So, I just remembered the actor from a year ago who said, no matter what you do, just end up on the floor and act like you’re shooting guns. So I had no context. I ended up on the floor. And I got in!”

Recently, Dunford went to a retirement do for Patrick Sutton. The memories came flooding back. “It reminded me of when we arrived on day one, this group of people I met in acting school who were hopeful. There was an element of knowing that you’re jumping into uncertainties wanting to be an actor, but there’s also a feeling of being very much alive. It’s that feeling of excitement before you go on stage into the unknown. Patrick was a mentor to us. He said, ‘I know you’re scared but do it anyway.’ That can really strengthen you when you’re 18 and in Dublin, far away from your hometown.

“The mentality was different. Just because people don’t think it’s possible in your four walls or in the surrounds of your hometown, doesn’t mean that there aren’t people doing it. Patrick instilled that feeling in us — to dive in for the sake of a writer and to be part of something. When I was making those stories, I had the feeling that I didn’t have when I was in school and I wasn’t picked for the football team.”

Dunford felt the fear and did it anyway. And that has made all the difference. l

The second series of ‘The Dry’ is now showing on RTÉ One and on the RTÉ Player

I’m listening to my son and how he is curious about things and taking risks. So I’m trying to take more risks again in my job