Just one Irish Emmy nomination can’t hide the fact that the Irish are playing a major part in the streaming-led realignment of the TV and movie world. RTÉ Entertainment’s John Byrne reports.
It’s quite telling that it’s disappointing Andrew Scott is the sole Irish acting nominee for this year’s Emmys, which will be held in Los Angeles in September.
Before the nominations were announced on Wednesday, there were strong indications that the likes of Colin Farrell, Sharon Horgan, Barry Keoghan and Anthony Boyle were also in line for a nod.
Not so long ago, any Irish nomination for any award would’ve been a big deal. Once upon a time, it was a big deal if some from Ireland even had a job in TV or film in the UK or Hollywood. These days it seems like we’re taking over.
Not bad for a bunch of upstarts on a little rock at the western edge of Europe.
And while there may be more opportunities available, since the advent of streaming, the fact of the matter is that Ireland is punching way above its weight in terms of talent.
And this phenomenon is nothing new. In recent decades, Irish bands and singers have made huge inroads in pop and rock, with the likes of U2, Sinead O’Connor, The Script, Boyzone and Westlife enjoying great success.
The Irish ascendancy in the acting world is now on the crest of a wave. It’s a welcome coincidence that the TV/film industry is currently swimming in a sea of streaming cash. Happy days!
Traditionally, there were the Hollywood studios and the terrestrial TV companies. Then HBO came along in the late 1990s with the likes of The Sopranos and Sex and the City and everything changed. As the 21st Century dawned, Netflix kick-started the streaming age by throwing billions at content creation to establish and then maintain its pole position.
More recently, the extremely deep pockets of Amazon, Disney and Apple have entered the streaming sphere. It’s remarkable that so many talented Irish have been able to take advantage and build or embellish careers on the back of this boom.
The list of prominent Irish actors is huge, ranging from Liam Cunningham in Game of Thrones, the Gleeson brothers and their Da, recent Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Saoirse Ronan, Michael Fassbender. I mean, we could be here all day.
Here are five of the biggest names that are giving today’s TV and movie industry an emerald hue, and most recently in the ever-expanding world of streaming.
Nicola Coughlan
There’s no denying that this is Nicola Coughlan’s moment. And that moment is called Bridgerton. What’s also undeniable is that she deserves it.
Like so many actors, she struggled early on. The Galway native moved to London three times in four years, and each time was forced to move back home with her parents due to financial difficulties.
Then she landed the role of Clare Devlin in Derry Girls and her career took off. Lisa McGee’s comedy was a massive success for Channel 4, but developed into a global hit through Netflix.
Then came Bridgerton, with Nicola in the lead role of Penelope Featherington, a reluctant debutante and youngest daughter of a nouveau-riche family in Regency era London.
Being the star of Netflix’s biggest show means the showbiz world is at Nicola Coughlan’s feet. And her agent must be knee-deep in acting offers.
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Nowadays it’s a question of finding time in a hectic schedule. She had a part as Diplomat Barbie in last year’s massive Barbie movie, and had a lead role in the Channel 4 sitcom Big Mood.
Next up is the Doctor Who Christmas special and a starring role in the thriller Love And War about a woman who heads to Syria to find her abducted daughter.
There’s also comedy film. Seize Them! and an Enid Blyton adaptation called The Magic Faraway Tree.
Andrew Scott
Dubliner Andrew Scott isn’t just a mere actor, he’s a force of nature.
As well as developing an impressive screen career, he’s something of a West End superstar following a string of outstanding performances on the London stage over the last decade and more.
The guy’s a walking, talking, five-star performer. And as charismatic as they come. Good looks and a velvety SoCoDu accent can only get you so far.
He’d already picked up several stage awards and made his Broadway debut by the time Scott first came to prominence with a genuinely menacing portrayal of the evil Moriarty in Sherlock.
No mean feat that, outperforming Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. In reward, he received the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.
And then there was the priest in Fleabag. Playing the coolest character in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s zeitgeisty comedy earned him nominations for a Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics’ Choice Television Award.
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A role in Netflix’s Black Mirror followed and led to his first Emmy nomination in 2019. The same year, he was in the Sam Mendes movie 1917, which received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination.
Last year, Scott starred opposite Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers and earned a Golden Globe nomination.
And now he’s got another Emmy nomination, this time for a mesmerising performance as Tom Ripley in languorous Netflix noir series Ripley.
Will he win? He should. Does it matter? Not really. Andrew Scott is already pretty peerless.
Colin Farrell
It’s mad to think that Colin Farrell is just five months older than Andrew Scott. He seems to have been around forever.
What happened, of course, was that Farreller got a big screen break at a time when Scott was forging a formidable stage career. It’s just a fact of life that movies create a greater, broader profile.
Despite both his father and uncle playing for Shamrock Rovers, it was footlights rather than football that inspired him. But his time at the Gaiety School of Acting was brief as he landed a part in BBC hit Ballykissangel.
Film roles followed and an outstanding performance in Phone Booth gave him a platform to land roles in big budget movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report and he became the go-to guy if a film needed a sparky personality with cuddly-bear eyes.
Playing a rookie hitman in Martin McDonagh’s 2008 comedy In Bruges earned him a Golden Globe Award and his subsequent Hollywood CV is outrageously impressive. He even found time to star in the second season of HBO’s True Detective.
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More recently, Farrell played Penguin in The Batman (and will reprise that role for HBO), and gained acclaim for his roles in the science fiction drama After Yang, the survival film Thirteen Lives, and another Martin McDonagh flick, The Banshees of Inisherin, which resulted in him receiving the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, another Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
His latest role is in the Apple TV+ series Sugar, where his role as private eye John Sugar is earning him rave reviews.
Sharon Horgan
I’d lay decent odds that Sharon Horgan doesn’t sleep. How could she find the time? The depth and range of her work is simply staggering.
Since she made a breakthrough after co-creating and starring in the BBC comedy series Pulling, for which she won the 2008 British Comedy Award for Best TV Actress, she’s been a one-person industry.
She’s been nominated for many awards – and won a few as well – including the 2016 BAFTA TV Award for Best Comedy Writer for Channel 4’s Catastrophe, which was won in tandem with Rob Delaney, who co-created and co-starred.
Catastrophe really put her on the map and also generated no fewer that five IFTA awards. Crossing the Atlantic, she wrote HBO hit dramedy Divorce, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, in her first major acting commitment since Sex and the City. Sharon exec-produced the show.
Horgan also co-created and co-wrote BBC comedy Motherland, starred alongside Jason Bateman in the excellent Game Night movie, and voiced characters in the likes of Bojack Horseman, Bob’s Burgers and Disenchanted.
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But behind the camera’s where she’s really making a mark. She must be on all the streaming and satellite giants’ key WhatsApp groups and get more Christmas cards than the Pope.
For Starz, she’s co-creator, writer, and executive producer on comedy-horror Shining Vale. Then at Apple TV+ she’s co-creator, writer, star and executive producer on black comedy Bad Sisters.
For good measure, she’s creator and executive producer of Dreamland for Sky Atlantic and NOW.
She’s involved in so much it’s scary.
Barry Keoghan
Now here’s a lad whose career is on a stratospherically upward trajectory. And like pretty much everyone else, he’s got one foot in the streaming world.
Having grown up in inner city Dublin’s Summerhill, Barry Keoghan first came to prominence as infamous cat killer Wayne in RTÉ’s hugely successful gangster series Love/Hate.
Movie roles followed, in particular 2017’s Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer alongside Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor gong at the IFTAs.
In 2019 he was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and featured in the mini-series Chernobyl and cemented his growing celebrity status by appearing on Virgin Media’s Living With Lucy.
A cameo appearance as The Joker in 2022’s The Batman preceded the role that gave him star status, playing Dominic Kearney in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin. He received an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, and won BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.
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His ‘next big thing’ status was confirmed with a scene-stealing performance – including a dance in the nip – in Emerald Fennell’s drama Saltburn in the lead role of Oliver Quick. Keoghan received much critical acclaim, and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor.
Like many other actors, he was then drawn to the streaming world, landing the key role of Lt Curtis Biddick in Apple TV+ WWII drama Masters of the Air, released earlier this year.
And who else is starring in Masters of the Air? None other than fellow Irish actor, Anthony Boyle.
The Irish are everywhere.
