The Wire star Gillen back home for RTE drama
Tuesday November 03 2009
Aidan Gillen, the Irish actor who made it big in US cop series The Wire, is returning home to film a new gangland drama for RTE.
He will star in the four episodes of Love-Hate.
Shooting on the drama began two weeks ago in various locations around Dublin and will continue until the end of the month.
Love-Hate was written by Stuart Carolan, who also penned hard-hitting restaurant drama Raw, and it is currently scheduled to broadcast in March 2010.
Gillen (41), who shot to fame after his role as Stuart Jones in Queer as Folk, starred as Baltimore mayor Tommy Carcetti in The Wire.
He has now returned to live in Ireland after a stint abroad.
His wife Olivia O'Flanagan and their children Berry and Joe live in Kerry, where the children attend a Gaelic-speaking school.
"I just wanted to get back home," he said in a recent interview. "I have always been travelling -- New York and London. I want to give my kids a proper home. They have been brought up in London but, because they have Irish parents, they seemed to have an Irish accent -- then when they got out to Ireland they sounded like Oliver Twist."
Gillen was nominated for a Tony Award for his highly acclaimed Broadway role in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker in 2003.
"I've made a point of trying not to play the same part, and of moving between theatre and film and TV," he explained.
Reboot
"The idea is that by the time you come back you have been away for a year and people have forgotten you. If you like having time off, which I do, that's a good career strategy. Or at least, it's my strategy to keep my head together.
"I keep going back to Ireland to reboot. And then return, showing up as someone else," he said.
Born Aidan Murphy, Gillen adopted his mother's maiden name professionally when he moved to the States. Originally from Drumcondra, he first appeared on stage at 14 with the Dublin Youth Theatre.
clairemurphy@herald.ie
- Claire Murphy
