In the concluding part of our interview with Fair City’s Maclean Burke, he tells John Byrne about watching - and not watching - himself on the show, his real life and family, and how being sent to Speech & Drama classes changed his life.
One thing's for sure, his character Damo will be in the thick of things.
Still, necessity is the mother of invention and he smiles a cheeky one when he says: "There are some really interesting characters that are coming back. Some old-school characters that punters haven’t seen for a while."
He’s such a tease!
"There’s some good stuff on the way and it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out on screen. I’ll be interested to see how it works.
"These characters that haven’t been around in a long, long time turn up - which, I think, will be good because they were popular characters."
But do soap stars watch themselves? Some do, some don’t and Maclean Burke is somewhere in the middle. "I dip in and out," he says. "It’s a bit like . . . I don’t like watching myself anyway.
"There’s always that trade-off between what you’re giving them and what you’re hoping they’re going to get. And sometimes they don’t even use that one [performance] that you think is the one. And it’s for different reasons. It’s not because of anything in particular.
"If there's a big storyline I tend to switch on, but in general I don’t tend to watch it because I don’t think it’s too healthy, to be honest, to watch yourself all the time. Because you’ll start picking holes in everything.
"As an actor, you constantly have Imposter Syndrome. And I just don’t think it’s good to watch my own stuff. I’m happy to do it and then I try to walk away from it."
Basically, Maclean wants to have a life. All work and no play and all of that. Besides, he’s got a family. Hobbies. Y’know. Real stuff. We’ll touch on that in a moment.
"So when it’s done, if I’m on a break, I don’t want to bring my work home. I don’t want to sit and stare at the telly. Now don’t get mr wrong, I love watching movies, I love TV and all that kind of stuff - but I don’t tend to watch myself.
"If there’s something big, or a big stunt, I’ll watch that."
Because - of course - he doesn't know how it looks on-screen. He’s been too busy being in the scene.
"There’s something that happens in an upcoming episode - and I will watch that, because it was quite good. And there were some guys there that were going: 'Do you do martial arts? That’s really good!’ And I was like: ‘Ah, cool!’
"So I’ll have a look at that see how that ends up. You just don’t know what they’ll catch on camera."
We all know Damo’s experiencing life’s ups and downs, but how are things for Maclean Burke when he sheds his Fair City character’s skin? "Life is good," he grins. "We’re just getting old and getting on with things.
"My youngest daughter has just started secondary school, my middle fella’s in Australia, playing rugby and working out there. The eldest fella’s flying it - he’s got his own company, a contracting business. Machinery and stuff like that.
"And my eldest daughter is working with AIB, so life is just tipping on, you know? I’m getting older. I’m waking up sore every day - but I’m getting up! I’m working out, doing my bits and bobs."
I wonder if any of the likes were ever tempted to follow dad into the acting world?
"The two girls definitely have an interest in it. I they really wanted to do it I’d definitely support them - but I don’t know if I’d recommend it. It’s a tough gig."
Which begs the obvious question: why did Maclean Burke choose this path? After all, something like 95% of actors are unemployed at any one time. For every Tom Cruise, there are a million shattered dreams. Just surviving in this perilous pursuit is a tremendous achievement.
For Maclean Burke, his first steps into the thespian world weren't made by choice. Quite the opposite.
"My parents put in me in Speech & Drama when I was a kid, because I was actually . . . I didn’t have a lot of confidence," he recalls. "I was very quiet. And then I was getting picked on in school, and I was kind of reacting to it.
"So the folks sent me to Speech & Drama and I was literally kicking and screaming. I did not want to go.
"I was bawling my eyeballs out. And then, something just clicked. I always had a great imagination and I realised that improv was my thing. I was mad for it.
"And I realised that all this madness in my head, I can actually let out. And that was it.
"I started with a lady, Gladys Sheehan, when I was 12. And in that same year I got cast in In The Name of the Father, playing Vincent Maguire. And it just took off from there.
"And I’ve always been working - touch wood," and he taps the table. "I’m always kept going. It’s amazing that the doors are still open. I’ll still get calls. I’ll still get work. I think that’s down to a good work ethic as well. This place is a small country and you work with a lot of the same people over and over."
As well as providing regular work, getting a cast role on a soap such as Fair City is also a great training ground for anyone who wants to work in film or TV.
Maclean Burke’s been there and bought the breakfast roll. He clearly enjoys the discipline and hard work that goes into getting Fair City on the telly week-in, week-out.
As well as paying your bills, regular work sharpens your skillset and gets you what might be termed camera-fit. "What soap will do is it will clean up all your edges," Maclean explains.
"It’ll put manners on you. You’re working with three cameras. You’re working on four separate scripts all day, every day. You’re upside down, jumbled, there’s no rhythm. With camera work, sound and lighting - you start to realise how it’s done. How it comes together.
"You figure a lot of things out and it’s at speed. So if you’re actually decent at what you do on top of that, you’re of huge benefit to a production. Because you’re getting the job done and you’re getting it done quickly. And it’s good stuff."
One thing that’s really changed since Maclean Burke started on Fair City is the mobility actors have these days. Once upon a time, 99.9% of Irish actors remained rooted on the Emerald Isle. And most of them were largely unemployed.
Since the advent of streaming, and the shrinking of the planet, films and TV shows have developed a truly international dimension, and on both sides of the camera. Which means more opportunities.
You could be working in, say, Denmark with a cast and crew from several countries and the odd continent or two. When it comes to filming, it really is a proverbial melting pot.
But it’s not all upside, he insists. Maclean’s a little concerned about the recent rise in auditioning actors - because they may be in a different country or continent - recording themselves and emailing the resultant video in the hope of securing a part.
Maclean’s not a fan of that process.
"What I have heard, anecdotally, is that you have young actors getting cast on these self-tapes. So they may have spent, like, six days doing this self-tape. And it looks great.
"And then they’re cast and they bring them in and they walk onto a set and it’s like, they haven’t a clue what they’re doing.
"There’s a fine line," he adds. "It’s changed for the good and the bad. I love the fact that these international things are so available now. I know loads of actors who are out in Budapest, or wherever. I think that’s a huge plus.
"The self-tape thing . . . I don’t mind doing it, because I’m happy enough and confident enough to do it. But at the business end of the process, you need to get in and talk to the people as well. They need to know that you have a modicum of professionalism as well.
"If I spend seven days on one piece of script, you’d get the gig. But does that necessarily mean that you know what you’re doing? Not really. It’s a completely different when you walk onto a set."
The first part of the interview with Maclean Burke was published on Sunday September 8 and can be read here.
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