Kin and Game of Thrones star Aidan Gillen has revealed that he has considered giving up on acting and recalled looking for coins down the back of the sofa to cover the bills.
The 54-year-old TV and film actor was in Dublin yesterday to launch the Dingle Distillery International Film Festival which will take place from November 11 to 13.
The TV star spoke about his career and revealed that there were a number of times he considered giving up acting, and that he still sometimes does. He said: "I mean of course loads of times along the way I thought, ‘I want to be doing something else,’ and I still do."
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Recalling the early days of his acting journey, he said: "I didn’t have any expectation going in at all. In fact, people were saying, ‘There’s no future here, there’s no hope...’.
"That kind of discouragement I found very inspiring. Being told you can’t do something is going to make you want to go and do it."
He added: "I went off to England pretty early on to London and I was expecting it. I wasn’t sure what it would mean being Irish, particularly in the late 80s because it was kind of a tricky time to be Irish in London actually.
“But then the arts, theatre, TV and drama, they were great and they liked your difference. So I got all my early starts off the BBC and the national theatre in London and it wasn’t a hindrance in any way in fact it was the opposite.
“And I had also been given some advice along the way of not trying to be like other actors because that’s what you do when you’re really young – you try and emulate your idols or heroes. Whereas the one thing that we have all got going for ourselves is our individuality, ourselves.
“So just to use that and utilise that...but still looking, still thinking about giving up. Any day now.”
Aidan was joined by Dingle Distillery International Film Festival director Thom Palmen. The festival will showcase feature films, documentaries and shorts from both established and up-and-coming actors.
Aidan praised Dingle for is "magical element", reflecting on the times he spent there as a teenager and throughout his life. He said: "It does have this sense of otherness that I definitely plugged into when I was 13 and went to learn some Irish."
Speaking about the festival, Aidan revealed: "Whatever they are going to programme I have no doubt is going to be very exciting. It gives me an excuse to go back to Daingean Uí Chúis. I am quite excited with the news that it is going to have an international flavour to it, as film festivals should have."
Tickets to the Dingle Distillery International Film Festival go on sale on November 1.
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