I grew up in Blackrock in Dublin. My father had the attitude that a gentleman shouldn’t talk about money, which was not a great thing to grow up with, and my mother was very practical. My mother had been an actress and my dad was a barrister.
While he was a brilliant barrister, he struggled to get paid. It was either feast or famine at home – either we were in the money or we were stony broke. I wasn’t taught to save but my mother was thrifty; she was an eco-warrior before it was fashionable and knew to fix and buy second-hand clothes.
The dregs of our milky tea would be used to make bread. So I grew up with a great sense of being able to make do with very little. There were so many situations like that.
Being an actor and performer in Dublin, I would sometimes have some money and sometimes zero. I remember having only 20p going into Quinnsworth (now Tesco) and all I could afford was a carrot. I still don’t know what I was going to make with the carrot.
That was around 1991. But then you’d get a voiceover or writing gig and have loads of money. I have a bit more stability now.
I’ve had a lot of theatre work recently, though it’s not nearly as well paid as films. But all the work has been very steady of late. I’m married to a musician and artist – we were never one of those couples with a “laying hen”.
We never had that stability but we’d make do and branch out into different areas to keep the kids fed and clothed. We like to go away a lot, particula.
