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Actor Seamus O'Hara has revealed it was Colin Farrell who taught him how to 'play it cool' on the red carpet. O'Hara was first thrust into the global spotlight when An Irish Goodbye - in which he starred alongside James Martin - won an Oscar in 2023. That success reignited an acting career he had been contemplating packing in - now O'Hara is on screens around the world playing Fenian leader Patrick Cochrane in Netflix's House Of Guinness. The 35-year-old said the top-table cast of The Banshees Of Inisherin - which itself was up for nine gongs at the 95th Academy Awards - were 'full of advice' during the trip to Hollywood. He said it 'meant the world' to see the group 'looking up and smiling and supporting' as the Irish Goodbye team sang Happy Birthday to Martin during their acceptance speech. O'Hara told the Irish Mail on Sunday: 'That Banshees crowd - Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and Kerry Condon - they really looked after us. 'We were this little short film in this big tidal wave of Irish creativity that was happening that year. And they would be over checking, "Are you okay? Are you being looked after?"' Across various events that week the Banshees gang 'couldn't have been more helpful and supportive'. Condon was already a 'familiar face' and 'friend' to O'Hara from their time working on the film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Farrell, who was up for Best Actor, was 'incredibly sound' and shared some tips on coping with the limelight. O'Hara said: 'Colin was very good at helping us with being confronted by the wall of photographers and journalists for the first time, which is an experience. He gave some pretty practical advice about how to keep your nerve - listen to yourself, don't react, play it cool, smile, be nice.' The lessons will have come in handy in recent weeks as O'Hara promoted House Of Guinness across numerous glitzy events and premieres. But he admits such outings are still 'always such a shock to the system for me', adding: 'I very much live the domestic life at home with the kids and the school runs and lunches and ironing uniforms, and that is my day-to-day. 'And then all of a sudden, bang, you're in front of a camera and people want to know your opinion on something. It's like, "What?!"' - Stephen Knight's fictionalised account of the Guinness family in 19th century Dublin has been well received by viewers and critics around the world. Reviews closer to home have been more mixed, with some Irish critics and audiences rounding on ' - among other things - the show's depiction of Irish- ness, the actors' accents and the appearance of some cast members. O'Hara pointed out that even critical appraisals mean people are 'talking about' and 'engaging with' the show - which remains in the top 10 most-watched shows in both Ireland and the UK. He added: 'It's none of my business whether they like it or not. I've heard all of the criticisms. Of course I have. I live on the island - people are going to tell you. 'I've heard every one of them, and I could stand here and refute every single one of them but I don't think that's my place. 'I think that the actors' and filmmakers' and creatives' work speaks for itself and if people don't like it, that's okay.' O'Hara could soon be in line for another trip to the Oscars, again for a darkly comedic Northern Irish short film. Three Keenings, from medical doctor-turned-director Oliver McGoldrick, imagines a world in which the old Irish practice of keening - professional, performative grieving at funerals - is still customary. It has already won awards and has qualified for the Oscars long list, with An Irish Goodbye having proved there is 'no ceiling any more', according to O'Hara. The theatrical grief of his character in the new short turns real in one key scene, which left O'Hara 'terrified' when the shoot came. 'You're reading [the script] going, "Oh, that's great. That'll be brilliant". And then you get to work and you go, "I need to actually do that. They're going to say action, and then I need to actually cry".' While some actors can turn on the waterworks 'at the drop of a hat', O'Hara admits he finds it 'exhausting'. He said: 'You're sitting in a negative headspace for quite a while and I suppose the further out of that mood you pull yourself, you're giving yourself more work to go back into it. 'It's not even as though there's rivers of tears running down my face in the scene. I think a lot of men kind of do cry like that - you don't really know how to. It's a really ugly, painful thing.' O'Hara said he spoke to his director 'quite a bit' about the latter's past in medicine, 'because it's a big part of his identity'. He added: 'He had experience as a doctor, so he is accustomed to the true horrors of the world. I think a lot of the horrors of the entertainment industry sort of wash off his back because he knows it's not really a big deal. 'So he's a great problem solver. He's got, I wouldn't say a clinical mind, but he's a really decisive filmmaker, and I think that definitely came off the back of having had this whole wealth of experience in another field.' Originally from Cushendun on the Antrim coast, O'Hara now lives with his wife Anne-Marie and their nine-year-old son and six-year-old daughter near Newry in Co. Armagh. Though mainly 'just their daddy', the actor has 'curated clips that are suitable' to give the children a flavour of what he does. He said: 'They've seen Patrick Cochrane storming up streets, and they've seen Lee Thompson from Blue Lights and they've seen Turlough from Irish Goodbye.' And despite being 'told my whole career that you have to be here, you have to be there', he won't be moving the family to London or anywhere else. O'Hara said: 'I suppose my choice to do it was more just that I'm a home bird rather than anything. I didn't want to leave home. I love it here.' He remembers a conversation with Dublin casting director Maureen Hughes shortly after the birth of his son: 'I was saying, "God, how am I going to be able to keep up the same pace and devote as much time?" 'She stood there, and rhymed off 20 actors who have children, beautiful thriving families and thriving careers. It was important for me to hear that at that time.
