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What’s the view from your sofa?
A dark-green wallpapered wall, then a big TV over the fireplace, which I know you’re not supposed to do. Our two dogs, Meatloaf and Puffin, and two cats, Boo and Myrtle, are usually on the sofa. We also have a tortoise called Sandwich.
Puffin as in Puffin Rock, the kids’ animated series you narrate about the marine birds on the coast of Ireland?
Yes, Puffin is named in tribute, because the kids [O’Dowd has two sons with his wife, writer/presenter Dawn O’Porter] were watching a lot of it at the time. It’s basically me reading them a story!
What have you been watching lately?
I really enjoyed Bad Sisters and Colin from Accounts. My kids just finished watching all of The Simpsons. It’s been fun explaining some of those jokes. I’m also in an episode! We watch old movies with them, but I made a mistake… they were too young for Arachnophobia. Luckily, the younger one said, “I need to stop watching this now.” He’s absolutely obsessed with insects, so he watches a lot of YouTube videos about how to build terrariums. We’ve got a little pond in the garden and he’s been going bananas for all these newts and salamanders, and now the frogs have started coming.
Puffin Rock features regional Irish accents. Do you think we’re hearing them more often on screen?
We’re going through such a great phase for Irish actors achieving success, and it’s becoming more and more normalised. Regional accents are important because it’s all about representation. There’s no point everybody just sounding like posh English people, because that’s not what everybody’s like.
Can you speak any Irish?
Bits, but not well. I have been using Duolingo since the Celtic revival has been happening. I think the resurgence is wonderful, because through the suppression of language we’ve lost so much knowledge about ourselves. The last century in Ireland was just about the state standing on its own two feet and the actual identity underneath all of that wasn’t the primary concern. Now we’ve kind of established ourselves, we’re yearning for the things we have lost. I just hope the Irish language isn’t destroyed by the British in the next 100 years.
You also used your own accent in the hit romcom Bridesmaids. Do you think there are enough romcoms nowadays?
I think they moved to television. There’s great romcom writing within shows like Sharon Horgan’s Catastrophe. It’s a shame, the cinema has become absolutely swarmed with action movies, and now there’s no place for romcoms to go. I presume date night movies are still a thing? What do people go to, Superman?
You’ve written series including Moone Boy and Small Town, Big Story. Who do you test your material out on?
When Dawn and I lived in Los Angeles, we hosted a lot of barbies and invited Irish actors and people like Jason Segel, who is one of my best pals, so loads of people to bounce stuff off. Now we’re in the UK, it’s Sunday roasts. I like to pitch a lot during those things and put myself under pressure to write something by the time I see everyone again in six weeks.
You starred in Black Mirror as a man who enrols his wife (Rashida Jones) into a healthcare subscription service to keep her alive after she’s diagnosed with a brain tumour. Did it make you think about the future of tech?
The episode [Common People] is really about how to deal with your partner when they’re unwell. I’ve spent a lot of time recently in hospitals with elderly relatives. We all live longer, but we haven’t made the conditions for being old any better. We’ve decided as a society we’re going to be led by tech rather than compassion, so we have to bear the consequences. Some of it is useful and some is terrible, just like AI. You’re not going to really be given a choice. It’s going to be like a self-service checkout – less personal, slightly more efficient and the experience is more s**t for everyone.
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