Robert Sheehan: ‘My anxiety had got to the point where if I was left alone I was a twitching mess’
The Guardian (X)
“The real world had a set of rules that I had learned through my peer group: don’t show emotional vulnerability, and show confidence, and all these things you learn when you’re young,” he says. In the audition room and on stage, however, Sheehan could “have contact with some dormant stuff in myself”. It was a reward system that taught him his emotions were valuable – but only as acting currency.
When the first series of The Umbrella Academy debuted in 2019, Netflix claimed that 45m households watched it globally. Sheehan remembers being approached by fans at a bar in Toronto, the summer after the show had launched. “People relate to you and the show differently, because of its distribution,” he says. Sheehan squirms in his seat, recounting the deference of the encounters. “I was having people come up to me in a quasi-religious manner, like: ‘I just want to shake your hand.’” The increased level of recognition made him feel “a bit strange and awkward”.
Ambition had once been bound up with “making my value higher in other people’s minds”. It led to taking jobs on studio films (such as the Peter Jackson-produced Mortal Engines, a commercial and critical flop). Now Sheehan has realised the work that brings him the most joy is in the theatre: “It’s this perfect closed ring of performance, audience and immediate high stakes.” The last two years have seen him taking to the stage with more frequency, with Frankie Boyle in Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Gate theatre in Dublin in 2022, and this year leading a theatre adaptation of cult film comedy Withnail and I at the Birmingham Rep, as well as starring in the family drama Reunion, which debuted at the prestigious Galway international arts festival. He has come to terms with pursuing “a present ambition versus a future ambition,” he says.
Released from a behemoth Netflix production whose contractual obligations spanned several years, Sheehan’s present ambitions involve developing projects with his friends and “creating our own stuff” on “a more manageable scale”. He is keen to put down roots and renovate a house in Cork, where he’s been living for the past 18 months. Sheehan says it took him a long time to admit that Ireland is “where I’m the most relaxed version of myself”.
when they asked the cast what fans can expect from season four and Robert said “fans, expect nothing and you will gain everything” that’s when i knew.
i knew right then and there i wasn’t going to like this season.
in that moment, i had this very strong and very intense gut feeling that this season was going to be something else… and i was going to feel a very specific way about it. and i was not going to be happy with it.
like for real i felt like Rob was saying don’t get your hopes up because it’s not going to live up to those expectations and you’re just not gonna like it.
honestly, it felt like he was trying to tell us we were not going to be happy about so many things in the season and to just set the bar reeeeeal real low now so we won’t be so disappointed with how it was all going to be or end.
he tried to warn us. he really tried. 😢🖤
(side note- was i already unsure of it because it was the final season and i just didn’t want it to end? yes, of course. i love this show, adore klaus and the hargreeves so much and don’t want them to go away and i always want to watch more of them and their crazy stories 🥺🖤 and i mean, was i also already unsure of how it was going to be or if i would like it because season three wasn’t quite what i was expecting and didn’t end up loving it as much as i loved the first two? again, yes. of course. so like the feeling was already there, but when i saw that, when i heard Robert say that, it really cemented it in for me that it was not going to be what i not only wanted for a finale season with these characters that i’ve grown to love and adore so much, but also it was not going to be something i would really enjoy or would be satisfied with how they were ending this story. him saying that stuck out to me and it stayed with me for a very long time.)
Like Robert Sheehan? Want to see more of his filmography that isn't as easily available? Want to interact with other fans and make new friends?
Then do I have just the thing for you!
✨Sheehan Movie Night✨
I know I've talked about this a while ago, but I decided it's time to host a weekly movie night, featuring our favourite Irish actor!
☛ Streams start at 5:30pm EST every Saturday evening.
☛ To join, all you have to do is come to my kosmi room at the appointed time. You don't even need an account!
Hope to see you all there 💚
-text schedule & content warnings below cut-
5/13 - The Borrowers
5/20 - Cherrybomb
5/27 - Three Summers
6/03 - Jet Trash
6/10 - Road Within
6/17 - Anita B
6/24 - Bad Samaritan
7/01 - Song of Sway Lake
7/08 - Moonwalkers
7/15 - Demons Never Die (cw: suicide)
7/22 - The Messenger (cw: paranoia/delusions, self harm? I have not watched this one yet, personally though, so I’m not sure of everything)
