zaundads actors!au headcanons
silco played by eoin padraig alan stevens - 29th of August 1973
eoin was born in county mayo, ireland, and raised in northern yorkshire from the age of seven (he has irish and british citizenship). his accent, like in the case of lauren cohan, lewis hamilton or christian bale, is an amalgamation of his mixed upbringings. most of the time it’s relaxed oxford english (not overly aristocratic, as he’s a yorkie, so sometimes there’ll be a northern inflection on certain words).
when he visits home, his connacht tends to cling before going away slowly (soft-spoken, like piers brosnan or andrew scott). his language roles include gaelic, italian, french and greek. his accent roles include oxford english, geordie, scouse, cockney, scottish (and other dialects), welsh (and other dialects), connacht (very rarely) and french.
he debuted on television through a family drama, where he played a delinquent son from a small town at war with himself and won his first awards for portraying real queerness at a time when queer stories did not have much visibility. eoin’s portrayal of a young homosexual in the eighties was acclaimed by the queer community and critics of queer cinema for the brutal truth of the character, from candid discussion about the hiv/aids crisis to in-your-face eroticism by way of intimate scenes and sexual freedom, exploration of one’s preference and attractions, long-term relationships as well as gratuitous promiscuity.
eoin was twenty-two and running parallel to his character, as he was going through that same personal exploration then, though under different circumstances. his character’s family remained unaccepting until the very end of the show, where a tragic circumstance sees the character’s life come to an end. the show was released two years after homosexuality was decriminalised in county mayo.
while traditionally catholic, eoin’s family did not practise their religion with malice or prejudice and were eoin’s first lifeline of support regarding the show and himself. eoin returned to theatre after filming the series and didn’t act on screen again until he was twenty-five, when a small production team bookmarked him for an experimental project that they were planning to shoot over the course of ten years to allow the actors to grow into their characters.
vander played by alfred merrick foulkes owain - 13th of february 1969
alfred is an englishman born to welsh parents with slavic/scandinavian heritage (explaining his physique) and has british citizenship. he was a semi-professional rugby player, retiring early at just twenty-six after a serious injury.
pro-rugby was his future until his injury, and dramatic arts was his backup, which he now had the chance to explore by joining community theatres and amateur productions until he met his agent after one of his plays and successfully broke into the west end after one particular audition solidified his presence in british theatre.
alfred is an eastender through and through; he used to struggle with accents so much in the past that his roles were often rewritten as cockneys or non-speaking henchman archetypes. his welsh accent always makes castmates/crewmembers laugh, as it’s an exaggerated impersonation of his mam (with the high pitch to match). language roles include welsh, russian, serbian, czech, and lithuanian.
his standout role was portraying a boxer in a seventies period piece for which he underwent an unrecognisable transformation by shaving down his bulky rugby player’s frame and remoulding it into the physique of a heavyweight champion.
he was close with eoin by this point, running in adjacent circles, being from the same “batch” of actors who had transitioned from stage to screen acting, though he had never had the opportunity to work with him again until riot contacted him.
after flirting around each other towards the end of filming “legends” (the “arcane” prequel), alfred and eoin officially began a romantic relationship in 2000. they had five children (2002, 2005, 2007, and twins in 2009) and married in 2013 as soon as it was legalised. when returning to film the main story in 2019, the couple’s own daughters were cast as the young versions of violet and powder.
they are both private people who do not draw spectacle beyond professional boundaries (and they were not swept up by the hollywood current), so raising a family in the age of digital camera phones and gossip magazines was possible for them, as family always remained a forefront priority.
big family dynamic every day of filming; very often eoin and alfred felt as though vi and jinx really were their daughters because the actresses had done an incredible job retaining their younger selves’ personalities and incorporating them into adult personages. everyone calls them “mum and dad”/“zaundads” because of how much eoin and alfred led the atmosphere on set and looked after the young ones.
lots of cuddles and hugs for the kiddos after emotionally distressing scenes like the opening bridge scene, powder’s abandonment, jinx’s manic episodes and silco’s death. christian wanted to retain natural emotions throughout, so most of the show was filmed chronologically, and when the story called for it he separated certain actors off set until their next scene together.
BONUS: cast interviews with the kiddos are absolute jokes—alfie and eoin as jaded parents wrangling lots of excitable toddlers.
