Wheel of Time: Cork actor Dónal Finn on his major new Amazon series
Dónal Finn attends a photocall for new BBC Drama "SAS Rogue Heroes" at BFI Southbank on October 24, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Meet the Cork actor who’s landed a leading role in hit fantasy series . Dónal Finn will soon be on our screens in the second series of the show, the latest in a number of roles that mark him as a talent to watch out for.
From the village of Dromina in north Cork, Finn studied at a prestigious London drama school and has been notching up the roles steadily ever since. A childhood passion for drama and musical theatre has developed into a growing career, and Finn is grateful to his family - including parents Dónal and Maureen - for fostering his interest throughout.
“I think a goal of mine would be to repay my mother for every ounce of petrol that she ever put in the car to drive me to Mallow, Charleville, Cork, Kanturk,” he said, in an interview which took place before the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike.
“Pantos in Fermoy, musicals in the Opera House, drama lessons out in Ballincollig.
“If I could go as far as to repay her for all the hours and the miles that she put in that Mitsubishi Space Wagon. I'm eternally grateful to both my parents, for such wild and almost I would say daft support!
“Because nobody knew where it would go, what it would foster and ideas of going to London (where he is currently based) seem so alien and kind of ambitious. I will always be really grateful to them. It makes me quite emotional.”
The first season of the fantasy series was a global hit and centred on Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a member of a magical organisation who takes five young people on a journey. She believed that one of them might be the reincarnation of the Dragon, a powerful individual prophesied to save the world or destroy it. The Irish actor joins season two as Mat Cauthon, a character many fans of the books the show is based on feel connected to.
“Something that's in the show and in the books as well is that maybe Mat can offer an element of levity and lightness within something that has the potential to explore such depths of darkness, and the challenges of the struggle between good and evil,” says Finn.
“I feel he is doing a lot of covering. Something that helped me as an ‘in’ to the character was seeing him a little bit as a sad clown - using their humour to bring joy to those around him while also having a lot of inner turmoil in facing challenges of regret, of cowardice, and investigating the theme that comes in a lot, of predetermination and predestiny. Whether the choices that Mat makes as a person will influence who he is to become or whether, because of the nature of the Wheel of Time, there's a set pattern, and these are the choices he would always make.
Growing up in a farming family as one of eight children in Dromina, Finn would entertain his siblings and parents by doing impressions. As a teenager, he would regularly attend musical societies and drama groups, but that seemed distant from being able to pursue acting professionally as a career.
With the encouragement and support of family and teachers, the young actor applied himself to the audition process and was accepted into several UK drama schools - including the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art - after being awarded a scholarship.
He considers being accepted into LAMDA and later being cast in hit TV series as major turning points in his career. On graduating, other early screen credits have included and Netflix series .
Theatre remains a passion, too - last year he completed a theatre run of in New York, where he played Brendan, the character played by Jack Reynor in director John Carney’s original film.
Scenes from both and were shot in the Moroccan city of Essaouira, and by an uncanny coincidence, he filmed scenes for the latter in the exact same spot (“to the nth degree, to the metre squared”) where he took a call from his agent about the role a year earlier.
His busy career path means a lot of travel - but Finn returns to his homeplace regularly, and is keen to take on more Irish as well as international roles in a vibrant time for Irish storytelling.
“I do try to balance this job as much as I can with time in Cork and time with my family. I'm massively proud of coming from Cork and having this experience,” he said.
“I feel that I was able to kind of cut out a bit of a path that I didn't know was possible to me from when I was starting out in drama school or doing drama lessons in North Cork. I feel massively proud to come from where I come from and to be playing a part that is on a big project.
“I'm playing someone who is English, and to be given the opportunity to stretch myself in those ways, I really hope that is a continuation in my career. I'd love to represent people from Cork and Cork stories and Cork lives onscreen. That would be a massive privilege. I feel really honoured to be given these opportunities also to stretch myself away from the town that I know and love so well.”
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