Tony Tormey: Just sitting in a damp rehearsal room for a play still excites me and putting 'actor' down on forms still makes me feel proud

Tony Tormey.

I grew up on Baggot Street in Dublin, so my parents knew Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, and the likes. My dad died in a car crash when I was 16 years old. So, it was myself, my sister, my mum and my aunt after that. Everything was about us kids, which is just like how my life is now. My life revolves around my kids. My son Max is 18 and Isabella is 15. Someone once said to me that when you have kids you're no longer the picture, you're the frame. I'm very much a frame right now.

Looking back, I don't think I could have gone into any other career. I was supposed to go to art college before my dad died but after that, necessity took over and I was sent out to work. I've always loved movies, music, and anything to do with the business though. I think it was a path I was always interested in but it wasn't until a friend of mine suggested I audition for an acting course that I actually went for it. I was working in St James's Hospital as a lab aide at the time and the Gaiety School of Acting had just started up with Joe Dowling and my friend was like "why don't you have a go at it" and I did.