Cork actor Darragh Shannon: 'My most shameful moment is when I turned down a hug from Lily-Rose Depp'

My claim to fame is that my uncle Tim is responsible for writing The Langer Song which was number one in the charts back in 2004.

Sat, 06 May, 2023 - 02:00

Mary Cate Smith

I grew up in Douglas in Cork. Acting wouldn’t have been at all on my radar as a young child — subconsciously, maybe — I was quite a clown when I was with my family. My mother used to always say ‘you have something chaotic in you that would be amazing for stage’.

Through absolute shyness, I put that on the back foot and put all my imagination into football and soccer. It wasn’t cool to be an actor or to be in drama classes or anything.

My earliest memory is leaving the northside to move to our new home in Douglas. We were a couple of houses down from Roy Keane’s family home in Mayfield. I never got to meet him but there’s definitely a soulful admiration there for him.

I do think I was born to be the person I am. When I’m acting, that’s where I come alive. I feel like my subconscious knows that’s where I am fully myself.

The greatest challenge I’ve ever faced is dealing with grief at a young age and knowing that it will be OK. My father passed away when I was 17.

My dad Tim Shannon was like the Cork version of Jim Carrey. He was just a natural comic who had such appreciation for culture, art, and music. When people would come to the house, they would be in tears of laughter. I definitely inherited it from him. I let it go into my bloodstream at a young age. I remember practicing characters in the mirror and wanting to make people laugh.

I’m very blessed with the family I have. My claim to fame is that my uncle Tim is responsible for writing ‘The Langer Song’ that was number one in the charts back in 2004. I remember when Cork City Football Club were at the height of it in the Irish Premier Division — we were winning every game. We sold CDs at the matches — pounds into the pockets. It got so popular that I was selling CDs to my teachers and classmates in St Columba’s.

My proudest achievement is being cast in a movie with George MacKay. In late 2019, I went to see 1917 in Ballincollig cinema with my cousin, Tadhg. We were chatting about it afterwards — how effortless it was. We sat in the car and I was a bit silent. I put it out into the universe that I would love to work with him. A couple of months previously, I had auditioned for a film called Wolf. I wasn’t sure if I had gotten the call back, I had forgotten about it. I was in Birmingham, doing a show with Landmark — Louise O’Neill’s Asking For It — I got a call to say I’d gotten the part and I’d be acting with George MacKay and Lily-Rose Depp.

I think if you’re a good person and you really believe in something, you can get it. We’re all soulfully connected — the law of attraction works but you can’t just do it and then go eat a sandwich.

Lily is amazing. She’s a kind soul. My most shameful moment is when I turned down a hug from Lily-Rose Depp just because of covid measures. We had two weeks of rehearsals before we started filming. This is at the height of lockdown, in August 2020. I had a session with the movement director, Terry Notary, who is just a magician. He’s responsible for all the Planet of the Apes movies. He was working with me, and Lily had come in to get food from the fridge. She knew who I was and she came over to give me a hug but I was told ‘please wear a mask. Don’t be in people’s faces’. So I turned down the hug.

My greatest quality is listening to people and not feeling like I have to talk all the time.

The person I turn to most is God. I believe that God is watching us and he is there for us.

I’ve been very lucky in my life. Catholicism was not pushed on me but I was raised with it. I lost God for a while but since lockdown, I connect with God every day. I’m the better for it.

My uncle John, who also passed away when I was in my Leaving Cert year had a saying that ‘life isn’t a rehearsal. Live every day as if it was your last and someday, you will be right.’

I love experiencing what this world has to give every single day. Yes, there’s heartache and pain and misery. But there’s also people you’ve never met in your life that pass you by, shades of color you’ve never seen before.

The greatest advice I’ve ever heard wasn’t given to me, it was to my co-star in Tartuffe, Naoise Dunbar. He was told by the fabulous Mary Murray that ‘sometimes the magic just isn’t there’. When it’s not, don’t let it consume you.

I’d like to be remembered as a cool daddy who has the best jokes and mortifies his children on the regular, while also being a class act husband.

If I could change something about my past, I would have tried therapy sooner in my life. What a marvellous discovery.

Climate change has affected how I live my life. I’m more aware of the things I buy and the choices I make and how it affects the environment.

What scares me most in life is being locked in a room with snakes. I’d like to see how my acting ability gets me out of that one.

If I took a different fork in the road, it would definitely have led me to social care work. It’s in the family and it’s something I always seem to have an undying admiration for and something that I am easily drawn to.