IRISH actor Robert Sheehan has described his big-screen Hollywood debut as ‘an absolute eye opener’.
The Love/Hate star can currently be seen in new teen fantasy adventure franchise, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.
And the 25-year-old has found the attention he’s getting from the novel-turned-movie franchise’s fans a little over-whelming at times.
Speaking to the Irish Post in London earlier this week, former Misfits star Sheehan compared the hysteria around his first Hollywood adventure to “Beatlemania”.
He said: “Comic Con (a US comic book conference) was my first real direct experience of the expectation [and] first eye-witness experience.
“I’m not a very savvy social media person, I’m not on checking the traffic, I don’t really know how to use Twitter very well.
“Since then it has been building and building. When we turn up to premieres at times it’s like Beatlemania, we’re getting out of our cars, and there are hundreds of people screaming.”
The Co Laois actor is clearly revelling in the widespread recognition for his role in the film, but Jamie Campbell Bower who plays mysterious shadowhunter Jace humorously gave him a reality check in London on Monday afternoon.
Bower said: “We were in LA and you (Sheehan) went ‘oh I feel like the Rolling Stones’.”
Lily Collins who plays the lead female role of Clary added “yeah, and I heard a fan go ‘not quite’.”
The friendship and banter between the trio is genuine, but despite having this support Sheehan expressed that the fame and attention is “very hard to compute at times.”
He described the fans’ reactions as “fairly hysterical.”
“There’s been a feverish anticipation amongst the fans,” he added, “and every time we show up to a premiere there’s hundreds of fans who’ve been there for 12 hours camped out. It absolutely bowls me over.”
Sheehan’s plays the character of Simon, a geeky and bookish best friend to Clary with an American accent that director Harold Zwart described as “fantastic”.
This role is a significant contrast to the bad boy he embodied in recent Channel 5 series Love/Hate. He said of his softer role, “it was a new discovery for me”.
Whilst the Portlaoise man and his cast mates have been travelling on a promotional tour for the movie, the sequel of which has already been scheduled for filming next month, English audiences have enjoyed series one of the Irish gangland drama.
“To be honest, since Love/Hate has come on English TV I have not been on the continent. I’ve been working so all of the reaction that I’ve been hearing about has been remote”, Sheehan said of not being able to witness the reaction first hand.
He continued to speak of the inspiration for the hugely popular Irish drama.
“In regards to the show being an honest depiction of the Irish gangster underworld, I’m not an authority to ask on that subject because I didn’t approach the role in any methodical way.
“I didn’t spend any time with real members of the gangster underworld.
“A lot of the storyline that Love/Hate have is somewhat from the Irish media from stories that have happened, and [have been] modified slightly, changed and dramatised, so there is a basis of honesty for a lot of the crimes that the characters undergo.
“There’s a lot of honesty in what they do because these things have actually happened and been reported in the media.
"The rest is just good writing by Stuart Carolan, it’s just one man who straps himself to the beast and writes the whole show, he’s written all three series.
“That’s as much evidence as I can give on that.”
Sheehan will begin filming the next movie in The Mortal Instruments series in September.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is released in cinemas nationwide tomorrow August 21.
