Colm Meaney first endeared himself to Irish audiences playing the part of Jimmy Rabbitt Snr., in the movie of Roddy Doyle’s novel The Commitments. He went on to play the same character in the next two films that were based on the other novels in Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy – The Snapper and The Van. For copyright reasons, the name of the role that Colm played had to be changed in the three movies, but in each of them he played the same person – the father of a Northside working class family. I’m very proud of those films, he told Gerry, They were great fun to make, and it was a unique opportunity to play the same character in three different films. These weren’t sequel films like Indiana Jones – they were individual films about real characters, and they allowed me really to explore the part in real detail.
Over the years, Colm has returned frequently to this country to act in as number of cutting edge Irish films. One of these was Intermission – in which he was teamed up with Colin Farrell. More recently, he played in Kings – an Irish language film that explored the world of Irish emigrants to London. He has just finished working on the movie adaptation of David Peace’s acclaimed novel The Damed Utd – in which he plays the part of Don Revie, the one-time manager of Leeds United.
Over the past decade, he has been able to combine his work in the movies – with regular TV appearances. Earlier this year, he made a Pilot episode of the American version of the BBC drama series Life On Mars – although it is not yet clear if the series will be picked up by any of the US networks. Colm is still based in the USA, but he crosses the Atlantic frequently, and enjoys working with emerging writers and directors back home in Ireland: I like to work with emerging talent. In fact, for me it’s a bit of a no-brainer. In five or ten years time, some of these young directors and producers are likely to be picking up Academy Awards. I would like to think that I was able to spot their talent at an early stage in their careers.