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HE ALMOST didn’t get the part.
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HE → update → part
When the third series of the award-winning show The Unreal kicks off with a double-header on Sunday afternoon, actor Jamie Beamish is to the forefront as Lenny, the owner of the local pub and grocery store – but he nearly wasn’t there at all.
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he → win → pub
Fresh from the role of the hypocritical Lord Nigel Berbrooke in the smash-hit Bridgerton on Netflix, where he tried to marry Daphne until it emerged he had fathered an illegitimate child with a maid, he rarely looked at social media.
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he → try → media
‘Straight up honest with you, I wasn’t aware of The Unreal,’ Jamie explains.
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Jamie → explain → Unreal
‘I’m not a huge social media guy and I check direct message requests once every three months, because from the Bridgerton fans and different people — you get some weird kinds of messages here and there.
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you → ’m → messages
‘But I was checking it, and this is back in June, and I found one from Bonnie Dempsey.
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I → check → Dempsey
Bonnie’s the director of The Unreal; it’s been her baby all the way through.
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it → ’ → Unreal
'She’s from Waterford, I’m from Waterford, and we knew each other as teenagers back in the Nineties, but I think the last time I saw Bonnie could be 25 years ago!’
uncertain
I → ’ → Bonnie
She could have gone through his agent, and Jamie had in any case to turn down the chance because he was rehearsing The Shaughraun with Druid in Galway, but fate intervened.
Shooting of The Unreal was pushed back a week, and Jamie’s schedule opened up, just as well because he had caught up on the RTÉ Player and was really impressed by what he saw.
uncertain
he → go → what
‘These are happy accidents,’ he says.
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he → say → ?
‘Suddenly I went, “okay, great, I can finish in Galway on Saturday night.
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I → go → night
I start filming on Monday morning,” and it literally worked like that.
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it → start → that
I thought The Unreal was really smart, clever stuff.
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Unreal → think → ?
‘Our main characters, the Kelly family [they’re refugees from a 1980s sitcom] have come to Inishcéal – Story Island, if you think about it – and they’re looking for some answers to a bit of a mystery that’s cropped up.
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that → ’re → mystery
Someone sent them a postcard from Inishscéal, and they’re looking to see who sent it.
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who → send → it
When they get there, one of the first people they meet is Lenny, who thinks he’d be the alpha hero in a movie!
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he → get → movie
‘As the series goes on, you kind of start wondering, like, what?
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you → go → ?
What makes this guy tick really?
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guy → make → ?
It’s really clever, you know, and it doesn’t talk down to the audience, so it really works on loads of different levels.
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it → ’ → levels
You can look at it as a family show.
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You → look → show
At this point, if Jamie seems familiar, but you can’t quite place him, that goes to show the chameleon nature of the good character actor, one who can go the full range from interrogating Saoirse Ronan in Hanna to Ciarán, the hapless on again-off again boyfriend of Aunt Sarah in Derry Girls.
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who → seem → Girls
Off-screen, though, he faced a bigger challenge – in the summer of 2007, Jamie was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer, when he was in the middle of the run of comedy I, Keano, based on Roy Keane.
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he → face → Keane
At 31, he was young to get it.
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he → get → it
‘It’s all a roll of the dice,’ Jamie says.
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Jamie → ’ → dice
‘There was nothing in the lifestyle that meant I should be susceptible, but it happened.
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it → be → lifestyle
I had amazing doctors, nurses and haematologists in University Hospital Waterford who really looked after me for six months.
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who → have → months
'I went through chemo and then went into remission, and I was back rehearsing for the next run of I, Keano two months later, which was amazing.
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which → go → I
‘Unfortunately, two years later, I relapsed.
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I → relapse → ?
At that stage, they kicked into high gear, and I ended up having a stem cell transplant in 2009.
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I → kick → 2009
‘I don’t know if being sick really informed kind my approach to work, because I’m a bit of a workaholic, and I would do whatever came in, but I suddenly became very choosy because I want to be in things I want to be in.’
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I → know → things
One of those things was Bridgerton, and playing Berbrooke brought global recognition.
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playing → play → recognition
‘When I got cast in the role, I didn’t know how big the part was,’ Jamie says.
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Jamie → cast → role
‘They sent me two scenes.
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They → send → scenes
I only taped for it and they cast me off that.
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they → tap → that
When the actual full script came in, I went, “Jesus, this is bigger than I thought”.
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I → come → ?
‘When I got cast in the role, I didn’t know how big the part was,’ Jamie says of Lord Berbrooke in Bridgerton
‘
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Jamie → cast → Bridgerton
When they were doing costume fittings, I was in a warehouse in London trying on these costumes, and I said, “Wow!
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I → do → costumes
How many shows are you working on?”
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you → work → shows
And they said, “Oh, only one”.
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they → say → ?
And it was then I started realising, wow, this is enormous, this is huge.’
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this → start → ?
…and 40 more, not listed.
The Aporia
