From Irish Mirror:
Irish star Colin O’Donoghue talks about his Captain Hook role in TV drama series Once Upon A Time
The Once Upon A Time star has revealed how electronic band Depeche Mode inspired his character’s wardrobe.
Hunky Colin plays a young, moody version of Captain Hook in the hit US show.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “I get to wear a lot of eye-liner and a bucket load of leather.
One of the creators – Edward Kitsis – said we’re going to make it look like he’s going to a Depeche Mode concert so that’s the type of costume I get to wear.
“But it’s fine because I’m not used to wearing black leather pants back home so it’s fun to play dress-up for a while.”
Colin added jokingly that he would only ever wear this type of leather on set, as it might get a few stares back in his home town of Drogheda, Co Louth.
He said: “I haven’t kept my black leather pants, I’m not really sure where I would ever wear them.
“ I don’t know if my wife Helen would be convinced by them.”
Colin first appeared on Once Upon A Time last autumn.
He was due to be a guest star on the popular fairytale-based drama, but he was such a hit with viewers that producers decided to write him in the next season as a series regular.
The 32-year-old admitted that he didn’t believe at first he would even get the part of Captain Hook.
Colin added: “When I first got the audition for the show, I thought: ‘well there is no way I can play this because I’m not old enough to play the
traditional Captain Hook’.
“We discussed it and, together with the creators, we managed to come up with something that is quite different.
“Our Captain Hook can be charming and caring and that’s what makes it all the more heartbreaking when he does something villainous, because you know he has a moral code.
“He knows he is doing something wrong but he is just so consumed by this quest for revenge that he just can’t stop himself.”
Colin revealed he had been a Peter Pan fan and Robbie William’s Hook growing up, which made his job all the more challenging.
He recalled: “I would have been just bang slap right at the age when Hook came out to be the target market for it. I’d never thought I’d be getting to play such an iconic character. You know that when there are theme parks, and there are people dressed up as that character, that it’s a proper role.
“And I just wanted to do it justice but in my own way, have my own take it on it.
“Everybody has grown up with Disney so you do have a responsibility when you go on this sort of show.”
Colin said one of the perks of acting for the Vancouver-based programme was the chance to work with his former Tudor co-star, Sarah Bolger.
The Dublin actress portrays Princess Aurora in the show.
Colin revealed: “Sarah and I actually have quite a few scenes together and we both came on the show pretty much around the same time.
“It’s nice to see her and spend time with her because Sarah is such a great person.”
Although he is delighted to have joined the main cast of Once Upon A Time, Colin confessed it pushed him to take one of the toughest decisions of his life: leaving his band, The Enemies.
He added: “It was a really tough decision because I love all the lads and we all get on so well, but I think it was one everyone knew was on the cards, especially when I started on the show.
“It was particularly difficult to leave the band because this year is the 10th anniversary since we got together and things are looking like they are starting to kick off for the lads now.
“But I’m away and I sort of have been away for the last two or three years, on and off. It would not have been fair on the lads, for me to say: ‘Well, I’m going to work abroad for another year’, even though they were great about it.
“It’s also not fair to people who are now becoming fans of the band, and who might want to go see them play but they couldn’t see them because I was away.”
Colin first shot to fame in Ireland with his appearance on hit soap Fair City and later in popular series The Clinic and The Tudors. However, it wasn’t until he landed a leading role in the acclaimed exorcism film The Rite, opposite Anthony Hopkins, that he became a household name in the United States.
Despite his recent success abroad, Colin has no intention of relocating to Los Angeles or Canada where he is shooting Once Upon a Time.
He explained: “You don’t know what circumstances are going to come up, so it’s tough to make a decision like that and move somewhere for two or three years.
“Whatever happens, Drogheda will always be my home because it is where my friends and family are.”
