Moe Dunford: ‘I locked myself in a room for seven days and when I left, I had the Irish. It sounds extreme but that’s how I do it’

Playing everything from Viking royalty, to a rogue in The Dry, Waterford actor Moe Dunford isn’t afraid to take risks – including learning Irish in just one week for a new movie role

Is Jack the lad on The Dry?

Ciara Dwyer

Moe Dunford doesn’t have happy memories of childhood trips to the theatre. “I’d go to the odd show with my mom in The Park Hotel in Dungarvan. I’d begrudgingly go along,” says the 36-year-old, who hails from the Co Waterford town. “I didn’t really see what it was all about — wanting to be an actor. I just thought: ‘Why would anybody want to get up in front of other people and perform? What the hell is all this about? Why am I watching these people speaking to themselves on stage?’ I was quite happy to be nowhere near theatre or the performing arts. I felt that there was a lot of ‘hoity-toity, we’re in the arts’ sort of thing and I didn’t want to be any part of that.”

There was, however, a more accessible side of the craft that appealed to the young Dunford. “The flipside was I always loved film. I always loved movies. I loved Americana and I grew up watching Spielberg and all that.”