Normal People star Fionn O’Shea has hit back at viewers for claiming his character Jamie is “worse than Game of Thrones’ Joffrey”.
Opening up about the backlash to his bad boy role, he disputed what some fans are saying about his part.
Speaking on movie review site Hey U Guys, the Dublin actor said: “I think some of the comments about Jamie are actually unfair.
“The most common one I am seeing is Jamie is worse than King Joffrey which is insane that that is even a comparison.
“I’m not in the interest of defending Jamie in any way but he is definitely, objectively, not as bad as King Joffrey.”
He went on to say he found most of the reaction and passion that came out of Normal People exciting and told how people have been coming up to him in Tesco asking about the series.
Fionn added: “For people to feel so strongly really excites me.”
Recalling the process of learning about his role before the audition process even started, he said he channelled people he knew and met in his own life while playing the controversial character.
(Image: Element Pictures/Enda Bowe – Photographer: Enda Bowe)
Fionn said: “Although it’s not a character that jumps out, the character is smaller and I read it and thought, ‘I know those people’.
“I knew so many people like Jamie growing up and exactly how I would do it and exactly what I would [do].
“I recorded voice notes on my phone and then recorded little pieces on my phone of me improvising on how I would play the character and when
the auditions came around, thankfully, they saw me for the part.”
The actor, who is playing nice guy Eddie in new romance film Dating Amber, added: “With Eddie and Jamie, even though they are so different,
they are both so anxious and both so insecure. I, thankfully, would say I am a lot more like Eddie than Jamie.”
