One small step from moone boy to the oscars

DAVID RAWLE is just hours away from airing of the first episode of the third series of the hit comedy ‘Moone Boy’ when the Celt speaks with him on Monday evening. The show’s success has seen the Carrigallen native appear in national papers at home and abroad, the Late Late Show, and he is fresh from a trip to the Oscars, where a nomination was garnered for the sumptuous, animated Irish work ‘Song of the Sea’ in which he voices ‘Ben’. So, The Celt reckons, he is finally ready to handle the big-time of the Last Word. He spoke to PAUL NEILAN...

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He’s an impressively collected speaker, as one might imagine, and is finishing his homework well in advance of Sky’s 9pm airing of the smash hit, which sees Martin and the loveable characters of the UFO-spotting-capital of Europe, yes, Boyle, and more of that later, return to our screens.
“Cannot wait for it,” he says of the season three opener.
“Martin and Padraig visit their uncle in Dublin, while Deborah and Liam go to Wexford for their 20th anniversary. Martin’s uncle, Danny, is selling ‘Encyclopia Irelandicas’ so they decide to give him a hand... to win a prize,” he offers as a teaser of what awaits Martin and imaginary friend, Sean, played by co-creator and director Chris O’Dowd, whose own career has hit stellar heights.
“Martin’s about 14 now,” says David of our eponymous hero. This being the case are the day’s of his imaginary friend numbered as the character grows?
“I think Martin was always too old to have an imaginary friend, I think, so I don’t really think there will be a time when he will get rid of it, if you know what I mean, so I don’t think he will ever get rid of it but maybe he will but it might be in another series, or a movie, but at the minute he doesn’t look like he’ll give him up any time soon.”
Is there talk of a movie?
“There is but there’s nothing certain at the minute...”
As Martin’s grows will the material get darker or will Martin stay as he is forever?
“I think he’ll be like that forever, he’s just that naive character.”

Awards
The Oscars, David! The Celt forgets itself and just blurts out his recent visit to the 87th Academy Awards.
“Yes!” He says with a delighted laugh.
“That was absolutely mad. I did a film two years ago by the makers of the Secret of Kells [Oscar nominated in 2010 for a best animated film], this was called Songs of the Sea, which was just a beautiful script.
It was just after we had filmed the second series of Moone Boy and the recording took a week in total, then that was nominated for the Oscar. So, Cartoon Saloon, they’re the very nice people who make it, said ‘Why don’t you come over’ to go to these parties. So we said ‘brilliant’ but the tickets to the Oscars themselves are the Irish equivalent to the Toy Show.
“They’re like gold, diamonds, so I wasn’t expecting to go at all and Paul [Young, co-founder of Cartoon Saloon] comes over and says ‘Oh, David, would you like to go to the Oscars?’ I was so, so happy. It was completely bizarre. It was a last-minute ticket and absolutely extraordinary to be there. I was too shy to speak to them [A-listers] but I did get a picture of the back of [Oscar winner] Bradley Cooper’s head!” he laughs.
“But it was just crazy to be literally rubbing shoulders with them. It was during mid-term so I didn’t mitch too much school. I didn’t mean to say ‘mitch’ there, I meant to say ‘miss’!”
Speaking of school, how is he balancing acting and education? Next year is a Junior Cert, after all.
“The third series we did was in the summer holidays before I started first year and I didn’t miss any school, so that worked out brilliantly but for the other two series; they were in fifth and sixth class, so I would have missed six weeks for the first series but I had a tutor on set who helped me get back so I wasn’t that far behind when I got back. It was full days and took six to eight weeks but it doesn’t seem like that because I never think of it as work, it’s just more of an adventure every day.”

Behind the camera
Is full-time acting the goal for the future?
“I’m not sure, I’m only young with a Junior Cert next year and I haven’t given too much thought to what I want to do but it is a big look at what I might do in the future. You never know. I might not be doing something in front of the camera but I could be doing something behind the camera. I like reading, my hobbies, watching telly but I have an interest in directing, in producing, there’s 60 crew all doing different things that you mightn’t have heard of. There’s a fella who’s job it is to move the cart on which the camera goes on and he’s a ‘grip’, well, obviously, he would have to have a grip on the cart. It’s just such an interesting thing and you meet so many new people, friends, from it.”
How did the break through come about?
“I was going to drama classes in Carrigallen [with teacher Maura Williamson], where I’m from, in LYTC [Leitrim Youth Theatre Company] and we got this piece of paper saying ‘would you like to go for an audition’ and I didn’t remember anything like this happening in Carrigallen before so I said I would go for the craic and I was so surprised. I went for the part of Padraig originally and they said would you like to come back and try for the part of Martin. I thought ‘oh my god, did you get the wrong number or something?!’. So, I went back for the second audition, then the third. This is in the space of around three weeks. At the third audition, I got to meet Chris and the Fr Ted director Declan Lowney and it was absolutely amazing but the audition was on a Tuesday, I remember being really, really nervous, they told us that we’d know by Friday. That was the slowest week of my life. When I got the word, I was so, so happy.” Has the role (pardon the pun) dramatically changed his life? “Not really. I suppose I get to go to more places. Dublin, London for publicity and things like that but it is a really nice thing to be part of. Sometime people stop you in the street for a picture, from time to time. You don’t really get used to it but, yeah, it’s changed my life for good.”

UFO
Terry Wogan and John Sessions make cameos this season with the latter at his brilliant best playing a “UFO man”.
“Actually, Boyle has the largest amount of UFO sightings in Europe. That’s true! They had an episode about that and he plays this man who is trying to spread the rumours and Martin believes his donkey was abducted.”
Given the amount of commitments O’Dowd is now involved in Hollywood, Broadway, could Moone boy ever go on with anyone else in the role?
“Would it work without him? Oh, god no! He writes it and directed the last series, is an executive producer. Boyle is his hometown, it’s set in Boyle and it is semi-autobiographical. He’s really a huge part of it and... he’s in it.”
Is there a fourth series?
“Sky’s up for it. Chris is up for it. We’re up for it. Chris is only after having his baby, and Nick [Vincent, co-writer] is going to have a baby as well, so they would have to first write it and it would need other things done with it, taking time, but they are writing Moone Boy books and they have the first one out this couple of months and a second one to come out around October. So, after that, they might not be sure if they’ll leave it there but I would love for them to keep it on. The books are interesting actually in that they run into the first episode of series one. It explains how Martin and Sean met and how he got Sean as his imaginary friend. It’s kind of like a prequel and it’s a really, really nice story.” It certainly is, David.