Steve Coogan on how his Irish identity drew him to an infamous bust-up | Ents & Arts News

Steve Coogan says he doesn’t want to fully be part of the British establishment because you cannot “get rid of the history which weighs heavily on all of us”.

The 60-year-old actor is of Irish heritage – his mother was born in Ireland and so were his paternal grandparents.

He tells Sky News during an interview for his new film Saipan that his ancestry has shaped his view of the world for the better.

“I don’t feel fully like I want to be part of the British establishment because I feel like, you know, I’m not a royalist by any amount because I see them as a symbol of a sort of colonial approach to the world of which the Irish were nationally victims, historically, and that stuff matters in the way you view things.

“It served me well, I think. I like the feeling of being outside the establishment and having an Irish heritage helps with that. I think it’s good creatively not to feel too close to what I would call the British establishment.”

Saipan centres on the idea of national identity through an infamous argument between Cork native Roy Keane and his then-Irish football team manager, Mick McCarthy, in the lead-up to the 2002 World Cup.

McCarthy was born in Barnsley and is second-generation Irish.

The former Manchester United player is reported to have called McCarthy “not even Irish” and that he didn’t respect him as a player, a manager, or a man.

The explosive disagreement centred around how McCarthy was conducting the Republic of Ireland team and their training routine on their journey to the World Cup finals.

The row, which saw the Cork footballer leave Saipan 10 days before the tournament began, is considered one of football’s biggest controversies.

Coogan plays McCarthy in the film and says McCarthy’s sense of Irish identity is what drew him to the role.

“Mick McCarthy, who I play, played for Ireland and managed the Irish team, but there’s still, because you sound English, there’s that whiff of, you’re not really one of us, and you sound like the people who colonised us and there’s a residue of that, however, that doesn’t fully go away, I suppose, and all that interests me very much.

“I think I understand because I am that, but in terms of the story that we’re telling is the whole idea of people who are Irish, how they feel about that and how they present that to the world. There’s that aspect of it, there’s also the aspect of how you conduct yourself as an individual, but that idea of national identity, I found really interesting about the film.”

The BAFTA-winning actor says he had a phone call with McCarthy before he portrayed him in the film to get his side of the story and allow for a fair depiction of his side.

Speaking previously on the Under the Cosh podcast, McCarthy said he has “no axe to grind” against Coogan and thought it was kind of him to call.

He did joke, however, that it could be a “Baby Reindeer” situation and he could submit “a big £20m lawsuit” if he doesn’t like the production’s interpretation.

Keane has always argued that he just wanted the Irish team to strive to put their best foot forward in the competition.

Reflecting on the moment, Coogan says Keane was simply determined to succeed.

“I think he was not bothered about whether people personally liked him. It was about whether he was achieving what he was supposed to do. And that is so laser-focused and you need people like that to achieve great things.

“And often people who achieve great things are very wanting in other areas because everything is subsumed by this drive and this one direction. And so, it’s almost like to have someone who’s excellent at one particular thing, to then expect them to be a completely rounded individual is almost impossible.”

Eanna Hardwicke, who plays his fellow Cork man in the film, says he thinks it was that element, for Roy, that “got under his skin”

“I think it’s too high a standard sometimes, but it’s never an excuse for bad behaviour,” he said.

“I’m doing a play in the National Theatre at the moment and I was just talking to somebody backstage who said they worked with some of the last generation of amazing British theatre actors who came of age maybe in the 60s, 70s, and they said working with them was tough because of the discipline and what they demanded of his own compromising.

“And obviously we live in a slightly different world now and we need to make those compromises, but I think there is something quite powerful as well about being around people who go, you know, I really want this to be the very best it can be, and I’m always inspired by that.”

Roy Keane hasn’t formally spoken about the film.

Saipan is in cinemas now.