My Greystones: Mark Lambert

Mark by name…

f we had to pick a favourite kind of actor here at GG HQ, it would have to be the character actor.

The actor who’s happy to serve the story rather than the ego, maintaining enough distant from the obvious hero role so that you never quite know what might happen to them in any given story.

On screen, think of Jack Lemmon, Gene Hackman, Ben Mendlesohn and Jacki Weaver, to name but a very few. Of course, stick around long enough as a great character actor, and you will become a star, incrementally, loved film by loved film. Handle it well, and you’re Jeff Bridges. Cash it all in, and you’re Johnny Depp.

Ireland has been particularly blessed when it comes to character actors. Mainly because, sure and begorrah, we’re all characters, and no mistake.

From the late, great Donal McCann to the likes of Gerard McSorley, Brendan Gleeson (our Jeff Bridges, basically) and Michael Gambon, Irish actors bring the sort of mischief and gravitas to a role that Hollywood  heavies can rarely muster.

Greystones’ own Mark Lambert fits neatly into this latter category, having tackled everything from Conor McPherson’s The Weir and Big Willie’s Twelfth Night on stage to movies such as Breakfast On Pluto, Veronica Guerin and Borstal Boy alongside TV favourites such as Cracker, The Tudors, The Young Ones and Roy. Most recently, Mark could b seen as the nasty Trigger Foley in the rather popular soap Fair City, whilst he’s just played the role of Bertie Ahern for the new feature film, The Journey, directed by Nick Hamm (The Hole, Dancing Queen).

He’s also in Jim Sheridan’s upcoming Sebastian Barry adaptation The Secret Scripture, but, perhaps the less said the better about that one, given the early critical mauling.

As with any artist who has been there, done that, and got it right on the first take, Mark Lambert is deceptively unassuming. All that work, all those characters, all those emotions mined, honed, suddenly unbridled, viciously unleashed.

Basically, we here at GG reckon the town should watch this one. He’s an actor. With charm to burn.

Mark Lambert is definitely up to something…