21-07-2025
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor on starting out: 'I did everything'
Tom Vaughan-Lawlor has told The Brendan O'Connor Show about the early days of his acting career, recounting that he "did everything" to make ends meet.
The Love/Hate favourite is back home in Dublin to star opposite Brendan Gleeson, Owen McDonnell, Seán McGinley, and Kate Phillips in writer-director Conor McPherson's The Weir at the 3Olympia Theatre from 8 August.
While choosing his five favourite songs on The Brendan O'Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1 on Sunday, Vaughan-Lawlor discussed his early years in London after graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
"I did everything," he told the host. "Building sites, hotels, coffee shops, secretarial work, furniture removal, everything, gardening."
"But you meet the most amazing people who teach you amazing, amazing lessons," he continued.
"This time 20 years ago, I was working in a hotel in Euston, on the Euston Road. And I was grumbling about not having an acting job. And there was a woman there who was from Ethiopia who'd two kids, [aged] six and four. She hadn't seen her kids for two years.
"We were getting paid after tax, like, £200 a week. She was in shared accommodation. She was sending home 50% of her wages every week to her family. And she was amazing.
"She was fun and light and really hardworking. And I was kind of moping around, 'Oh, I don't have a job! Why won't anyone give me an acting job?!' And she was like, 'Oh, you know, I'm just doing my thing!'
"So you meet amazing people with amazing stories. In a way, I'm so grateful for all that non-acting work. You're living and you're seeing the world and you're meeting incredible people."
Looking ahead to The Weir at the 3Olympia Theatre, Vaughan-Lawlor said: "It's scary. As opening gets closer, you're like, 'Oh, we've actually got to get up and do this!'"
He said it is "a real honour" to be working with "great people" on "a great play."
"It's a joy to be in rehearsal," he added.
