When I was sixteen years old, I met one of my absolute favourite actors, Robert Sheehan. I was in Golden Discs on Henry street in Dublin waiting on a friend when I stepped outside at just the right time as it turned out, Robert Sheehan was standing right outside the door. He was wearing a hat and sunglasses, presumably to keep himself anonymous but I recognized him instantly. I asked him if he was definitely Robert Sheehan which was probably a strange conversation starter but he could probably sense I was nervous so he just replied with “yeah man what’s up?”. I was completely starstruck and couldn’t believe this was happening.
I couldn’t stop myself from telling him how good he was in Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy’ and he appreciated it, however once I told him that he was my favourite character in E4’s ‘Misfits’ where he played Nathan Young. Once I told him how great he was in ‘Misfits’ and how good of a show it was, he just put his arms out and said “come here man, just get in here”. I didn’t know why he wanted to hug me as I was sure he had heard this praise many times before but he just grabbed me and told me that I was the first Irish kid in years to mention ‘Misfits’ to him and he really loved that due to it being one of his favourite projects. It was a truly masterful show and we spoke about it for about ten minutes before the family he was waiting to meet showed up. A few minutes after he left, my friend showed up who is also a huge fan of Robert and when I told him what had happened that day and that he had missed him by only a few minutes, his jealousy was palpable. Thankfully he wasn’t bitter about it but I’m surprised he wasn’t as it was one of the best moments of my teenage years