The teenage star of Smother had to overcome his terror of water to film a frightening ocean scene in the hit series.
James O’Donoghue, who plays troubled Calum in the RTE drama, had his head plunged under the sea for several seconds in one episode – which took weeks of preparation.
Despite living in coastal Wicklow and going to school in Dun Laoghaire, the 18-year-old said he never went near the ocean.
He said: “It’s so funny. My friends go to the Forty Foot in the summer and I live here in Wicklow where swimming is a big thing, but I just did not know how to swim whatsoever.
“Going into the season I had zero ability, but I worked with this brilliant guy, Bernard Cahill.
“There was a lot of buildup to that sequence. I started learning how to swim about two months out.
“I have a really bad fear of the water – I was terrified of putting my head underwater.
“I had to go on a journey just for that sequence, to be able to do it.
“We knew we didn’t want to have a stunt double. It’s not something particularly spunky but it is a mental thing I had to overcome.
“Bernard was brilliant and everything turned out really well.”
James, who also starred in Fair City as Benjamin Fahey, said he was thrilled he could now go to the beach with his pals in the summer.
“That’s the great thing about acting – you learn some life lessons,” he said.
“It was the start of the summer by the time we finished filming season two, and I went straight into swimming with all my friends.”
