From a stuntman on the set of the movie King Arthur, to a city centre nightclub manager, and a male model, Marcus Seoige has finally found his calling in the TV role of a womanising lothario.

Playing Johnny on TG4’s Ros Na Rún, the new guy in town who’s doing the rounds with all the lovely ladies, the charming Marcus is having the time of his life. “In fairness, Johnny’s like a dream character for any guy to play. He just walks in, has all the women falling all over him and gets loads of attention; for a certain length of time anyway – these things are always doomed to failure.”

With such impressive acting skills, it’s pretty surprising that the 34-year-old Inis Mór-born Marcus has only a small number of acting jobs behind him. There was some dabbling in the industry some years ago, but it’s only now, following an appearance in two short Irish films, An Line and Eva, that the world of acting has come beckoning.

His introduction to the movie industry came about through his dedication to martial arts, which he’s been doing for years. While studying animation and art in college, he got involved in a stunt weapons company and ended up doing fight scenes and historical battle stunts for the Discovery Channel. From there, he spent nine months working on King Arthur with combat teams, training with the actors and extras, and running a boot camp on the set.

“It was long, intensive, very draining, but a phenomenal experience, and the biggest production I’d ever worked on. The highlight for me was that I met Ray Winstone and went drinking with him in a nightclub; he was an absolute gent, a great character. I didn’t really get to meet Clive Owen that much. He’s quite private and into what he’s doing. Kiera Knightly was very nice – mad, full of energy, a great girl.”

So following some minor parts here and there, with his native Gaelic, undoubtedly the good looks and charm, in addition to his acting talents, he “unwittingly” came across the role of Johnny.

Hugh Farley, series producer of Ros na Rún has been quoted as saying, “Once we screened Marcus we knew we had found our man. Johnny makes every woman feel like she’s the only one – even if he’s feeding several other women the exact same line.”

So are there any similarities between the character Johnny and Marcus? “Names have been changed to protect the guilty,” he laughs. And before the female readers are starting to perk up, he has a girlfriend I’m afraid ladies.

While you might recognise Marcus from his role as Johnny, he’s also a well-known face around Galway through his modelling work with Catwalk Model Agency, which he’s been with for over eight years, and his time spent as manager of the CPs, The Front Door, and later The Dáil Bar.“I get slagging from my mates left, right and centre about modelling, but I don’t take myself too seriously. The worst is working in the pub industry where nothing is sacred really. So anytime there was a picture of me modelling, it was stuck up on the notice board with various explicit comments written beside it. The way that I look at it though is that they can slag me all they want – I get to be in a room with women taking their clothes off. So who wins?” And all said with a wry grin…

So, has he finally found his calling? “It’s such a feast or famine with acting, you can’t depend on it that much. There’s such a fine line between just surviving on it and doing extremely well, so it’s really crossing that divide. It’s a huge risk. If you do get it, it’s phenomenal. If you don’t, it’s a lot of hard work. For me, suddenly, an awful lot seems to have appeared on the horizon so I just immediately jumped at it. Because once you get smitten with the bug, that’s it.”

Were the chance to break into the English-speaking market to come about, he’d jump at the chance, due to the exposure, but his plans are focused with Galway in mind.

“I love Galway, it’s a great place; I don’t think I could live anywhere else long-term. The great thing with the likes of acting is that they’re generally contained projects where you can work on them and always come back.”

In the meantime, with filming finished on Ros Na Rún for a few months, he’s waiting to hear back on a pilot he’s been working on with Nora Jane Noone based on a Ken Bruen’s Jack Taylor novel. Fingers are crossed that it will be commissioned into a series. Until then, it’s back to the actor’s ‘waiting game’ for Marcus, whose sights set firmly on an on-screen future….and it’s looking pretty bright.