'City on a Hill' star Mark O'Brien says he never lets pressure of success mount: 'Some will always hate it'
'City on a Hill' was one of those crime dramas that had people absolutely hooked. The Showtime series was created and written by Chuck MacLean ('Boston Strangler') known for his riveting screenplay. Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Jennifer Todd, James Mangold, and Michael Cuesta formed up the team of executive producers. Such was the reaction to the series that Season 2 was a given. Talking on the success of the Boston drama, Mark O'Brien, who plays the role of Jimmy Ryan, one of the members of the armed car robbery around which the season revolves, said: "You never know what to expect".
O'Brien, in an exclusive with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW), was speaking candidly about 'Goalie', a biopic on the Canadian ice hockey legend Terry Sawchuck when we popped a question about 'City on a Hill'. "I just knew that it was a really good team of people producing it and writing it. And I thought Chuck MacLean, the creator, wrote a really great pilot, great future scripts, and strong actors. It was a really strong cast," he opined.
The 35-year-old was happy to be working with the people he wanted to for a long time. "But you still have no idea if something's gonna work out and it can hit you in different ways along the journey. Is this going to be good? Is this going to be bad? Is this working? You just don't know. If one person likes it, it feels good because I know how I feel when I like something that I see I'm not involved in and I'm just a viewer. I'm excited about it."
We asked him if he carries the pressure of Season 1's success, Na-da was the reply. "I never feel the pressure. I just love what I do and I get excited by doing it again and I dive in pretty hard," he said.
He also added: "So I never think of it as a pressure situation because I'm getting to do what I love. Any starting pitcher would love to go into game seven of the world series. You know what I mean? They jump at the opportunity. So it's the same thing for me with any job I do. I'm just like, 'wow, I can't believe I'm getting to do this!'"
"And sometimes it doesn't really matter. Because you know what, at the end of the day, there are people who hate even 'Avatar', 'Titanic' or 'The Avengers'. It doesn't matter," he went on to say and added: "There's no point in feeling pressure because there's going to be someone who loves it and someone who hates it. And as long as you're challenging an audience in some sort of way and making them think. I think that's the most important thing. So we just go and have fun, and we're lucky to be here."