Beyond the throne

Aidan Gillen opens up about Game of Thrones, rotten politicians and UFOs.

Aidan Gillen in Sydney last week. Picture: Britta Campion

According to Aidan Gillen, plum acting roles in the seminal television series of this era — from Game of Thrones to The Wire, and from Peaky Blinders to the original British version of Queer as Folk — have all come his way “out of the blue”.

“I certainly haven’t got all those roles from auditions; I’m not good at them because I don’t have an innate desire to please people; almost the opposite,” the Irish-born actor tells Review in Sydney.

“It’s all about recognising good writing, and when I find a role that looks good I will chase it. But I would liken my career to a pinball ­machine — there’s no plan. When people ask ‘Where do you see yourself in the future’, I don’t.”

Aidan Gillen as Dr J. Allen Hynek in Project Blue Book.

In his latest role, Gillen plays the real-life character J. Allen Hynek — a college professor recruited by the US Air Force in the 1950s to ­debunk the UFO phenomenon — in Project Blue Book, which premieres on SBS on Thursday. Part of his interest was the desire to leave behind the role of the malevolent Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish whom he has played for the past seven seasons in Game of Thrones, which ­returns (without him) next month.

“I’d been playing a villainous character for a number of years in a successful and widely watched TV show,” he says of Thrones, with some understatement.

“Again, it’s the writing. Baelish was so well set out by George RR Martin (who wrote the books on which the series is based); although he’s bad guy, there’s his charming side and his ability to find his way into people’s trust. I ­always see the good in them.

“But I also now wanted to change it up a ­little, and play a good person, someone on that right side of the tracks.”

Gillen as Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish in Game of Thrones.

The real Hynek was a scientific adviser to the US government for more than two decades and his work ultimately inspired the 1977 Steven Spielberg film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (in which Hynek made a cameo appearance). In researching the role, Gillen met Hynek’s family.

“I spoke to two of his sons, and first of all they’re really nice guys, and secondly they understood this is drama and we are taking certain liberties — I’m not him,” he says.

“But to have their approval was a great boost, and for them to share their family photos with me was huge. I think they were happy to have their old man in the public eye.”

In contrast to Gillen’s famous roles such as Littlefinger, or fictional Baltimore mayor Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, Hynek isn’t an antihero on a path to physical or moral destruc­tion.

“What is interesting about Hynek’s arc is that he was employed by the air force to explain away the UFO craze as it was seen at the time, but he was a very smart, thorough, thoughtful guy, and when he couldn’t explain 10 per cent or so of the cases, he devoted the rest his life to UFOs; I wouldn’t say he was in any sense a failure (like Baelish or Carcetti),” he says.

This TV series treats the existence of UFOs as a fact, with Project Blue Book depicted as a government conspiracy designed to obfuscate, and Hynek as an indomitable crusader for scientific truth.

“It was a subject I was interested in. I’m not a UFO fanatic but Close Encounters is one of my favourite films of all time, so to play a character that wrote the book that inspired Spielberg was very special,” he says.

“We are playing to this 1950s sci-fi genre, which is as much about conspiracies as about spaceships. I haven’t overthought that part of it, and I wouldn’t say I’m a conspiracy theorist, nor do I completely trust governments either.

“I assume there is life out there — it’s crazy to assume there’s not. It may also be crazy to think we are visited by flying saucers. But what’s not crazy is it will happen at some point if we are around long enough, which would be something to look forward to.”

Project Blue Book recently concluded its first season on the History channel in the US, where it was compared to The X-Files (“I’ve never seen The X-Files actually … that’s going to get me in trouble”). Reviews have been mixed, but it was recently renewed for a second season.

“Of course there are more actual cases we can mine for new stories, and to keep people on the hook there will be more character development; in the first season, out of necessity, it can be quite ‘plotty’,” he says. “But because it is based on real people, it will take real twists and turns you simply can’t make up.”

Despite his idiosyncratic charm in person (some of his less helpful responses range from: “I dunno” and “can’t answer that” and “you’ve thought about this way more than I have”) ­Gillen admits the obvious: the spotlight doesn’t always sit easily with him.

“As a performer, I suppose part of the deal is that you have to talk about your work, but my personality is a weird mix of trying to hide, yet playing all these flamboyant people,” he says.

“I mean, you might ask, why am I doing this at all? Why not jack it in and go and make jam in West Cork? Ask any actor or musician and they’ll have a fantasy about making jam or keeping bees — it’s bullshit but it sounds nice.

“The truth is, this acting thing is kind of ­addictive.”

Project Blue Book debuts on Thursday, 8.30pm, on SBS.