Daryl McCormack: ‘Having sex with someone can be easy, but being vulnerable with them is a different thing’

As he makes his West End debut alongside Brian Cox, the Tipperary actor discusses race, love and reclaiming a simple life

Tipperary actor Daryl McCormack has to remind himself to be excited by his newfound celebrity. Photo: Andreas Rentz

Eleanor Steafel
© Telegraph.co.uk

Last year, while scrolling through the film selection on a longhaul flight, Daryl McCormack came across the title that made his name, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. He kept scrolling, tickled by the idea that a nearby passenger might watch it. A while later, he got up to walk to the loo. Making his way down the aisle, he was met by a sea of 12-inch renderings of himself.

If you saw the film (which earned McCormack a Bafta nomination last year), you’ll know he plays a sex worker hired by Emma Thompson to give her her first ever orgasm, and spends much of it in various stages of undress. "I see people watching it. And then I get to the bathroom and there’s already someone in there so I’m trying to kill time, and I look back and just see people look from the screen up to me and they’re like, ‘Wait…’”