Chris O'Dowd and his wife Dawn O'Porter.

Chris O'Dowd says his wife got Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks to star in his new show

24 Oct 2024, 04:00 by Ciara O'Loughlin · Irish Mirror

Chris O’Dowd says he has his wife to thank for helping him cast the dream actress for his new series, Small Town Big Story.

The Irish actor said he and his wife Dawn Porter are “big, big fans” of Mad Men actress Christina Hendricks. He was keen to pitch his new series to the American star, but didn’t believe he had a chance- as he didn't know her and didn’t have any contacts.

However, in a twist of faith, his wife bumped into the actress, and she now stars in Chris’ new show. The actor and writer told Variety: “Myself and my wife were big, big Mad Men fans. We were casting this and she had popped into my head as somebody who would be great, but I thought, ‘Well, we’ll never get her, and I don’t know her'.

“And then I was on a job somewhere, and I was talking to my wife on the phone, and she said, ‘You’ll never believe who was in the kitchen this morning’. It was Christina Hendricks. They had this fashion connection. And so we ended up having dinner, and I pitched her the show.”

Small Town Big Story is a six-part series that is due to premiere in Ireland and the UK next year. Christina stars alongside Paddy Considine in the series that is set in the fictional town of Drumbán, a rural village on the border of Ireland.

The American actress plays a local girl who has become a hot-shot TV producer, while Paddy is the pillar of the town’s community. When a Hollywood film comes to the town, a local secret that’s been kept hidden for decades begins to unravel.

While Chris wrote and directed the series, he has a cameo role as Jack E McCarthy, the writer of the production at the centre of the story. The actor said his new series is the “cultural cousin” of Moone Boy- his hit sitcom that ran from 2012 to 2015.

He added: “This show is more grown up, but we’ve even got the guy who plays Moone Boy, David Rawle, in this show, playing Paddy Considine’s son. He’s such a lovely fella. But it is interesting, I suppose because it brings me to Moone Boy all of the time when I’m watching it because he’s so much the face of that.

“With David there, it feels like we’re playing very much with the changing sands of identity. And that’s a huge theme."

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