Still Game and River City actor reveals inspiration behind his debut book

Having been teaching acting masterclasses for sometime and helping people dig deep to deliver an emotional and genuine performance, Gilhooley extended the classes to anyone interested in helping themselves through life’s rollercoaster.

Read more: Scotland's biggest whisky festival to hold virtual event in Spring

Now he has taken things one step further with the publication of his book Avoiding the Downward Spiral of Fear.

“I had been working on it for sometime, before the coronvavirus crisis, but much of what is in the book is relevant for helping people with what we are currently going through,” said Gilhooley.

“I talk a lot about my own experiences in the book and what has worked for me and perhaps it is a book which people can go to as a journal through life. I genuinely believe that anyone who is struggling with mental health issues at this time, will find encouragement and comfort, as well as hugely helpful guidance on living a positive life in the pages of my book. A bit of a manual for life.”

The actor, who grew up in the former mining town of Loanhead in Midlothian, is very open about his own childhood and complex family relationships which he details in the book. He also talks about handling rejection, something which can be a common theme for actors going from audition to audition.

Read more: Restaurants where you can eat Michelin star food in Scotland

“I had a staunch Catholic upbringing and was the youngest of a large family and that brought its own issues where some years on I had to ask myself ‘am I being treated the way I should be’ and the answer was no. From my experiences, I have found what blocks you as a person, blocks you in life. When people start to talk through their hidden issues and verbalise them, they no longer control you,” added the 49-year-old.

Gilhooley is a familiar face on our TV screens now with as string of credits to name including parts in Still Game as barman Mark, River City as incestual rapist John Maclean, Torin the Ringmaker in Outlander and Thomas Dickson Castellan in Outlaw King. And he certainly doesn’t shy away from powerful or controversial characters or plot lines. His latest film, Betrayal, focuses on the fictional tale of a resurgence of the IRA in the post Brexit era in Northern Ireland earning a four star rating on Amazon Prime Video.

Gilhooley, married to childhood sweetheart Angela for 28 years and they have three sons Aidan 17, Nathan 13 and Brendan 12, fell into acting after becoming involved with Edinburgh Theatre workshops and in 2001 he played Frank Rowley in John Godber's 'Up'n Under' in the Edinburgh festival. A year later he earned his first part as John in One Last Chance playing one of James Cosmo’s gangsters.

Celebrations to mark The Wander Bhoys Mount Kilimanjaro trek in aid of the Celtic Foundation

After attending an acting masterclass led by Los Angeles-based coach Bernard Hiller, it led to a different path for him. Hiller suggested he should teach and an honoured Gilhooley took his advice.

His recent role in River City showed how complex social media attention can be as Gilhooley has experienced the good and the bad.

“I was playing rapist John Maclean in River City which involved incest. Clearly not a favourable character, but although I was playing a part there was a lot of detrimental comments on social media. However, although there may have been some harsh comments there were also a lot of positives both on social media and when I met people. On a few occasions people came up to me in the street and thanked me for highlighting the issue. One person told me I had no idea what it meant to cover this subject and I realised that there might be a lot more prevalence of it than people realise.”

Drawing on emotion might be something which actors feel will improve their performances in a role, but when Gilhooley opened up his acting classes to anyone interested in coming along, it unleashed deep buried feelings for some.

“There can be a lot of tears at times in my classes when people release something which they have buried for a long time,” he added.

Frank Gilhooley on his epic charity challenge across Western Australia

Gilhooley was among many in the acting community saddened to learn of the death of much-loved actor Andy Gray who died at the age of 61 following a covid related illness.

"He was a gentleman, and incredibly kind too," he said of Gray. "You could see this in the way he strived to make people happy. He filled the room with laughter and positive energy at all times."

They worked together on River City and had a scene when Gray had to punch him.

Gilhooley added: "Andy had to give my character John Maclean a good hard punch in the face. Apart from the fact that the first time he punched me, I tripped on the cobbles and went absolutely tumbling... Everyone thought I was fooling around, but I actually tripped and went flying, and really cracked my knee off the cobbles ... and maybe dented my pride too.

"Everybody went a bit silent when they could see I was actually really hurt. But what was really funny, we had to shoot the punch loads more times from different angles, and every time he punched me, we could all hear this slap, and a few people thought Andy had actually connected with my face because of this noise. Obviously he was no where near my face.

"But what we realised much to Andy’s blushing, was that Andy, being the consummate stage professional, like a stage fight he thought he had to slap his leg to make the punch noise.

"He never considered the editor might add the punch sound in later. It was really funny, him slapping his leg to make the noise every time he punched me.

"Andy just smiled broadly with a big cheesy grin exclaimed... “Oops, silly me!” What a truly great guy."

Pushing himself to new limits isn’t something Gilhooley is afraid of and in recent years embarked on a charity bike ride in Australia in 2015 for children’s cancer charity Clic Sargent which offers children and their families the chance to have a holiday and precious time together.

It was followed up with a trip up Mount Kilimanjaro in 2019 with The Wander Bhoys team which raised £60,000 for the Celtic FC Foundation. Money raised helped to build a food centre in Malawi.

And he had been hoping to lead a team on a trek of the Great Wall of China this year but it has now been rescheduled for 2022.

Read more: Glasgow restaurant awarded Michelin star as accolade returns to city for first time in 18 years

“Our eight day hike across The Great Wall of China will go ahead in April 2022 where we hope to break £100,000," he added. “We already have more than 50 people signed up for next year."

He remembers his Australian challenge in 2015 as eventful, adding: "I completed 2000km and there were times when I thought I could have given up as every part of me ached, I had spider bites and blistered wounds and was saddle sore, but because I knew I was doing it for a good cause it kept me going.”

For an actor who once admitted appearing alongside and wrestling with Zoe Saldana in Guardians of the Galaxy might be as good as it gets, you wonder what might be next.

"Anyone who comes to my classes knows I’m quite a gentle guy, and I consider myself pretty organised," he added, "but honestly a messy Rebus type detective character would be my dream role; clever and immersive, but compulsive and seriously disorganized. A non conformist. A rebel."

Avoiding The Downward Spiral Of Fear’ by Frank Gilhooley is now available on Amazon and Kindle.

To find out more about the Great Wall of China trek email thewanderbhoys@mail.com