From rugby pitches to film sets — actor, writer and director Mark McAuley on carving out a career, chasing personal stories and making his own luck in independent cinema.
In an industry where waiting for opportunity can feel endless, Mark McAuley has chosen to make his own luck. The actor, writer and director has honed his craft on both sides of the camera — a craft shaped as much by his early love of performance as by the discipline he learned on the rugby pitch.
“It began primarily as an actor — wanting more control over my career, wanting to create projects. I’ve always been someone who likes to do, to create, to work with a team,” McAuley says. “Instead of waiting for the phone to ring, I wanted to be the person making the call.”
The shift from actor to filmmaker wasn’t an obvious one at first. Before the camera, there was an economics degree, solicitor exams and, fatefully, a shoulder injury that paused his sporting ambitions long enough for acting classes at Dublin’s Gaiety School to intervene. “I packed in the solicitor dream and swapped it for an acting one.”
Behind the Ideas
That same drive for self-direction now informs McAuley’s independent film work under his Zoology Films banner — a production company committed to personal stories with sharp edges. Mark’s influences have become as eclectic as his filmography.
“So many — across film, theatre, music and life,” he says, when asked what inspires him. “But if I had to name a few, film specifically: David Lynch — so unique. Mulholland Drive is one of my favourite films. The way he approaches life and his creative work is inspiring. I also practise Transcendental Meditation like he did — I feel like a kindred spirit in that regard.”
Those influences are many, from the poetic Elia Kazan and Akira Kurosawa to the boundary-pushing Sean Baker, Jim Cummings and Andrea Arnold. “The indie heroes and trailblazers — the Duplass brothers, Sean Baker, Jim Cummings. Seeing The Brutalist on 70mm in the cinema felt like a religious experience. Julia Ducournau’s Titane was an insanely visceral film.”
Across McAuley’s short films Father and Throw Your Heart Over First — and his most recent, the slow-burn character study aWake — certain themes emerge repeatedly. For McAuley, he’s most interested in investigating identity.
“What it means to be a man, to be Irish, to be human in the world today. How people need to feel part of something — a movement, a tribe — which can be good and bad. How we tie identity to what we do — our job, a pastime, etc.”
Alongside that exploration of belonging runs a critique of nostalgia, which, for McAuley, looms in culture and politics as a collective longing for a mythologised past.
“Nostalgia is another big theme: the danger of nostalgia, of yearning for a past when everything was supposedly ‘great’. That feels extremely relevant today — with slogans like ‘Make Britain Great Again’, ‘Make America Great Again’. Often, those times weren’t great for many people.”
Questions about family are woven through his storytelling. “I also examine the father–son relationship. My own dad had a profound effect on my life — and his death, too. The way he lived was a shining example to me.” And always at the core of his narratives: “vulnerable men searching for identity, the role of the artist, and both individual and collective responsibility.”
A Future in Focus
Next for McAuley is a feature adaptation of his acclaimed stage play A Fear and Loathing Actor in Dublin — a project he’s long been keen to transpose to the screen.
“The goal was always to adapt the play into a feature. It felt cinematic from the beginning. The medium of film lends itself to the story. I’m in conversations with a few people about shooting it later this year and exploring a few options.”
True to his independent streak, McAuley is developing a second feature alongside the play adaptation — one that looks set to continue his commitment to self-reliance and resourcefulness.
“I’m also developing another feature in the micro-budget range. It depends on a number of factors, as these things do — but I’ll shoot another feature this year. You just have to find a way to keep moving forward — even if that means shooting with minimal crew and a tight schedule. The way Sean Baker works is really inspiring in that regard.”
With acting credits on shows like Vikings and Into the Badlands, his time on large-scale productions informs his own approach as a director.
“You might not have the same budget or resources, but you can still use the processes and systems they use. We have so many resources at our fingertips now. New technology has made filmmaking more accessible. You still need a great story at the heart of it, and a talented team to pull it off. I also try to bring the ambition and scope of those bigger projects into what we do at Zoology Films.”
aWake is available to watch now on Amazon Prime Video UK.
Mark McMcAuley
Mark wrote, directed and starred in the short film Father, which was funded through the Actor as Creator grant (Screen Ireland & Bow Street). The film is currently on the festival circuit. His debut feature film, aWake, was completed in 2024 and had its U.S. premiere at The Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles that August. It has just been released on Amazon Prime UK. Mark’s short film Throw Your Heart Over First screened at festivals worldwide, including the prestigious Newport Beach Film Festival. It received multiple award nominations and won Best Performance at the Focus Shorts Film Festival in London. He wrote, directed and acted in all of the above projects. As an actor, Mark has appeared in a wide range of film and television productions, including Vikings, Into the Badlands and Saol, among others. He also works extensively in theatre. His stage show A Fear and Loathing Actor in Dublin received a five-star review at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019. He is currently developing a feature film based on this successful play.
Mark is the owner of the film production company — Zoology Films. Read more about the work he does at www.markmcauley.com
