Pablo Schreiber plays Mad Sweeney in American Gods (Picture: Starz)

American Gods star Pablo Schreiber discusses his role in season two, bringing Mad Sweeney to life and squaring up to Ricky Whittle.

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The 39-year-old actor became an unexpected highlight of American Gods’ first season as the brawn leprechaun Mad Sweeney, flicking golden coins between his fingers and gunning for fights at any given opportunity.

His breakout scene arrived in a brutal fight in Jack’s Crocodile Bar opposite main character Shadow Moon, which during filming resulted in a real-life injury for Pablo.

Ricky Whittle and Pablo had an incredible bar fight at the start of the season (Picture: Starz)

Speaking to Metro.co.uk about the scene, Pablo said: ‘Ricky Whittle, who plays Shadow, I’ve said he has a head of stone. I know it’s true because we had a head-butt where we collided and my head split open and I was pouring blood all over the floor. On Rick, it looks like nothing happened to him.




‘I’m not sure how they make skulls in Manchester but apparently they’re pretty solid. Once I went to the hospital and had it glued up, we ended up finishing the fight that night because, for me, there was no way I was going to come back and reshoot that scene again.’

The character is only mentioned twice in Neil Gaiman’s original novel, once at the beginning and towards the end on his death – so with an expanded role in Bryan Fuller’s TV adaptation, Pablo had to fill in some of the blanks when it came to inspiration behind the character.

Pablo Schreiber also stars in Orange Is The New Black (Picture: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)

‘I definitely wanted him to have a sense of the old country,’ Pablo said. ‘I wanted his clothes to be reminiscent of an older time, where he would of possibly picked up these clothing items over the past hundred years. But at the same time, I really wanted him to be fresh enough where you could believably see this guy in some walk of American life.

‘That, for me, was placing him in the hipster world of Williamsburg, New York or Silverlake, Los Angeles, where you have pockets of hipsterdom where characterisation of old is part of the culture. So Mad Sweeney’s whole suspender look and wild haircut could quite easily fit into any one of those neighbourhoods.’

The series has already made some bold deviations from the original book, so could we see Mad Sweeney’s death completely avoided down the line?

‘We’ll see,’ Pablo said. ‘I think the position Neil Gaiman, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are taking is that they’ll make any decisions that are best for the series rather than being 100 per cent honest to the book.

‘I know there’s a lot of excitement about the character and things we could do in the future. Neil Gaiman, when he first saw the work I was doing on set, got pretty excited and ended up writing 4,000 pages of history for the character of where he was before he ever pops into the book, and his whole journey through Ireland to America.

‘He emailed it to Michael and Bryan as something we might use at some point. I don’t know where any of it will go but I’m happy to do anything they want.

‘When I first found out about [the role], I think we were talking about a three year arc that would end after three seasons, but then the series comes out and everything else happens, so I’ll leave those decisions to people with a bigger pay grade than me,’ he added.



The conclusion of the first season saw Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon form a seemingly close bond, and it’s one of the things Pablo is most excited about as they gear up for a second season.

Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon develop a love-hate bond over season one (Picture: Starz)

Asked about his hopes for season two, Pablo said: ‘I really love the dynamic between Sweeney and Laura, so I would like to explore that dynamic more.

‘I’m really curious to see where the conflict with Wednesday goes and what side he comes down on; whether he’s going to help Laura take him out or if he’s gonna save his spot at the table with the rest of the gods, because he’s definitely been angling for a seat at the table.

‘And then I’d love to shoot the backstory. There’s been talk about maybe doing a miniseries between the seasons so we could shoot some of Sweeney’s backstory. I’m intrigued to see where it all goes with this guy.’

You can catch-up on the first season of American Gods on Amazon Prime.

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