Pablo Schreiber might play a leprechaun — but he’s far from the familiar character immortalized by Lucky Charms cereal.
Schreiber stars in “American Gods” as Mad Sweeney, a leprechaun who’s tall, tough and likes a good fight.
“[I’ve seen] lots of Sweeney fan art,” says Schreiber, 40. “One of the interesting ones is one that [author and executive producer] Neil Gaiman retweeted, which is a poster for ‘American Gods’ Season 1.
“Somebody had mocked up some art on it that said, ‘The tagline of the show is “You’re gonna want to f–k the leprechaun.”’ I thought that was amusing.”
“American Gods,” which returns to Starz for its second season March 10 at 8 p.m., is based on Gaiman’s bestselling novel of the same name. Co-starring Ian McShane and Ricky Whittle (and boasting side roles for legends like Cloris Leachman), it’s a meandering road-trip odyssey through an America filled with forgotten old-world deities such as Nordic and Egyptian gods and one grumpy leprechaun (Mad Sweeney).
Schreiber, the half-brother of “Ray Donovan” star Liev Schreiber, was best known for playing George “Pornstache” Mendez on “Orange Is the New Black.” Although Mad Sweeney isn’t as reprehensible a character, he is foul-mouthed and belligerent.
“It’s not that I’m drawn to sleazebags in any particular way,” says Schreiber. “I just really enjoy the extremes of human behavior. With a guy like Pornstache, for instance, it was an opportunity to just be as awful as I wanted to be without a filter, and have fun playing in that arena. With Sweeney, the attraction was really the hook of the leprechaun who lost his luck. That was kind of a funny premise to begin with.
“[Mad Sweeney] is a guy who feels like he’s been wronged by the way that the world has developed. And that’s interesting and fun to explore — how somebody who’s embittered by losing their status in life behaves.”
The character is minor in the book, but the first season of “American Gods” expanded his role, which proved to be scene-stealing. Mad Sweeney’s role will continue to grow in Season 2, which takes a deeper dive into his past in Episode 7, Schreiber says.
“He’s a very memorable and beloved character from the book, but he kind of comes and goes,” he says. “We had the opportunity for a guy who was very popular [among fans] but not deeply fleshed out. A lot of the decision of how he was going to be were up to me. My original model for the character, sound-wise, was Conor McGregor. I took a bunch of his sounds and his attitude and presentation.”
Behind the scenes, “American Gods” hasn’t been such smooth sailing. Original showrunners Bryan Fuller and Michael Green were pushed out between seasons over a budget dispute (according to a tweet from Fuller). Jesse Alexander took over for Season 2.
“One of the reasons I think a bunch of us signed onto the show was obviously Neil [Gaiman] and his source material, but also Bryan and Michael,” says Schreiber. “So when the showrunner situation was up in the air … we ran with it and did our best.
“And I’m proud of how the cast rallied together, had each other’s backs, looked after each other, to make sure we’re doing the best work we could under the circumstances.”