Home is Dever's Castle
Seamus Dever may only be 38 but the actor is already a screen veteran, having started acting at the age of just six. Best known for his continuing role as NYPD Detective Kevin Ryan in Castle, Dever previously played doctors in General Hospital and Army Wives and had guest roles in shows including all three CSIs and Mad Men.
Born in Michigan and raised in Arizona, Dever attained a bachelor's degree in theatre at Northern Arizona University. He was then accepted into the graduate program at the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University and The Moscow Art Theatre and holds a masters in acting; the youngest person to have completed this program.
"In my particular program, yes I was the youngest graduate," Dever says during a brief break in filming Castle in Los Angeles earlier this year.
"I am still studying, I am the eternal student. You always need to challenge yourself, so I am still reading. I have a book club. Some of my friends from graduate school who I got my graduate degree at the Moscow Art Theatre with, we read books by Skype. We do a book club. It's very nerdy.
"It is forcing you to read all these acting books you never really did before."
Dever's theatre training holds him in good stead on Castle where his fellow cast members all have stage experience.
"I was thinking about it last night, our whole cast, they have all studied theatre, everybody has a degree in theatre. Nathan (Fillion), Stana (Katic), Jon (Huertas), Penny (Johnson Jerald).
"We have all gone to school, to college for it. It is actually kind of neat to be surrounded by people who are actually trained.
"A lot of times you get this impression of the actor, they don't know what they're doing."
Dever then puts on his best impression of a beefcake sporting jock turned actor. "I just started taking some classes, someone said I was good looking then I started getting parts and they are throwing all these roles at me," he jokes
"I'm not even really an actor man, I play football but thanks for the roles, man.
"Then there's the rest of us that have to work at it and study hard."
Det. Ryan became a father earlier this season but almost missed the birth when he and partner Esposito (Huertas) were trapped in the basement of a burning building while on the trail of a serial arsonist. Ryan's wife Jenny, unable to reach him by phone and three days past her due date, turned up and gave birth at the scene, allowing everyone to be present rather than having a traditional hospital birth.
Dever says fans described it as their top emotional moment of Castle of all time.
"My actual wife Juliana plays my wife Jenny on the show," Dever says.
"They handled it in a surprising way that was fun and a little bit different, and I am glad they did that. It's definitely more adventurous."
Castle films at such a fast pace there is no time to rehearse, so having Juliana to read lines with at home is a blessing.
"We are not able to rehearse at all, the time frames, the economy of time. We do not have that luxury, so it is nice to actually have that at home where I can sit down and talk over a scene with my wife and I don't have to imagine her voice. I take it as a virtue - having my wife on the show allows me to be more prepared.
"There has only been one time where I have said 'Oh my God can we please not talk about the show' and that was last year in a very intense episode where I was 'OK I have to leave it, let's not talk about tomorrow's scene' - I need some time away from it."
'We are not able to rehearse at all, the time frames, the economy of time; we do not have that luxury, so it is nice to actually have that at home where I can sit down and talk over a scene with my wife and I don't have to imagine her voice.'
Castle airs on Sunday at 9.45pm on Seven/GWN7.
