He’s already made his name as a Hollywood player but with his new film, When 
Saturday Comes, Yorkshire heart-throb Sean Bean has returned to his native town 
and his first love – Sheffield United FC. Here, he shows a clear pair of heels 
to Craig Fitzsimons. 

Sheffield lad Sean Bean, the man whose name means “old woman” in Irish, might 
seem to have everything in his favour – he’s one of the most accomplished and 
respected British actors in Tinseltown, his career shows no sign of slowing 
down, and it has to be said that he’s a fairly handsome swine. But unbeknownst 
to his American audiences, he hides a deep, dark secret. 

It is this. Are you ready? 

He is a lifelong Sheffield United supporter. 

Why? How come? What has he got to say for himself? 

“I’ve supported them a long time,” he confesses, “well, since ah were about 
seven years old, y’know, me dad supported them, and so did me grandad. I didn’t 
really have much choice in the matter.” 

With a background like that, Bean’s latest role is quite literally a dream 
come true. In Maria Giese’s new football feature, When Saturday Comes, Bean 
plays a part which might easily have been written for him – as Jimmy Muir, a 
working class Sheffield youngster with a passion for pints, birds and nights out 
with the lads, whose overwhelming ambition in life is to play for Sheffield 
United. In a finale so formulaic Roy of the Rovers would have rejected it, 
Jimmy realises his dream, pulling on the red-and-white-stripes and coming on at 
half-time to overhaul a two-goal deficit and propel Sheffield to a last-minute 
victory over Manchester United. 

“Aye, it were fuckin’ brilliant,” he smiles, “A great feeling. It was shot 
at half-time during the actual game, we played United in the Cup last January. 
Ah were supposed to be workin’ on the James Bond thing (Goldeneye, opposite 
Pierce Brosnan) but it didn’t start early enough, so ah managed to get up to 
Sheffield at half-time to take penalties in front of 25,000 people. It was 
amazing.” 

So does he get back to Sheffield much? 

“Yeah, a fair bit, when I can…obviously I can’t when I’m working, but 
whenever I’m between jobs, I get back there quite a bit. I only go up for the 
weekends, really, and usually by Monday and Tuesday I’m off back down to London 
again, so I do quite a bit of boozing. It’;s my perfect weekend, really, goin’ 
out on Sunday and havin’ a few pints, goin’ to see the match and then havin’ a 
few more pints, then Sunday dinner, then goin’ out and havin’ a few more pints 
(laughs).” 

Coming from a blue-collar town that, for all its charm, has become something 
of an industrial wasteland, did Bean ever worry that he’d share the fate of 
WSC’s Jimmy and end up working in a factory? 

“I went to work with me father just after I left school, in a factory…a 
steel factory. I once worked at Marks & Spencers, cutting the cheese in the 
delicatessen, and I lasted about four hours. I think I came home at lunchtime, 
cause I just couldn’t stand the smell, it were absolutely disgusting. I worked 
for the council, cutting hedges, laying paving-stones and stuff like that. And 
I had some good times there, but I didn’t really want to do it for the rest of 
me life, so I got into Art College and it had this acting course attached to it, 
and from then on I just stuck at it.” 

Did this lead to much of a slagging from your mates? 

“Yeah, occasionally, especially when I started acting. I got called a bit of 
a fairy now an’ again, but I suppose that’s just to be expected, y’know, it was 
a bit of an unusual thing to want to do. If it had been the other way round, I 
probably woulda done the same meself.” 

Having established acting as his passion, Bean enrolled at the world-famous 
RADA school in London and never looked back. Does he remember his time there 
fondly? 

“Aye, I had a great time there, y’know, it taught me how to get on with other 
people from different walks of life – well, you have to get on with them, seeing 
them day in and day out. I also learnt a lot there, with living away from home 
– which I’d never done before, I’d never left Sheffield really for longer than a 
weekend – so being down in London for two years was obviously a bit of a 
wrench.” 

One of the striking things (no pun intended) about Bean’s performance in WSC 
is this. He looks like a very handy footballer. Is it something he would have 
aspired to as a kid? 

“Aye, ah played when ah were a lad, an’ I used to love it. An’ then after 
school it sort of wore off a bit, what with doin’ other things, goin’ out, 
meetin’ girls, goin’ to pubs an’ stuff like that. I have played since for pub 
teams now an’ again, but it were never something I were good enough to pursue as 
a career. I sussed that out pretty early on.” 

At this point, producer James Daly (another Sheffield lad), whose brain 
conceived the whole project and whose wife Maria Giese directed the movie, 
points out: “Sean was perfect, ’cause it’s hard to get an actor who can play 
football, especially in Hollywood. That was why it was difficult to get the 
film off the ground.” 

Sean continues: “It was difficult for us to do, cause we’d only got so much 
time, we were workin’ on a low budget, it were startin’ to get dark early what 
with being the winter, and so everyone was rushing. We had to get the moves and 
passes and everything right the first time, which is pretty difficult. It felt 
really strange sliding on me arse in a muddy pitch in the middle of a Yorkshire 
winter, which is probably as far removed from Hollywood as you can get. But it 
was refreshing too, y’know, just to be back in my hometown doin’ something about 
a kid from Sheffield. I’d always wanted to do something up there, specially a 
feature film, so that was really the perfect opportunity.” 

Bean speaks glowingly of most of his co-stars, from The Field’s Richard 
Harris (“very passionate about his work, I learnt quite a bit from him”) to new 
007 Pierce Brosnan (“great to work with, a real nice fella”). He becomes more 
cautious on the subject of Emily Lloyd, who plays his Irish girlfriend in When 
Saturday Comes. 

“I think we both had different approaches, but…eh…I think our love affair 
had quite a warm feeling to it, y’know. In the midst of all this masculinity 
and boozing, it were a nice sensitive side, it came across quite well. (pause) 
She’d been in Hollywood ten years, I think this was her first British film 
comin’ back, and it was difficult for her. I think it was quite a big jolt, 
like you said earlier, finding herself in a Sheffield industrial estate in 
midwinter. It’s a very bad place, Hollywood, or it can be. It does funny 
things to your head if you’re there too long, if you’re not careful.” 

Daly, a Hollywood resident, elaborates. “I’ve lived in Hollywood for twelve 
years, so I know it inside out. There’s a lot of backbiting and petty 
rivalries. Too many egos. I mean, Sean’s above all that – it stands out in his 
acting, he’s straight-on, down-to-earth, no bullshit. Whereas over in America 
it’s 15, 20, 30 takes, they spend two hours in make-up (long pause)…just all 
this bullshit you have to go through.” 

Nice bloke as he is, Bean is no stranger to playing the bad guy: he was the 
implausibly evil psychopath IRA “terrorist” in Patriot Games, and the compelling 
villain in Goldeneye. Would he be interested in doing any more Bond movies?
“I would be, but I dunno if I can, they’ll probably have to bring me back to 
life. (affects a sad look) Ah don’t think they shoulda killed me off really, 
they shoulda left it in the balance so I could return. (pause) Maybe I will.”
And has he got his schedule for this year mapped out? 

“No, I just hope it continues like it has been for the last couple of years, 
I’ve been doing stuff that I wanna do, which is quite exciting. I don’t try and 
plan ahead too much, cause plans always go to pieces in this game, so there’s no 
point making any. I just try an’ take it day by day, week by week.” 

And what about his beloved Blades, mired at the wrong end of the Endsleigh 
League First Division? Does he see any escape route? 

“Well, they’ve just bought somebody from Celtic, Andy Walker. They’re 
playing good football, y’know, they just can’t seem to be able to score. It 
might be quite close, but I think we’ll stay up, meself. (pause) We’re too big 
to go down.”