 He left <unk> at the age of 18 and began a degree in French at the University of Ulster , ( formally Ulster Polytechnic ) in <unk> . He stayed at university for a year before dropping out . In a 1999 interview , Nesbitt said , " I had the necessary in my head , but I just couldn 't be bothered . Being 18 is the worst age to expect people to learn things . There are other things to be bothered with , like girls and football . " He made the decision to quit when he was trying to write an <unk> essay on <unk> in Les <unk> Sales at 4 am one day . His father suggested that he should move to England if he wanted to continue acting , so Nesbitt enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama ( <unk> ) , part of University of London . Nesbitt felt lost and misrepresented when he first arrived in London , on account of his Northern Irish background ; " When I first came to drama school I was a Paddy the minute I walked in . And I remember going to drama school and them all saying to me , ' <unk> , yeah , <unk> out ' , and I was like ' It 's a wee bit more complicated than that , you know . ' " He graduated in 1987 , at the age of 22 . 
