 Nesbitt had been approached at a British Academy Television Awards ceremony by director Paul <unk> , who wanted him to star in a television drama he was making about the 1972 " Bloody Sunday " shootings in Derry . Nesbitt was only seven years old when the shootings happened and was ignorant of its cause ; he believed that there was " no smoke without fire " and that the Catholic <unk> must have done something to provoke the British Army . He was filming Cold Feet in Manchester when he received the script . He read it and found that had " an extraordinary effect " on him . Nesbitt played Ivan Cooper in Bloody Sunday , the man who pressed for the march to go ahead . To prepare for the role , Nesbitt met with Cooper and spent many hours talking to him about his motives on that day . He met with relatives of the victims and watched the televised Bloody Sunday Inquiry with them , and also read Don <unk> 's Eyewitness Bloody Sunday and Peter Pringle and Philip Jacobson 's Those Are Real <unk> , <unk> 't They ? . <unk> compared Nesbitt 's preparation to an athlete preparing for a race , and told The Observer , " For an Irish actor , doing the Troubles is like doing Lear . " Nesbitt had questioned whether he was a good enough actor to effectively portray Cooper and was worried what Derry Catholics would think of a Protestant playing the lead , although Ivan Cooper himself is a Protestant . 
