«UN month before starting shooting, I give a notebook to my grandmother. “While you are sitting watching the bingo on TV, you write me what questions would you ask this character?”. Even nonsense, like: “Do you like mustard?”, Whatever … I prepare for me – and I don’t exaggerate – about eighty: I start from there to deepen “. The “Family & Work” method is surprising, all the more if it is an often disturbing actor like Barry Keoghan to apply it (it is pronounced “Kioghen“, He explains): the revengement of teenager of The sacrifice of the sacred deer by Yorgos Lanthimos (2017); The Joker by The Batman by Matt Reeves (2022); The ambiguous student in love with Jacob Elordi in SALTBURN by Emerald Fennell (2022).
“It is probably because I interpret the roles that people deduce:” Ah, it must be in life! “,” Ah, it’s the bad! “. It is not true at all, of course. And, however, theOliver of SALTBURN It is not evil, it is human, and the dominic of The spirits of the island (directed by Martin McDonagh, the nomination to the Oscar 2023, editor’s note), is a naive, rather innocent and sweet.
They tend to pigeonhole ignoring how much work I put into it. But I still have much more to show, and their vision will change “he said, who inaugurated a unpublished way of proposing with Bird by Andrea Arnold, in cinemas from 8 May: his bug is the young father – somewhat distinct but good mind – of a teenage daughter. And it’s just the beginning: Sam Mendes chose him for the role of Ringo Starr in waiting quadrilogy on the Beatles.
Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Paul Mescal are the Fab 4 in the 4 films that Sam Mendes will make on the Beatles. Here in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Cinemacon)
Barry Keoghan from Dublin to Hollywood
The Dublin teenager hunted from the lessons of recitations at school by excess of restlessness made the road, despite the teachers were aware of the conditions in which he was growing: From 5 to 12 years old he changed 13 foiled families with his brotherto be left to the grandmother only after the death of the mother’s overdose.
How do you choose the proposals?
I opt for what speaks to me. Who makes me question, who intrigues me. I don’t like reading something and understanding: “I know what it is!”.
And of Bird What did you attract it?
This is a special case: Hey, it is Arnold (director attentive to social malaise, always on the side of the last, editor’s note)! I had repeated it in every interview that I dreamed of collaborating with her: it creates a free environment that allows you to be pure, authentic, vulnerable in a safe way, so much so as to lower the defenses. Let the “structure” go that you built, although I never studied acting (her career began in 2011 when she replied to the ban for a audition hanging in a shop, editor’s note). I love Andrea’s almost documentary approach: you forgot to be on the set and you had to look around to identify the camera … it is a privilege, instead of having someone who intervenes every ten seconds and settles you! When you watch his movies, FISH TANKfor example, you ask yourself: how is such a natural performance as possible? And that sense of discomfort. I grew up in similar buildings, I knew that world very well!
Barry Keoghan distinctive father of a teenager in Bird by Andrea Arnold, in cinemas from 8 May.
Didn’t he read the script?
It wasn’t there. And this forces you to be spontaneous, instinctive. It does not stimulate me to try, it does not stimulate me to anticipate the moments, it does not stimulate me confidence. It gives me energy to be thrown into, caught by surprise: it is from there that the truth arrives, authenticity.
Equipped turn the dance scenes?
I am fascinated by who is clumsy. The effort, the choice of singing or dancing is more interesting than the simple fact of being able to be. I am not interested in perfection, I prefer someone who tries and is awkward and scorted. By pure coincidence, the same happened in SALTBURN (the sequence of him has become viral who dance bare along the corridors of the manor on the notes of Murder on the dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, editor’s note).
How was a father to impersonate?
Bugs with children has a relationship more as an older brother than as a father, as today often happens in reality. My approach with Bailey (the debutant Nykiya Adams, editor’s note) It was to treat her like a little sister. Sometimes Bug forgets to be a dad, has no answers. The idea that parents must be omniscient … no! I see it in myself (He has a three -year -old boy, had a former partner Alyson Kierans, editor’s note): I don’t have all the answers, and I understand that it is fine. I’m learning as I go on.
Barry Keoghan at the first of “Bird” at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on May 16 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Wireimage)
Did you resurface childhood memories during filming?
This goes without saying! It is also for my experience that I do what I do, it is reflected inevitably. Although I certainly don’t sit to meditate on certain moments, I draw a lot from pain and experiences. Not exclusively of suffering, fortunately, and the heart that bug has … I have known many like this, I saw my uncle: the selfishness that is not intentional, the somewhat childish way that certain adult men have and that, in some cases, derives from not having had a dad.
Did he find dad of election by chance?
Lanthimos: he knows what I have passed and it is very protective with me, it is one that I can ask for advice.
The dazzling debut of Barry Keoghan here with Colin Farrell in “The sacrifice of the sacred deer” by Yorgos Lanthimos (2017). Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and Bill Camp are also in the cast.
What other personal experiences has brought to the character?
I really had a parrot, flew on my balcony and kept it with me. I called him Julian, it was a parrocchetto from the collar. And he started talking Wow! – To call my dog: Koda! I remember that he didn’t want to go from my penthouse to Canary Wharf, in London, and then one day – after six months – he simply flown away. Birds are fascinating, intelligent.
With Colin Farrell in the spirits of the island of Martin McDonagh, for which he had the nomination to the Oscar 2023. (Jonathan Helion / © Searchlight pictures / courtesy Everett Collection)
What helped her in the most difficult years?
The boxing. And go to the cinema. I loved to escape from reality and preferred the old films with Paul Newman and James Dean. The male protagonists intrigued me at the time.
He asked why?
I don’t know what I was looking for. Perhaps it was the lack of a paternal figure … I tried to understand how men behaved. Marlon Brando’s films … I called my son Brando, not surprisingly. My grandmother continued to ask me why I had this fixation: then I was unable to explain it to her but I was fascinated by it.
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