Barry Keoghan, currently in talks with the thriller satire “Saltburn”, almost lost his arm a few years ago due to a serious illness. To this day, a scar that looks like a snake reminds him of that time.
Specifically, the 31-year-old suffered from necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating disease. He contracted this shortly before filming “The Banshees of Inisherin” (which earned Keoghan an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor), as he now tells “GQ”. JAccording to studies, every fifth case of necrotizing fasciitis is fatal – so the actor was lucky again.
“There was a moment when amputation was considered”
Keoghan remembers in “GQ” –Interview back to the moment when something worse was suspected and new ways of saving his arm were to be put in place: “There was a moment when amputation was considered.” He then probably asked the doctors: “But I’m not going to die, am I?” To which he was only answered that this couldn’t be said with certainty.
It was also around this time that the mime met Irish director Martin McDonagh (“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri“) know with whom he for “The Banshees of Inisherin” wanted to work together. McDonagh visited him in the hospital at the time: “I’m not sure if he was on a lot of medication, but he seemed to shrug off the situation,” McDonagh said “GQ” on his impression of Barry Keoghan in his hospital bed. And further: “The filming was in four days and his arm was bloated. But he was like, ‘Yeah, no, I’m fine. See you on Tuesday.'”
In fact, Keoghan was soon able to leave the hospital and eventually become part of the film team. In In The Banshees of Inisherin, Keoghan plays a frustrated resident of Pádraic, a dreary town on the Irish coast. The main duo, however, was Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, who play two former close friends who now have to deal with their new life situation – what do you do when your best friend just isn’t there for you anymore?
“I am finally seen as a man”
Thanks to his role in Saltburn, in which the Irishman plays the con man Oliver Quick, Keoghan finally feels recognized as a man. He told “GQ” that the “era of little freak kid men” was over. “Now I’m just a man. Freak man. Man freak.”
Because of his appearance as a smart Oxford student who befriends the aristocrat’s son Felix Catton (played by Jacob Elordi) and spends an “unforgettable summer” on his family estate, Barry Keoghan himself would also be seen more as a man, he concludes in the interview. This feels very good for him because “sometimes you just have to let your masculinity run wild.”