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Is Barry Keoghan one of the greatest actors of his generation?

There are disturbing elements in Martin McDonagh’s precisely calibrated hit The Banshees of Inisherin. But along with all the nihilism, the unfortunate donkey and the splashes of gore, the performance given by Barry Keoghan is right up there for its unsettling impact. The Irish actor’s vulnerable and abused islander Dominic Kearney gives the film moments of warmth and much of its emotional punch.

So, even though the 30-year-old’s inclusion in the Oscar lineup for best supporting actor was unexpected last week – especially alongside big names such as Judd Hirsch and his Banshees co-star Brendan Gleeson – it was not a surprise for those who love the film.

Among Keoghan’s many new fans is Gary Lineker, who was quick to applaud the nomination on social media, while McDonagh, who wrote the part for the actor, already regards him as “one of the best actors of his generation in the world today, let alone in Ireland”.

At first glance, Keoghan’s background will make him an unlikely guest at the world’s glitziest showbiz ceremony this March. His is, after all, a sad personal story. He and his brother, Eric, were born in the disadvantaged Summerhill area of Dublin and, by his own doleful reckoning, their young mother soon fell victim to a big influx of drugs in the area. “It was a new thing and people didn’t know the effects,” he has said. “The drugs hit the area and it affected all the families, and she was one of them that got caught.”

Her sons were taken into care and passed through 13 foster homes. For a period, they also lived with their maternal grandmother, Patricia, and were with her when they learned of their mother’s death.

Keoghan left school at 16 with scant qualifications but a love of impersonations and film. And this is where his path to fame becomes clearer. Like many screen talents before him, he had extraordinary drive, fuelled no doubt by the adverse circumstances of his childhood. Weighing the loss of his mother, he has remembered deciding: “What more can I lose? The only way is forward.”

A small notice in a shop window, inviting hopeful actors to join a new film project, provided the first seed of ambition. Keoghan plagued the film’s director with audition requests and eventually, three years later, he got a part. A television career in Ireland followed, as well as a role in the 2018 heist film American Animals.

“Our story was set in a college in the States and so we were looking only at American actors for the role of Spencer, a sensitive artist,” recalled producer Katherine Butler. “Barry’s agent had sent over an audition tape he’d made at home in Ireland, and it was probably the worst-quality phone footage I have ever seen. It was dark and seemed to have been filmed in his nan’s bedroom. Yet there was something about the performance that meant we kept going back to it. He was just right.”

Butler could see Keoghan’s enjoyment of working on set and the spark of his emotional connection to his role: “It’s just magic. It’s about his eyes and the way he drills into the soul of his characters. It has been great watching his career in the last few years, and he’ll be around a long time, I’m sure.”

Keoghan also caught the eye of two influential directors, Christopher Nolan and Yorgos Lanthimos, who also set him on his path at this time. He won significant roles in the respective film-makers’ Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, becoming the go-to man when a cast requires an outsider who can communicate a subtle range of feelings.

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by Anonymousreply 33March 20, 2023 8:30 PM

And Keoghan obviously understands what he can offer on the quirky edge of the cinematic register. He confidently agitated for a role in 2022’s The Batman by sending over a showreel, this time not filmed at home, in which he cast himself as the Riddler, one of the superhero’s key adversaries. Instead, it was to secure him the part of the Joker, a character who appears only briefly in this instalment of the DC comics saga. And yet, as Keoghan has joyfully pointed out, on a list he found rating seven of the best screen Jokers, he was the fourth. “Lads, with four minutes of screen time, not bad eh!?” he quipped.

The actor also showed clear screen presence in a second superhero outing. Director Chloé Zhao, an Oscar winner in 2021 for Nomadland, cast him as Druig, a mind-controlling alien, in her Marvel movie Eternals. She has described him as a “wild wolf”, adding: “He can’t be tamed and you wouldn’t want to.”

It is these two fantasy roles that now get Keoghan recognised on the street. But for the quality-boxset-consuming classes, it is more likely to be his role as Pavel, a nuclear contamination “liquidator”, in the acclaimed drama series Chernobyl.

On screen, there is a mix of menace and mirth in Keoghan’s range, a kind of lazy threat that is supported by his prowess in the boxing ring. In recent years, he has gone back to the sport he loved as a youth for pure relaxation. “It’s the only time I feel really present,” he said in a New York Times interview. “You can do meditation – which I don’t – but people go on about feeling in the moment, and for me, that’s when I’m boxing.”

But with the thrill of his Bafta and Oscar nominations, the softer side of Keoghan has been on display. A big part of this has been public banter with his Banshees co-star Colin Farrell. The two shared accommodation during the shoot, and Farrell has teased Keoghan about his untidiness – “the place was like raccoons had been in there” – and his penchant for raiding cereal boxes. “Tell you what, I never thought I’d hear Colin Farrell go: ‘Did you eat my Crunchy Nut last night?’” joked the younger actor in a recent magazine interview.

News of his Oscar nod was met with an equally endearing call out to his baby son on Instagram. “Daddy loves you ❤️.” Last summer, Keoghan and his partner, Scottish orthodontist Alyson Sandro, became parents to a boy named Brando, after Keoghan’s favourite star. Since becoming a family, the actor says he has been learning to balance work with domestic life, and his friend Dwayne Johnson, AKA the Rock, has been an inspiration. “I’ve seen the Rock do it,” he told GQ magazine last year. “You’ve got to separate that. You’ve got work mode and family time.”

It is an internal conflict in a maturing actor that also poses an interesting question about his future on the big screen. If film directors begin to offer Keoghan the chance to charm in a leading role, his star voltage could be even more powerful.

by Anonymousreply 1March 14, 2023 3:24 AM

There is something very attractive and alluring about Barry.

He just draws you in with his personality.

Even though he's only 30, you can tell that he's lived a lot of life.

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by Anonymousreply 2March 14, 2023 3:26 AM

Shirtless.

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by Anonymousreply 3March 14, 2023 3:26 AM

I should check out more of his work. He gave a beautiful performance in Banshees. Nice to read about his success over the last couple of years after overcoming such a sad childhood.

by Anonymousreply 4March 14, 2023 3:32 AM

I wish I could share accommodation with Colin Farrell...

by Anonymousreply 5March 14, 2023 3:36 AM

He and Colin should have won last night.

by Anonymousreply 6March 14, 2023 3:40 AM

I recommend Killing of a Sacred Deer which also stars Colin Farrel. Not a fun ride but a hell of a trip.

by Anonymousreply 7March 14, 2023 3:45 AM

What's with his eyes?

He looks asian.

Is that common in a lot of Irish people?

by Anonymousreply 8March 14, 2023 3:45 AM

He is salt of the earth, from a very rough part of inner city Dublin he's now their pride and joy. We are all proud of him in Ireland

by Anonymousreply 9March 14, 2023 3:50 AM

[quote]I recommend Killing of a Sacred Deer which also stars Colin Farrel. Not a fun ride but a hell of a trip.

This, and he also has a good smaller role in The Green Knight.

by Anonymousreply 10March 14, 2023 4:07 AM

R8, I’m northern English and Irish and have eye folds - it’s not uncommon.

by Anonymousreply 11March 14, 2023 4:07 AM

Russian/Inuit (I have no proof of Inuit, other than a bunch of you look it - Ben A, Seth Mac, Rob Mc).

Ha, he's with an orthodontist. I have a slutty friend who played that game. Get your teeth fixed for dick, smart girl got a wee one though.

by Anonymousreply 12March 14, 2023 4:11 AM

Very talented guy and I love that he's made himself a success from such sad upbringing.

by Anonymousreply 13March 14, 2023 4:16 AM

I remember seeing him in the HBO series about Chernobyl. He was only in one episode, as a very young soldier sent to a camp outside the established perimeter, to shoot abandoned dogs affected by radiation. I thought who is that kid? He had that “it” factor. He was also in the underrated 1917.

by Anonymousreply 14March 14, 2023 4:17 AM

[quote] Is Barry Keoghan one of the greatest actors of his generation?

No, Mr Guardian Click-Bait, thIs person is not one of the greatest actors of his generation.

by Anonymousreply 15March 14, 2023 6:23 AM

R15 = Austin Butler, still bitter from last night.

by Anonymousreply 16March 14, 2023 6:26 AM

When did DL become tumblr? So many loser stans.

by Anonymousreply 17March 14, 2023 8:17 AM

🤡 lol

by Anonymousreply 18March 14, 2023 8:25 AM

He was great in The Eternals.

Just kidding. That movie was complete crap.

by Anonymousreply 19March 14, 2023 8:26 AM

Keoghan gave a remarkable, memorable performance in The Banshees of Inisherin. His Best Supporting Actor nomination was richly deserved. He should have won. But in the current racist Oscar skin color trumps talent lunacy, he didn’t. More’s the pity.

by Anonymousreply 20March 14, 2023 8:57 AM

The winner in his category had nothing to do with race. It has to do with a compelling story… the actor thrown away by Hollywood who decades later returns and wins an Oscar. If you have that story and can give a great speech, you’ll win every time.

by Anonymousreply 21March 14, 2023 10:06 AM

[quote] The winner in his category had nothing to do with race

R21 Perhaps ten, even five years ago, I would have agreed with you. But today awards have been poisoned by the racism of "diversity" and "inclusion". Neither a good story, a great speech, or talent are factors in the selection process.

by Anonymousreply 22March 14, 2023 10:12 AM

^^^^^Nor talent

by Anonymousreply 23March 14, 2023 10:14 AM

Have he and Tye Sheridan ever been in the same room together?

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by Anonymousreply 24March 14, 2023 10:59 AM

Wow, R24.

I never realized how much they look alike.

But Barry has sadder, puppy dog eyes.

by Anonymousreply 25March 14, 2023 11:41 AM

Fetal alcohol syndrome

by Anonymousreply 26March 14, 2023 11:47 AM

He’s one of Lisa Marie’s kids?

by Anonymousreply 27March 14, 2023 12:38 PM

He was great in Banshees. I did not get his character’s death though.

by Anonymousreply 28March 14, 2023 1:34 PM

[quote] I did not get his character’s death though.

Same here.

I just assumed he killed himself because his life was shit.

His father was molesting him and Siobhan rejected him.

It crossed my mind that his father might have killed him, but that made no sense because his father didn't even know he was dead.

by Anonymousreply 29March 14, 2023 1:39 PM

[quote]I just assumed he killed himself because his life was shit. His father was molesting him and Siobhan rejected him.

And he had thought Pádraic was a good person, and then he found out about the cruel trick Pádraic played on someone for his own selfish ends. I think it was just too much in a short span of time for him, although the film lets you decide whether it was suicide or accident.

by Anonymousreply 30March 14, 2023 2:01 PM

He’s good. I couldn’t take my eyes off him in “Killing of a Sacred Deer”. As someone else said, not a pleasant ride, but it was worth seeing.

by Anonymousreply 31March 14, 2023 2:49 PM

His father had only recently shared with Mrs O'Riordan the "news" that a "fella killed himself over Rosmuck way. Walked into a lake for himself. Twenty-nine and nothin' wrong wit' him, the fool." She can't have been the only one he told, so that probably suggested the idea to Dominic.

by Anonymousreply 32March 20, 2023 1:06 PM

He seems like a bit of an oddball, but he's a good actor & a welcome change from generic pretty boy types like Timmy

by Anonymousreply 33March 20, 2023 8:30 PM
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