Barry Keoghan, a perfectionist in Peaky Blinders, and Cillian Murphy, a Saltburn star, discuss the demands of the job and how he must protect himself while filming the Fab Four biopic.
You don’t slack on the set of the new Peaky Blinders film – by order of Cillian Murphy, according to Irish actor Barry Keoghan.
Speaking ahead of his starring role with fellow countryman Cillian in the film – due out this year – that continues the story of Tommy Shelby and his notorious family of cut-throat gangsters in Birmingham, Barry reveals his co-star’s impressive work ethic.
He claims, “He doesn’t need to be slack.” Additionally, it is not intimidating. It is in a way that he does not settle for less. He approaches it in a similar way to an athlete. What a legend Cillian is.
The new Netflix movie, The Immortal Man, is set during the Second World War and also stars Rebecca Ferguson and Tim Roth, along with returning cast members from the hit BBC crime series. Recalling seeing his co-star in Tommy Shelby’s costume at the screen test, Barry, 33, says: “He was more excited to see me in my costume. He was like, ‘Ah man, look at you.’”
Clearly channelling his inner Duke menace (his character in the movie) Barry says of Cillian: “He does not say anything, but you feel it.” And Barry has clearly adopted his co-star’s ethos, by giving it all, when it comes to his latest role as Ringo Starr in the new Beatles movie. For he has sacrificed his other great love after acting – boxing – to play the part.
In the new Sam Mendes biopic, he plays drummer Ringo, along with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney. “I have boxed for years. But they will kill me if I go and break my hand. I must not miss the drumming, of course.
Barry overcame a tragic childhood to find success as an actor, after his mother died of a heroin overdose when he was just 12 and is renowned for his unsettling performances in Saltburn and The Banshees of Inisherin with Colin Farrell. He and his siblings spent many years in foster care, before being brought up by his grandmother.
He has described in heartfelt ways how many members of his family were victims of drug use, which later became the plague of his hometown of Dublin, saying: “My father passed away as a result of this, and I lost my mum to it. I’ve lost two uncles and a cousin to drugs”.
After battling his own drink and drug addiction issues, Sober claims that being at the top of his game is required to film The Beatles movies in an intense schedule. He states, “The Beatles are playing now for at least 15 months. It is really focused and committed because it is four movies”.
Barry says, “I will always try and do better, while people tell him, you have made it.” My approach to the Beatles movie is completely different from everything I’ve ever done.
More interested in a career in the ring than on stage when he was younger, Barry only began acting in school plays so he could skip class. He made the call that would change his life when he happened to be looking for non-actors in a boxing club one day while he was training.
After winning that part in Between The Canals in 2011, he started applying for Irish dance and drama schools – but was rejected. I avoided entering any. He claims, “I was lost. “I had just finished school. It was like being completely lost in your confidence.
He eventually discovered where he would go. He explains: “The Factory was not an acting school – it was more of a place of pure collaboration and had an experimental approach”.
He gained notoriety in Ireland for his role in the 2013 television series Love/Hate about organized crime in Dublin. He added, “I was doing Love/Hate and I went to Galway and rented an Airbnb. I met these lads and I wanted to learn how these lads walked and talked. I then returned to Dublin.
Barry’s ability to portray complex characters landed him his breakout role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017 with Nicole Kidman, where he tried to learn as much as he could from the box office star. He recalls that it was insane to transform from a love/hate relationship to a scared deer. For the first time in my acting career, I had control. Nicole is a genius”. I viewed things like babies looked at me and took in.
That same year, he gained plaudits for his part in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, working alongside One Direction star Harry Styles. Unlike now, the jobbing actor had to audition for his role as a soldier in the Second World War epic. “I did an audition tape for Dunkirk and I remember we had to look at tennis balls to take the attention off what I was saying – and I got the part,” he says.
Having won an Oscar for best supporting actor in 2023 for The Banshees, Keoghan no longer needs to audition for his roles – but he doesn’t take his fame for granted”. He claims that your best work was your last one. Sometimes a director needs to appear on an audition tape. It shows you delivering. “
He wanted to make sure he got Ringo Starr’s role before The Beatles’ films, so he still sent in a tape of himself. I may sound dicky (I don’t have to audition any more), but I don’t. But like for The Beatles for example, I grabbed a Ringo clip online and I got some friends in New York to shoot it in black and white in this hotel, “he says.
I tried to mimic Ringo’s version of it because I wanted to show that I was committed. Barry also pulled the trick to play the role in the 2022 Joker movie, according to the source. I saw that they wanted the Riddler, so I made a short Batman film and got this lady in LA to shoot it. He says, “I bought a hat and a cane and went down the corridor slowly because I wanted to make it look like Stanley Kubrick.”
It turned out they’d already cast the Riddler, but four months later Barry did get the Joker part, which sadly ended up on the cutting floor. His acting work even led to Brando’s son, Brando, being named after the actor who played The Godfather in August of 2022.
Singer Sabrina Carpenter was recently linked to her after he appeared in one of her music videos. She referred to the collaboration as “one of the best she’s ever had.” “Barry says the secret to his acting success is the way he teases the camera with his piercing blue eyes.
You always seem to be playing hard on the camera, I’ve been told. Nothing has to be said in the end. The eyes say everything really, “he says.
He explains that when I watch a young actor in their first film or in their second, they always take things in an unstructured manner. And then they are told they are an actor – and they get lost and lose their instinct. That is something I always consider for myself. Every approach makes a movie seem like it was my first movie to me.
The boy from the poor streets of Dublin says he has been incredibly” blessed “and now wants to inspire kids from his home city to escape and achieve their dreams.
He says, “I want to make this story of where I come from and get people who aren’t actors on board.” It is promoting the idea that no matter where you come from, it shouldn’t prevent you from succeeding.
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