I was on the set of like a TV film called The Treaty, where my dad played Michael Collins
and there were free biscuits and I remember thinking, “This is the job for me.”
Hi, my name is Domhnall Gleeson and these are my Film Firsts with BAFTA.
The first film that I ever saw--
The first one that I can remember watching I think is probably Bambi
in my grandparents house and it breaking my heart.
It was a bad start.
The first film that I watched at a young age that I definitely
should not have seen was...
Shame.
I was in my thirties.
[Laughs]
I thought that was too much for me.
Shame was too intense.
I was really scared of films that were for older age groups than me.
My dad was in a film called Braveheart and I was like 14
and I wasn't allowed in to see that.
And I was kind of glad
because I was kind of scared of seeing things that were too old for me.
So, yeah, I kept away.
The first film I saw that made me want to act
probably would have been one of the Coen brothers films, I think.
You know, Fargo-- well, no, all of them.
Miller's Crossing, all those films, they just had,
they made me laugh so much, and yet they made me feel so much
and they were so cool and all of that at the same time
with these amazing, incredible looking actors.
I think when I saw that, I thought I would love to do that.
I didn't think I could, but I thought I'd love to do it.
I'm trying to remember what the first Coen brothers film that I saw was.
I saw loads of them really close to each other.
I was catching up
because actually their first film was made only a couple of years after I was born.
It might have been around Fargo.
I don't even know what year
Fargo would have been, but I had like just catching up on their incredible films
and the fact they continued to deliver after that.
It may have been Fargo
or it may have been Miller's Crossing.
First film I remember seeing that I was obsessed with...
well, I was obsessed with not watching E.T.
after I saw it the first time we had it on VHS.
And it made me cry a lot.
And I couldn't understand how a film could make me feel that much.
I was young, like, you know, I was probably about ten or whatever.
It was so full on the experience at the end.
I didn't understand it.
And I used to like, lock it in the case and make sure my brothers never watched it
because I was so obsessed with not seeing it again.
I didn't want to feel, like it was too much for me at that age.
I've always been
somebody who's almost better at rewatching the things that I love than I am
at really committing to new things, which is a terrible, terrible trait
like I was obsessed by Double Indemnity for a while.
I was obsessed by, again, like Coen Brothers films,
Punch-Drunk Love.
I watched a lot of times. I love that film.
When it comes to television,
I like some serious television, but mostly it's comedy.
So Alan Partridge was like-- remains one of like,
the most important things in my life,
if I need to be happy.
He'll always make me happy because there's someone worse than I am.
[Laughs]
Fawlty Towers,
and you know I loved Harry Enfield,
like I loved Friends and stuff like that when I was in school.
And, you know, loads of TV shows have meant a lot to me.
First ever line in a film or TV show, it would have been something
like, “No.” You know, like, something like that.
I also, I was an extra on a film that my father was in.
They just brought me in to be an extra when I was like,
you know, when I was 14, It was like John Boorman sets.
So like the first that I was ever on was a John Boorman set, which isn’t bad.
But I froze so bad.
I think they asked me to say something and I froze so bad I couldn't speak.
So yeah, my first line was saying nothing.
That wasn't really a role the John Boorman thing
that was more like they needed--
Like we were free extras.
Myself and my three brothers, that's what that was.
But my first role might have been a Martin McDonagh short film.
So I did a Martin McDonagh play was my first job on the West End,
an incredible play called The Lieutenant of Inishmore.
I had loads of lines in that! That was my first job.
And then I did a smaller job
for him in a short film that he made that actually won an Academy Award.
And I think my first line was, “No.”
I think I’m asked, “Are you not meant to go up and down with that trolley?”
And I say, “No.” That was it.
I can remember what being on set for the first time was like
because I was on a set that I wasn't involved in.
This is one of the absolute breaks you get as the child of an actor.
Like you get so many lucky things
that are people you know are unfortunate not to have.
I got to stand on a set where
there was no pressure on me before I was on a set where there was pressure on me.
We got to go on the set of Braveheart, big set, very impressive.
I was on the set of like a TV film called The Treaty, where my dad played Michael Collins
and there were free biscuits.
And I remember thinking, “This is the job for me.”
The amazing thing about Alice & Jack and the script for Alice & Jack was that
they sent us the first script, and the last script, it’s a television show.
But they sent us the first script and the last script, which never, ever happens.
So you could see how it started, but you could also see how it ended.
And the journey of it was so beautiful and so big that I just fell in love.
So the first time I met Andrea Riseborough
was at a really important time in my life.
It was when I was about 27 or 28.
It was my first time working with Alex Garland. It was on a film called Never Let Me Go,
and we were playing boyfriend and girlfriend.
The first time I met Andrea to now, is about, I don't know, 15 years or whatever.
And that's the exact amount of time
that the story of Alice & Jack takes place over.
They meet in their late twenties
and the story ends just as they're in their early forties.
And that's the amount of time I've known her and we've washed
in and out of each other's lives in much the same way as Alice and Jack do.
So it feels really special for me to be doing this with her.