- I'm a kid on Christmas.
You grow up watching Marvel, you know.
You grow up wanting to be a superhero.
You grow up, and getting to be that is like,
yeah, the words can't describe it, man.
- [Josh] You like your costume?
Have you had a fitting? - I do, yeah.
I love it.
- (laughs) Feel like a superhero in it?
- Yeah, and I am.
- Amazing. (laughs)
[Josh] It's a great pleasure to welcome Barry Keoghan
into our studio today.
A big fan of yours, man.
- Thanks, man.
- The new film is 'Calm With Horses.'
As I was saying, tough piece of work, great piece of work.
- Different.
- Yeah.
Talk to me a little bit about,
let's just get the basics out of the way.
How do you get involved in this one,
what's the appeal of this one?
- Nick Rowland, you know,
he's a first time filmmaker as well.
I seen a short he done called 'Dancing in the Ashes'
and he made it for, like three, four thousand
and it just blew my mind.
You know, it was just incredible and moving
and I wanted to see what he was doin' for his first feature.
So, this came about and he flew to Ireland,
we chatted, we had a few Guinness.
And, we got on, do you know?
And, we chatted about the character.
And, yeah, we just, we clicked.
- Is this a uniquely Irish story, you think?
What makes this unique to that land, to your homeland.
- It is, you know, and it's always nice to film home,
it's always, always nice.
But, the Irish crews and everyone,
and just gettin' to work on this was magic.
They're based on the short stories by Colin Barrett.
- Right.
- It captures, kind of the life of the west,
if you get me, you know?
- Mmm hmm.
- I grew up in Dublin and this filmmed in Connemara,
it's a totally different world, so.
- It's also about friendship and loyalty
- Loyalty, yeah.
- and violence and culture, like that's just an inherent
in some kind of, the way some people have to grow up
just by blood. - Yeah.
- How does it resonate with the way you grew up?
You had a tough childhood from what I gather.
- Yeah, it wasn't like that, though, you know.
- I hope not, yeah.
- But loyalty, it definitely plays a big part
in the loyalty.
'Cause he, Dympna, the character I play,
is constantly trying to prove to his uncles
and basically to the community I think, you know,
and keeping this, kind of, persona that he has, you know,
and this vicious kinda thing he's tryin' to give off.
But, yeah, it's loyalty to his family and, you know,
to Arm, and that, so yeah.
- You know, watching it, this doesn't read as like,
oh, this must have been a blast to shoot.
This must (laughs) like, is it, I mean,
obviously you're getting something out of this experience.
- Yeah.
- But, I can't imagine ever you
- I got to see my country, you know.
- Well, there's that.
- I got to go to places where I wouldn't have went to.
You know, the west coast of Ireland is probably
one of the most beautiful places in the world to go.
Gettin' to spend time there and it's such a low budget movie
as well that, you know you don't have the perks
of stayin' in these big hotels and you're kinda
with the team on it, which is nice, you know,
because it was a young crew as well
and everyone was kind of,
everyone was puttin' their hard hours in
and you felt a part of that.
You didn't feel like,
all right I'm gonna go to the hotel and
- [Josh] Right, check-out.
- You know, I rider-ed that.
Well, I won't say rider-ed,
'cause don't go puttin' me in it.
But, like you know, it's sometimes the crews and that
don't get the love that they should.
To be there with them
and basically goin' at it with 'em was nice.
- Well and you mentioned the director,
this is his first feature and he's got everything to prove,
like it's all on this.
- There's a lot of pressure, man, a lot of pressure.
- I can only imagine.
So, for you, I mean especially
and I want to talk to you about like the last few years,
which have been amazing for you.
But like, is it important to still mix it up
with like young first time filmmakers?
- Yeah, if the script is there.
Honestly, if the script and the story and the character,
you know, them three elements, I'm down to do it.
You know, doesn't matter the budget.
You know, you see films these days bein' made on iPhones
and stuff like that.
Doesn't matter what it's captured on.
You know, it's the story.
So, yeah, whatever the material is, if it reaches out to me
and I like it, I mean, yeah.
- I mentioned when you came in here,
I've been really admiring your work
and your choices the last few years and just like every.
- I've been lucky in that way, man.
- It's a good run and it's gonna continue,
I think judging by what's coming up for you.
Just talk to me a little bit, like expectations,
like five, if I talked to you five years ago,
is this kind of what you imagined where you were going,
like is this exceeding?
- Yeah, you seen the tweet, I tweeted Stan Lee?
- Yes, so let's give a little context.
Back in 2013, you tweeted,
- I was like, "Please let me be a superhero."
- "Please make me a superhero," to Stan Lee.
- Yeah, and it's just that vision and that,
you know I don't wanna make it sound too cheesy
and too cliché,
but it's just havin' that drive, you know,
and watchin' all these people that I admire
and gettin' to meet them.
I'm starstruck when I get to meet half of the people I meet.
I'm such a fanboy like as well.
- I know you, I can tell, I follow you on social
and I was at D23,
and I saw you losing your mind for The Rock.
- Oh, my God.
(laughing)
That was madness,
'cause we set that up so I'd bump into him.
- You set it up?
- Yeah, yeah, they set it up, like for me, you know.
I was like, "Can I meet The Rock?"
and they were like, "Yeah."
I was like, "Well wait, yeah?"
I was like, "Oh, oh (beep) all right."
(laughing)
"This is it."
And, my girlfriend seen him
and they set up so nice that we'd bump into each other.
And, he is such a gent.
- The best.
- You know, they say don't meet your heroes.
And, oh my God, he was more than I expected.
Like he, you know and the fact he was just tired
and whatever and he was ready to go and he'd had a long day,
but he stood there with me
and he was willing to give me advice.
And, I was the one that freaked out.
I was like "Oh, I can't, I can't, it's The Rock, oh my God."
And, my girlfriend had to butt in and go,
"Just wanna say, he can't talk now,
"but he's a huge fan of yours."
You know, he was just, he was so lovin'
and the fact that he went and tweeted me after
and showed support that way.
It goes to show, like he is where he is because
he's such a good guy, you know.
- What's the Barry Keoghan, Rock collabo
that we're tryin' to get off the ground? (laughs)
- What is there?
We're workin' on it, yeah we're workin' on it.
I wanna put that out there.
(laughing)
- It has begun.
Look, it worked last time with Marvel
to make you a superhero.
- I know, man, I know it.
- What do we want to secret into the universe now?
- I know, I know, it's crazy.
- What did movies mean to you growing up?
I mean, I alluded to the tough upbringing,
were movies an escape, was it?
- Escape, man, I was gonna say that, yeah.
I think for everyone, you know.
Look at Martin Scorsese, he says he always ran away
to the cinema and, you know, escaped that way.
And, for me it was
watching old movies and learnin' traits
and ways to talk to people and mannerisms
along with some acting and.
- Who were the actors you were obsessed with then or now?
- Paul Newman.
- Yeah?
- Paul Newman, I still am.
Brando is the obvious one as well.
And, just you know, they just,
I never met my granddad, you know he passed away
before I was born, but they somehow remind me of him,
you know and his kind of way.
- What about in your contemporaries?
Who knocks you back, who are you impressed by?
- Joaquin Phoenix.
- Just the way he's just wantin' to commit
and just go for it.
- Just, Tom Hardy.
- Same way, yeah, totally, yeah.
- I have a list, DiCaprio, I have a list of 'em,
and Daniel Day Lewis.
- Have you spent, I mean Hardy was obviously in 'Dunkirk,'
but not in your stuff, have you spent time with Tom at all?
- I got to meet him at the premiere.
For the first time, which was weird.
- Intimidating guy.
- I was like, "Oh, you were great in the film."
He was like, "So were you, bro."
(laughing)
- 'Dunkirk' secret handshake.
(laughing)
- Play it cool, do you know what I mean?
But no, he's class, man.
He does this thing with his body as well.
You know, the great ones do it, that body language.
I don't even think he knows he's doin' it.
But, you know, whatever way he's feelin',
his body tells it off and.
- I think of that film like 'Warrior,' the way--
- 'Warrior,' man and 'Bronson.'
- [Josh] Amazing.
- Do you know and then even in 'Dunkirk' and Batman,
you know, he's covered here, but, you know,
it's just a lesson what he does there, like, he.
- Yeah, couple quick things.
I know you can't say anything about 'Eternals,'
but talk to me just what it means to you
to be a part of this.
- It's exciting, man, it really is.
- And, now you've gotten to know your cast a little bit.
At D23, you probably met a lot of them for the first time.
- I did and that was, it was, you know,
I thought it was gonna be intimidating walkin' out.
But, you know, they were so reassuring backstage
and gettin' to meet everyone.
And, they were like, "Just take a breath."
and, you know, I was like,
I was the last one to be called out and I was like,
"Am I gonna make it through them curtains,
"'cause I feel like I'm gonna" (whistles)
And, but I walked out, and you know that was an experience
in itself as well, gettin' to just,
you look from there to there and I was just (sighs)
it was full up everywhere, like it.
And, everyone's so, you know, pumped up and you're there
and you're tryin' to hold your own.
(laughing)
Crazy.
- [Josh] I can't wait to see what you do with it, man.