Domhnall Gleeson on About Time: ‘People were definitely sniffy about it’

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When Domhnall Gleeson was a younger actor, he excelled at a sure kind of position – and it was not the romantic lead. His first main half was because the dim-witted Davey in Martin McDonagh’s black comedy The Lieutenant of Inishmore, for which he picked up a Tony nomination when he was simply 23. “In that play,” he says, “somebody chops all my hair off with a knife. I have a cat that gets shot and explodes all of its blood all over me. Then I have my head shoved in the dead cat. And people laughed at that.” He pauses, contemplating what it would imply to be good on the “funnily pathetic” roles, as he calls them. “I think that was a part of my personality that I could access really easily. So the notion of being suave or being attractive was alien to me, because that’s just not how I saw myself.”

But then his dad, Brendan Gleeson, the Oscar-nominated star of The Banshees of Inisherin (additionally written by McDonagh), sat him down. “He said, ‘You’re going to need to start seeing yourself that way if you want to be considered for that stuff,’” the 40-year-old remembers, his Irish brogue warming up a room in Channel 4’s HQ. “It took me a very long time to tune in to that, or to allow myself to, and I worked with a couple of really important people early on in my career who said, ‘You could do that’. It is an incredibly generous thing to say to somebody else, you know?”

Gleeson Jr is now effectively established as a number one man. He starred as a time traveller in Richard Curtis’s butterfly impact romcom About Time, a whizz-kid programmer in the sci-fi psycho-thriller Ex Machina, and a life guru in the highway journey sequence Run. And he’s at it once more in his latest TV present, the Channel 4 drama Alice & Jack, by which he and Andrea Riseborough play two folks in love, who can’t reside with one another, however can’t reside with out one another. “Often romance can be really, really messy,” says Gleeson, his doleful eyes peeping out by strawberry-blonde lashes, “and real love will f*** you up. You’ll also f*** up love.”

The present spans 15 years, with Gleeson’s Jack marrying one other lady (performed by Aisling Bea). After having a child collectively, they get divorced; his emotions for Alice by no means go away. Gleeson – who not too long ago bought married himself – notably likes that the drama exhibits how the cracks can start to kind in a robust, wholesome marriage. “And trying to be a good parent in the middle of that is f***ing hard,” he says: he doesn’t have kids, however has simply grow to be an uncle for the primary time. “Going to work every day, being fully in love with somebody who doesn’t love you back, is horrible,” he provides. “I think people will hate these characters at times. They really damage themselves and people around them. But then when they’re together every now and again, you realise, oh, they’re just home when they’re together. And they can’t get away from it.”

The sheer variety of Gleeson’s profession may be summed up in a single yr: 2015. In these 12 months, 4 movies he starred in were launched. All of them nominated for Oscars, they were utterly distinctive – Ex Machina, Brooklyn, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant. There have additionally been lots extra “funnily pathetic” guys – he bought his fingers chopped off as an outlaw within the Coen brothers’ True Grit – scattered amongst roles in mega franchises reminiscent of Harry Potter (Bill Weasley).

He’s additionally labored with Angelina Jolie in Unbroken, and Tom Cruise in American Made, and says each were constructive experiences. “Oftentimes the bad experiences are with people who are insecure about their place in things, and so they act out to try to maintain status. Or they’re trying to desperately control things because they don’t feel they have control. Those megawatt people, they don’t need any more control. They have it all if they want it.”

He will get a gift from Cruise yearly – however not the a lot rumoured coconut cake the US actor is claimed to ship round to all his buddies. “I get incredible chocolates,” he says, pausing as if not sure whether or not he ought to be spilling this prime secret data. “Ah I don’t know, maybe, I don’t know if I’m meant to…” He decides it’s positive. “Yeah, I’m very lucky and look forward, every year, to getting this little thing of the most extraordinary chocolates.”

Gleeson grew up the eldest of 4 brothers in Malahide, a seaside suburb of Dublin, within the Eighties. He’d needed to behave from a younger age – his dad give up instructing to grow to be an actor when Gleeson was simply eight – and carried out at school productions of Grease and King Lear. The father and son’s careers have been interlinked from the beginning, with Gleeson making his movie debut aged 21 in McDonagh’s brief movie Six Shooter, which additionally starred his dad and received an Oscar.

He had at all times thought his father’s profession was “cool”, however there were nonetheless embarrassing dad moments. Take Brendan’s first massive position, within the historic drama Braveheart. “I remember when they all raised their kilts and flashed their arses at the camera,” says Domhnall. “It’s so funny, the stuff that matters to you when you’re young and in secondary school. I was so worried. I was like – ” he makes a really severe face – “’Oh no. This is – no. Oh God.’”

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Working along with his dad hasn’t at all times been simple. They were each solid within the 2014 Irish drama Calvary – made by the opposite McDonagh brother, John – by which Brendan performed a small-town priest and Domhnall a cannibal he visits in jail. They began speaking about their scene earlier than the shoot, however discovered they every had completely opposing concepts about find out how to do it. “I thought, we wouldn’t be having this conversation if I wasn’t your son. I need to do this my own way and arrive with my own ideas,” says Gleeson. “So we turned up on the day and we didn’t talk. And then we did this brilliantly horrible scene together, where we had to knock seven shades out of each other emotionally. And I loved it.”

He, his dad and his brother Brian (additionally an actor) – all of whom have popped up in lots of initiatives collectively – keep away from giving one another unsolicited constructive criticism. “Unless it’s sought out, I don’t think you should offer it, because it’s a very delicate place to put yourself in, putting stuff out into the world. And then to feel judged by your family is worse again.”

Gleeson’s profession has not been with out its brickbats. The third Star Wars movie within the sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, obtained a pummelling from followers and critics. Gleeson was solely in it a tiny quantity, so he hasn’t “lost any sleep over it”. “You want everybody to like everything, but it’s impossible,” he says. Does he learn opinions? “If you’ve got nothing to do all day, and you’re in between jobs, it’s hard not to have a glance. Because you’re unemployed and somebody’s whispering behind that door, and you want to lean in to hear. The only time the reviews hurt is if they say something that you agree with, because otherwise you can just disagree with what somebody says, and that’s fine. Everybody’s got a different point of view, and everybody likes different art.”

About Time – an unapologetically sentimental movie that has this author sitting in a pool of tears each time, however on which critics weren’t so eager – is one other instance. Gleeson performed Tim, a person who inherits the flexibility to time journey, and who tries to edit his previous within the hope of enhancing his future. The actor remembers being struck by the extent to which the movie’s director, Curtis, wears his coronary heart on his sleeve. “It was a lesson for me that living your life with love is super important. It had a big effect on my life, doing that film, and working with Richard. All that stuff in his romantic comedies? None of it’s fake. It’s how he operates in the world.”

He remembers the opinions being blended. One critic referred to as him a “ginger Hugh Grant… in lieu of the real deal”. “It had been a long shoot and I worked my ass off on it,” he says. “We all had a brilliant time and I believed in the message of the story. And then when it came out, people were definitely sniffy about it, which is their right. And fair enough, I don’t love every romcom either. That’s all fine. But I wanted it to do well, not just for selfish reasons, but because I loved it.” He says he feels just like the appreciation for About Time has grown over time, and followers typically method him to speak about it. “But ginger Hugh Grant?” he laughs. “I love Hugh Grant and I’m ginger so there’s nothing to complain about there. If they were saying it in a sniffy way, then f*** them!”

There are some initiatives he needs were extra fashionable – just like the sitcom Frank of Ireland he made along with his brother, Brian. It aired on Channel 4 for one season in 2021. “It’s the stupidest show ever, but I’m really proud of how stupid it is,” he says. “It didn’t catch on the way we had hoped.”

Stupid, or reasonably foolish, reasonably fits Gleeson. He’s naturally at dwelling taking part in the clown. He doesn’t sit nonetheless. One second, he seems to be making an attempt a vertical model of the “crab” place, his lengthy pale arms thrown again behind his head and palms pressed flat in opposition to the window. The subsequent, he’s stretching his wingspan proper down the couch, his fingertips hanging over the sting. He’s charming, barely gangly and terribly apologetic. “I talk too long and in too many circular sentences, it’s a nightmare to have to deal with later, I’m very sorry.” After we converse, I’m going right down to the lobby to work, and he creeps up beside me, making me bounce. “I wanted to see what you were writing about me!” he blurts out, then scurries off laughing.

He strikes me as very a lot a homebird. He nonetheless lives in Dublin, the place he grew up, and he skipped all of the awards ceremonies in that massive profession yr, 2015. “I just didn’t fancy it,” he says. “For the most part, you just have to sit there for four hours while stuff happens, and that’s grand, I’ll never complain about it.” He says he’d choose a night within the pub with buddies.

He’s spent loads of time in Ireland over the previous yr and a half, having taken a giant chunk of time without work after Alice & Jack. “I’ve really got to be at home with the people that I love… I’ve got a nephew on the Gleeson side, it’s the first one, and I want to be around for that.”

Has he ever thought of a transfer to Hollywood? “Everybody wants their career to be in a better place, so there is loads of stuff I wish I was doing, and loads of work I wish I could find. I’m like, would I be closer to it if I was in America? But I’d much rather have a good life than a good career.” He laughs. “I’d f***ing love to have both.”

‘Alice & Jack’ will premiere on Channel 4 at 9pm on Wednesday 14 February