Barry Keoghan discusses his most “heartbreaking” scene
Over just a decade in the acting profession, Barry Keoghan has managed to establish himself as one of Ireland’s most prominent talents. Coming through with recognition in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Keoghan then cemented his position in the limelight with a breathtaking performance in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin.
The 2022 black tragicomedy film sees Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play Pádraic and Colm, two long-term ‘friends’ on a fictional remote Irish island in the 1920s. However, Colm decides to end his friendship with Pádraic, explaining that he’s come to find him dull and wants to live a more culturally infused life. Keoghan, meanwhile, plays a mentally troubled and abused young man who is taken in for a night by Pádraic and his sister Siobhán.
At the centre of Keoghan’s brilliant performance in Banshees is a moment of genuine sincerity from McDonagh and Dominic’s character. Alongside a beautiful lake, Dominic decides to try his romantic luck with Siobhán despite having had no prior proof of any interest on her behalf.
It’s a testament to Dominic’s kind heart and dim-wittedness at the same time, and when Siobhán politely rejects his proposal, Dominic doesn’t beg her to change her mind but rather accepts her decision as soon as she’s finished speaking. Keoghan once discussed the scene with Backstage and explained its emotionally moving nature.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Keoghan said, “It’s left on him, and you see him go through it. Martin does that on purpose. You see Dominic go through it, but not through it the way any other person would go through it. I mean, he goes through it in a way that he just accepts it there and then. ‘Alright now, let’s move on.'”
“That’s the heartbreaking thing. ‘I might as well give this one more shot. One more shot? Okay then, no worries’. That is just so – he doesn’t keep pushing and ask why,” Keoghan added. “He doesn’t get upset, and you just see it all go on, and silence plays a lot in that scene. And Kerry [Condon] as well, being alongside him. ‘We don’t have much in common’, you know.”
While Farrell and Gleeson were the star names in The Banshees of Inisherin, both being nominated for an Academy Award, Keoghan was also recognised at the Oscars, earning his first nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’. This commendation was undoubtedly owed to the genuinely heartbreaking moment in which Dominic puts his heart on the line with Siobhán beside the lake.
Check out the moving scene below.
