“I don’t like it”: the exact moment Brendan Gleeson lost his cherished anonymity
Ask anyone to name an Irish actor, and there’s a strong chance they’ll say Brendan Gleeson.
With his distinctive look, voice, and repertoire of dozens of famous movies and TV shows, the son of Dublin is a true global superstar – he’s so ingrained in the Hollywood system that even his kids, Domhnall and Brian, are famous actors… You know you’ve made it when you’ve got your own nepo dynasty.
Though he’d appeared in big projects before – Mission: Impossible II, Cold Mountain, 28 Days Later, etc – Gleeson really hit the big time thanks to Harry Potter, with the red-headed actor debuting in the fourth film in the series, The Goblet of Fire, as the erratic Auror-turned-teacher Alastor ‘Mad-Eye’ Moody, and even though technically, he was playing Barty Crouch Jr pretending to be Moody, but you know what I mean. He went on to appear in the fifth film in the series before receiving a rather unsatisfying off-screen death in movie number seven.
Many of the cast members of the Potter movies have spoken fondly about the impact the series had on their careers. Gary Oldman went as far as to say they “saved” him. Gleeson was a little more wary, however. As he explained to The Guardian, one piece of advice from a co-star cast doubt on the magic of the franchise.
“I remember Robbie Coltrane saying to me: ‘You can forget about walking through an airport again,’” he said. “It’s difficult to browse in a shop. It’s a big price to pay, and I don’t like it… It’s stopped me from being able to people-watch with any great success and comfort. And that’s part of what you really need to do to stay aware of what’s going on.”
Gleeson and Coltrane, who played groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid in all eight Potter movies, were cut from similar cloth. Both had started in theatre in their native parts of the United Kingdom (Coltrane was born in Scotland) and had risen up the ranks to become easily identifiable character actors.
Both were made incredibly famous by their Potter roles, to which they are still strongly linked. Neither man fit the build of a typical ‘Hollywood star’and they were both clearly affected by the lack of privacy caused by starring in such prominent films.
For all their concerns, however, it’s highly likely that the pair were headed for superstardom regardless of the ‘Wizarding World’. As previously mentioned, Gleeson had already starred in a number of high-profile movies before he ever picked up a wand. Coltrane was exactly the same. He’d already been in two James Bond films by the time he was cast as Hagrid. Anonymity and Bond don’t exactly go together.
Fame is a difficult beast and has been plaguing actors for as long as the profession has existed. Some think it’s a terrible curse, others reason that it’s a price worth paying. These questions are ones that the young stars of the upcoming Potter TV show will have to figure out when they are suddenly catapulted into the spotlight.
