ACTING CLASS HERO IS SOMETHING TO BE
Workers at Keoghan’s old youth club say next generation is inspired by his success
BAFTA nominee and Oscar hopeful Barry Keoghan’s success is inspiring other kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to get into acting.
Keoghan – who grew up in Summerhill, Dublin – was nominated in the Best Actor category for Saltburn in this week’s BAFTA nominations, after winning the Best Supporting Actor BAFTA last year and securing Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.
His rise is particularly eye-catching given his tough upbringing – he spent seven years in 13 foster homes as his mother battled drug addiction. Tragically, she then died when Barry was just 12.
Gillian Collins, who is a youth worker at Belvedere Youth Club in Dublin’s north inner city, said their drama section had ‘fallen by the wayside’ in the years since Keoghan first tread the boards there in a production of Hairspray.
But she said the ‘hype’ around awards season last year helped them secure funding from the Toy Show Appeal to bring in an arts coordinator and ‘try and bring back our drama section’.
‘The boys were a little bit more reluctant than the girls,’ Ms Collins told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘We had a banner outside the front wishing him the best of luck in the Oscars and that was putting him on their radar, because the movies that Barry has starred in are not necessarily age appropriate for young people.
‘Then they heard about the Marvel movie [Eternals] and then it was, “What’s all this hype around this guy?”’
Ms Collins was asked by a young actor in a recent production of High School Musical: ‘Does that mean if I like doing this that I could be going for an Oscar one of the days? And I said, “Of course you can.” We tell them Barry was in this club like the rest of you. He came in every day, he got involved with his friends, he had a bit of banter, he played football. That’s what we tried to relay – he’s this big Hollywood superstar, but he’s just normal like the rest of us.’
Ms Collins added the renewed interest in drama is ‘down to Barry but I wouldn’t say it’s solely down to Barry’. Another local actor, Thommas Kane Byrne, who starred alongside Barry in that Hairspray production, gives drama workshops at the youth service.
Davey Kelleher, who is artistic director at Dublin Youth Theatre, told the MoS: ‘We’ve had a few young kids who’ve just started with us in the last couple of months and part of our application process is a little bit about yourself, and why you want to join.
‘A couple of people mentioned Barry Keoghan and those have been kids who are coming from inner city backgrounds.’
He said one example in particular ‘stood out’. ‘This kid is maybe 16, and a lot of his peers are getting kind of involved in gangs and drugs, and he was looking for some place that would be the opposite of that.’
The director said that Keoghan’s ‘complicated home life and upbringing would certainly be a strand of his story that would resonate with a lot of our members’.
‘Both the sense of place and the sense of what a family might look like, or have to look like. And then finding a place that you can belong, and where you can excel, as well as seeing the advancement of people who look and sound like you.’
Keoghan’s aunt Lorraine, who adopted and raised Barry and his brother after their mother Debbie’s death, told MailOnline this week her superstar nephew ‘doesn’t get the red-carpet treatment round here when he’s back… he’s just Barry from up the flats’.
Speaking at the two-bedroom council flat she shares with the actor’s beloved granny Patricia, 91, Lorraine said: ‘People don’t tend to leave this part of Dublin and end up in Hollywood, so Barry is someone special for sure. He hasn’t had anything handed to him on a plate, whatever he’s got now is through sheer hard work.
‘I was at the Rotunda Hospital the day he was born. I waited outside of the maternity ward. His mother Debbie was my sister. We were a big family, there were 10 children altogether. But she fell in with a bad crowd and had problems with addiction. It meant she couldn’t look after Barry and Eric properly.
‘There is only 13 months or so age gap between the boys and their father was only around for their first few years before he left. Where he went to, I don’t know but
‘Barry was in this club like the rest of you’
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‘He hasn’t had anything handed to him on a plate’
he passed away some years ago.
‘My sister Debbie died from pneumonia brought on by her addiction when Barry was about 12. Her death hit the boys hard and I think Barry still carries that scar with him today.
‘Debbie always wanted me and our mother, Barry’s nanny, to look after her boys.’
When she isn’t caring for Patricia, Lorraine works part time in the Bridge Tavern pub around the corner from her flat where landlord Liam Gifford has a picture of the actor behind the bar pulling a pint of Guinness. Keoghan pops in to say hello whenever he’s in Dublin.
Describing what her nephew was like as a youngster, Lorraine recalled: ‘I wouldn’t say he was wild, but he was hyperactive at times because of his ADHD. But he was sure of himself, quite a cocky lad but with bags of character.
‘He wasn’t interested too much in drama when he was young; he loved football and is a Manchester United fan. The ex-United player Frank Stapleton is his second cousin. The acting came a bit later in his life.
‘Barry keeps in touch with us, he FaceTimes with his nanny a lot. When he can, he comes home to Dublin.’