Barry Keoghan says becoming an actor has been very therapeutic
BARRY Keoghan (below) says becoming an actor has been very “therapeutic” for him. The 25-year-old Irish actor achieved notoriety playing Martin Lang in Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2017 psychological horror ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’, an American teenager exacting a grisly revenge on a surgeon, played by Colin Farrell, and he followed that performance up with a role in Christopher Nolan’s 2017’s World War II drama ‘Dunkirk’. Although Barry first wanted to break into acting to have fun and earn some money, the art form soon took on a deeper meaning for him.
Speaking in an interview with The Guardian newspaper, he said: “I was looking for something. I was looking to mess around, to joke. And get paid! But on a deeper level, it was very therapeutic for me. I could be someone else. I think you get to release a few of your problems there through being another person.”
Barry endured a tough upbringing and journey to the big screen as his mother died of a heroin overdose at the age of 31 and he and his brother Eric were moved between 13 different foster care homes over a five-year period until their grandmother took them in.
The rising star admits it was not easy to get over the grief of losing a parent but it led to he and his brother forming an unbreakable bond. He explained: “Foster care was a big part of my life. My mother dying of drugs is not easy for any kid. Anyone dying is not easy, but certainly not a mother. Me and my brother, we stuck together. The foster families were good to me and then my nanny took me in.
“It really did shape me into who I am.”