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’. A lthough 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.”