Barry Keoghan Talks (Spoiler Alert) About That Shocking Saltburn Ending

Courtesy of Prime Video

Warning: Spoilers for Saltburn beyond this point.

For Barry Keoghan, the most intimidating part of the shocking ending sequence of Saltburn, was not the nudity. It was the dancing. "I was trying to put it off and put it off and put it off because I was shying away from the idea of dancing. Not being in the nude—dancing," Keoghan tells GQ during a phone interview. "Dancing and singing is very uncomfy for me."

In the final moments of the latest from Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell, Keoghan's young malevolent striver Oliver Quick has dispatched with every member of the wealthy Catton family and taken over their estate that gives the film its title. Now in control of the sprawling mansion he strips completely naked and grooves around the halls to Sophie Ellis-Baxter's "Murder on the Dancefloor." As Keoghan boogies around the stately architecture, you see, well, everything.

It's a final button on a shocking turn for the actor who was nominated for an Oscar for his work in last year's The Banshees of Inisherin. "I really do want to show commitment and maturity in my craft, that I'm willing to make choices if they're out there, they're out there," he says. "I'm willing to step into that and be serious about what I do and not shy away from it. If it requires some crazy or wherever I'll do it if it's for the right reason."

And Saltburn asks quite a bit of Keoghan. We meet Oliver as an outcast at Oxford, where he ogles rich kids like Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) from afar. After Oliver lends Felix his bicycle, Felix takes him under his wing and eventually invites him to spend the summer at his family's home.

There, Oliver's obsession with Felix grows more and more unnerving. He slurps up Felix's dirty bathwater. After Felix dies during an over-the-top party, Oliver humps Felix's grave. "They were challenging and they were jaw-dropping scenes, but they were also scenes that excited me in the sense of how do I take this to the next level other than slurp what's left in the bath or, like, feck a grave?" he says. "It's beyond that. And it's quite sad and I wanted to kind of discover that as the character."

By the end we learn that Oliver was no meek innocent at the beginning. This solidly middle class boy who lied about his tragic upbringing carefully schemed his way into Felix's life, and systematically dispatched his relatives, working it out so Saltburn would ultimately be his. And then he dances.

In the script, Keoghan says, it was simply written that Oliver strides nude through his new abode, but during filming they decided it needed something more. "I thought dancing was way better because we all do it," he says. "We all fecking move our body and act silly when there's no one around and we all do that in our comfy space to be honest."

To prepare Keoghan for the dancing, the production brought on Polly Bennett, a choreographer who had served as Austin Butler's movement coach on Elvis. Keoghan worked with Bennett, who he calls a "legend," to figure out how Oliver would move. "There were a lot of things that I was kind of like, No, my hips don't move that way, sorry they just don't go there,'" he remembers. "Especially when you're naked it's a different ball game as well."

Keoghan thinks the actual shooting of the scene was more awkward for others on set—who may have not known where to look—than for himself. He felt truly comfortable around Fennell and her crew, putting his trust in them. They did around 11 takes in total. "I was exhausted by the end of it," he says. "But I was, we've got to get this. It's an iconic moment we have to get it right."

As it plays out in the movie, the scene is a dose of deranged joy that caps off the wild ride, but Keoghan doesn't read it as a happy ending for Oliver, even though he might have gotten everything he wanted through malicious means. "I don't think he's fulfilled," he says. "I don't think it's the house he wants. I don't think that's the thing. I think that's the result of what's happened. He's left with the manor. It's playing with his toys too hard. He broke them. It's almost like when you play with your action [figure] and you pull the arm off. It's like, 'oh shit.'"

Originally Appeared on GQ