Domhnall Gleeson on Brooklyn, Star Wars 7, The Revenant And Harry Potter (Exclusive)

Domhnall Gleeson is about to become a household name thanks to a little film called ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.

The 32-year-old Irishman will play the villainous General Hux in the upcoming sci-fi sequel, a character he describes as “merciless”, but before that he’s appearing as someone much less menacing in ‘Brooklyn’.

Based on Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel of the same name, ‘Brooklyn’ is a reassuringly old-fashioned love story about a young Irish girl who migrates to America in search of a new life. She inevitably falls in love, but when she returns to her hometown she meets Gleeson’s Jim, a solid and honest young man, and her heart is torn in two.

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Having just completed work on the grueling ‘Unbroken’ where he shed a lot of weight to play an American POW, and ‘The Revenant’ which – according to star Leonardo DiCaprio - was a hugely tough shoot, Gleeson says his experience of shooting ‘Brooklyn’ on his home turf was “nice” citing hot lunches as a definite bonus.

Here’s everything Domhnall had to tell us about ‘Brooklyn’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Star Wars’, and his upcoming role opposite Tom Cruise in ‘Mena’…

We saw the film early today, got about an hour in and we began to question whether you were even in the film?

DG: I know, I know. Imagine how I felt! It’s strange, I’m in the film, not a huge amount, so it’s kind of funny to be talking to everyone about it.

Can they sell the film on your name alone?

DG: No, that would ego-pleasing to think, but no this Saoirse is the absolutely only reason to see it. Not the only reason!

But they put your name on the poster and the trailer to hopefully bring people in…

DG: Yeah, I gotcha. That is nice, but it also means that it’s nice that if you really like the film, then it means a couple more people might want to talk to you about it and tell people that it’s good. That’s a positive thing.

According to Wikipedia, you’re best known for playing Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films, is that still the case?

DG: I don’t know. I’ve said this before and I think people think I’m exaggerating, but honestly, when I’m in Ireland, I did this sketch show [‘Your Bad Self’] a long time ago and I honestly… there were a couple of sketches in that people do tend to talk to me about more than ‘Harry Potter’, so that’s the case back home.

But away from home, yeah 'Harry Potter’ or actually it’s changing now. I went to a music festival in Atlanta, Georgia and it was all these young people who’d seen 'Frank’, and it was amazing because not a lot of people saw that in the cinema, so that was really pleasing. Then 'Ex Machina’ has done well and 'About Time’, some people have seen that as well, so it changes all the time. It’s nice.

Is Ireland still home to you?

DG: Yeah, I live in Dublin.

Your character Jim seems like he’ll never leave Ireland, do you have a close-knit group of friends back home who are still a bit like that that you drew on?

DG: No, I wouldn’t say I based Jim on anyone I know, at all, no. The way I thought about it in my head was more who he had to be to relate to Saoirse’s character, in the way that we needed him to. So you mostly draw on your own stuff for that. I found him very interesting but he has a very particular job to do in the film, which is come in quite late as you say, and be an alternative to somebody we’ve spent the rest of the film building up as the guy.

It was weirdly complicated actually.

Saoirse’s character sees her future as one away from Ireland – is that something you related to growing up?

DG: I think most people want to travel right? I think most people want to travel, as far as I know, but I never knew how I would do that. I never felt like I was necessarily going to try to make my home anywhere else apart from Ireland.

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Ireland’s always felt like my home. I’m very happy that my work has taken me lots of different places, I’ve got to live in London and New York and lots of different places for work, so that’s a real plus. But the downside is that when you start doing a certain amount of that, you start seeing too little of your home. But that’s nothing for anyone to worry about for me I guess.

With your father [Brendan Gleeson] being an actor, did it always feel like something you were going to get into?

DG: No. My father wasn’t an actor when I was – well, he was acting – but he wasn’t a full-time actor when people start thinking about what they might want to do when they grow up. So when I was 6 or 7, he went full time, so no, I didn’t particularly want to be an actor necessarily. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

I wanted to be a vet one day, then an architect the next, you know? Depending on my interests at the time, it always changed. Then when I was in college, the acting thing started happening, then I thought “wouldn’t it be great if this could be a way to live your life?”

And I’ve been lucky that, by and large, I’ve been able to do that since, and that’s very cool.

You’ve had an amazing run of success of late – 'About Time’, 'Frank’, 'Calvary’, 'Unbroken’, 'Ex Machina’, 'Brooklyn’, 'Star Wars 7’ - how has that been for you? Have you been able to take stock? Have you had any pinch yourself moments?

DG: Walking on set on 'Star Wars’ was like pretty epic. That was pretty cool. I know how lucky I am to have been a part of some movies that I’m very proud of, that I think I would have liked if I hadn’t been involved, I think I would have wanted to see them. That makes me very happy.

For example?

DG: The ones you mentioned I feel like I would have enjoyed most of those films if it was someone else playing the parts I played in those films. It’s particularly easy to say when it’s something like 'Calvary’ (pictured below), where I’ve got a very small role, you can leave yourself out of that film very easily and say I know for a fact I would have LOVED that movie.

So, if a film turns out alright or if somebody you respect likes something you’ve done, then you get a little thrill. They’re always nice moments.

Anyone in particular?

DG: A few people whose work I really love have been very generous and that’s been good, but if you say their names, it feels like you’re patting your own back.

You mentioned 'Star Wars’ and we’ve seen pictures of you in costume, so what was that like, trying on the uniform for the first time?

DG: On every job, you try on a costume and it’s like you’re doing it to build and find out who your character is, you know what I mean? It helps and all that sort of stuff, so actually you’re just working when you do it. And you have that fervor about “well, is this who I am? And is this who I want it to be? Is there anything we want to change?” All that sort of stuff, so there were conversations like that.

But then, when you feel you’ve found it, and it’s the same on every job actually, when you feel you’ve found it you go “alright, let’s do this”, there’s this excitement thing, because you know one part of you is ready to go to work.

And that was brilliant. That was brilliant, but the whole process was like that. And the reality which is probably not as exciting because people want to know about 'Star Wars’ more than anything else, is that’s the process on most jobs.

That’s your job as an actor, to go from job to job, and work as hard as you can on each individual project.

Was there ever a discussion about General Hux having an Irish accent?

DG: No, I think I asked about accents and I think it might have been JJ who suggested trying it in English I think, as far as I can remember that’s how that went. I can’t remember.

It’s a shame that the English are the bad guys again…

DG: Yeah, I suppose if you’re Irish it doesn’t seem that strange… no, that’s a joke! No, it just fitting in to the original trilogy. That was part of that thing, was oftentimes the bad guys had English accents. Peter Cushing had an English accent, and then Ian McDiarmid, there’s loads of them in the Empire.

Apart from Vader…

DG: Yeah, but what an awesome accent! Amazing.

Was working on ‘Harry Potter’ a good introduction to working in the world of mega-budget franchises for you?

DG: I’d love to say that it didn’t, because then I would seem cooler or whatever, but no it did. My first day on set on 'Harry Potter’, I nearly had a heart attack, at the size of it. At how many people were standing around behind the camera, about how many people could hear my talking. I found my first day on 'Harry Potter'… I was very scared and it did stand me in good stead. You’re right, it did.

I walked out and it was quite a big day on my first day on 'Star Wars’, and sure there were nerves, you have those nerves on every job, but I didn’t freak out and say “holy s***!” because there were like 300 people standing behind the camera, and I had been in that situation before and that definitely did help, so I think you’re right.

Did you get in trouble for revealing the name of the Starkiller base at Comic Con?

DG: No, that was a conversation we’d had right before we went on stage about whether it was OK or not. Like, how to describe it. I’d heard that said and I think we’d agreed that it was fine I think, and then I went of stage and suddenly, when I opened my mouth, I was like [shocked and confused].

You have to realize I’ve spent a year, not saying any of those words, so as soon as one comes out of your mouth, you’re like “oh good god! What have I done?!” So I think it was OK, I don’t think it was anything too unexpected or anything like that, it was alright.

It’s like telling someone what their Christmas present is by accident…

DG: Yeah, but it’s like when Disney bought them their Christmas present and have a multi-million dollar lawsuit hanging over their head in case anything goes wrong, more like that.

You’re working on 'The Revenant’, which there have been a number of reports about it being a challenging shoot, how has it been in comparison to others you’ve been on?

DG: We were filming out in the cold and up mountains and in rivers and in crazy temperatures and everything, and yeah, sometimes it was really difficult but 'Unbroken’ was really difficult with the diet and everything. But the whole point of doing any of that stuff is that what they end up getting on the camera is great and does what you want it to do.

That was always the aim on 'The Revenant’, was making something really good, and I think we gave ourselves a shot of making something really special. Especially with Alejandro [G. Iñárritu] at the helm.

So yeah, there were difficult days, there are difficult days on every job but it was always geared towards making something good. I feel like there’s a real chance that we did make something really good. I’m very excited to see it.

And you mentioned 'Mena’ too, what can you tell us about this?

DG: Not a lot, not really, but I can tell you why I did it. Which is that I saw 'Edge of Tomorrow’ and I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I absolutely loved that film, I had an amazing time with that film and I’d met Doug Liman a year before, but about a different job, and I love him.

Above: Tom Cruise on the set of Doug Liman’s ‘Mena’

Then when I auditioned with Tom [Cruise], it was just really exciting and it went really well, so I was like “sign me up” you know. It was great. It was brilliant and it was really exciting, and I had a brilliant time on that. So I’m looking forward to doing some more.

So between 'Unbroken’ and 'The Revenant’, was it nice to be back in Ireland to film 'Brooklyn’, eating home food?

DG: Yeah. I was on 'The Revenant’ for like 5 or 6 or 7 months, I was on that for a long time. The diet on 'Unbroken’ was a long time, but I was in and out on 'Brooklyn’ in about a week and a half, or something so just even the length of time going in and working with Saoirse and John and everything, it was nice.

There were still lots of challenges, you still have to work, the aim doesn’t change but having lunch somewhere warm was nice. That was something I didn’t get to do either of those films, so that was good.

‘Brooklyn’ is coming to UK cinemas on Friday, 6 November.

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Image credits: Rex Features/Splash/Disney/Lionsgate