Barry Keoghan on Creating a ‘Cross-Universe Thing’ with ‘Bird’ and ‘Saltburn’ — and Learning to ‘Show More’ with Female Directors

At only 32 years old, Barry Keoghan already has an impressive slate of filmmakers under his belt, from Christopher Nolan and Yorgos Lanthimos to Martin McDonagh and Emerald Fennell. With Mubi’s “Bird,” which debuted in theaters over the weekend, Andrea Arnold is the latest Oscar-winning director to pair with the Oscar-nominated actor.

“I’ve always had filmmakers really care about me and colleagues really care about me, and she’s another one so much with love for me as a human, for an actor,” Keoghan told IndieWire. “She wants to look out for me and look after everyone, but like, I just feel I connect to that a lot. With not having those figures in my life and when someone steps in to do that, I really lean into it.”

“So with that, you’re going to bring forward like an access of me being able to get to certain places and show vulnerabilities and not be afraid of just a license to be silly and access again, you know these feelings,” Keoghan continued of his praise for the filmmaker. “I don’t know how they’re going to come out or come forward. She really did protect me. She just has this energy of stepping into communities or places [where] everyone just trusts her. You look at the animals, you look at kids, you know, animals and kids are the hardest to work with — she goes in and just breaks that boundary.

Amid the premiere earlier this year at Cannes, Keoghan was vocal about Arnold not wanting him to know what the film was about until he watched it for the first time, which was one of his favorite parts about the project. He dove in at the chance to work with the filmmaker no matter what her process was. At the same time, he also credited his upbringing with his grandmother with an even deeper desire to connect with Arnold.

“As soon as they said, ‘Andrea Arnold wants to meet you,’ I was like, ‘Yes, yes, don’t even care what it is.’ I contradict my self-theory when I say I have to see what the material is like and if it makes sense, but there are certain moments I’ve said in my career that I want to work with Andrea Arnold, back in 2016, and it came true. I think for me as well, being raised by my granny, you know, taken care of, treated by powerful women in that household, I tend to show a little more with filmmakers who are female.”

“I tend to show a little show a little bit more and open up a little bit more because I feel safer rather than trying to be guarded,” he continued. And, of course, he’s already on board to work with the director again. “If Andrea [were] to come in, I’d be like, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ When she said there was no script, I was excited by that rather than frightened. I was like, ‘Yeah, I love that.’ I love letting spontaneity take over our instincts, or just place me in there and let me discover and find it.”

BIRD, Barry Keoghan, 2024. © MUBI /Courtesy Everett CollectionCourtesy Everett Collection

While discussing Ridley Scott confirming that Keoghan dropped out of “Gladiator II” for “Saltburn,” the actor discussed the odes he paid to his Emerald Fennell-directed project that completely overtook pop culture last year. In “Bird,” there’s a scene where they are trying to get a frog to produce slime, and to do so, they needed to play a “bad song.” Keoghan’s character Bug suggested they play Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s song “Murder on the Dance Floor,” the song that he danced naked to at the end of “Saltburn.”

While Keoghan hasn’t connected with Fennell about the “Bird” scene, he said, “That’s a great moment to show two really strong filmmakers crossing over there. [I’m] incredibly blessed with them, too. I really mean that, and it was sort of a nod to Emerald and vice versa. I didn’t mind that, that cross-universe thing, but that was all Andrea and ADR, and it went down really well. Andrea’s breaking these walls. I mean, with the sci-fi element as well, it’s all new territory for her as well.”

Fennell’s next project will be adaptation of Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights,” starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Keoghan couldn’t help but share his interest in joining the project. “I’m not going to say I’m waiting on the script but, if there’s a part there that made sense, anyone that I’ve worked with before I would work with them in a heartbeat. I don’t want to bug her about it, but yeah, if the part made sense.”

Dublin-based band Fontaines D.C. also just released a music video for their song “Bug,” using visuals from Arnold’s film. Keoghan told us, “I seem to be in music videos everywhere,” playing on his viral lead role in Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” music video.