Barry Keoghan: A Man With a Purpose!

His is a story of resilience: from having a tragic childhood in a lumpen neighborhood in Dublin, with an absent father, a heroin-addicted mother, and multiple foster homes, to being an Oscar-nominated actor. Barry Keoghan, the man who, at 17, saw an ad for a movie, could 14 years later be the on-screen incarnation of Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes's forthcoming Beatles biopic series. The news about his role as Ringo has yet to be confirmed, but Starr himself dropped the possibility in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight": "Well, I think it's great, and I believe he's somewhere taking drum lessons," Starr said.

Beyond the possibility of seeing Keoghan playing the drums, the Irish actor has already built a fast and brilliant career. The first significant recognition as an actor came with his role as George Mills, the charming boy and perfect symbol of innocence who died tragically in Christopher Nolan's epic historical war film Dunkirk (2017). However, the film that made him an actor of high interest in Hollywood was The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), Yorgos Lanthimos's icy and disturbing thriller. His performance as Martin, a brooding 16-year-old fatherless boy who befriends a cardiovascular surgeon (Colin Farrell) and his ophthalmologist wife (Nicole Kidman), is extraordinarily terrifying and beloved with critics. With a simple glancing look as he sucks spaghetti, he achieves a moment of terror. Keoghan succeeds in turning the outcast teenager he portrays, who always speaks in a low voice, into a depraved monster who ranks among the great villains of the cinema.

Then came some roles in more commercial cinema, like his character Druig, one of the space Gods of Marvel's Eternals (2021) who can manipulate the minds of others. Chloé Zhao's film may have been a box office disappointment, but here, too, Keoghan knew how to shine. He also made an unsettling cameo appearance as the the Joker in Matt Reeves's The Batman (2022), although the scene was eventually deleted.

From a space God to a mentally disabled young man who lives on a small Irish island in the movie The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), he reunited with Colin Farrell. Again, Keoghan played a marginalized and unstructured character, but he was endowed with sensitivity and humanity that transcends the screen. The film received a 96% review on Rotten Tomatoes, and with it, Keoghan won his first BAFTA and earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars. The scene where he declares his love for Siobhan is beautiful and heartwrenching.

Further, in 2023 came his leading role in the psychological dark comedy thriller Saltburn, which became a real viral phenomenon. In the film, he plays Oliver Quick, a young Oxford scholar who claims to come from a broken family with an addicted mother. Although the character appears to be Keoghan's alter ego, Quick is actually an impostor. The film has mind-blowing scenes, such as the moment when he slurps up the remains of Jacob Elordi's bathwater from the drain of a bathtub. This movie turned Keoghan into a TikTok sensation and a phenomenon with memes replaying the now-iconic final scene where Keoghan dances naked to Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder On The Dance Floor".

More recently, he has starred in the drama film Bird, marking the return of the Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold. The movie tells the story of a 12-year-old squatting in a marginal area with her brother, her father (Keoghan), an immature drug dealer, and her girlfriend's father. It is a film fully inserted into magical realism, with an excessive and histrionic Barry Keoghan who completely dominates his character.

The latest news from Barry Keoghan is that he will be part of the cast of the upcoming "Peaky Blinders" film starring Cillian Murphy, which Steven Knight is currently preparing. The film will be an epic continuation of the famous 6-season gangster saga, but nothing about Keoghan's role is known at this time.

However, whatever his roles are in the future, he will undoubtedly be formidable. Keoghan is one of the golden actors in Hollywood right now, and we can only hope that his star will shine even brighter. "I'm always in touch with where I'm from," Keoghan said, and this has been his greatness: turning his humble origins into a stimulus for improvement and growth. A great life story and a great actor!