The Irish film star is about to make his West End debut in The Weir, aged 70. He talks about impersonating Donald Trump and what it’s like to work with his two actor sons
At 70, Brendan Gleeson is about to make his West End debut. The Irish actor is best known for his film roles: his double acts with Colin Farrell in The Banshees of Inisherin and In Bruges, as “Mad-Eye” Moody in the Harry Potter films and — as my sons pointed out excitedly when I told them I was interviewing him — as Knuckles McGinty in Paddington 2….
“The play fired me up. It’s about human connection,” Gleeson says when we meet in Dublin’s beautiful Victorian 3Olympia Theatre, where The Weir has opened before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London from September 12. Gleeson expects the audience to be more reserved than they have been at home in Dublin….
As he talks about his character, Jack, who is lonely despite being central to the community, it is clear that Gleeson is passionate about theatre. So why hasn’t he been in a play for so long? “I love film,” he explains. “I did theatre and then I started getting [film] parts. Braveheart was a big thing for me. Michael Collins. Theatre is hard and it has to be worth it. This is a long stint: we go through to December. It’s fascinating, but it’s kind of exhausting. So nothing kept me away except the older I get the better [film] parts seem to be coming in.” Rather than elaborate on this, he goes back to talking about plays.”…
“Gleeson has been acting for more than 40 years. Is it harder now to break into the profession? “It’s always been hard,” he says, “but what I always say to people is, put on your own [show]. Don’t wait for anybody. One of the few good things that happened with the [Celtic] Tiger [economy] was they built a whole load of regional little theatres. It’s an opportunity for people to start writing contemporary stuff and writing stuff that’s relevant to this particular generation.”…