CANNES DISPATCH
Photographs GREG WILLIAMS
As told to JANE CROWTHER
The Irish actor jumps on a boat with Greg Williams at the Venice Film Festival and tells Hollywood Authentic about working with Werner Herzog and finding empathy in his new film Bucking Fastard.
Domhnall Gleeson is one of a company of Irish actors who appear in Werner Herzog’s latest quirky film, Bucking Fastard, the story of two sisters (Rooney and Kate Mara) who are so close they exhibit sibling synchronicity – even to the point of falling in love with the same man (Orlando Bloom). When their romance leads to court proceedings Gleeson is the kindly social worker assigned to them to help them integrate more fully into the world. ‘If a chance comes up to work with a great director, you just say yes,’ the actor tells Hollywood Authentic over an iced coffee in one of the villas that sits on the beach of the Venice Lido where the film premiered at the film festival this year. The previous evening he’s attended the Cartier/Vanity Fair dinner at the Gritti Palace, bobbing across the Venice lagoon in a water taxi with Greg Williams. ‘When the first thing you’re told is it’s Werner Herzog, then you definitely say yes. The part was pretty small, but I thought it was cool and the other actors are amazing. Just getting to work with Kate and Rooney. And the script was wonderful. So actually it ticks all the boxes.’
Though he looks hardly older than his appearances in the Harry Potter movies, Gleeson is now 43 and has a stacked resume of roles and projects with great directors. Herzog comes with an expectation of possible wildness based the legendary stories from some of his previous shoots. ‘He was very clear when we talked that what he wants is a harmonious set,’ Gleeson says. ‘What he wants is a quiet, diligent, exciting place to go to work. The madness doesn’t interest him, unless the madness is in the film. It really was the empathy of the man that was the thing that came shining through for me. And actually, it’s my favourite part of the film; the empathy I ended up with for these characters.’
Herzog based his script on a meeting he had with two real-life sisters who spoke and acted in unison, and were the subject of an ’80s documentary. But Gleeson is quick to insist that his role as Timothy isn’t a proxy for Herzog himself, even if some of the incidents in the film are inspired by some of the director’s interactions with the sisters. ‘He was really clear that this is not based specifically on any other thing, or on those people. He was like, ‘No, the sisters who are in front of you – this is new’. But I like the way he looks at people when he’s talking to them. I like the way he listens. And in that way I do think there’s some of him in my character.’
Gleeson’s Timothy is incredibly patient and sweet with the sisters who are blinkered to the outside world, such is their focus on each other and their interior experience. The Mara sisters work together on screen for the first time and Gleeson says it was fascinating to watch. ‘There’s been loads of performances where one person has played two people, but not where two people have played some weird version of the same person. You know when you’re talking to somebody, and sometimes you switch between the eyes that you’re looking at? It felt like that to watch Rooney and Kate.’ The lure of the cast wasn’t the only thing that engendered the project to him. ‘The fact that I rolled out of bed, and walked to set, that was an added bonus, as opposed to a reason to do it,’ he chuckles of working in Ireland.
The son of Irish acting legend Brendan, Gleeson is pleased to see Martin McDonagh on the Lido too, where he’s presenting Wild Horse Nine. The writer/director has worked with his father on The Banshees of Inisherin and also gave Gleeson one of his earliest roles in the stage play, The Lieutenant of Inishmore back in 2001. ‘I was incredibly lucky to get to work with Martin that early on because I saw how good the work can be. It can be extraordinary,’ he says of starting out. ‘But then the work can’t always be extraordinary, because Martin is special. So I’ve had lots of ups and downs over the course of my career. But the point is to keep trying to do the good stuff. I’ve played a couple of pretty empathetic characters now in a row. So it’d be nice to come in with a bit more malevolent intent on a job. It’d be nice to come in and fuck shit up!’ When Hollywood Authentic suggests that the new Bond reboot could be looking for a baddie, he laughs. ‘Listen, I’m available to work…’
In the meantime, he’s finished work on season two of The Paper playing a US regional journalist on a local newspaper. ‘The second season is funnier than the first. I love doing comedy. But it’s just as heartfelt. And it still cares about journalism. That’s still in its bones.’ He enjoys switching acting disciplines he says, juggling film with TV and stage work. ‘Being front and centre of a film is very different to being front and centre on TV, to me – and it makes me greedy to do both. Theatre is like doing a movie every night because you tell the whole story every night, and to keep it fresh, and to keep it new for this new audience. You’re editing live, which is a completely different skill. I’m looking to do more theatre, it’s just about scheduling.’
He’s just finished shooting Bad Bridgets for Kneecap’s Rich Peppiatt which follows 19th century Irish immigrant sisters in New York and is hoping Night Boat To Tangier with Michael Fassbender will come to fruition, reteaming them after their work in Frank. ‘I haven’t worked with Michael in a long time, and I’d love it if it happened.’ But he’s aware that the film business is a capricious mistress. ‘I mean, if I held my breath, I’d be dead by now,’ he says. ‘Let’s see how that goes…’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Grooming by JERROD ROBERTS
Styling by WARREN ALFIE BAKER
Domhnall wears Zegna
Watch by Cartier
Bucking Fastard premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
Read our review here
