Years ago – before Banshees or Saltburn – Barry Keoghan came to my studio and we started talking about photography and us working together. I asked Barry about his start and he told me the story of his difficult beginning in Dublin. It was heartbreaking and vital. I told him, ‘That’s the story I want to explore with you.’ It’s taken several years of back and forth to get to the point of us both flying into his home town and taking a trip around memory lane with him for the unflinching cover story you’re about to read. 

Not all the memories are good. But Barry was generous in opening up to me about his family life, the loss of his mother to heroin, his addiction and his sobriety as we returned to the homes he’d lived in and the streets he’d played in. This was raw, unfiltered recollection and for me, is a truly authentic tale that connects my photo-journalism roots with my work in entertainment more than any other I’ve done. This is a story of rising: how does someone start with every excuse in the world not to succeed and then excel? 

Barry’s vulnerability and honesty about pain, and his ability to channel that and bring it to the screen, is what makes him such an incredible actor – and it’s what costs him every time he performs. The bravery to feel is something that links all the subjects of our photo stories this issue. 

Douglas Booth talks about dyslexia and the cost of acting for him in contrast to his wife, Bel Powley. Kaia Gerber allows the darkness she sometimes feels in, so that she can access a character on stage. David Oyelowo discusses what the actors he admires give to roles and the sacrifice required as a Black actor from a small country like the UK. It’s this humanity that makes them all connect to audiences, and makes them fascinating individuals to shoot. 

Elsewhere in the issue, Havoc director Gareth Evans talks about the detail Tom Hardy puts into characterisation. Costume designer Ruth E. Carter discusses the dedication and vision needed to rise to the position she has reached as a history-making Oscar winner (and the doors she has opened for others). And photographer Mark Read captures one man’s temple to his own success in an LA building that holds numerous movie memories in its walls. All are testament to the power of graft and taking chances. As Oyelowo says, ‘The difference between good and great is hard work…’

BUY ISSUE 9 HERE