Barry Keoghan on playing a father in ‘Bird’: ‘Look after your little one’

November 15, 2024

Barry Keoghan’s latest film is director Andrea Arnold’s coming-of-age drama, Bird.

It follows Bailey, a young girl who lives with her devoted but chaotic single dad, Bug, played by Keoghan. This marks the actor’s first time playing a father, but it’s something he knows well — as dad to his 2-year-old son, Brando.

“I'm glad that I got to be part of this because I just got to find a lot, selfishly, about myself as well. During it and during the journey of it,” Keoghan told ABC Audio.

The actor described how exactly he saw himself in his character.

“I think men are very childlike and very, you know, the mommy boy kind of mentality,” Keoghan said. “Ironically, I sort of have that mentality. I did sort of have that mentality. You know, wanting to be almost mothered and looked after ... I realized making this movie that [those] are traits that aren't necessarily gonna lend itself to you in the best way.”

Bug’s journey to fatherhood is one that resonated with Keoghan.

“[If] you have a child ... at some stage you've got to get out of that frame of mind of you being looked after and look after your little one,” Keoghan said.

Speaking of, Keoghan wants to keep looking after the young actors he worked with on Bird.

"I like to look out for people around me, and especially kids. I want to be that sort of person that they can always get in touch with," Keoghan said. "When I was younger and I was going on to the movies, I had that source, and I had that person in Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy and all of those incredible people that I had ... I want to be that for Jason [Buda] and Nykiya [Adams].”