Barry Keoghan Explains How Childhood, Fatherhood Inspired New Role

Barry Keoghan is opening up about his relationship with his 2-year-old son, Brando.

The Saltburn actor reflected on how he drew inspiration from his life as a parent for his role in the forthcoming film Bird, in which he portrays single dad Bug raising his 12-year-old daughter, Bailey, played by Nykiya Adams.

“I’ll just say this — I didn’t have a father figure growing up, so even my relationship with my son isn’t quite of the normal father-son relationship because I don’t have that figure to draw experience from and to base it on,” Keoghan, 31, told Entertainment Weekly at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, September 12.

He continued, “Love, you don’t need anything to draw from, love is pure, and so I’m not on about that, but I’m on about little stuff like teaching your son this or teaching your daughter that.”

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Keoghan went on to tell the outlet that using his own experience — or lack thereof — helped him develop what he thought was the right type of chemistry for his and Adams’ characters.

“Going into this, I didn’t have that [normal experience], so it’s a very brother-sister kind of chemistry going on [for Bug and Bailey], which I felt was right for it,” he said. “And you see that these days — there’s a lot of young fathers out there and young mothers and they’re almost like sibling-like, you know what I mean? Which is beautiful.”

Despite having that sibling-type of relationship, Keoghan added that throughout the movie there are times when his character “has to step up as a father and make very important choices and decisions, and they may not be the best ones.”

He added, “But for me, the experience of playing a father was — obviously I’m a father, but at that age, she’s 12 in the movie, and it’s like, what do I base it on?”

Keoghan shares Brando with ex-girlfriend Alyson Sandro. The pair welcomed their only child together in August 2022. They were together for nearly three years before splitting in summer 2023.

Though the Irish actor typically keeps his son out of the spotlight, Keoghan shared a rare photo of his lookalike son via Instagram in August.

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“He’s more of a charmer than I am. Our wee Brando ????????????????????,” Keoghan captioned the sweet snap at the time.

While speaking with GQ in January, Keoghan revealed that Brando was born when he was filming Saltburn, which also stars Euphoria‘s Jacob Elordi.

“They gave me a day off. Good on them! Day off, and straight on to night shoots and night feedings — boom,” he recalled. “It was probably the best time of my life, to be quite fair. Havin’ a baby boy, and leadin’ a movie. It was the best time of my life, I must say — yeah.”