Barry Keoghan On His Leading Role In ‘Saltburn’

Barry Keoghan is no stranger to demanding roles when it comes to acting. Keoghan started his acting career in 2017 with his role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ film The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Since then Keoghan has been in The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), The Batman (2022), Eternals (2021), and Dunkirk (2017), and most recently he got his first leading role as the haunting Oxford student in Emerald Fennell’s newest movie Saltburn. 

Keoghan plays the character Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford, who after befriending the wealthy and illustrious Felix Catton, played by Jacob Elordi, becomes obsessed with Felix and the Catton family. Quick’s obsession takes place against the backdrop of the family estate named ‘Satlburn’ that becomes an emblem of the film’s themes of class, obsession, desire, and power. 

Keoghan sat down with Variety to discuss his role in the film. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead) Keoghan spoke about Oliver’s character saying, “He definitely has compassion. He’s an addict- he’s slightly addicted, slightly obsessed, He’s an observer. He’s fascinated by human behavior and morals and why people act certain ways.” 

Keoghan went on to speak about his process for playing such a demanding role. The actor explained that he played five unique versions of Oliver numbering 1-5. Oliver 1 being the shy Oxford student at the beginning of the movie, and Oliver 5 being the murderous mastermind dancing in the nude through the halls of Saltburn by the end. Keoghan said about the five different Oliver’s “I wanted to hit each of them with a physicality, a tone of voice, a different motive, a different pace. You see the costume and the hair changes, but you also sense his mental change and track that journey.” 

Many of the Saltburn scenes have been the topic of much discussion for viewers, Oliver’s obsession with Felix and the Catton family manifests itself into quite a few disturbing and shocking scenes in the movie. Keoghan said he was more than up for the crazier scenes in the movie saying, “I’ll do anything once that moves the story forward and if there’s a right reason for it creatively.” 

One of the most talked about scenes in the movie was the “bathtub scene,” Keoghan said about the scene, “Yeah, it’s disgusting. But when you get into it, it’s a different level of obsession this boy has. That’s why I made the choice to rub my face along the plug hole and not slurp it straight away- because I was trying to take it to a new level.”  

Read what MXDWN had to say about the film here.