SALTBURN Star Barry Keoghan Covers GQ’s February Issue

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In a new cover story for GQ’s February Issue, Barry Keoghan speaks with culture editor Alex Pappademas, about living in Los Angeles, his close friendship with Saltburn costar Jacob Elordi, loneliness in the industry, fatherhood and more. “It’s a big moment for me – it’s GQ,” says Keoghan. “I wrote this down in my to-do list – to be onna cover of GQ. I’m not even shittin’ you. I wrote that down.”

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…On his close relationship with Jacob Elordi 

If Keoghan and Elordi seem flirtatious, there’s a good explanation: “I’m really flirtin’,” he tells GQ. “We were constantly close. It ain’t just for the cameras and the premiere[s]. Me and Jacob—he’s like a brother to me, honestly. I think when you’re comfortable with someone, you can be as close as you want, you know what I mean? It’s not like, ‘Oh, don’t come near me’—it’s like, I’m comfortable.” He adds, “We’ve just done a movie where we had to kiss, man. Look at the scenes we’ve done. You have to be comfortable with yourself.”

…On the loneliness that comes with fame and finding comfort in his late mother

Of his fame, Keoghan says, “This was stuff I dreamt of, as a kid.” Which is not to say it feels good all the time, necessarily. “There’s a loneliness as well, that comes with this. A massive loneliness,” Keoghan tells GQ. “It’s hard not to talk about that, or to pretend that’s not there.” It caught up with him in November when he walked the red carpet in Prada at the Saltburn premiere in New York. “One of the noisiest, busiest cities in the world but for me it was like, I’m in that place on my own—the only person in New York, at some points.” Keoghan admits he thinks about his mother during moments of isolation. “She’s many years passed now, but I always think about her anyway. It’s always just in and around achievements that it’s really prominent—’cause you’d like to celebrate that wit’ ’er, y’know?” She died when he was 12 of a heroin overdose and wasn’t really in his life by the time it happened. “She was in the hospital,” Keoghan says. “She was battlin’ a lot of stuff.”

…On meeting Leonardo DiCaprio and why Basketball Diaries mirrored his upbringing

Of meeting Leonardo DiCaprio, Keoghan tells GQ, “They say never meet your heroes, but nah.” When asked what his favorite DiCaprio performance is, “Basketball Diaries, for me, there was a personal connection—with my mother being on heroin. I really could relate to it, a lot. There’s a scene where he comes to the door and he’s begging his mom, can he come in? I was witness to that—that happened at my granny’s house, ’cause my granny was my mother’s mother. And it was similar. It hit home for me.”

…On his new son Brando: “When he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world”

Keoghan’s son, Brando, was born right in the middle of shooting on Saltburn. “They gave me a day off,” he says. “Day off, and straight on to night shoots and night feedings – boom!” He adds: “It was probably the best time of my life, to be quite fair. Havin’ a baby boy and leading a movie. It was the best time of my life.” He tells GQ fatherhood hasn’t changed him, but it does affect the choices he makes and how long he’s willing to be off somewhere on location. “I feel an enormous amount of pressure, which is good. And I can’t get the little boy off my mind. It’s beautiful. Y’know, it’s crazy, but when he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world. That’s the effect he has on me. He smiles at you and you’re like, Wow, you’re smiling at me like that? I don’t deserve that, but anyways, thanks.”

[Photo Credit: Jason Nocito/GQ Magazine]

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