Domhnall Gleeson
Domhnall Gleeson
Domhnall Gleesonis an Irish actor. He is best known for his portrayal of General Hux in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter film franchise, Caleb in Ex Machina and Tim Lake in About Time. He has acted on both stage and screen, earning a Tony Award nomination in 2006 for his role in the Broadway production The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He has performed in several shows at Dublin's Gate Theatre, including adaptations of American Buffalo...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth12 May 1983
CityDublin, Ireland
CountryIreland
The rom-com genre is not something that necessarily lights my jets.
I stand to learn more working as an actor with really talented people than I do by directing a feature.
I've been interested in the writing/directing thing and really fell into acting by complete accident.
The worst thing as an actor is when you're not getting opportunities to try and show what you can do; the best thing is when you get material that really lets you express something and that you're excited about.
The whole idea with acting is that you take some risks. And if you take some risks, you're really going to mess up sometimes. But it's not OK to mess up a movie; it's not OK to do that just so you can improve as an actor. But film-making takes a little bit of risk in every department.
There's so many good comic actors that you just take the best of and try and run with it yourself. Try and bring a little bit of yourself to it, too.
Really, all I worry about is the work in hand.
'Black Mirror,' I read that, and I had another offer for a movie at the same time that was a bigger movie, an actual film as opposed to TV, but I said, 'No, it has to be Black Mirror.' And it hadn't been sold to Netflix, hadn't gone abroad at that point - but it's just good work - that's all there is to it.
Everyone talks about how we're on our phones all the time, but the fact remains that when I'm away on a film set for two months, I can Skype my family. I remember the phone calls my parents had to make when my dad was away for a while when I was younger - that once-a-week expensive phone call! The time pressure on talking to your father!
I was in 'Harry Potter,' and nobody on the street recognizes me from that. Nobody on the street has ever stopped me from 'Harry Potter!'
I tend to play 'tortured' a lot, whether it's physically or emotionally.
Just because I'm doing 'Star Wars' doesn't mean that'll be the thing that makes people stop me in the street.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, time travel's a nightmare. Don't go down that path.
I'd been very certain about not wanting to do the acting thing because of my father. I thought I'd always have the father-son thing of 'He got you the part.'