Barry Keoghan discusses perfecting his naked dance scene in thriller Saltburn

23 December 2023 , 11:59

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Barry Keoghan has discussed his naked scenes in Saltburn (Image: WireImage)

Irish actor Barry Keoghan has opened up about his jaw dropping role in hit film Saltburn - and how much he loved working with director Emerald Fennell.

The 31-year-old actor has been carving out an impressive career - with roles in big budget films including Marvel’s Eternals, hit show Top Boy, and Oscar nominated film The Banshees of Inisherin. His bold preforming drew the attention of 38-year-old writer-director Emerald who cast him in a leading role in her shocking psychological drama Saltburn - which is enjoying a second run of success as it is now streaming via Amazon.

Barry, who plays Oliver Quick in the film which examines attitudes towards class and wealth among other themes, has explained how he dug deep to get into character for the role. The actor went to great lengths, filling five notebooks with notes about different ways he could play his character.

The Irish actor is tipped for Oscar glory for his role (AP)

And he says he was thrilled to take direction from Emerald - as well as learn about his character through her screenwriting. He told Screen Daily: “It was my first [full] lead role and I wanted to have total concentration. The five notebooks were all about five different Olivers, and each notebook represents a different acceleration for him or a different domain or a different physicality or slight changes in how he looks at someone. So if I had scene 78 or wherever we were in the script, I could revert back to that notebook, so I know what to do where. I wanted those changes in him to be quite noticeable.”

And discussing working with Emerald directly, he said: “The brilliant thing with Emerald is that I could bring all that back to her — she was a director who gave me the confidence to try it. She gave me that licence to be silly, or to creatively go out there and fail or take it to the next level. That’s all I want, to keep pushing the boundaries, to discover a character with the director.”

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The film sees Barry dance naked through a giant house - and he filmed the scene 11 times to get the perfect take. He explained: “I wanted to get it right. I was trying to perfect it because I wanted it to look gorgeous with this naked figure roaming about all those rooms with their grand paintings and drapery. It’s also a thing of him feeling his power that this is his now.”

Barry has already been Golden Globe nominated for his role in the film and is tipped to be Oscar nominated again for his work on screen. Barry has explained that explicit scenes in the film didn’t worry him - as he was more concerned with dancing on screen rather than stripping off on camera.

He told Vanity Fair: "Without sounding cocky, it wasn't the nudity. That was fine for me. It was the dancing. I don't really dance, I don't know how to move my hips certain ways and your body has to go in certain directions and stuff like that," he added. "The dancing scared me. So once I was comfy with the dance, the rest was easy.

“But it could have been 40 and I wouldn’t have cared… When you do something like that you want it to be to the point because it can go either way. So we didn’t stop until we got it, to the point where I put my left foot forward rather than my right [because we wanted it to be perfection."

Mirror.co.uk