Domhnall Gleeson

The long shadow of Dublin

Domhnall Gleeson stands nearly six foot three and has a pallor that seems made for period films. But his entry into the industry had nothing to do with his looks. In 2006, he earned a Tony nomination for the play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which instantly freed him from the fear of being just the son of Brendan Gleeson.

In 2010, he accepted the role of Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. It was a practical decision, since the shoot allowed him to stay close to his family in Ireland. That production moved hundreds of millions of dollars, yet he appeared on screen for only a few minutes.

And then came the change of pace.

In 2013, he starred in About Time under the direction of Richard Curtis. The script required him to repeat scenes again and again to get the tone of the romantic comedy just right. So he learned to manage the internal timing of sequences before making the leap to much darker projects.

The risks of British science fiction

In 2014, he shot Frank, spending nearly the entire film inside a papier-mâché head. It was a strange year in which he also worked on Ex Machina alongside Alex Garland. He played a programmer trapped in a psychological game that grossed 36 million dollars on a minimal budget.

But the real test came from the Canadian cold. In 2015, he took part in The Revenant and had to endure subzero temperatures while Alejandro González Iñárritu searched for the perfect natural light. Filming dragged on for months because of the extreme weather and the lack of snow at the original locations.

Not everything was applause in the offices of the major studios.

In 2015, he joined the Star Wars franchise as General Hux. His performance was loud and almost theatrical, because director J.J. Abrams wanted a villain who always seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He filmed three installments of the saga while balancing outer space with intimate dramas such as Brooklyn.

Maturing on the Small Screen

In 2022, he traded film for psychological suspense in the series The Patient. He shared the screen with Steve Carell, and his portrayal of a serial killer earned him a Golden Globe nomination. It was an exhausting job that required him to lose weight and keep a flat vocal tone through weeks of filming on closed sets.

Because the actor prefers projects that let him explore human discomfort. In 2023, he took part in White House Plumbers for HBO, playing John Dean in a dramatization of the Watergate scandal. Critics praised his ability to convey ambition and fear without relying on big technical gestures.

The bet on television paid off.

In 2024, he premiered the series Alice & Jack and began shooting The Fountain of Youth under the direction of Guy Ritchie. This latest production has an estimated budget of $90 million and was partly filmed on location in Thailand and Vienna. The international distribution deal was closed before post-production wrapped up.