Painfully Real Way in Which ‘Saltburn’ Has Changed Barry Keoghan’s Life – “Can’t look at a …. the same way”

After starting acting professionally in 2011 in Ireland, Barry Keoghan had his breakthrough in Hollywood with his roles in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer. It has been a whirlwind of great roles for him since then as he has given back-to-back incredible performances.

One of his most acclaimed performances recently was in the psychological thriller, Saltburn which had the internet talking for months and it was mostly thanks to some rather raunchy scenes involving Keoghan himself. While the movie brought him a lot of recognition, some of the things that he had to do in it seem to have changed his life for the worse.

Barry Keoghan on How Saltburn Changed His Perception of This One Thing

Barry Keoghan has played many diverse roles in the past five years alone. From the Marvel hero, Druig in 2021’s Eternals and the DC supervillain, Joker in Matt Reeves’ The Batman to his Academy Award-nominated supporting role in The Banshees of Insherin, he has shown a range that is not very common in actors.

Last year, he appeared as Oliver Quick against Jacob Elordi’s Felix Catton in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. The movie was a critical success and the audience could not stop raving about Keoghan’s performance for months more so because some of his scenes were rather disturbing but also captivating.

Oliver displayed a duality as he moved from a submissive, impressionable student to a manipulative and obsessive figure. His intense, almost voyeuristic fixation on Felix, culminated in a chilling bathtub scene that has sparked much discussion due to its unsettling nature. There was also a scene involving a grave that was widely discussed.

During a recent interview on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, host Josh Horowitz asked Keoghan about the process of trusting the director when it came to doing scenes like that. The Irish star quickly quipped, “You can’t look at a bathtub the same way,” before saying he must use one anyway.

Horowitz then followed it up by asking about graves to which the actor replied that they keep him away. The host then referred to his n*de exhibitionist romp in the film’s final scene as he joked that Keoghan might want to dance through ornate houses. The conversation then moved to the actor trusting the creative team enough to fully commit to those scenes that have sparked so much discussion.

Barry Keoghan’s Naked Dancing Through the Mansion in Saltburn Had a Motive Behind It

While Keoghan is not the first person to have pulled some very amusing dance moves in a film, he might have been one of the first people to do it stark naked. As revealing as it was, there was a motive behind it which viewers might have missed due to the initial shock.

In an episode of The Louis Theroux Podcast, the Chernobyl actor not only debunked theories that the male genitalia seen in the movie is prosthetic but also revealed the ultimate motive behind it.

I remember me and Emerald [Fennell] having chats. It started off with my clothes, she was like, ‘We just need to make it a bit more ownership. He’s kind of got this mansion, it’s his space. When you have that space, we all do at home, we walk around naked because we’re comfy and this is our environment.’ It’s trying to get that across.

Besides the movie’s success, another good thing that came out of this was that the single Murder on the Dancefloor Oliver dances to was back on the UK music charts. It was thanks to the song’s newfound popularity in this film so it was a win-win for everyone.

Saltburn is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.