Brendan Gleeson praised Oscar nominee and Bafta winner Cillian Murphy, while noting that "it’s fantastic what’s happening now" in terms of the breadth and quality of current Irish acting talent.
Gleeson was a guest on Friday night’s Late Late Show and he lit up with Irish pride when he spoke about the Oppenheimer star’s current success and put it in context for host Patrick Kielty.
"What a treat he is," he said. "How proud can you be of Cillian." And when asked if he thinks Murphy will win the Oscar, Gleeson admitted: "I don’t really care. Honestly. It’s the one thing I learned about that whole procedure.
"It always sounds as if you don’t win it’s some sort of sour grapes. Myself and Colin [Farrell] went to the Oscars and we had a brilliant time, because we were looking at this and thousands more of these creative forces in the one room.
"It was extraordinary. We’d a brilliant night at it. And all the time you can feel half of your soul is gone because you’ve been told you’re losing. We got through all that in a brilliant way.
"I dropped Cillian a note and just said, ‘Look, they can’t take this one away from you. The nomination is the thing. After that it’s showbiz and whatever happens, happens. It’ll be brilliant if he wins – but it’s not, to me it’s not the yardstick."
Broadening out, Gleeson was keen to praise the current crop of Irish actors who have been turning Hollywood green in recent years.
"To me, it’s fantastic what’s happening now," he told Patrick Kielty. "And it’s just the nature of him [Cillian Murphy] as an artist, as an Irish artist who’s exploring things, - and Paul Mescal, and Barry Keoghan, and Andrew Scott, and Saoirse Ronan, and Jessie Buckley.
"All these fantastic people bringing all of this heft to artistic exploration in film. It’s absolutely wonderful. It really is."
Gleeson was also asked about how felt now that The Banshee of Inisherin – which he starred in alongside Colin Farrell, Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan - had been added to the Leaving Cert syllabus.
"I’m delighted the Banshees is on," he said. "For me it’s about stuff that comes from the motherlode that’s this country and its culture."
He also spoke about Banshee writer Martin McDonagh’s "ability to tell a story." As he pointed out: "Martin writes such funny lines about some dark stuff."
Patrick Kielty then asked about the experience of then going to Hollywood with the movie. "It was great. You end up getting togged out to go to the Oscars and stuff."
And he felt that the success of the film wasn’t unexpected. "I wasn’t surprised when it took off," he insisted. "But what was brilliant about it was the amount of people it reached."
Gleeson was also asked about his new documentary about a pub in Dublin’s Smithfield, Brendan Gleeson’s Farewell to Hughes’s that’s featured in the Dublin Film Festival.
"It’s close to my heart," he told Patrick Kielty. "Basically, Hughes’s pub was just a mad place in the sanest way possible."
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