When Brendan Gleeson tells Miriam O'Callaghan that he’s 70, it seems a little unexpected, but it also makes sense because he didn’t really start appearing on our screens until he was in his mid-30s. The star of Braveheart, Gangs of New York and Paddington 2 joined Miriam to raise awareness of a fundraising drive by St Francis Hospice in Raheny, a place both of his parents were patients of:

"These are one of a bunch of people that I’ve been talking about helping you keep some equilibrium in the world when you see the extraordinary goodness that’s involved in what these people are doing. You know, it’s about death, it’s about grief, it’s about leaving go, it’s about passing on. And all you see in this place is kindness."

The hospice has started a Buy a Brick campaign to fund the building of a 24 single-bed in-patient unit. The virtual bricks cost €25 and can be customised, as Brendan explains:

"You can put something on it, maybe just the name of somebody you've lost, maybe just a thanks to the staff of the hospice, maybe just something that they said. And it’s like, here’s this social media thing where you get to put something positive and beautiful and give a gift of even just somebody’s name."

Brendan has just started working on a new production of Conor McPherson’s play The Weir, which will be in the 3Olympia in Dublin before transferring to the Harold Pinter Theatre in London’s West End. It's his first stage appearance since 2015 and he’s a little nervous about it:

"I am starting to get worried about just the actually retention of that degree, that amount of lines, you know there are a couple of long speeches [...] It’s a big challenge and it’s going to be – I'll be very nervous in one way just until I get the first couple of previews behind. But it’s a different process and a different experience."

Although he says he feels he’s maybe taken on too much this year, Brendan is enthused by the prospect of doing The Weir and getting to work with the people involved:

"I’m working with Seán McGinley, you know? I love working with Seán McGinley. And we’ve Tom Vaughn-Lawlor and Owen McDonnell and Kate Phillips. So that’s like – and Conor [McPherson] himself is going to direct it, so like the whole setup is there where I can’t wait to work with the lads, you know?"

Miriam cited Brendan as a guiding light and an inspiration for Irish actors like Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan and Jessie Buckley just by pushing through and being a successful, working actor and she asked Brendan who had done that for him? He didn’t have to think about the answer:

"Gabriel Byrne. Gabriel Byrne was the one because he was a teacher for a couple of months or a year or something like that and then he went, and I think he bypassed London and went straight over to America [...] I just thought he always seemed to maintain his composure and his central self, in a way that I found, you know, he wasn’t – he just stayed the same, Gabriel."

One of the crucial things that Gabriel Byrne values – and it’s something that Brendan shares with his fellow Irish actor – is getting to work with people who are very good at what they do:

"He didn’t want to be a star or any of this kind of rubbish either. It was about how do you get to work with good people, you know? [...] You get into a place where I’ve worked with extraordinary people and that’s why – like, your work becomes extraordinary because you’re working with extraordinary people."

Among those extraordinary people are directors of the calibre of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and the Coen Brothers; actors like Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington and Emily Blunt. And of course, those extraordinary people got to work with a remarkable talent like Brendan Gleeson.

You can hear Miriam’s full conversation with Brendan Gleeson by tapping or clicking the image above.

If you want to support St Francis Hospice, you can Buy a Brick here.

The Weir by Conor McPherson runs from 8 August to 6 September at the 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin.