Brendan Gleeson, the Oscar-nominated star of 'The Banshees of Inisherin', is in expansive form during a video call, offering twinkly-eyed anecdotes and passionate detours on topics from parenting to peace processes. Far from the often grouchy characters he portrays, the actor is gentle and gregarious, speaking at length about his latest role in 'H is for Hawk'.
Embracing Life and Death: An Irish Perspective
We are discussing Philippa Lowthorpe's sensitive adaptation of Helen Macdonald's bestselling memoir, in which Gleeson plays Alisdair Macdonald, a photojournalist and father whose death haunts the film. This leads the Dublin-born actor to reflect on the stark difference between Irish and English attitudes towards mortality.
"At an Irish funeral, if the man or the woman has had a life, all you hear is people laughing and telling stories," Gleeson explains in his mild Gaelic burr. "It's all about what a life they've had, how they embraced the life."
He contrasts this with the funeral of his friend, the late director Anthony Minghella, who directed him in 'Cold Mountain'. "I remember going to his funeral and being absolutely stunned by the lack of..." he trails off. "It was all dignity. It was all ceremony. It was all very beautiful in its own way, and full of emotion." In Ireland, he says, there is a more immediate, conversational engagement with the departed, calling it "an incredible, communal embrace of death".
Playing a Good Man in a World of Toxic Scripts
What specifically drew Gleeson to the role of Alisdair Macdonald was the chance to portray a fundamentally good father. "I had become very tired of the trope of the toxic father becoming absolutely relentless in the scripts I was reading," he admits. He progressed from boredom to irritation, then to a concern about a lack of positive role models for young men regarding fatherhood.
"So I thought the opportunity to play a good father was incredibly valuable," he states. In the film, Alisdair nurtures his daughter Helen's (Claire Foy) love of nature and birding. After his sudden death, Helen's grief manifests in an obsessive mission to train a fierce goshawk named Mabel, her life unraveling as she does so.
Gleeson is full of praise for his co-star, noting Foy's extensive training to handle the birds and the raw authenticity of her performance. "She's unbelievable," he says. "She has such depth; you can feel a kind of huge intensity." For his part, Gleeson chose to play Alisdair with a Scottish accent rather than the character's real London one, seeking a more natural emotional expression and receiving the blessing of the real Helen Macdonald.
Parenting, Permission, and the Perils of Over-praise
The film explores how Helen was given permission by her father to be 'strange', a theme that resonates with Gleeson, a father of four sons. While he and his wife Mary Weldon encouraged freedom, he emphasises the importance of boundaries. "There's a line with everything in parenthood," he cautions.
He is particularly wary of the modern trend of excessive, child-centred praise. "The last thing you want to be doing as parents is shoving people into their own corner and saying, 'You're unique, and everybody really should sit up and recognise how brilliant you are,'" he argues. While his generation often faced the opposite problem—being told not to try—he believes the pendulum has swung too far towards creating false expectations.
He links this to a broader societal issue exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, which he says alienated people and made them uncertain how to engage with others. "If you let everybody do everything that they want to do... they have no way of engaging with the world that makes any sense to anybody else," he observes.
A Career Built on Character, Not Looks
Gleeson, who turned professional at 34 after working as a teacher, has enjoyed a remarkable three-decade career moving between arthouse films and blockbusters. From 'The General' and 'In Bruges' to 'Calvary', 'Harry Potter', and his Oscar-nominated turn in 'The Banshees of Inisherin', he has built a reputation for balancing menace with tenderness.
When asked if not having a 'pretty face' has been liberating, especially compared to actors who must manage the loss of conventional looks, he laughs. "I was always more interested in enjoying life, in a way that allowed me to understand the lives of people who live in the world, as against the people who photograph themselves living in the world," he reflects.
He is fascinated by how actors like Jack Nicholson or Colin Farrell navigate the power of their looks alongside their talent. "It's very interesting watching good-looking women who grow older, and who don't ever come to terms with the idea that the power they had as radiant young women has now moved into a new area," he notes. For those without that specific gift, he says simply, "you just do the other bits."
Compassion as a Guiding Principle
Throughout the conversation, Gleeson returns to the theme of kindness. Discussing intractable conflicts, from Northern Ireland's peace process to contemporary culture wars, he posits that the artist's role is to show a better way.
"I think this is what we can best do as artists: show people that they're better off being compassionate, being kinder," he explains. "It doesn't mean that you can't have a slag about somebody, because you don't have to turn into sort of a wellness factory. What you have to do is just literally believe in the goodness of people."
He points to the Northern Ireland peace process as a model, where "parity of esteem" for different identities was key. "You give parity of esteem to others and their views, and then you make decisions about what laws you enact by trying to be as fair and compassionate as you can to the most people."
For Brendan Gleeson, whether navigating complex scripts, reflecting on fatherhood, or considering his craft, that fundamental belief in compassion and the shared desire for a good life remains the through-line. 'H is for Hawk' is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23 January 2026.
