Barry Keoghan on 'Butterfly Jam,' Beatles and Becoming a Father

Keoghan comes to Cannes with 'Butterfly Jam'

Photographer: Christian Tierney

Barry Keoghan, now officially a Cannes regular, is weighing up the idea of one day taking to the Palais steps as a director.

“I’d love to,” the 33-year-old tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Most of the time on set would be spent on me getting people to understand what I’m saying, though.” The dulcet tones of that thick Irish accent are perfectly intelligible over the phone, THR puts to him. “Believe me,” replies Keoghan, “I’m talking slow.”

The superstar has given us 20 minutes of his time in between shooting Sam Mendes’ much-anticipated Beatles biopics — a four-film cinematic event, coming in 2028 — to talk about his latest project, Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole follow-up, Butterfly Jam. It happens to be the first movie Keoghan’s Wolfcub Productions has brought to the Croisette. The actor was last here (sans Wolfcub) with Andrea Arnold’s Bird in 2024, and made his Cannes debut next to Yorgos Lanthimos with 2017’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer. “There’s an animal thing with Cannes, for me,” he says about the intriguing pattern of titles trailing after him.

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It’s no over-exaggeration to say Keoghan’s ascension since Sacred Deer has been astronomical. It’s an apt descriptor given the vastness of the Irishman’s résumé (the MCU’s Eternals, HBO’s Chernobyl, and Martin McDonagh’s tragically comical The Banshees of Inisherin) and the A-list co-stars he’s collected along the way (such as in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn and, recently, in Cillian Murphy’s final Peaky Blinders outing The Immortal Man).

But Keoghan is keen to keep his slate eclectic, and with that comes an urge to work with the arthouse up-and-comers and the best that European cinema has to offer. “Along with making commercial movies, [I want] to make movies with directors who have one or two movies behind them,” he tells THR. “I’m always trying to find that balance and not stay in one lane.”

A long time ago now, he reached out to Balagov off the back of the prize-winning Beanpole, and mentioned he’d love to work with the Russian filmmaker. The product of that conversation is set to premiere in the fest’s Directors’ Fortnight. It follows newbie Talha Akdogan, whom Keoghan admits he felt a little protective over — “I felt like Colin Farrell did to me!” — as Pyteh, a 16-year-old living in New Jersey’s Circassian community (following the Russian Empire’s 18th century invasion of Circassia, the entire ethnic group was either exiled or massacred). Here, Pyteh’s father (Keoghan) and aunt (Riley Keough) run a diner specializing in Circassian cuisine, but the teen finds himself balancing the struggling business with his aspirations of becoming a wrestler.

The subject matter prompts Keoghan to talk candidly about tapping into his own tumultuous upbringing and journey to fatherhood — he spent many of his childhood years in foster care, and welcomed a son, Brando, in 2022 — while making Butterfly Jam: “It’s OK to be you as a dad, and I’ve learned that by being me. This is how I do it, and this is how I show love.”

Here, Keoghan catches us up on his Cannes plans, talks about the first-time writers, directors and projects he’s willing to take a chance on at Wolfcub, and reveals what it’s been like living life as the eccentric Sir Ringo Starr: “I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Were you familiar with Kantemir’s work before Butterfly Jam?

Yeah, so I’d seen Beanpole and absolutely loved it. I just love European cinema, and I think [Balagov] is incredibly talented. I’m always looking for someone that, if anything, can bring me outside my comfort zone, and along with making commercial movies, I want to make movies with directors who have one or two movies behind them. So I’m always trying to find that balance and not stay in one lane.

I think with Kantemir, I reached out to [him] ages ago. It could have been on Twitter or something like that. And I said, “I’m a massive fan, and I’d love to meet and chat and see what you’re interested in, and if we could bring something together.” He got back to me, and he was a massive fan as well. [He said], “Barry, that’s amazing. I’ve got nothing right now at the minute, but I will keep you in mind. And hopefully we’ll work together on something.” It was th