In the dozen years since he began his acting career as a recurring cast member on the Irish soap opera “Fair City,” Barry Keoghan has played nearly three dozen film and TV roles in such popular projects as “Dunkirk” (2017) “Chernobyl” and “Eternals” (2021). Now, his work in “The Banshees of Inisherin” (in which he reunites with his “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and “The Batman” co-star Colin Farrell) has brought him his first Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for both supporting actor and ensemble. This gives the 30-year-old a shot at making history as the youngest male winner of multiple SAG Awards for a single film.
Two of Keoghan’s supporting challengers, Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and his “Banshees” castmate Brendan Gleeson, are also first-time SAG Award nominees who are concurrently vying for the ensemble prize. Paul Dano is also a dual contender for “The Fabelmans” but stands out in that he already won the cast award for 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine.” Rounding out the group is Eddie Redmayne (“The Good Nurse”), who is new to the supporting category but has achieved respective lead and ensemble film wins for 2014’s “The Theory of Everything” and 2020’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
SEE Full list of SAG Awards nominations
In “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Keoghan plays Dominic Kearney, the simple-minded son of an Irish policeman who offers support to fellow Inisherin citizen Pádraic Súilleabháin (Farrell) after he is shunned by his best friend, Colm Doherty (Gleeson). Although Dominic’s seemingly impenetrable high spirits initially stand in contrast to Pádraic’s growing anxiety and sadness, he ultimately proves to be just as prone to depression as anyone else.
Keoghan and Gleeson are only the fifth pair of co-stars to compete against each other in this supporting category, after Hank Azaria and Nathan Lane (1996’s “The Birdcage”), Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon (2005’s “Crash”), Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell (2017’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”) and Al Pacino and Joe Pesci (2019’s “The Irishman”). Since Farrell is nominated in lead actor and his onscreen sister, Kerry Condon, is up for supporting actress, their film is also the first in SAG Awards history to have every one of its eligible ensemble members recognized individually.
Only 16 men younger than Keoghan have ever been nominated for supporting actor, and just two of them — Heath Ledger (28, “The Dark Knight”) and Cuba Gooding Jr. (29, “Jerry Maguire”) — succeeded on their bids. Keoghan is the seventh youngest simultaneous ensemble and supporting male nominee in the guild’s history, after Freddie Highmore (12, “Finding Neverland”), Dev Patel (18, “Slumdog Millionaire”), Lucas Hedges (20, “Manchester by the Sea”), Jake Gyllenhaal (25, “Brokeback Mountain”), Joaquin Phoenix (26, “Gladiator”) and Noah Taylor (27, “Shine”).
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “SAG Awards nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2023 contenders in film and TV.
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