Domhnall Gleeson Dishes On Frank Of Ireland, His Star Wars Ending, And Being A Massive Harry Potter Fan - Exclusive Interview

Domhnall Gleeson has been acting since the early '00s, but Harry Potter fans have come to know the talented actor by one name: Bill Weasley. The longtime Potter fan snagged the role in 2010, just in time for both Deathly Hallows installments. Between his stints in the Wizarding World, Gleeson headed back in time (sans Time Turner) to the Wild, Wild West for the 2010 remake of True Grit opposite Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and Hailee Steinfeld before heading to Russian high society in the 19th century for Keira Knightley's Anna Karenina. 

Solidifying his name in rom-com territory, and unearthing more time travel mojo, Gleeson starred alongside Rachel McAdams in About Time. Eventually, foreshadowing his Star Wars future, the actor appeared in the 2014 film Ex Machina alongside Oscar Isaac — who would later become Poe Dameron in the third Star Wars trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens in 2015. 

Gleeson joined the cast as General Hux — a.k.a. Kylo Ren's petty right-hand man. No big deal. But between his attempt to take over a galaxy far, far away, Gleeson appeared in 2018's Peter Rabbit, along with its sequel, before starring as Billy in the 2020 TV series Run. 

Now, Gleeson is in the hilarious new comedy Frank of Ireland. The actor cooked up the Amazon Prime/Channel 4 collaboration with his brother Brian Gleeson — a series that finds them playing goofy friends who haven't yet figured out this whole adult thing in their 30s. Xoop spoke to Domhnall Gleeson during an exclusive interview, and he dished about all things Frank of Ireland, what he thinks about Hux's The Rise of Skywalker ending, and just what it was like bringing Bill Weasley to life. 

So we start there. The show grew out of that, including all of the other characters. It all came out of Frank, really. And it changed a lot over the years. It took us five years to get it, from talking about it to getting to set to shoot it. And being a writer and producer, as opposed to just an actor, doing all those things at the same time, was very difficult. I'll be honest with you. It was intense in a way I haven't been expecting, even though I'd seen these amazing people do it before. I'd seen Vicky Jones write and produce and do all this stuff along with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who is just amazing. And I'd seen people do it, seen how hard they worked, and I thought, "Jesus, that's a lot."

And it was way more than even I thought. It was intense, but I had my friend and my brother, who were also very talented at what they do, around. We had a great director and then another great director who came on to help finish out the show. Wonderful producer, Sharon Horgan, Clelia Mountford, Channel 4, and Amazon... It sounds like I'm accepting an award. "Channel 4, Amazon, I want to say thank you for everything." But yeah, we have such a great team that makes everything better.

Were there any scenes that had to get cut for time or any improvisations that you did on the spot that you can remember?

There were lots of little things, oftentimes with improv, not strict improv, like the way that the greats are great at improv. But oftentimes, when you're filming, the way that improv will happen is at the end of a scene, it'll keep rolling, and somebody will say another funny line, and it will be funny. But oftentimes, there are these firsts that have to go in the edit because it's written to use this line to throw into this next scene. So lots of that sort of stuff.

And the people in the show are so funny. There're loads of stuff in the cutting room, or I wish we could have gotten in. But as a result, they're quite... they're not dense, but they're compact. There's a lot of jokes per page. And I think we needed to keep that, to keep that speed up, that sort of way. And so it's one of the things I'm happiest with in the show is that it's got a pretty high, I think, gag per minute ratio. And so we kind of have to maintain that. And that does mean cutting some great stuff. It's just the way it goes.

There are a ton of movie homages and references in Frank of Ireland: Misery, Memento, and I even got sort of a little bit of a Home Alone vibe from episode four. So which of those were most important for you to include, and which were your ideas specifically?

So all of the movie references came out of the stories first. I think with the Home Alone one, we were like it would be fun to do a Home Alone episode. But yeah, everything else, it was like, it came from the story. So you're writing the story, "let's have Frank do this, let's have Frank do that." And then you go, "Oh, this is a little bit like this. And we can use that." A lot of the reason it's there is because Frank sees himself as the hero of his own story. And he grew up on the same movies that we grew up on. And so he imagines himself as these characters. He thinks he's got this mythic element in his life, which is not there. We know it's not there.

So there was none that were important to include, but like we've got Memento in there. We've got Dances with Wolves, Misery — yeah, they're all over the place. And then we have one where he mixes up. He's hired to write music for an all-female production of 12 Angry Men called 12 Angry Women. And he makes a mistake and instead writes music from A Few Good Men. He gets it all wrong. That's the crux of one episode. So in terms of where it really comes to a head, I would say that's probably the most reference-specific that we get.

So switching gears a bit, General Hux has one of the funniest redemption arcs that I've ever seen. If you can even call it redemption. He turns on the First Order, purely out of pettiness and spite against Kylo — and it's so great. How did you feel about that ending for him? Was it on point for his character? Or did you feel like you wish he had an actual change of heart?

No. I think that it made sense for the movie. And when I read it, I was surprised, and I think that's good. Also, when I read Rian Johnson's script for the second one, I was surprised by it. And I think that's a really important thing. I think that you can't just do the same thing over and over and do what people expect — because then it won't mean anything. So I was very game to do whatever it was that J.J. Abrams felt worked best for the film. And I found a way to do it where I felt like it worked for Hux. And so yeah, I thought it was everything that it needed to be.

You had such a great dynamic with Adam Driver onscreen. What was it like working with him? And did you guys have any funny outtakes together?

I had a wonderful time working with him. He is such an extraordinary actor. And I mean, Star Wars can be sort of operatic, but he brought a seriousness to it. Which had lightness and all the rest of that built in, but he just brought a lot of rigor to it. And yeah, I thought he was great company, and I thought he was just wonderful in the film. So I always enjoy doing scenes with him, because good actors make you better. And he is certainly — he's not just a good actor, he's a great actor.

What was your last day of filming Star Wars like — and Harry Potter, since they're such big franchises?

I'm going to be honest and say I can't really remember, because on both of them, there were reshoots at the end. Like every film in those series would always come back to get extra stuff at the end, so your last day was never actually your last day. It always ended up some other day. So honestly, I can't really remember. All I remember about those sets generally was the bonhomie and the feeling of everyone being in it together and being good people. That's really what I remember when I think about them.

Were you a fan of either franchise before getting your roles? And how did you react to those castings?

I was a huge fan of Harry Potter — a massive fan of the books and the movies. And with Star Wars I hadn't seen, I think I hadn't seen a couple of them since I was a kid, basically. But I loved them, that sort of way. So yeah. It's like, it's not the sort of work... When you start being an actor, when I started being an actor, it wasn't the sort of work that I was aspirational to do. Because I didn't even think it was a possibility. And so the call is just so bananas to get to go and do it. It's just a celebration, really.