At the risk of sounding glib, nobody plays a freak quite like Barry Keoghan.
Over the course of his still nascent career, Keoghan has established himself as a performer who thrives at playing outcasts and outsiders, men branded as weirdos by both the audience and the people around them. The Irish actor can play a normal person if he wants — he first gained recognition as the likable young kid who dies a tragic death in “Dunkirk,” and he’s one of the best things about the otherwise disastrous Marvel film “Eternals” — but more off-kilter parts are really where he shines. The guiding star for his film image is the 2017 movie that really first garnered him American recognition, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” In Yorgos Lanthimos’ off-putting and icy thriller, Keoghan plays an awkward young man who inserts himself into the life of a cardiac surgeon (Colin Farrell) and wreaks havoc on his family. It’s a genuinely terrifying performance that rests entirely on Keoghan’s charisma and off-kilter screen presence.
In his future performances, Keoghan would continue to inhabit strange characters and make them his own, like in his small but scene-stealing role as a nameless scavenger in “The Green Knight.” His most acclaimed performance, however, inverts how we typically perceive his characters; in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Keoghan plays a mentally disabled and socially awkward outcast in the titular island community, and he’s heartbreakingly earnest and sympathetic in the role. For his work in the movie, Keoghan won a BAFTA and was nominated at the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor.
Keoghan’s most recent role continues to demonstrate his boldness. In Emerald Fennell’s largely panned “Saltburn,” Keoghan is admirably committed in his performance as awkward nerd turned “Talented Mr. Ripley” style psychosexual menace Oliver Quick, who gets invited for a summer stay at the family estate of his fellow Oxford student Felix (Jacob Elordi). Oliver’s nebbish attitude largely hides the fact that he’s dangerously obsessed with Felix from the people surrounding him, but it’s apparent to the audience thanks to Keoghan’s work and the actor’s willingness to lean into the film’s more ridiculous moments, including the bathtub slurping scene and a climactic naked dance montage. “Saltburn” isn’t a great movie, but Keoghan makes it memorable.
What’s next for Keoghan? The actor will return to World War II seven years after “Dunkirk” as one of the main cast members in Apple TV+’s “Masters of the Air,” which premieres in January. Beyond that, the actor is continuing to work with up-and-coming and interesting indie directors, with films in his pipeline including Chris Andrews’ “Bring Them Down,” Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” and an untitled movie from Trey Edward Shults.
With “Saltburn” still inspiring internet discourse, IndieWire decided to see where Keoghan’s performance fits in with his overall filmography. The films selected here are ranked not based on their quality but on Keoghan’s performance in them. With that in mind, here are the 10 best Barry Keoghan performances, ranked.
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10. “Eternals” (2021)
Image Credit: ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Druig, one of the titular space god people in Chloé Zhao’s 2021 MCU foray, known for wearing a lot of black leather and being a bit of a withdrawn prick.
Why he’s great: “Eternals” is pretty much an unmitigated disaster, a confused, stilted, and ugly mess with few bright spots. Keoghan is one of them; he has a little bit of life in him as Druig, and his soft spot for Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari is infinitely more compelling than the action main romance the film is trying to sell us. He’s one of the few people to exit the film completely unscathed, which is as much a sign of his talent as anything else.
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9. “Chernobyl” (2019)
Image Credit: HBO Who Keoghan plays: In the HBO series dramatization of the “Chernobyl” crisis, Keoghan plays one of the few fictionalized characters. Specifically, he portrays Pavel, a volunteer who becomes a liquidator around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Pant exclusion site, tasked with killing animals to prevent the spread of radiation contamination.
Why he’s great: Keoghan has one of the smaller parts in the very large dramatic ensemble of “Chernobyl.” But he’s still memorable and quite good, acting as a fresh-faced set of eyes into the Chernobyl tragedy and its long-standing impacts and showing how ordinary people were affected and involved in the disaster.
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9. “Dunkirk” (2017)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: George, a young boy who joins his friend Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his father Dawson (Mark Rylance) on a mission to help the evacuating soldiers during the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940.
Why he’s great: Keoghan’s role in “Dunkirk” is just one piece of a much larger ensemble. But the actor is still great as the young George, plucky and likable, a perfect symbol of innocence. It’s not the meatiest role of his career, but it shows the brighter things he was on the verge of achieving.
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7. “Mammal” (2016)
Image Credit: ©Wildcard Distribution/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Joe, a brash homeless teenager. “Mammal” follows Joe as he ends up in the home of Margaret (Rachel Griffiths), who takes him in partly to deal with the abrupt disappearance of her own teenage boy.
Why he’s great: “Mammal” came out just before Keoghan would find greater public exposure for his performances in “Dunkirk” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” Looking back, it’s an early gem for the star, showing his range by playing someone much more vulnerable and sad than his usual menacing types, even if Joe hides his sadness behind a gruff exterior. He and Griffiths work wonders together at establishing the tender bond between their characters that give the film its emotion.
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6. “Calm With Horses” (2019)
Image Credit: ©Saban Int’l/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Dymphna, a cousin in an Irish crime family who ends up the main handler and bully of ex-boxer turned enforcer Arm (Cosmo Jarvis).
Why he’s great: Keoghan picked up his first BAFTA nomination for his work in “Calm With Horses,” scoring a Best Supporting Actor nod. It’s not difficult to see why; he brings his trademark slithery, livewire intensity to the role, a devil on Arm’s shoulder who encourages every bad instinct and steers him to all the worst decisions possible.
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5. “American Animals” (2018)
Image Credit: © The Orchard /Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Spencer Reinhard, an art student at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Bart Layton’s film follows the real-life story of how Spencer and a group of three other students pulled off the theft of several rare books from the university’s library in December 2004.
Why it’s great: “American Animals” is noted for its unusual structure that alternatively features dramatic reenactments with the main cast and the actual subject behind the heist. Even with the real Reinhard in the film, however, Keoghan admirably makes his character feel like a flesh and blood person, capturing Spencer’s cynical, detached mood but also the idealism that makes him a rootable hero.
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4. “The Green Knight” (2021)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays:
Why he’s great: Keoghan is only in “The Green Knight” for a single sequence, but he’s still one of the most memorable parts of the film. His nameless scavenger is a real character in his hands, a scheming freak who makes himself appear weak and pathetic to the gallant knight before turning ice cold when he drops the facade. its proof that Keoghan can do a lot with very little.
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3. “Saltburn” (2023)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Oliver Quick, who befriends the wealthy and impossibly cool Felix (Jacob Elordi) and spends an unforgettable summer at his family estate.
Why he’s great: We believe Oliver until we don’t. That is, we believe in the story that Oliver sells until Keoghan lets us in on his ruse with a careful lowering of his guard when alone in the glories of the Saltburn estate, switching off and on his bumbling persona depending on whom he finds himself with. By the film’s end, we should have known what Oliver was capable of all along — especially given Keoghan’s layered performance.
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2. “The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022)
Image Credit: ©Searchlight Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Who Keoghan plays: Dominic, a mentally disabled young man living on a small 1923 Irish island. Abused by his cruel father, he finds solace with Colm (Colin Farrell) and his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon).
Why he’s great: “Banshees” sees Keoghan again play an outcast and a misfit. But rather than being kept at a distance, the film allows us to know and love Dominic, and Keoghan ably turns in a sweet, earthy performance. He gets to show off his knack for comedy with some of the many non-sequiturs Dominic says, and capably breaks our heart with a beautiful scene where he confesses his love for Siobhán, and suppresses his sadness upon the gentle rejection.
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1. “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017)
Image Credit: A24 Who Keoghan plays: Martin, an awkward 16-year-old who befriends cardiothoracic surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) and begins meeting his family. Seemingly a benign presence, Martin turns out to be scheming to enact twisted vengeance on Steven, who he holds responsible for the death of his father.
Why he’s great: Six years after release, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” feels like Keoghan’s quintessential performance. His work as Martin captures so much of what makes him a great actor: his nervy, strange onscreen presence, his quiet but menacing charisma, and his capability of being genuinely terrifying. Keoghan makes this teenage outcast one of modern cinema’s most depraved villains with just a flash of his cold dead eyes, and makes the act of slurping down spaghetti seem like a threat. That’s talent, baby.
