FROM HIS CHALLENGING CHILDHOOD TO HOLLYWOOD'S HOT LIST BARRY KEOGHAN

ON BEING DRAWN TO STRONG WOMEN AND ENJOYING LIFE WITH HIS LITTLE BOY

- LUCY ALLEN/HOT FEATURES

After his stand-out performances in recent hit films, Barry Keoghan is one of the hottest stars around. He won a Bafta – and was nominated for an Academy Award – for The Banshees of Inisherin, gained notice among a strong cast in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and went viral after dancing naked to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor in psychological thriller Saltburn.

Now, he stars in Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold’s film Bird, a moving portrait of a flawed family, and has also joined the stellar ensemble being lined up for the film of Peaky Blinders.

Dublin-born Barry and his brother spent most of their childhood in foster care after their mother, who struggled with drug addiction, became unable to care for them and died when he was just 12.

Now 32, and with a two-year-old son, Brando, with his former girlfriend Alyson Sandro, he talks about his tough start in life and being a role model.

Barry, you’ve worked with a high proportion of female directors – do you gravitate towards them?

“I do. I was taken into full-time care when I was ten or 11. My granny, my auntie and her daughter, three really strong women, moved into the same bedroom to give up their room for me and my brother. I was raised by those three women and learned my principles and to lift the toilet seat up [laughs].