When you think of the best actors working today, a few names will always pop up.Joaquin Phoenix,Cate Blanchett, and maybe a few personal takes likeSteven Yeun,Daniel Kaluuya, orRebecca Hall.Domhnall Gleeson? Unfortunately, he doesn’t pop up too often, yet when you take a look at his filmography, you may change your mind. From his first leading-man role in 2013’sAbout Timeto his standout performance inWhite House Plumbersairing right now,Gleeson has consistently been putting in excellent work. Did his run asAdmiral Hux in theStar Warssequelscool him off? Is he overshadowed by having a Best Actor in the World candidate for a father inBrendan Gleeson? He may not have hit the same level of appreciation as his father yet, but he is just as talented, and given the same amount of time in the industry, he will no doubt reach the same heights. Let’s take a look into one of the most underappreciated actors working right now, and why exactly he deserves your attention.
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What Movies Has Domhnall Gleeson Been In?
Domhnall Gleeson can really be defined by his ability to blend into multiple genres, roles, and even mediums, each representing why he is such an incredible actor. His range is really what makes him stand out, bouncing from character to character, sometimes in a single year, and every performance feeling fresh and unique, while still maintaining a throughline of quality. He played a quiet but charming Irishman fighting forSaoirse Ronanto come back across the pond inBrooklyn,starred oppositeLeonardo DiCaprioin the Oscar-winningThe Revenant, and gave us a lonely computer programmer getting seduced by an AI in the incredibleEx Machina–all in one year! If you like a fun rom-com with just enough meat on the bone to get those gears turning, he is absolutely incredible inAbout Time,as a charming Englishman who uses the power of time travel to fix his love life.
Domhnall Gleeson’s Talents Stretch to TV and Big Franchises
Yet, he does not need to be the leading man in order to make an impact. In the criminally underratedCalvary,he is in exactly one scene, with his father Brendan, and still manages to steal the scene, if not the entire film. If movies aren’t your thing, he’s great on TV too. If it’s just a one-off inBlack Mirror,where he manages to play an alive man and his robot recreation with enough similarity to charm you, but just enough stiffness to make your skin crawl, he can still be absolutely incredible. If you want him on a week-to-week basis, he can do that too, with a great turn as John Dean inWhite House Plumbers,holding his own among the likes ofWoody Harrelson,Kathleen Turner, and excellent character actors likeGary ColeandJohn Carroll Lynch. Not to mention his roleas a serial killer in last year’sThe PatientoppositeSteve Carellthat earned Gleeson a Golden Globe nomination. If you want a big franchise, he’s in bothHarry Potter,andStar Wars.Gleeson can simply do it all.
‘About Time’ Is Domhnall Gleeson’s Best Performance to Date
If you want to distill Gleeson down, for one performance to show why he really is that good, his turn in the aforementionedAbout Timereally shows it all. Directed and written by British Rom-Com KingRichard Curtis(Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral), Gleeson takes a role that could very easily go sour, a man who uses his secret power of time travel to make his love life perfect, and plays it with all the charm, sadness, and ultimately, grace, that elevates the role, and the film into a modern classic. Instead of a crass, rude man who screws over and manipulates his life to his favor, we ultimately realize that the ability to change your life only makes you realize how great it really is when you savor it. AlongsideBill NighyandRachel McAdams(two other people who could have this article about their career), Gleeson makes the film, taking all the charm, wit, and clumsiness in your standard Richard Curtis protagonist, and adding a level of heart unseen in any of his other films. The final scene with his father is maybe the most heartbreaking scene in his and Nighy’s body of work.
Why Is Domhnall Gleeson Not Considered Amongst the Best Actors?
Yet, Gleeson doesn’t really get brought up like some of his co-stars do. He’s appeared alongside the aforementioned excellent actors (Daddy Gleeson, Nighy, McAdams, Ronan), as well as performers such asOscar IsaacinEx Machina,Michael FassbenderinFrank,andAdam DriverinStar Wars,and performed just as well, if not better than them. What’s the deal with Domhnall? Let’s look at hisStar Warsco-stars. Driver seems to be turning in Best Actor noms every year now that he’s done, and even some while he was still playing Kylo Ren.Oscar Isaac has returned to form, starring in the excellentThe Card CounterbyPaul Schrader, and playing his role inDenis Villeneuve’sDuneincredibly well, not to mention his performance alongsideJessica ChastaininScenes From A Marriage.Gleeson has seemed to focus on children’s films and television in the meantime, which has produced middling results in comparison to his contemporaries. ThePeter Rabbitfilms are not exactly inspiring. This is not an indictment of Gleeson, no actor should be shamed for their roles, it is merely saying that he’s had a bit of a string of bad luck recently, but one he is definitely rebounding from.
Gleeson seems to be a bit of a “glue guy,” a sports term that essentially means he’s putting in the work, he’s doing the little things that can really elevate everyone else, while maintaining an excellent, but quiet level of production compared to someone hitting 70 homers a year or doing five slam dunks in a row. Butthe glue guys can sometimes be the most fun to watch, and the ones everybody remembers. Gleeson is exactly that, someone in the mold of aHarry Dean Stanton, or aJennifer Coolidge. Legendary character actors who went on to have some performances that we’ll never forget (Stanton inParis, Texas,Coolidge inWhite Lotus), while also being the Gods of somehow being great in everything they’re in, regardless of everything else around them. Gleeson has quietly assembled a career full of a variety of performances that all sing in their own ways, and his acclaimed role inThe Patientand latest performance inWhite House Plumbersare hopefully signs that he is breaking out of his slump a bit. At only 40, he’s got a long career ahead, and certainly one full of promise. If you don’t jump on the bandwagon now, all the true believers can say I told you so later down the line.
