When Barry Keoghan sees a movie that speaks to him, he likes to contact the director and let them know. He believes more people in the industry need to do this.
“We should always share the love and what each other’s work has brought us,” he told Variety. “Because everyone has worked extremely hard to get us here.”
Not only does it help share the love, it also benefits Corgan’s career. And while the Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner won’t say much about the biopic other than to say it’s “going to be iconic” and “going to be a part of history,” the rare day off from filming Sam Mendes’ blockbuster The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event has led to him making two of three visits to Cannes. (Unfortunately, he wants to sound “romantic” for our conversation, but says he’s “not dressed like an apple”).
More than a decade ago, the then-virtually unknown actor outside of Ireland was able to land a role in Matt Reeves’ The Batman after sending in an unsolicited recording of his work, and after landing the role with such hilarious swagger, he sent a message to director Burt Layton expressing his admiration for his 2012 documentary The Impostor. “I remember reaching out, I think it was Twitter, and saying, ‘Can I send you an audition tape?'” he says. Layton gave Corgan an early lead role as an amateur rare book thief in his subsequent feature American Animals, and more recently as a psychotic bleach-blond biker in Crime 101 (the two are also working on a Billy the Kid biopic).
“I also reached out to Barry Jenkins, Lynne Ramsey and Andrea Arnold,” he says. Arnold had planned to take Kogan to Cannes in 2024 with his coming-of-age tale “Bird” (his second visit after Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”).
Kogan is returning to Cannes for the third time with Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, all thanks to a note he sent to the Russian director after seeing 2019’s smash hit Beanpole. “He was completely blown away by that movie, so I reached out and said, ‘Great job,’ and we kept in touch,” he says.
Butterfly Jam, which opens the Directors’ Fortnight competition, is set in Newark’s Circassian community and stars Keogan and Riley Keogh (who he calls “one of the best”) as brothers who run a struggling diner, and newcomer Talja Akdogan as their teenage son (whom he describes as “incredibly talented and whose rawness is unparalleled”).
Kogan is reluctant to reveal details, but says, “If you have a curiosity and love for movies, you want to see them!” — aside from the fact that it’s “inside and outside the family.” But he admits there is a strange connection between all of his previous Cannes films, “Sacred Deer,” “Bird,” and now “Butterfly Jam.” “We’re all animals!” “Butterfly Jam” is also the first completed project outside of the block for Kogan’s production company and another animal, Wolf Cub (“Kogan” means “wolf cub” in Gaelic, he insists, then howls loudly over the phone).
Corgan and Riley Keough in “Butterfly Jam”
Also in the works for the fledgling banner are a yet-to-be-announced Netflix series and a feature on Kim Bartley’s Irish indie film Lemonade, which was filmed in January during a few days between filming The Beatles. Set within the Irish care system, the film surprisingly, and coincidentally, bears similarities to Corgan’s own upbringing, having been adopted and raised in one of the most deprived areas of Dublin. “There was a moment in ‘Lemonade’ where I thought this was too laborious,” he says. “Honestly, I get emotional just talking about it, but it’s beautiful.”
Kogan remembers saying, “I want to be an actor,” not long after he was a young man living in multiple homes (eventually living with his grandmother). But at the time, it felt like an impossible dream. “It was out of reach for me, especially where I come from,” he says.
“I didn’t know enough about it. There was no path. There were university courses and stuff, but I didn’t finish school. I got kicked out of school and that was it,” he says.
People sometimes pressured him to come up with a plan B out of “love.” “But I always had in my mind, no, I wanted to do this. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but I just remember trying to articulate it.”
Cogan discovered exactly what he was all about as a 16-year-old on the set of his first acting job, the gritty 2010 Irish crime thriller Between the Canals (he got the role after answering casting notices posted in shop windows and calling the director every few weeks).
“I remember doing ‘Between the Canals,’ and when the camera went up, I was like, ‘This is it.’ It was a feeling like no other,” he says. “It wasn’t like, ‘I want to chase this high.’ It’s just this is this, this is where I belong, this is where I’m accepted.”
After his debut, Cogan had a brief stint as one of the first students at Dublin’s now famous acting institution, Bow Street Academy, before being cast in his breakout role, the cult Irish television series Love/Hate. Playing a baby-faced assassin who was gunned down at the end of the first season, he provided hints of the magnetic screen presence that would later define him. Then came Yann Demange’s acclaimed thriller ’71, in which he played a young IRA recruit (also shot dead), followed a few years later by Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, in which he played a civilian sailor. he was on vacation.
Corgan as Ringo Starr in “The Beatles – 4 Movie Movie Events”
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But Corgan’s rocket-fueled trajectory, thanks to a scene-stealing role in The Banshees of Inishelin and nude dancing in Saltburn, has brought with it some unfortunate trappings of fame. It was intense public scrutiny of his personal life (which peaked during and after his year-long relationship with singer Sabrina Carpenter).
In 2024, he spoke to Louis Theroux about the abuse he suffered regarding his son, born in 2022, with his ex-partner and the online accusations that his son was an “absentee father.” “People like to use my son as ammunition,” he said. She recently spoke on SiriusXM’s “The Morning Mash Up” about her “disgust” with the way she looks, to the point where it “really gets inside me and I don’t want to go places, I don’t want to go out.”
But now, Kogan told Variety, “I want to let my work speak for me and step into a new chapter in my life. I want to close the book, look up, smile and enjoy this moment.” he laughs at himself. “I feel like I read that line somewhere. I didn’t, but I looked out the window and smiled as I said it.” Apparently playing a member of the Beatles could be a good thing for you (thankfully, he’s still close to finishing his rap – “We’re still going strong…Four movies at the end of the day!”).
But this new chapter comes with some solid gravitas behind it. Now a rising Academy Award-certified veteran of Cannes, Kogan has reached a position where he can effectively chart his own course, mixing buzzy arthouse with buzzy studio releases. That could be through your own company, telling a story with a deep personal connection like “Lemonade,” or diving into a huge studio-backed feature on the most famous bands in history.
“I choose my projects quite specifically,” he says. He says he enjoyed working on Peaky Blinders and “loved making the movie. It was incredible,” but declined to say why he chose not to return for Netflix’s upcoming sequel series (Jamie Bell replaces the Duke of Shelby role). However, it is clear that this idiosyncrasy is a contributing factor.
“I choose carefully and carefully because I just want to have fun, I want to heal, I want to communicate, I want to find, I want to explore. I want to discover all of that while making films with like-minded people.”
This pool of like-minded people will continue to grow as Mr. Kogan continues to slide into their DMs and send him notes of praise about their films (though he admits he’s now in a position to let others do it).
But when he says that filmmakers should “share the love” because of the work they put in to get to this point, the truth of the matter is that, given where he comes from, few have worked as hard as Corgan.
