“That’s what I thought was the most beautiful part of him.”ĭoing the show put Gleeson on a personal learning curve. Scott might be lazy and blinkered but he’s actually not a bigot, Gleeson suggests. There are people who are deeply flawed in every single corner of humanity.” Through the 10 episodes, Scott and Jay’s relationship develops into something more interesting. “This blanket kind of pardon for everybody, because they are part of a group that had been discriminated against, while laudable in the beginning, it doesn’t hold water,” he says. Gleeson praises the way both sides are called out for their assumptions. It would be easy to label Scott as a privileged, white, middle-aged, cis, male bigot, as his wife does, but then Jay is not exactly pleasant to him either. Predictably, Scott and Jay get off to a bad start. The barista, Jay (Esco Jouléy), is Black, non-binary and asexual. But some of the things, I would say: ‘Hang on a second’ – which would start the row with Mary – ‘he does have a point.’”įor extra friction, State of the Union takes place in the type of coffee shop that doesn’t serve cow’s milk or even use the word “coffee” – it’s all “Peruvian special blend”. “Some things are fundamentally against the way I am. We actually did start fights!” He’s laughing at the memory of it. “Myself and Mary used to sit down, and she’d say things like: ‘I’d kill that fella.’ And of course, if you’re playing a part, you have to go into their corner. He started rehearsing for State of the Union at home, reading the script with his wife. Gleeson and his wife, Mary, have been married for 40 years and have four grownup sons, two of whom, Domhnall and Brian, are successful actors. It made a few ripples in his own marriage, he admits. I was looking forward to playing a bit of golf when I retired.’” “I’ve had friends of mine saying: ‘Jesus. “It should come with a health warning in the corner: ‘Any couple who watches it, this could end in divorce,’” Gleeson says, his face consumed by laughter again. He’s looking forward to retirement, golf and fishing she’s keeping up with yoga and progressive politics. Gleeson’s Scott has apparently not moved on since about 1975. From the outset, Clarkson’s Ellen is ready to move on. This time, it’s Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson. In the first season (which won three Emmys), the couple was Chris O’Dowd and Rosamund Pike. It’s a bittersweet little comedy series of 10 10-minute encounters between a couple about to go into their weekly marriage counselling session. The show is State of the Union, written by Nick Hornby and directed by Stephen Frears. The role is Scott, a somewhat curmudgeonly middle-aged man who is going through a divorce. This is exactly the reaction when I ask him about his latest role, and how close it is to the real him: “Ha ha! Ask my wife.” His eyes narrow and twinkle and his grin is a mile wide. ![]() When I tell him his movie Calvary moved me to tears when I recently rewatched it, he immediately replies: “That bad, was it?” You rarely see him laugh on screen, but when he does it’s with his whole face. He apologises several times for “rambling on”. He’s so talkative he barely remembers to eat his lunch. In real life, Gleeson is neither menacing nor grumpy. And that’s part of what you really need to do to stay aware of what’s going on.” “It’s stopped me from being able to people-watch with any great success and comfort. It’s a big price to pay and I don’t like it.” It’s not that he doesn’t like people, he says it’s more that he does like them. “I remember Robbie Coltrane saying to me: ‘You can forget about walking through an airport again,’” Gleeson says over lunch. ![]() No wonder then, especially after he took on the character of “Mad-Eye” Moody in the Harry Potter films, anonymity has been hard to find in Ireland. Gleeson playing Donald Trump in The Comey Rule.
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