Actor Brendan Gleeson has revealed he was told he was “too old and too fat” to make it in Hollywood.
The Dubliner was a late newcomer to acting. He began his career as an English and Irish teacher and it wasn’t until he was 35, that his wife Mary encouraged him to pursue his acting dream.
But Gleeson reveals he was hit with a major stumbling block when he first started out when a US agent criticised his appearance.
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The unnamed US agent told him he was “too old and too fat” to make it in the big league, to which Emmy-winning Gleeson replied: “See you down the road.”
The father-of-four told the Sunday Independent: “I wasn’t going to be brow-beaten by that guy at 38. If I had been in my mid-20s he might have succeeded in crushing me.”
Gleeson made his film debut in 1990’s “The Field,” starring Richard Harris and based on the play by John B. Keane.
Five years later, he made an impact internationally as Hamish Campbell in Mel Gibson’s Oscar winner “Braveheart.”
Since then, film lovers have seen the versatile thesp in a wide range of blockbusters and indie films. “Harry Potter” aficionados know him as Alastor “Mad Eye” Moody, and fans have treasured his work in such fare as John Boorman’s “The General,” John Michael McDonagh’s “Calvary” and Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” and for his Emmy-winning turn as Winston Churchill in TV film “Into the Storm.”
The 67-year-old also took on the role of Donald Trump in The Comey Rule.
He said his wife Mary turned on her heels and walked out of the room when he told her he would be playing the 45th American president.
Gleeson said: “She had told me before — with another character, but not unrelated — ‘How dare you bring that man into this house.’ But this time she just saw me, turned and walked right back out of the room.”
But after almost 30 years in showbusiness, Gleeson still prepares himself to get beaten up for rejection.
“You have to put your spirit on the line if you’re going to open your heart. If you’re going to present yourself for appraisal, you have to prepare to get beaten up. Getting your spirit done in is part of the risk but it’s also part of the thrill — like going downhill on a bike.”
His latest movie, The Banshees of Inisherin, reunites Gleeson with Martin McDonagh, director of the acclaimed In Bruges, and his co-star in that film Colin Farrell, who he describes as “a beautiful human being”.
Released next month, it tells the story of two lifelong friends, Pádraic (Farrell) and Colm (Gleeson), whose feud becomes the talk of their fictional island.
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