Ever since he burst onto the scene with his captivating turn in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Barry Keoghan has marked himself out as a special talent. Having reinforced that with performances in Chernobyl, Eternals, Calm with Horses, and his heart-breaking Oscar-nominated role as Dominic in The Banshees of Inisherin, Keoghan is set to reunite with his American Animals director Bart Layton to retell the story of Billy the Kid.
According to Deadline Billy The Kid is a passion-project for the thirty year old Irish actor, who told the publication that “My interest was in trying to tell a version that breaks from the façade of that cool, calm, and collected gunslinger Billy the Kid that we’re all used to seeing. I wanted to humanize him in a way.”
Keoghan’s take on Billy The Kid hopes to lean into the character’s Irish ancestry and complicated childhood. Born in New York as Henry McCarty, he was orphaned at the age of 15 when his mother died and his stepfather abandoned him. His first arrest for robbery came a year later, and by the time he was 18, he was wanted for murder after an altercation in Arizona. His notoriety escalated from there, and he was 21 when the infamous Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him to death.
“I remember reading about him as a kid, but as we were digging into the project, there were so many things we discovered about his life,” Keoghan added. “There are so many eyewitness accounts, and lots of different versions of his story that didn’t add up but that contributed to the legend.”
Keoghan reportedly took the idea to Bart Layton while they were shooting the excellent American Animals (read our review ★ ★ ★ ★ here), with the director saying “The more we looked at the story and the truth of it, the more interesting the prospect became. Our understanding of Billy the Kid is really the comic book version. But the more we researched and the more we discussed, the more it felt like something Barry was born to do. There’s a cornered child aspect to Billy that I think Barry really understands, and of the violence he has been immortalized for, not all of it was intended or premeditated. A lot of it was circumstance edging him forward.”
You can read more about how Keoghan intends this to be the role he’s remembered for and how the character of Billy The Kid runs parallel with his own life in the full article. In the meantime, let us know if you’re excited about the idea of quick-draw Keoghan by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
