Irish Actor Barry Keoghan Plays Tommy Shelby’s son, Duke, with The Sinister Intent of Being A Crime Boss

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Interviews

Published on Monday, 13 April 2026 13:30

Written by Brad Balfour

Q: Look at you. You've been working hard, obviously. 

Barry Keoghan: Yeah, I've been working long and hard. I was trying to think of something to say, but it didn't come out right. No, it's all good. But yeah, I've been working on the Beatles.

Q: What was your experience with the show? You were obviously a fan. 

Barry Keoghan: I’d wanted to be in it for ages, actually. I even had the haircut for like six or seven years.That's when I noticed. Hashtag Peaky Blinders at Netflix. I’ve wanted to be in it for years. And Shaheen Baig — who cast me in one of my first movies in England — cast me in this show. I used to hear her all the time and be like, “I need to go on Peaky Blinders.” I was like, “Look at this season.” And you’ve just got to go right to the source. I hit Cillian Murphy with “Happy Father's Day, Cillian!” [Laughs}

Q: Speaking of Cillian, you previously worked together, most notably in Christopher Nolan's “Dunkirk.” That was like a turning point of your career in 2017. You became red hot around that time. What is life like for you now as an actor, comparing your work with him then to today? 

Barry Keoghan: I’ve got a little boy now. He's here somewhere. No, he's not [laughs]. That'd be weird. He is three. But we're talking about "Peaky Blinders." And life has changed.

"Dunkirk" was amazing. Then, with Cillian going through the airport at that time, [it] was the first time I met him. [Oops, that sounds odd.] I used to look up to those lads. I still do, by the way. But watching Cillian and Colin and all the Irish lads and then getting to work with them. I remember being on “Dunkirk” with Cillian going through what I think was the Belgium airport. Someone pulled up and was like, “Is that your son?” And I was like, “Soon. One day.”  But yeah, [it’s] just a full circle.

Then, I've done an acting workshop growing up. It wasn't an acting school, nothing like that. We were trying to … it was more a workspace for actors, young lads and girls who didn't have money. It was a course of about 15, 16 actors. We all used to go there and do workshop scenes with directors Kirsten Sheridan, Jim Sheridan, Lance Daly and John Carney. I used to make school going there. I used to show up in my uniform. I remember Cillian Murphy coming in for a Q&A. Again, another little full circle moment. But it was just brilliant. It's brilliant getting to [know Cillian]. I've always kept in contact with Cillian. I just thought, off chance — not that I was looking for a role to play his son, but just, "Yo, happy Father's Day." So here's this one too.

Q: So here's this guy that you look up to, that you have a good working relationship with. What's it like tussling around in the mud with him? 

Barry Keoghan: It's mad. He smells good amongst the pig shit. No, no, but just seeing Cillian walk on set, he sets a tone on set. There are no phones and you just want to be on your A-game on every set. You're stepping onto the Peaky Blinders [set]. Such an iconic character, up there with "The Sopranos," absolutely iconic. We'd done a screen test and he put on the whole Tommy Shelby suit and hat and everything. I remember just looking at him going, "Fucking hell, where's Cillian?" And going, "I'm afraid." But I remember [him] looking up at me and going, "Oh man, you look great." I was like, "What, me? I was like, "Look at you, man." This is fucking incredible. When he started walking towards me on that scene, I fucking. I almost shit [myself]. Well, you didn't know because we were rolling around in pig shit and stuff.

Q: Was it really? No, it couldn't have been. It was like chocolate pudding or something, right? 

Barry Keoghan: No, it was really, like, pig shit! Yeah, and there's a scene, obviously you've all seen it, but this is where I dig the ground. I really dig the ground. I've got scars on my knuckles. He probably does have scars. Zoom in on that, people. Look at that. Not these marks. This is actually from a dog called Duke. I put my name Duke right after the shoot and no one copped it. No one got it, by the way.

Hi, Duke. Oh, you did? Wait for me to say something. I was waiting for people to go, "Oh, he's playing Duke." But yeah, I dig the ground because I thought it would be method-y and impressive. I remember doing it because I wanted to get myself rolled up to go with my dad. And yeah, he, I went, look at that. And he went, oh, man, you can get a mat? I was like, yeah. My fucking knuckles are broke. But yeah, it was a big shit kept getting in that, getting in my eyes and ears and got the pink eye going on. Then they tried to throw cake in at the end. I was like, there's no point. I'm in it now. Like, you're the other last set. You don't have to be nice for putting banana cake in there. I'm not going to taste it.

Q: Not much acting required. 

Barry Keoghan: But my eyes were so blue in it, right? Can't ruin that. I look more like Cillian Murphy than you do. I love saying that because it makes people go mad. People are like, "No, you don't." I see it. Yeah, thanks.

Q: You also get to share the screen with Tim Roth, a legend. Amazing. It’s one of the best scenes in the movie because Duke is going through a real moral conundrum — he doesn't want to do this terrible thing that he knows he has to do in order to gain this guy's loyalty. Yet he goes through with it anyway. And the conflict he experiences in that scene is really well done on your part. Can you walk us through just the complexities of that for your character? But then you're also opposite Tim Roth. you had to have gotten some stories or something out of him. 

Barry Keoghan: None, actually. Tim's a legend. And how he played [John] Beckett was just a very special touch. It's a credit to how good he is. Someone just comes in and does that. He described Beckett as like a geography teacher. Just play everything against it. But I think getting to work with Tim felt like he was a father figure trying to manipulate me. I always wanted to play that. I let the audience think I'm falling for it, but I'm obviously not. Duke has a bigger plan than that. I think the sort of three-way kind of dynamic of Beckett, Tommy, and Duke is really something special. It's really, really something special. But he's incredible, Tim. He's absolutely incredible. 

Q: Is that a surreal thing when you watch a television show? You get acquainted with the characters, and you might even know some of the actors prior to. But then you step on set, and you're the leader of the Peaky Blinders in this film. You’re like, “Oh my god, there's Stephen Graham.” Yeah, do you still have a pinch me moment like that?

Barry Keoghan: It's crazy. Always, man, always. I really mean that. I don't try to play it cool. I let them know. I'm like stuttering for words. I'm like, you good? I feel caught in the middle. But it's just admiration I have for the people I work with. With Stephen Graham, he always checks in as well. I have to drop him a Happy Father's Day [message]. He reminds me of people from where I'm from, like proper working class.

I remember being in the green room waiting, and I hadn't really met him. I looked over, and he was just looking at me. He offered me an old style Irish soup like I had when I was home -- my granny made it. From then we clicked. He's such a legend. I don't know where I'm going with this. But, yeah, to touch on the old kind of Peaky Blinders and the characters. You step in as a fan of the show, wanting to pay respect and homage. At the same time, I wanted to step in with a mentality of, like, “I’ll take it from here and be bold, deliberate, bratty and disrespectful in that way.” But, obviously — me, as Barry — I respect that. I think what everyone has done is incredible. But as Duke, you go on to be like, “Oh, you wear your hat that way? I'm going to wear it this way and put a fucking stone on it." You know what I mean, he's just being a bit bolder.

Q: Coming into the set, with a little bit of your presence and it's like, “I belong here, I'm part of this.”

Barry Keoghan: Exactly. To be by order of the Peaky Blinders. I remember that being a thing for me to say. I found it hard to say because it felt like I earned it but I wanted to use it like that. I wanted it to be, like, almost when I say it, I'm saying it because that's what you're all used to. But I don't really care, you know what I mean. I'm just sort of saying it for the catch. Cillian —that's going to kill me, by the way. 

Q: Your character earns his place by the end of the movie. As a fan of the series, the show ended pretty well originally. This is an even better ending because there's closure. But then there's also a door open for the future as well. Considering themes like fathers and sons, reckoning with the past and the afterlife, this movie touches on all these grand themes. 

Barry Keoghan: What screamed for me was that "Peaky" has always been about family and loyalty and all of those sort of [things] collaged together. When I read it, the backdrop for me was Peaky. What screamed to me was the relationship between the father and son and being a dad. [It's] also growing up and not having a dad around. [I felt] very close to Duke in the sense that I had an absent father. My version of my dad was an attempt to form a mold from what I've heard or from echoes of other people. I think by trying to form, I'm trying to make a precedent in my life. You start to behave like that when you do things that don't feel like he's present. I felt that with Duke as well. I felt all of these sort of mannerisms that he'd done and, the stillness and was all to echo his dad, Tommy. Because he missed him and he wanted him around; he wanted to generate a challenge.

You're like “Your dad? No you're not like your dad” [was the reaction.] It's just everything to keep him alive and keep him present in his life. So, I had that connection from when I read the script, it was that dynamic. When you see Duke with Tommy, he's so… l’ll let the shoulders drop and he'll put it on, but he’s just loving his dad. But when he's not with his dad, he's the big man.

Q: It’s the definitive ending to the Thomas Shelby character. He'll forever be immortal. As a fan of the series, how do you feel about Cillian's body of work as Thomas Shelby and the closure of this character? 

Barry Keoghan: I think, looking at Cillian talking about it is beautiful and emotional. And, you know, asking him how he feels about that, he's not yet had time to think about it. And he said until the fans see it, feel some sort of way to be able to take it on board. This TV series is 14 years old. As an actor, on screen or not, those are chapters of your life with your kids. It's time we moved there. So these are pivotal. These moments are very … the anchors in his life that I think are very important to him. I think letting go of such an iconic character influenced [me] a lot. I think it’s really, really hard.

When the end scene's there, when that happens and he's on the ground, he's dead. I actually looked around at the lights and I could see them all, taking the moment to say goodbye to Thomas Shelby, which was very emotional. It just touched me a lot looking at it because they've all been through this journey. So I hope he's happy with this ending, truly. 

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