Barry Keoghan, the actor behind one of the most talked about scenes of the last year from Saltburn, has responded to a bizarre rumour about that scene.
Keoghan is set to star in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie, and became one of the hottest names in the business following roles in The Batman, The Banshees of Inisherin, Dunkirk, and of course Saltburn.
Add to that his new film Bird, which saw British GQ tip the Irishman for his second Oscar nomination, and he is clearly a man on the rise.
Despite this though, discussion of Saltburn simply won’t rest, in particular one scene in which Keoghan bares all.
Right at the end of the film, his plan having left him with the Saltburn mansion, Keoghan’s character Oliver dances through the halls naked.
The scene went so viral it dragged Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ back into the top 10 of the UK charts.
Various scenes from the movie went viral, with his shagging of Jacob Elordi’s character’s grave and bath tub drain guzzling both making headlines upon release, but his nudist dance number is what caught the attention of many viewers.
Despite this, there has been a fair amount of discussion of Keoghan’s (there’s no polite way to put this) large penis in the scene, with several fans online suggesting that a body double may have been used.
Keoghan bares all in the scene (Amazon MGM Studios)
In a new interview on Louis Theroux’s Spotify podcast, Keoghan was asked about this, with Theroux stating that there was ‘speculation [Barry’s] willy had been enhanced’.
Keoghan responded, saying: “No, wait, enhanced!? It was all me.
“It was a thing that I didn’t really bat an eyelid to. I would bat an eyelid if it didn’t fit the story.”
He also revealed his character originally wasn’t meant to be naked for the scene, but Keoghan and director Emerald Fennell decided it would be more powerful if he stripped off.
He said: “I remember me and Emerald having the chats, and it started off with my clothes [on], and she’s like, we just need to make it a bit more ownership. He’s got this mansion at the end, it’s his space.”
Surprisingly, he stated that rather than the idea of being naked, another aspect of the scene is the part that actually gave him the heebie-jeebies.
He said: “My hesitation was to [the] dancing. I don’t like dancing, you know.
The actor appeared on Theroux’s podcast (Spotify)
“But if it’s required, when it’s the character, again, this is this kind of thing of when it’s not you, you’ll do it and if it feels right and if it kind of moves the script and the story forward. But yeah, I don’t like dancing.”
Regardless, he’s a braver man than me.
You can listen to Keoghan’s interview with Louis Theroux here. Saltburn is available to stream on Prime Video now.