Barry Keoghan has confirmed his next project.
Fresh off the back of his first Oscar nomination, the Irish actor has confirmed he’s set to star in a new feature retelling the story of Billy the Kid.
Speaking to Deadline, the Dublin native said he wanted to “humanise” Billy in the film, which is being directed by Bart Layton, who he previously worked with on American Animals.
Barry said: “We’ve seen many versions of Billy the Kid on screen before.”
“My interest was in trying to tell a version that breaks from the facade 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.”
Born in New York as Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid 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 he was shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett.
Barry, who grew up in the foster system after losing his own mother when he was just 12, said he resonated with Billy the Kid as a character.
“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,” he explained.
“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.”
“I wanted to step outside of the legend that was built up by the papers and tackle the pressure he must have felt from those early days. He was running his whole life.”
“I felt related to Billy in the sense of him being a mummy’s boy, but obviously, I took a different path, turning my circumstances into something positive rather than rebelling against them.”
“Nevertheless, there’s a soul and a vulnerability to Billy that I think it’s important to bring, to understand him as a real person rather than the myth that he has become.”
Ed Guiney of Element Pictures, who will produce the project, said: “This isn’t just a passion project for Barry. This approach is something new, and it’s a version of the tale we hope the world will want to see.”
“For an actor, it’s always interesting to do something that punctures the myth, and humanizes it.”
“Barry has the ability to capture a duality in the way he acts; there’s great sweetness and gentleness, but also there can be darkness and violence. He can really embody both things at once, and that’s the essence of Billy the Kid.”
