It’s no small feat to represent the Clown Prince of Crime, even though you’re the third actor to take on the job in the last six years. Indeed, the moment The Batman hit theatres last month, virtually the whole internet was talking about that unexpected cameo in which Barry Keoghan appeared as an unidentified Arkham Asylum inmate while wearing severe prosthetics. who is unmistakably the Joker.
He is very different from both the Mistah J depicted in Suicide Squad by Jared Leto and the Oscar-winning Mistah J by Joaquin Phoenix due to his severely deformed facial scars and his green hair. Even the memorable Heath Ledger, who played the last Joker to make a significant cameo in a Batman film, has little in common with him. But it is undeniably the Joker who comforts Paul Dano’s Riddler when his plot goes awry, and it is undeniably Barry Keoghan giving the role a very Keoghan-like spin. A fact that was made much clearer as Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves published a second, deleted sequence in which Keoghan’s Joker engages Robert Pattinson’s Batman for the first time on camera.
Despite just being 29 years old, Keoghan has already built quite a career playing oddballs and outsiders, and you’ve definitely seen him in more than one film. This is why we at Den of Geek have put together a convenient list of previous projects in which you’ve seen the most recent version of Gotham’s court jester.
American Animals (2018)
A genuine crime case is dramatised in Bart Layton’s follow-up to his pioneering documentary The Imposter, which also features actual persons in addition to actors. A bunch of wealthy college students decide to loot a library in this story. It’s amazing that they could possible have thought the strategy, which is so absurd, would succeed.
The movie explores the psychology of these otherwise morally perfect young guys and what led to the main incident. One of the two who first fantasise about the heist is Spencer, played by Keoghan, while Warren is portrayed by Evan Peters. Spencer is portrayed by Keoghan as a young man who craves drama who becomes entangled in a scheme that is so absurd that it hardly even appears real. Keoghan isn’t playing a villain for a change (and certainly not an usual one). Keoghan excels once more in this ensemble work.
Calm with Horses (2019)
The gritty story of former boxer Douglas “Arm” Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis), who works as an enforcer for a sneaky criminal family in rural Ireland, is told by Nick Rowland in his directorial debut. Armstrong struggles with his loyalty to the family and his desire to be a good father to his autistic child. Keoghan portrays Dymphna, a fiery, spiky livewire who manipulates Arm by switching between treating him as a buddy and his own personal attack dog. Keoghan is frightening despite being smaller than Jarvis. In an amazing but stressful movie that comes after an inevitable plunge into hell, he is charismatic but dangerous.
Chernobyl (2019)
The 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl makes effective use of Keoghan’s fresh, expressive face. Keoghan, who appears in episode four as the young Soviet “liquidator” Pavel, has the difficult task of shooting radioactive dogs around the show’s titular nuclear disaster site while yet managing to win the viewers over. That he can pull it off is a credit to Keoghan’s unadulterated ability as well as Craig Mazin’s nuclear period piece.
Dunkirk (2017)
It’s no small feat to represent the Clown Prince of Crime, even though you’re the third actor to take on the job in the last six years. Indeed, the moment The Batman hit theatres last month, virtually the whole internet was talking about that unexpected cameo in which Barry Keoghan appeared as an unidentified Arkham Asylum inmate while wearing severe prosthetics. who is unmistakably the Joker.
He is very different from both the Mistah J depicted in Suicide Squad by Jared Leto and the Oscar-winning Mistah J by Joaquin Phoenix due to his severely deformed facial scars and his green hair. Even the memorable Heath Ledger, who played the last Joker to make a significant cameo in a Batman film, has little in common with him. But it is undeniably the Joker who comforts Paul Dano’s Riddler when his plot goes awry, and it is undeniably Barry Keoghan giving the role a very Keoghan-like spin. A fact that was made much clearer as Warner Bros. and director Matt Reeves published a second, deleted sequence in which Keoghan’s Joker engages Robert Pattinson’s Batman for the first time on camera.
Despite just being 29 years old, Keoghan has already built quite a career playing oddballs and outsiders, and you’ve definitely seen him in more than one film. This is why we at Den of Geek have put together a convenient list of previous projects in which you’ve seen the most recent version of Gotham’s court jester.
Eternals (2021)
However, Keoghan also made an appearance in Eternals, the rival across the street’s most ambitious superhero movie from the previous year, lest you fear he is getting typecast, especially in the popular world of superhero movies. Love it or hate it, this Chloé Zhao film played fast and loose with the tropes of the genre while still offering a welcome change from the Marvel Studios model. Consider Druig, played by Keoghan. Due of Keoghan’s unusual look, Druig was probably added with the goal of serving as a red herring for unreliability. Druig is an immortal alien with the power to manipulate the minds of thousands of people. Additionally, he disbands the Eternals’ cheerful group by leaving the other Eternals rather than chillly watching as members of our species use crude weapons to slay one another.
Many people probably predicted Druig would be the betrayer among the titular heroes, so it may not have come as a surprise when it turned out that Ikaris (Richard Madden) was the evil guy. In fact, Druig makes a third act appearance in Eternals and is identified as one of the noblest members of this peculiar superfamily. He speaks out against Ikaris’ murderous ideas and develops a quiet but charming romance with Makkari, the first deaf superhero in Marvel (Lauren Ridloff).
The Green Knight (2021)
The Keoghan catalogue has yet another creeper. A minor character, the unidentified “Scavenger” played by the actor is one of many that Dev Patel’s psychologically broken Gawain encounters on his ostensibly futile journey to find the Green Knight’s chapel in David Lowery’s twisted Arthurian fantasy. But Keoghan’s brief cameo in the movie also serves as the protagonist’s first insightful test of character. The man who is supposed to be King Arthur’s heir encounters Keoghan in the aftermath of a battle. The wealthy nephew of a king is dressed as a knight, but he is so callous toward the young serf who directs him that he must be shamed into giving him compensation after allegedly losing a brother in that battle.
But soon after, Keoghan’s Scavenger reappears, and we discover that he led Gawain into a highwayman’s trap where two female accomplices quickly defeated and disarmed the fictitious knight. The main character obtained the pitiful reward by making a virtual suicide pact with the Green Knight a year previously, and Keoghan then personally claims ownership of Gawain’s magnificent magical axe. Although Keoghan would have mistreated Gawain regardless of what, the way in which he and his other countrymen degrade the movie’s hero, leaving him pleading for his life just a few miles outside of Camelot, is the first of many instances in which we find Gawain’s chivalry lacking. Good job, Scavenger!
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Reeves may have originally considered Keoghan for the Joker role after seeing this film. Keoghan initially seems to play Martin, a tragic yet disturbed young man, in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ first full-length horror film in the English language. Because Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell), a well-meaning surgeon, cut Martin’s father to death on the operating table, the decent doctor has some sympathy and pity for the young patient.
However, as Dr. Murphy tries to console and guide the youngster, dark secrets from his past and Martin’s genuinely cursed hatred of the man come to light. This curse may very well claim the life of Dr. Murphy’s family, including his wife Anna (Nicole Kidman). This A24 horror film is as “elevated” as they come, with its roots in Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis, a Greek tragedy. And at the centre of those arrogant academic pretences is Keoghan’s smug smirk, which is ultimately unsettling.
