Domhnall Gleeson Talks Echo Valley, About Time’s Legacy, and His Next Chapter With The Paper
From roles in romantic comedies to epic fantasies to dark thrillers, Domhnall Gleeson has the range. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with the actor about his new film Echo Valley, the lasting legacy of About Time, and his next chapter in The Office successor series The Paper.
Gleeson plays bad guy Jackie in Echo Valley, sharing his process for getting into the dark and gritty headspace required for the role “If you're taking a character like Jackie home, things have gone terribly wrong. It involved a lot of prep,” he told me. “I had like a few weeks on my own in a hotel room just to really get in there, so it's more the lead up to it is what's difficult. When it's over, it's a great relief and you enjoy throwing off the shackles.”
Throughout all of his projects, a fan favorite that has stuck with audiences is About Time. “Way better than on the Internet, […] people who exist in the world that are walking about have been incredibly nice about About Time. It does seem to have ramped up considerably over the last few years. I love it. I'm so proud to be in the film. I think that what Richard Curtis made was something truly beautiful. That's the way he lives his life. That's who he is. It's in the film,” he expressed. “I feel like we made something beautiful and I'm very happy about that.”
With the resurgence of love for About Time and the upcoming Harry Potter TV reboot, it’s exciting to see films that Gleeson has been a part of stand the test of time and reach new generations. “All you can worry about is the work that you've done yourself. Not all of them stick around, but, […] if you're lucky enough to be in anything that sticks around, then you're totally like blessed,” he said. “That's part of the reason that we do it, so I feel really good about it.”
Up next, Gleeson heads into the comedy space with the cast of The Paper. Set in Ohio, it finds the same documentary crew that followed the Dunder Mifflin team in The Office now focused on the historic but failing newspaper The Truth Teller as they try to turn things around with volunteer reporters. “We had a good couple of years in between when we shot [Echo Valley} and when I went on to The Paper, but, if I took any of the energy from Jackie into The Paper, things would not have gone well,” he said. “That's a much more light, buoyant sort of feeling. I feel very, very lucky to play such different parts and such different sorts of things. That's one of the joys of being an actor is mixing it up. I really got to mix it up in that situation, which is great.”
He shared that he got a ton of support from his Fountain of Youth co-star John Krasinski. “He was just very supportive, as was Steve [Carell]. They're both lovely people and they really wanted us to do our own thing. They understand that that's what'll help us,” Gleeson shared. “He was amazing to talk to, but he was supportive more than like throwing advice at me because that's the kind of men they are. They're good men.”
Echo Valley is streaming on Apple TV+, with The Paper coming to Peacock this September.
