Brendan Gleeson: Fighting the little guy’s corner

In an extensive interview, the actor talks emigration, Brexit, his love of traditional music and his acclaimed new film Hampstead

Brendan Gleeson: ‘The older I get, the more I feel I have to look after my own ebb and flow’ Pic: Getty
A scene from Hampstead, in which Gleeson’s character Donald is issued with an eviction notice

Brendan Gleeson doesn’t do autopilot interviews. No pat answers, nothing off by heart. Not in his career, where he has played anyone from a rampaging Scottish warrior to a talking duck (in Braveheart, as you know, and brilliantly in The Smurfs 2). And not in person.

Ask him a question and he won’t give you an excerpt from a press ...