Barry Keoghan doesn’t leave any stone unturned while performing his role. The Oscar-nominated actor has recently appeared in Emerald Fennell’s black comedy psychological thriller, Saltburn and there is an interesting backstory behind a scene.
Although Keoghan doesn’t mind much about retakes, Fennell felt sorry for the 11 takes for the naked dance of Keoghan’s character as Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder on the Dancefloor played in the scene.
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Barry Keoghan Gave 11 Takes For His Naked Dance in Saltburn
Barry Keoghan would do anything for his role, at least his cinematic presence over the years would vouch for that. In a scene in Emerald Fennell’s 2023 flick Saltburn, the actor had to dance naked. “It’s post-coital, euphoric, solitary and it’s mad.” the director told Variety explaining the essence of the scene. However, all the scenes were not far from perfection. “They were all very beautiful,” she added.
“It’s quite a complicated and technical camera. A lot of the time, he was immensely patient because there was a lot of naked dancing. Take #7 was technically perfect. You could hear everyone’s overjoyed response, but I had to say ‘sorry’ because it was missing whatever it was that made Oliver that slightly human messiness. So, we had to do it a further four times.”
Keoghan plays Oliver Quick, who found himself obsessed with his wealthy schoolmate. After a series of thrilling twists and turns Oliver dances in an estate, naked. On that, Keoghan candidly joked, “I think we got it on the fourth take, but people just wanted to keep seeing me dancing.” The scene served to be an integral part of the narrative as it explored the deeper psychological essence of the character.
Emerald Fennell On Setting Up Barry Keoghan’s Naked Dance Scene
Fennell is aware of Keoghan’s prowess as an actor and the validity came from seeing him in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing Of A Sacred Deer. For Fennell, he is “incredibly talented.” Speaking of Keoghan’s naked dance, Fennell revealed the essence of it setting it up the way it was meant to be.
“It needed to have that otherworldly fantasy sequence feeling. The edge where he feels like he’s just fucking going for it, but it doesn’t feel messy. The speakers had to be set up so the moment you appear in that room, there’s no lag. It was the technical things. And nobody could watch the monitors except for me, Linus, Polly and Sam, our script supervisor,” (via, Variety).
Keoghan is also all up in the game when it comes to satisfying the needs of the director’s euphoric rendering of a scene in their head. A way to perfection, some might call it. “We push each other all the time in a really thrilling way,” Fennell said of Keoghan. When it “comes to stuff like it, there was never a question. He’s got to just dance to Sophie Ellis-Bextor naked through the house, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, of course. He completely understands that,” she added. Also, for the 31-year-old Irish star, there was no hesitation as it fuelled to move the story forward.
