From creators/writers Brian Gleeson, Domhnall Gleeson and Michael Moloney, the comedy series Frank of Ireland follows Frank Marron (Brian Gleeson), an unlikely hero who still lives at home with his mother, unsure of what he’s doing with his life. At the same time, his loyal best friend Doofus (Domhnall Gleeson) is along for the ride, as Frank wrestles with growing up and getting his life together.
During a virtual press day for the funny new series, Domhnall Gleeson spoke to Collider for this 1-on-1 interview about how this project evolved, being committed to making themselves laugh out loud, having their father Brendan Gleeson join them for the final episode of the season, incorporating film references, and being proud of the work that they did. He also talked about being a part of the Star Wars universe, whether they’d ever try to turn The Walworth Farce into a film, and what he’ll be doing next.
COLLIDER: It’s one thing to decide to write something with your brother, but it’s another thing entirely to figure out what that will be, and then actually write it from start to finish. When you sat down to work on this, what did you want it to be? What were you hoping for, and is it anything actually close to that?
DOMHNALL GLEESON: It’s a really good question, but it’s strangely difficult to answer. In my head, it was always this way, but that’s only because we’ve worked so hard on it, especially over the last two years, with the production and the edit and as it ramped up to the final thing. The truth is there were three years before that where myself, Brian, who’s in it and wrote it, and Michael [Moloney], who wrote it, were figuring out what it could be. I do think we cycled through a few different versions of things that could be and there just came a point where we committed to laughs and we committed to trying to make something that would make you laugh out loud, if possible. It’s a very difficult thing to do. A lot of people try to do it and not everybody is successful because it’s much harder than it looks. That’s what we discovered. It’s much harder than it looks, but we just worked our asses off trying to make it happen for us. So, it won’t be for everybody. That’s just the truth of it. But I think that people who do like it will really like it, and I’m really proud of what it ended up being. Brian, at the center of it, is just so wonderful. Now, it feels like it was always this, but I don’t think that was the case.
What was it like to work with Michael Moloney, with him not being a Gleeson? How do things work between you guys?
GLEESON: I’m sure Michael would tell us it was lovely, and then maybe when he was talking to you privately, he would say it was a nightmare. Michael is such a good writer. We’re all very different sorts of writers. I can’t tell you how we’re different, but we are. All of our processes are different. But when I look at the writing of the show, I honestly see equal parts of all three of us. In a way, it’s a testament to the fact that we got through it without falling out, which is an absolute blessing because I would have hated losing one of my closest friends and my brother. That would have sucked. He’s very skilled and he’s also a lovely person. He handled it very well. There were times when it was tricky, but I’m proud of how we handled it. There were never any fights. Although maybe in retrospect there were, and I’m just choosing to forget them.
When you’re all in the family business together, what’s it like to have you and your brother and your father all on set for the last episode of the season?
GLEESON: Brian said that some of his happiest memories on set were dad being there. Dad is a really structured actor. He’s very serious, very brilliant, and very obviously competent, but he brought a chaos with him that was unexpected and fantastic. He wanted the character of Liam to be everything he could be. He didn’t want to leave anything on the table. Somehow he and Brian found this beautiful strain through it, where it’s really funny all the way through, and it actually builds to a reasonably emotional place, which you’re not expecting, and a climax to the whole series. Dad was there for the climax of the whole series and they judged it perfectly. He was so funny. We loved it. I loved having him on set. He was brilliant and good about reminding us how lucky we were to be doing something like this. That was nice, just to be reminded of it.
What do you love about Doofus? What did you most enjoy about playing a character like him?
GLEESON: I don’t even know when we realized this, but Frank is like a 13-year-old and Doofus is like a nine-year-old. The days, when you’re young, are so long. Those summer days, which are free, are without responsibility. There’s an enthusiasm about him, which I loved. What we realized is that you shouldn’t be like that when you’re in your 30s. There comes a point where your days should have a little more structure. I just loved the boundless enthusiasm of like, “Whatever Frank says is gonna happen.” I loved that, and I loved leaning into that.
You do some crazy things in this show, and you have nobody to blame but yourself, when you actually have a hand in creating it. Did you ever have moments where you were like, “Why did I do this to myself?” or do you feel like everything is fair game when it comes to comedy?
GLEESON: There were definitely moments. You’re sitting around in a group and you’re saying, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if he’s tried to shave his pubes and does a really bad job of it and is bleeding out in the swimming pool? Wouldn’t that be hilarious?” And then, when you find yourself backstage with a razor and loneliness, you suddenly think, “Why the hell didn’t I realize that I was going to have to do this? Why didn’t I realize that this was me?” In the moment, you think it’s funny. You’re just laughing with your friend and your brother, but then, all of a sudden, it becomes terribly real. I should have realized what I was getting myself in for, but we did the same to Brian and to Pat Shortt. Everybody went above and beyond, so you can’t say, “I’m not sure.” You’ve just got to go for it.
I love the film references throughout this series. How did that end up being a thing, and were there ever ones that you just couldn’t figure out how to work in?
GLEESON: It actually always felt organic. Once we had done the Taxi Driver reference in the first episode, every film reference after that came from the episode, as opposed to saying, “Let’s do Home Alone. Let’s do Dances With Wolves. Let’s do Memento.” They really revealed themselves. We always found what we wanted Frank to want in the episode. For the Misery episode, Frank feels like he’s James Caan in Misery, so we thought it would be funny if, over the episode, you realize that he’s not James Caan, he’s Kathy Bates. That was the way it unfolded for us. With the Home Alone [episode], we realized it early and wanted to have so much fun with it. And then, with the 12 Angry Men/A Few Good Men episode, mixing up those films, was another layer to make us laugh.
When you guys are working together as a family, have you ever talked about or thought about adapting your performance of The Walworth Farce for film?
GLEESON: To me, in a way, that’s the dream. If you can get Charlie Kaufman to find a way to make it make sense, then I’ll be there. I think the play is one of the masterpieces of the last 20 years. It is so superb, so deep, and so funny. If Enda [Walsh] found a way to make it work as a film, I’d be all over it, but it is so theatrical that I can’t envisage a way to make it work on screen. But if you know anyone, let me know and I’ll be there.
What’s it like to get to be part of the Star Wars universe? How does it feel to not only be able to say that you were in the most recent trilogy, but that you’re also a part of a Disney theme park ride and you can actually go visit yourself anytime you want to?
GLEESON: I don’t say it that often, so I don’t know what it’s like to say it. I don’t stroll up like, “Hey, I’m in Star Wars.” I never thought, as a kid, or even as an actor starting out, or even as an actor in my 20s, that it was a possibility that something like that would happen. I had a taste of it with Harry Potter and absolutely adored it. I’ve been very lucky. There’s no other way to say it. I just know that I’ve been really, really lucky. I’ve tried to enjoy it, but not take it for granted.
If you could still learn something about General Hux, is there anything that you would still want to know about him?
GLEESON: Lots. I found something new out about him on every movie because not only did he change, but his circumstances changed. He always surprised me. Rian [Johnson] had this mad version of him that I wasn’t expecting for the second episode, which I absolutely loved. And then, similarly with J.J. [Abrams], there was a whole other aspect to his character in the third one that was super interesting and I never would have seen it coming. There’s loads there, but unfortunately, spoiler, he’s dead as a doornail. I’m not sure that there’s much room to investigate him further.
They could always do a prequel TV series.
GLEESON: Let me know. Maybe they could mix that with The Walworth Farce.
What’s next for you? When you do such drastically different types of projects, how do you figure out what you want to do next? Do you put a lot of thought into that?
GLEESON: It’s something that I’ve tried to continue. People see you in something and if you do a halfway decent job, you’re lucky and you get offered more of the same. But it’s difficult then to mix it up. People don’t necessarily want to hire you for something different. So, yeah, I’ve tried to do that. There’s something at the moment, suddenly, that’s popped up, that I’m really excited about and I’m hoping that they can make it work. That’s a film job, and that will be my first thing since Frank of Ireland. I’ve only done Frank of Ireland in the last year. And then, I’ve committed to doing a play, whatever version of a play that we’re allowed to do, whether there’s people in the room, people not in the room, or we’re live streaming it. I’m doing that with Enda Walsh, who wrote The Walworth Farce. The plan is that we’ve committed the second half of the year to that and I’m very excited about whatever version of that, that we can do.
Is it strange to navigate working in a COVID world? When you had to shut down production on this, did you wonder if you’d ever be able to finish it?
GLEESON: There was a moment which was very scary, but the only responsible thing to do was to shut down. You could just feel it knocking on the door. You don’t want to bring any danger on your cast and crew, so we just had to shut down and hope that things got back to normal. We never would have thought that, a year later, we would still be in the midst of it, but luckily, in between lockdowns, the opportunity arose to do it and it was so safe. I would say that it was over the top, but it wasn’t over the top. It was exactly the right amount. They were so committed to just doing it safe and doing it right. When you got back on set, everyone was in full PPE with masks, but all I could think of was that we were so lucky to be there and doing it. It was a really good reminder and just a little bit of perspective on how lucky you were to get to work.
How scary was that first day back?
GLEESON: It was exhilarating. We had quarantined for a full week ahead of time in the hotel room. We had tests every two days. They were very much committed to safety, so I didn’t feel scared. I was excited. I was just full of energy because I got to see these people that I’d already worked with and we’d been in the edit, so I’d seen that it was working. It was like, “If we can stick the landing on this, we might really have something.” So, it was nice. It was a joyous experience.
Now that it’s finished and you can look back on it, can you be proud of it, or are you somebody who is your own harshest critic and you just see all the things that are wrong with what you do?
GLEESON: I still see all of the things that I wish we could change or have had longer with, but we had long enough. Someone said, “A project isn’t finished, it’s abandoned.” If we were allowed, we would still be in the edit and we would still be shooting stuff. But when I look at it now, I think, “If I saw this, I would like it.” That was a nice moment.
Frank of Ireland is available to stream at Amazon Prime Video on April 16th.