In Domhnall Gleeson We Trust

When you first meet Domhnall Gleeson’s character, Ned, in The Paper — Peacock’s spinoff of The Office — the newly minted editor-in-chief has a confession: He prefers newsman Clark Kent over his famous alter ego, Superman, because he finds Kent’s work as a journalist to be more noble. (And, well, more achievable.) “He’s one of the only people in the world who thinks that,” Gleeson says. “I love that he has that love for journalism. I think a character who really cares about something is a character who’s easy to care about.”

The same could be said of many characters in Gleeson’s versatile screen repertoire. Many may recognize the 42-year-old Irish actor as Ron Weasley’s older brother Bill in the Harry Potter films or recall his swoonworthy work in Richard Curtis’ romantic drama, About Time, opposite Rachel McAdams. On the flip side, he’s also assumed several darker roles, including two villainous turns in this year alone (Echo Valley and Fountain of Youth) and, of course, one First Order baddie in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

For Gleeson, son of actor (and fellow Harry Potter alum) Brendan Gleeson, mixing it up is the only way to go. “If you spend three months playing a real go-getter who’s outgoing, and the objective is to make people laugh and keep it light, by the end of those three months, that’s not what you’re looking to do anymore,” he says. “It’s not wanting to repeat yourself.”

On how Ned is like Michael Scott:

Ned was really successful in his last job as a salesman. But it’s also misplaced confidence, which is one of the funniest things in a TV show. He’s got no skills as an editor when he arrives, and he thinks he’s going to be amazing. His enthusiasm outstrips his ability. I think they probably have that in common. But they go about their lives and interact with people in totally different ways.

On his pinch-me moment:

There was a moment late at night during one of the last episodes where all these amazing comic minds — the director, Jeff Blitz; [The Paper’s creators] Michael Koman, Greg Daniels; Paul Lieberstein [the writer-director who also played Toby on The Office] — went back to this hotel room to talk about a scene we were filming the following day. We sat in that room for an hour talking about ways to make it better. The comedy nerd in me was freaking out. It was sort of dreamy. If you told me I was going to be in a room with those people when I was a teenager, I would have gone bananas.

On the thrill of playing villains:

Somebody who changes the temperature in a room and can make other people’s lives worse really appeals to me. It’s easy to think about what scares you and enact that and become the danger.

On if he’d return to the About Time universe:

I feel like Richard told a story he wanted to tell. And he’s also sort of retired. He’ll still write bits and pieces, but the only person who could come up with anything new from the world of About Time is Richard Curtis. And if he ever wanted me to work on anything with him again, whether it was connected to About Time or not, I would be there in a second. I care about him very deeply.

On what he’d be doing if he weren’t an actor:

If I hadn’t read this play [The Lieutenant of Inishmore] that really made me want to be an actor, I don’t know that I would be an actor. I went to college to study writing and directing — maybe I would have gone into some aspect of that. When I was younger, before my father was an actor, he was a secondary school teacher, and my mother was a community welfare officer. I always thought those were two incredible jobs to do. Maybe I would have gone down that road, but I don’t know. I was 18 or 19 when I started acting, and as soon as I got a taste for it, I was like, “If I’m allowed to do this for the rest of my life, I’ll do it.”

On the perks of acting in big franchises:

I had such a small role in Harry Potter, and there were like 10 months in between when we shot it and before it came out, before people knew how small my role was in it. But it had been announced that I was in the film, and I suddenly was allowed to audition for [the type of] things that I hadn’t been able to audition for before, because people were going, “Maybe he’s gonna have a huge part in the next Harry Potter movie.” I got a role in True Grit, the Coen brothers movie. So weirdly, that was one of the things that really helped: that period before anybody knows what it is, the possibilities are big.

On his favorite pop culture from this year:

I went to see Oasis in Dublin, and that was incredible. They were my first-ever concert when I was 14 years old. I went with my friend Ronan. It was 28 years ago — oh my God, when I say it out loud, it makes me very sad — that we first went, and going again as grown-ups was a pretty special moment.

Check out the rest of Bustle’s Entertainers Issue here, featuring interviews with Brittany Broski, Janelle James, Kesha, Nicole Scherzinger — and more to come!

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.