Barry Keoghan, the Irish acting phenom who can make you cry with just one squint of those piercing blue eyes, is opening up about his childhood in foster care—and it’s got all the feels. While promoting his impressive resume of making us sob on screen, he dropped by SiriusXM’s This Life of Mine with James Corden to chat about his upbringing. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park (unless that park is an emotional obstacle course with surprise trust issues around every corner).
Barry’s Crash Course in “Family Hopping”
Host James Corden, who never misses an opportunity to dig deep, asked Barry to explain foster care for those unfamiliar with the concept. Barry, being a class act, didn’t roll his eyes at the question but instead broke it down:
“Two years was the longest I stayed with one family,” he shared. “You’re a kid, you don’t really know what’s going on. One minute you’re thinking, ‘Wow, this is my forever family!’ and the next, it’s like, ‘Pack up, champ, new adventure!’”
Imagine this: Barry as a tiny tot, clutching his Lego collection, getting yanked from one home to the next, like a very sad, real-life game of musical chairs.
“It messes with your wiring,” he explained. “You attach to people, and then—poof—you’re off to another family. Rinse, repeat. It’s hard not to grow up thinking, ‘Who’s staying, who’s going, and am I supposed to pack snacks for the journey?’”
Trust Issues? Barry’s Got a Lifetime Supply.
If trust issues were a sport, Barry would have enough medals to host his own Olympics. “You don’t trust the process of anything,” he said, which, to be fair, makes total sense when your childhood was basically a trust fall with no one to catch you.
“I struggled with attachment, abandonment, you name it. Therapists? Yeah, I’ve got a punch card,” he joked (okay, he didn’t joke, but we can picture it). “Whether it’s a movie premiere, becoming a dad, or just ordering a coffee, there’s always this little voice in the back of my head going, ‘What’s the catch?’”
And let’s not forget the biggest zinger: love. Barry admitted he was suspicious of it. “I’d think, ‘Does this person really like me, or are they secretly plotting to swipe my Netflix password?’” Okay, he didn’t say that either, but we feel him.
Fatherhood Without a Cheat Sheet
Now a dad himself, Barry’s in uncharted territory. “When you’ve got zero blueprint for how to parent, you’re basically winging it and hoping your kid doesn’t grow up to write a tell-all book about you,” he said (well, in our heads he said it).
Barry is determined to give his child what he never had. “It’s like, what do I show my child? How do I teach them something I never got to experience?” It’s heavy stuff, but if there’s one thing we know about Barry, it’s that he’s got the chops to turn any challenge into a success story.
Barry Keoghan: From Foster Kid to Hollywood Star (with Trust Issues in Tow)
Barry’s journey from bouncing between homes to bouncing between blockbuster movies is proof that life doesn’t hand out manuals—but sometimes, it hands out Oscars. While the road hasn’t been easy, Barry’s willingness to be raw and real about his struggles is as inspiring as his performances.
So, next time you see Barry on the big screen, just remember: this man has been through it, and he’s still here, giving us all the feels—trust issues and all.
