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Barry Keoghan says curiosity and family history led him to a drug addiction.
The 32-year-old “Saltburn” actor has previously opened up about his mother’s heroin addiction, which ultimately resulted in her death more than two decades ago. Keoghan was just 12 years old at the time.
In a new interview with Hollywood Authentic, published May 1, Keoghan says he’s “at peace now.”
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"I’m not in denial anymore. I understand that I do have an addiction, and I am an addict,” Keoghan said, per the outlet. "You know, when you accept that, you finally can move on, and learn to work with it.”
Keoghan admits that being in Hollywood has welcomed an “enormous amount of pressure” in his life, which hasn’t helped his addiction.
“Your curiosity is a powerful thing. Sometimes it’s beneficial, and sometimes it’s detrimental. For me, it was detrimental,” he explained in the interview.
“There’s an enormous amount of pressure, and a different lifestyle that is good and bad for you,” he continues. “You’re around the scene. You just happen to be the one that ends up doing it.”
Keoghan is no stranger to the effects of drug addiction.
In addition to losing his mother, Keoghan says he also lost his father, two uncles and a cousin to drug use.
“That should be enough to go, “OK, if I dabble here, I’m f*****,” he told the Hollywood Authentic. “Even my own son coming into this world didn’t stop me from being curious.”
Keoghan shares a 2-year-old son, Brando, born in August 2022, with his ex-girlfriend, Alyson Sandro.
But while he has the scars to prove his own addiction, he’s now in the process of making a change.
“I’m at peace now, and responsible for everything that I do. I’m accepting. I’m present. I’m content. I’m a father,” he proclaims, adding that he often apologizes to himself for the pain he put others through.
“I’m getting to just see that haze that was once there – it’s just a bit sharper now, and colourful,” he adds.
Keoghan reads a heartbreaking entry from late mother’s diary
As part of the interview, Keoghan took Hollywood Authentic on a trip around his hometown of Dublin.
One of their stops was at his grandmother Patty’s house, whom he refers to as Nannie. It’s the home he spent part of his childhood at after several years in foster care.
“I remember being kids here and hearing my mum scream through the letterbox, asking for us, while she’s battling addiction, while she’s looking for money to score,” Keoghan said of his Nannie’s house.
“And we were just told to stay in bed. We weren’t to go down and hug her,” he explained.
While at the house, Keoghan’s aunt hands him his mother’s diary, which she journaled in daily leading up to her death in 2003. It’s a diary he has seen and read before, but had never held in his hands.
With Hollywood Authentic present, Keoghan read an excerpt from the diary.
“Well, tonight went okay for me so I hope I have the strength to not touch anything tomorrow,” his mother wrote in the book.
Keoghan says he sent that excerpt to his brother, who was in rehab at the time.
“I sent him that picture of her last page,” Keoghan recalled. “I said, ‘Just look at that. You’ve got a chance now. You can feel the pain in this.’”
Keoghan also opened up about his own experience in rehab — and credited his friend, Niall, for getting him there.
“Niall literally drove me and put me on a plane himself, came with me and brought me to the rehab in England,” he said of his friend.
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“I’m forever grateful. When I say that Niall is the best, I mean it, because no one else put me on the plane, by the hand, literally got on the plane with me,” he added.
