Domhnall Gleeson's Role in the Paper Landed Him His Role in Taylor Swift's "Opalite" Music Video

Welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. And we know you're from Ireland, but you actually lived in New York for a while, right? I did. I did a play here when I was 22 years old. So, yeah, I came over here to do a play when I was just out of college. What do you remember about being in New York? Nothing. It was... You were young, 22? I was young, yeah, and everyone was like, you must be living it up in New York. But I came over, and one of the first things I saw was a cockroach, and I was like, I'm never leaving the apartment. And then I was afraid of getting cockroaches in the apartment. Like, the cockroach I saw was, like, that big. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He had, like, a top hat and a cane. He was huge. He smoked. He was, yeah, yeah. He flicked a cigarette at me, and I was like... So, I didn't want them, so I had no food in the apartment. And then I was worried that I would lose my voice, so I had no air conditioning in the apartment, because that's bad for your voice. And then I didn't want to talk to people during the day. Look, it's a sad story. Oh, my God, yeah. I'm like, wow, you're not living it up at all. No, and then I was here for eight months, and my mother came over to visit, and she stayed in, like, the apartment, and I wouldn't let her have any food. I was like, when you're under my roof... Yeah, no cockroaches. I don't want anything happening to you. Did you have, like, a big apartment, or...? It was the studio apartment. And your mom would stay there? Yeah. Don't ask where. No. No? Wait, my parents used to come. I had a studio apartment, and on Saturday Night Live, they would come, and they'd stay over in my studio apartment. They would sleep in the bed, and I would sleep in the floor. Oh, man. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, and then after SNL. So I would be on the ground, you know, and my mom would wake up early, and she would call people, like, on the phone, and she'd be like, yeah, it was a great show last night. It's a studio apartment. I mean, she's standing over me, frying bacon, and I'm like, mom, you think I live in a giant, you know... I would have been like, ma'am, where the hell did you get that bacon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cockroaches are gonna... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Donald, you're in giant movies. You're in Star Wars. You're in Harry Potter. I mean, these are giant, giant, big franchise movies. I don't want to ask you about the films because I know they're giant, and they're fun and all that stuff, but I want to ask you about the rides you're on. You're on so many amusement park rides. Yeah. I have more lines in the amusement park rides than I do in the movies. Oh, congratulations. Yeah, yeah. Is it fun for you to go to a ride and see you... Have you ever snuck in? It's crazy, yeah. I mean, I went to the opening of the Harry Potter one, and that was amazing, but you're supposed to be there because it's the opening. Yeah, of course. And I did not go to the opening of the Star Wars one, but I have quite a big part in the Star Wars one. You do? Yeah. And my character's telling you what to do and where to go and all the rest of it in his English accent. I can do an English accent, Jimmy. It's not a big deal. I'm not making it a big deal, but yeah, yeah. It's not a big deal. You don't have to applaud. It sure took ages. It's wild. But it was so cool because there's all these people playing stormtroopers on the ride. It's massive. Of course. And when I went, I kind of snuck in and one of the stormtroopers came over and said, it's good to see you undercover, General. Yes! Like that, when I was doing the ride. They stayed in character? Yeah, they stayed in character. And when I was leaving, they all saluted me. It was amazing. Come on! They know how to do it. Anyway, Disney is fantastic. And then if life couldn't get crazier and bigger, you ended up in Taylor Swift's video for Opelay. Yeah. Now, I heard that this came out of a talk show. You were on Graham Norton? Yeah. I was on Graham Norton with all these amazing actors and Taylor. And she came on to talk about her album was about to come out. And she had watched the paper that I'm in as prep for the talk, which is incredible. That's just such diligence. And Cillian Murphy was on as well. And he said that he really liked my dancing in the paper. And my character dances a lot. It's very stupid. And so I made a joke like, yeah, I'm hoping to get in a Taylor Swift music video. And she made this face. That's interesting. Wow. The wheels started turning. Two weeks later, I got a call that she wanted all of us and Graham Norton to be in her music video and made it happen like two weeks after that. It was insane. That's how she does it. Yeah, I know. She's amazing. I will say your dancing in the video is fantastic. Yes. Oh, my God. So, yeah. So, they only told me about the dance like two days before. And then her amazing choreographer, Mandy, spent all of the evening the night before like teaching me what is a very simple dance. But it took so long. And you haven't known real sadness until you've seen an Irish man with red hair in his underpants. Just... Well, no, that wasn't with Mandy. That was when I went back to the hotel. Oh, yeah. But then it sounds... Practicing all night long. I was so terrified. But it worked out great. And I'm really proud of the video. Yeah, you did it. Oh, yeah. Thank you so much. I also want to mention you have a new movie coming out on September 25th called The Incomer. Yeah. Can you tell us about that? Yeah. So I play a guy who works for the Scottish council, a really shy guy, who's sent out to this really remote island to evict these two people who they found out have been living there. It's a brother and sister. And they've never met anybody from the mainland. They've only seen each other their whole lives. And they dress like birds. They're real weird. Wow. And so when I arrive on the island, they attack me and fall in love with me at the same time. They're like, they don't know what to do with this new person. And it's really heartfelt and funny and beautiful. And I'm really proud of it. Yeah. And you have it. Go see it. I will say, you have a fantastic perm in this movie. Yeah. That is a great hair. Thank you. That is legit. Thank you. That is legit right there. Do you want to know what perm is short for? Yeah. It's permanent. Oh, I'm glad you knew that. I did not know that. It's your real hair. That's my real hair. Of course it's my real hair. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Look how worried I am about my real hair. It's permanent. They told me it's permanent. They told me it would grow out in five weeks. I had it for five months. I don't look good with big... I looked like Orphan Annie for five months. It was terrible. Let's talk about the paper. Congratulations on this show. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's well done. You're very funny in it. Thank you. The writing is great. It's produced by Greg Daniels who also produced The Office. Yeah. And were you familiar with the office? I mean, yes. I like the show. I'm so proud of the show. I think our season's like a lot... It's much funnier. It's more romantic. All the ensemble's amazing. Like, it's so good. And Greg is sort of the heart of the show. He got his Hollywood Walk of Fame today. Did he really? Yeah, yeah. So, it's just absolutely incredible. Congratulations, Greg. I'm not there because I'm here. I'm so proud. I'm so happy for him. Yeah, yeah. But obviously, I loved the U.S. office. Yeah. And I actually... When I was in my... I first saw it when I was here, when I was 22, in New York. I didn't have air conditioning. I didn't have food in the fridge, but I had the new Office DVD. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And I used to watch it and it's full circle now. Isn't that wild that you end up with those things? You go, how can I own this when I can't even afford food? I could afford food, Jimmy. Oh, sorry, sorry. I just didn't want the cockroaches. The cockroaches. I forgot. I didn't want to draw the cockroaches. Yeah, yeah. So, now I'm working with Greg. How do we set up season two for the paper? So, the end of season one, and my character is the editor of this newspaper, they won all these awards. Things went really well. And, you know, he's fighting the good fight for journalism, and then he works with this amazing journalist, Mayer, and they both realize they really like each other and they kiss at the end of season one. That's right. But, like, so all of his dreams come true, and that's not always a great thing. You've got to manage your dreams. It's really hard. So, he sort of, he loves Mayer, he loves the paper, but things get really messy really fast, and so it's just the joy of the whole thing is seeing them try to work it out. It's a great cast, and it's super, super funny. It's on Peacock. It's great. I want to show everyone a clip. Here's Donald Gleeson in The Paper. Take a look. Hey, everyone. I realize you all want to get the weekend started. I know that I, for one, am very eager to hit the road. What road are you hitting? I am hitting the road to my doctor. He's a long way out of town, so I have to stay overnight at the hospital. Oh, no. Are you okay? No, I'm great. It's just some tests for genetic predisposition to some potentially complicated brain bleeds. Oh. Oh, my God. You're dying. You know, it's actually not a big deal. He told me that basically everyone has it. Wait. What? Gleeson, everybody. See the performance from Leon Bridges. Stick around.