Barry Keoghan returns to the Cannes Film Festival with Riley Keough in Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, a family drama set in and around an East Coast Circassian community. Balagov won Best Director in Un Certain Regard for Beanpole in 2019. His first film in English, Butterfly Jam marks the first feature involvement for Keoghan’s Wolfcub Productions and will be the opening-night film in Directors’ Fortnight.

The actor spoke to us during a day off from portraying drummer Ringo Starr in Sam Mendes’ four-part Beatles film blockbuster. However, he declined to confirm whether or not he’ll return as the Joker in The Batman: Part II.

DEADLINE: What can you tell us about Butterfly Jam?

BARRY KEOGHAN: It’s about a Circassian family. Their dad is a chef and his son is a wrestler, and it’s set in this tight community of Circassian people. It’s focused quite a lot on the relationship between the father and the son.

DEADLINE: And are you the father?

KEOGHAN: Yeah. I play the father. [Laughs.] I’m stepping into those kinds of roles now. Crazy. Now I’m the dad.

DEADLINE: So, give me more of a sense of what the movie is about…

KEOGHAN: It’s a hard one. Not a hard one to describe it, but we’re giving the plot away. It’s Kantemir Balagov, and… you’ve seen Beanpole, I hope? I know you have. Incredible movie. And he’s someone that I’ve wanted to work with for ages. I remember seeing Beanpole and reaching out to him. Also, I always look at, If I’m doing a commercial movie and then I’m doing an indie, I want to go in between, step into independent movies and step into commercial movies with brilliant directors. And so I’m trying to find that balance. And Kantemir’s movie came at the right time. It’s a proper sort of European movie set in New Jersey.

And it’s gorgeous. Jomo Fray (Nickel Boys) shot it. Jomo’s a brilliant cinematographer. And again, it’s a family-driven movie based in the kitchen, a lot of cooking, even though I don’t cook…

DEADLINE: I’ve been reading in the New York Times that you’re not up to much in the kitchen.

KEOGHAN: [Laughs.] Yeah, so that was a lot of acting. But it’s a movie where I get to learn about culture. We had a dialect coach there in Circassian. Kantemir surrounds himself with incredible people, people like Riley Keough who’s absolutely brilliant in everything she does. It was a breath of fresh air to work with her. And same with our young lad, Talha Akdogan, who plays my son, Pyteh. He’s absolutely brilliant. It was his first movie.

DEADLINE: So who does Riley play?

KEOGHAN: Riley plays my sister. She has a kind of raw energy that you don’t know where she’s going, and it’s unpredictable. And it’s really astonishing to watch and act alongside.

DEADLINE: There’s a production image of you and Riley dancing. What’s going on there?

KEOGHAN: We’re dancing in the kitchen, to a Circassian song. Again, we were learning about the culture and learning to dance… It was actually incredible. And it was my first movie that I got to have my production company Wolfcub Productions on it. 

DEADLINE: Congratulations!

KEOGHAN: I have this animal theme going, spiritually for me, with The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Bird and now Butterfly Jam and now Wolfcub. So there’s an animal theme with Cannes and me.

It was a good moment for our company to step in and build our slate. We’ve got a few projects in the works that I can’t talk about just yet, but we’ve got something going with Netflix, a TV series. And we’ve got another two projects in the works as well. It was a really nice moment to celebrate as well that our first movie gets Directors’ Fortnight opening night.

DEADLINE: I want to quickly scoot back to dancing because I was reading up on the Circassians and they do this dagger courtship dance. Did any of the choreographers show you anything like that?

KEOGHAN: No, it was more like Kantemir and people on set [taught us]. Again, it’s organic. It’s supposed to be done so that not every single move is in the right step. It’s loose. It’s a culture thing. It’s like Irish dancing as well. And when our Irish dancing is performed, it’s quite spectacular to look at. But people are also doing it in pubs as well, and everyone’s up having to sing. So it was me and Riley having a moment as brother and sister, and the song comes on and it’s beautiful.

DEADLINE: And we know you’re a good mover from Saltburn.

KEOGHAN: [Laughs.] Oh yeah, we know that, though clothes stay on in this one, Baz. They’re covered with tea towels and kitchen clothes. But, anyways.

DEADLINE: There are Circassian enclaves in New Jersey. Did you film there?

KEOGHAN: Well, there’s a big Circassian community in Jersey, but we filmed a lot of it in France.

DEADLINE: How so?

KEOGHAN: Why Not Productions [the production company behind the film] is a French company. And we just filmed a lot there and then filmed the exteriors in New Jersey.

DEADLINE: Where were you in France?

KEOGHAN: Dunkirk, actually, and Lille. So I was jogging on the Dunkirk Beach, bringing back memories…

DEADLINE: …Of filming Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk?

KEOGHAN: Yeah. And it reminds you of the therapeutic sort of healing side of making movies. It reminds you that you’re part of a community and a circle of people that I’ve always just wanted to create. Every movie does that for me, but when it’s an independent one you just feel it a little bit more, you feel the hunger on set and almost just going back to that really true form of filmmaking.

DEADLINE: I think you crave that raw sense of making movies with people you love and admire.

KEOGHAN: Without trying, it creates a safeness for you to be vulnerable. And I always feel when you allow your vulnerabilities to come in, that’s where you get really strong performances. It’s always there on independent movies. And it is on commercial movies as well. But unfortunately, with bigger movies, there’s more equipment, there are more sets and more people.

And for me, I’m quite shy and I get quite intimidated by that. Even when people aren’t meaning to do it, it’s just the nature of how big a movie can be. But I’ve been very blessed in the sense that any big commercial movie I’m on, they always seem to really step in and help me make it so comfortable for me to do it. And I’ve never done stage or anything else. I can’t really perform in front of many, many people… Hence The Beatles [The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event], I’m on that now.

DEADLINE: How’s that going?

KEOGHAN: I can’t say much about it, even though I did bring it up. It’s going incredible. Again, and it’s such a big family out there, and it’s such a big movie, but it has that indie soul to it, where I’m feeling super safe to reach and bring forward the most vulnerable truths and the most… Just really dig deep with the performance as Ringo [Starr].

DEADLINE: This is four distinct films directed by Sam Mendes about each of the Beatles, right?

KEOGHAN: Yeah, and Sam is such a legend and family now, and everyone’s family out there. Greig Fraser [cinematographer on Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two] is absolutely brilliant as well. It’s such a tight, lovely group, and I’m learning lots by watching Sam and by watching Greig on the camera and getting back into my photography as well. And I’ve got the best DOP in the world beside me to learn from.

DEADLINE: Prompted by this turn in the conversation, when do you think you will get round to directing your first feature?

KEOGHAN: I’m not sure yet. I did a short film [in 2020] called Animal, and I chose a young lad from a boxing club to lead the movie, and I picked a lot of non-actors, and I shot it in black and white 16mm.

It was for Gucci and Dazed. There’s a lot of Kubrick influences in there, and a lot of frames that I learned from Yorgos [Lanthimos]. But, yeah, I’d love to direct a feature.