'IT WAS DIFFICULT TO MOVE ON'

Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough open up on the funny, hard and intense” experience of filming Alice Jack together

- TIM OGLETHORPE

Actor Domhnall Gleeson was so affected by his role as Jack in the new Channel 4 romantic drama Alice & Jack he had to take a break once he’d completed work on the series. It was 10 months after he’d finished filming the intense and emotional scripts before he felt able to step in front of a camera again.

“I felt I needed to do it,” explains Domhnall, 40, best known for playing Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films and General Armitage Hux in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

“It’s an amazing privilege to be an actor, but as a piece of work I found it very tough to shake off at the end of the filming process, one of the most difficult to move on from. And that’s despite the fact that I feel I am very similar to Jack – maybe because I am so similar to him.”

Domhnall, who is the son of acclaimed Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and is dating Irish film producer Juliette Bonass, didn’t waste his freedom when he took time out from acting.

“It gave me a chance to spend time with my partner, spend time with my brothers and the rest of my family, which was great to do,” he says. “I mean, it’s possible that nobody was hiring me for 10 months, that I simply wasn’t getting cast,” he jokes. “The line is a little bit on the blurred side, but I’m sticking to my version that it was very much my choice!”