Brendan Gleeson has spoken out about his disappointment in how fatherhood is frequently represented on screen.
The Irish actor currently stars in in the biographical drama, H Is For Hawk, which follows Cambridge academic Helen MacDonald (Claire Foy) who, while coping with the grief of her father’s death, builds an unlikely friendship with a stubborn hawk named Mabel.
Speaking at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, Brendan, who plays Helen’s father, Alisdair MacDonald, stressed the importance of celebrating fatherhood on screen.
“I think dads have got an awful hard time lately. And I don’t believe that every dad is toxic, and I don’t think anybody else does either,” he told the PA news agency.
Picture: Brian McEvoy
“I think I suddenly got very tired of watching fatherhood portrayed as something that was almost an abuse, or that was toxic in some way, or in some way truncated by where you had these emotionally stunted people walking around that couldn’t hug their kids, whatever it was.”
Adapted from Helen Macdonald’s memoir, the film explores her grief for her father, a theme that, Brendan said, “says so much more about what is really important about paternity, and what is really important about fatherhood, and why the beauty that is within of that, needs to be celebrated.”
“I think young men need to see it. It needs to be reaffirmed,” he urged.
“I really just want to celebrate paternity and how much and how deeply it affects things.
“I think this particular film is so beautiful in the way that that’s what it’s trying to do. The memory of this man is that he was a proper, good man who gave love to his daughter.”
Speaking about his own experience of fatherhood, Brendan added: “When I had my kids, I realised I no longer have the option to be pessimistic.
“I bought in to the life. So optimism now is a duty, not a choice.”
You tell them Brendan!
