Do Irish celebrities have a group chat?
We’ve certainly been dreaming about all of them just chatting away. But Domhnall Gleeson may have just crushed that dream.
When we catch up with him as he launches this year’s Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice, he admits that he isn’t in some star-studded Whatsapp group.
“If there is a group chat.. I’m not on that group chat, so Cillian [Murphy], Paul [Mescal], Jamie [Dornan] and Saoirse [Ronan].. if there’s a group chat, they’re all talking without me,” he jokes.
“I know those people however, and I’m super proud of the work they do and the people they are. They’re great people as well as artists. I’m incredibly proud that they’re just even Irish.”
Of course, there’s pride there. You can see the sparkle in his eye as he sips his coffee. But that’s all the Hollywood chat we can get into. The actor is of course on strike alongside his fellow SAG-AFTRA members.
It’s not easy for him to be on strike, or any other member. We ask him what he would like to say about the strike, what he would tell people who roll their eyes when they see A-Listers, like his pal Colin Farrell, out on the picket line.
It’s simple, he explains, those people are going to make the headlines. They will get people talking about the strike!
“Even talking about the hospice, it is ridiculous that this actor who has been in all these films would even consider helping to try to get people to donate, but the truth is, out of all the people out there advocating, there are not going to be as many pictures of them in the newspaper talking about the hospice as there are of me talking about the hospice, which is bananas because they are the ones doing the actual work,” he tells us.
“The people who you recognize on the front lines at these strikes are not what the changes in the contract are needed for; most of these people are very wealthy and don’t need to worry about how many residuals they get, but that’s the top one per cent. The rest of the Guild is not being stiffed on residuals, and this is a real issue because these are normal people who live in normal rented accommodations, and these are the real people who the strike is fighting for and who the Guild needs to protect.
“So that’s what that’s about, not letting these people get screwed over by some new AI rule that comes in where they’re allowed to scan you and use your image later on without your permission or with a tiny amount of money; that’s who it’s protecting, and you can roll your eyes about the A-listers being at the front line, but if they weren’t there, that would also be a problem because that would mean they didn’t care.
“So they use that visibility to try and draw attention to the issues, but most of the time people just want to talk about the A-lister, it’s a tricky one. We just need to make reasonable necessary changes, and nobody wants to be striking, no one, they just want to be treated fairly.”
Of course, we’re here to talk about the launch of this year’s Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice. It’s something that both Domhnall and his father, Brendan hold close to their heart.
“I’m involved with the coffee morning charity because the coffee mornings are to raise money for hospices, and I have experienced people close to me being in a hospice, being cared for in a hospice.. passing away in a hospice, and seeing first-hand what difference being in a hospice made to their quality of life and death,” he tells us, both of his grandparents on his father’s side spent their final years in a hospice.
“I have a lot of love and so much respect, admiration, and awe for the work that is done in hospices and for the work that is done for people in their homes.”
Domhnall Gleeson spoke to VIP Magazine as he launches this year’s Bewley’s Big Coffee Morning Social for Hospice, a fundraising drive which has generated €43.2 million since 1992. The event will take place on September 21st. You can register to take part here.
Read our full interview with Domhnall in our September issue of VIP Magazine
