Brendan Gleeson has lifted the lid on the huge mental and physical preparation he had to go through to play Donald Trump.
Breaking his silence for the first time since portraying the US president in TV drama series The Comey Rule, he admitted he turned down the job initially – reluctant to invite The Donald and ‘the circus’ into his life.
The Harry Potter star, 65, said: “I knew this stuff about his public persona. I didn’t really understand any more about his private motivations beyond the political or beyond whatever.
“Also, I had a reluctance to invite him into my life in that kind of way – the degree of belligerence and all of that. But also, with the circus that’s with it.
“It was a lot to bring in, even in an emotional sense. I wanted it to be worth something.”
Plagued by the decision after he initially turned down the offer, the Dubliner said he consulted with his family before finally taking on the role.
Brendan told a virtual event with US entertainment publication Deadline: “I asked a number of different people close to me and all that.
“One of my sons said, ‘If you buy into the circus, it doesn’t matter whether you do good or bad, whatever you play in the circus doesn’t matter – it’s what feeds the circus’.
“No matter what you do, you’re only adding [to it].”
Brendan said he was conscious of not overdoing it. He added: “When I wanted to go at it, I had to go at it fairly.
“I’m quite similar in [hair] colouring to him. Myself and Orla Carroll who did the hair, we spent hours and hours and we got into a very good place with my own hair at one point, but it would’ve been almost impossible to reproduce every day.” The multi-award-winning star added that the teeth represented an even bigger challenge.
“My poor little Irish teeth,” he laughed. “They just don’t get that white!
“He has prominent upper teeth, but every time I did that I kind of spat them out in somebody’s face!
“In fact, it happened one day in the shoot,” he laughed.
“I went into the meeting of all the generals and I spat my teeth out!
“It was a bit of a monster to try and control, but part of it, I think, is that you make a mistake if you control the monster with this particular character.
“You can’t, because he’s extraordinarily interesting.”
