It’s been nearly a year since the release of Saltburn and yet, it appears that the world’s fascination with a naked Barry Keoghan hasn’t waned very much. The world still wants to know, was that really him stripped naked in the film. The actor insists that, yes, it was, and it was all him.
Barry Keoghan has spoken at…length about his nudity in Saltburn. The film is fairly graphic in every conceivable way. Appearing on The Louis Theroux Podcast, host Louis Theroux brought up the iconic dance sequence. Keoghan at first joked that it wasn’t actually him. The host followed up with questions about how much of it was him, suggesting that perhaps he had been “enhanced” for the scene, a suggestion that truly shocked the actor. Keoghan responded…
Wait, enhanced? Who said that? Nah. Who said that? Wow, wow. It was all me. No, but it was a thing that I didn’t really bat an eyelid to. I would bat an eyelid if it didn’t fit the story.
The idea that Keoghan could have used a body double had certainly been suggested previously, but the idea that he had used some sort of prosthetic was apparently new, and a bit shocking to the actor.
So to be clear, yes, if you watch Saltburn you are seeing Barry Keoghan dance around with no clothes on and every shot you see of that is actually him. While actors are certainly expected to do some pretty crazy things now and then, there’s every reason that Barry Keoghan should have batted an eye at this particular request.
While male nudity on film certainly isn’t unheard of, it’s also very much not the norm. Still, Keoghan insists that it wasn’t a big deal because he understood why the scene was needed in the film. The actor then explained why the scene works in the film and why he didn’t have a problem doing it. We all walk around naked in our houses sometimes. He continued…
I remember me and Emerald having the chats and it started off with my clothes and she was like, 'We just need to make it a bit more ownership.' He's kind of got this mansion at the end. It's his space. And when you have that space like we all do it at home, we walk around naked, do you know what I mean? Because we're comfy and this is our environment.
Perhaps at some point, the world will have moved on from Barry Keoghan’s junk, but today is not that day. Honestly, the continued conversation simply shows that Saltburn is a movie that hasn’t yet faded from memory. Some of that may be due to Saltburn's multiple memorable scenes but were it not for the strong performances from Keoghan and others, those scenes likely would have been forgotten by now.
If you want to watch Barry Keoghan dance around naked (again) you can watch Saltburn now with a Prime Video subscription.
