NEW YORK – The answer is no, Domhnall Gleeson does not have the cactus girlfriend prop from the set of Taylor Swift's "Opalite" music video, which the actor appeared in.
"When I was doing 'The Paper,' (the cast and crew) very kindly got me a little cactus the day after they saw the music video as a funny little gift," Gleeson, 43, tells USA TODAY. "So that was in my dressing room. But no, in real life, I'm sorry to disappoint you."
Gleeson ended up in Swift's video after appearing with her and a number of other stars on BBC's "The Graham Norton Show." Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy, who was also on the couch, noted that he loved Gleeson's dancing in "The Paper." The actor joked that he's available to work, and you can almost see the wheels in Swift's head
start to turn.
"My partner right after was like, 'I think she might make that happen,'" Gleeson recalls his wife, film producer Juliette Bonass, saying. "And then two weeks after we were on that couch, we got a script. Wild."
Swift also cast Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith in the video from the talk show couch. Murphy appeared in the form of a billboard. As for the dance in the video, Gleeson credits everything to choreographer Mandy Moore. He jokes that he "struggled" through it after only having two days for rehearsals. Despite it going viral on TikTok, no one has asked the actor to recreate the moves in real life.
Gleeson, the son of Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Brendan Gleeson, appears in many places this year. In addition to costarring in Swift's video, the actor returns for Season 2 of the aforementioned "Office" spinoffon Peacock. He's also back on the big screen with a few releases: the Scottish comedy-drama "The Incomer" (in theaters today) and "Bucking Fastard," which stars Orlando Bloom and sisters Kate and Rooney Mara. "Bucking" is currently on the festival circuit.
Matter-of-fact, Gleeson filmed both "Bucking" and "Incomer" in between seasons of "The Paper." His role only required five days of shooting on the former film. For the latter, Gleeson spent six weeks "in the very northern tip of Scotland."
In "The Incomer," Gleeson plays Daniel, an awkward land recovery coordinator who attempts to evict brother-sister duo Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O'Rourke) from a remote island that they've inhabited alone for three decades.
Gleeson believes the movie is about people exiting their silos, whether it be by land or in their phone, to connect with one another.
"(Daniel) doesn't realize how cut off he's become and he doesn't realize how much he's in his phone until literally his life is being threatened by these people and he's forced to really communicate," Gleeson says of his character. Of course when that happens, Daniel has moments that are both hilarious and heartwarming, including trying to teach Isla how to swim. However, due to the temperature of the North Sea, the scene didn't feel as idyllic in the moment as Gleeson hoped.
"I had a tattoo of a dragon that I asked to have on (Daniel's) chest, so that's hard in the water," he explains. "I had a perm and you're trying not to get the perm not wet. Gayle had full body shakes, but we're trying to make it look like this gorgeous summer's day film. So that was a hard day."
Gleeson is proud to promote a "genuinely independent film" with what he believes is a universal message.
"When they really start communicating with each other, that's when you start to understand people," Gleeson says. "All humans have more in common than not."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Domhnall Gleeson talks Taylor Swift video, new film 'The Incomer'
