Domhnall Gleeson thinks Retirement Plan “speaks to a lot of people”.
Domhnall Gleeson
The 42-year-old actor feels particularly proud of his part in Retirement Plan, the animated short film about the fantasies of a middle-aged man, and Domhnall has revealed that he didn’t have any hesitations about committing to the project.
Domhnall – who is the son of acclaimed actor Brendan Gleeson – told Deadline: “It had such a strong identity, it knew itself so well.
“It really struck a chord, and has ended up being one of the things I’m proudest of from the last few years, because it’s exactly what it needs to be and speaks to a lot of people.
“When I read it, the main thing was that it was funny and it was very poignant without being overly sentimental. It’s really beautiful and all of this [Oscar attention] is icing on the cake.”
Domhnall thinks a lot of people can really relate to the short film, describing the themes of the movie as being “genuinely universal”.
He said: “It’s one of those mad pieces of art that is genuinely universal.
“Everybody worries in some way about the future, and so it resonates with people who are young and starting out and have no idea where their lives are headed, and with middle-aged people like me who are sort of at the midpoint and you don’t know what’s ahead, and you don’t know what you make of what’s behind. And then older people, I think, really see themselves in it too.”
The short film explores the themes of mortality and allowing life to pass you by.
Domhnall said: “There’s just a little bit towards the end, about the getting old and the moving on to the next place of it all and it offered me a funny sort of solace, because this guy isn’t pretending like he knows it all. He’s wondering about it. I found something bizarrely comforting in that.”
John Kelly, the film’s director, hopes Retirement Plan will help to challenge the taboos around discussing death.
The director believes it’s actually “healthy” to discuss issues like retirement and death.
He said: “Domhnall talks about finding solace and death is not something that we naturally want to spend that much time thinking about. I started thinking about it more and more as my parents got older … that’s really healthy and this film is a bridge towards that in a positive way.”