Brendan Gleeson: Film review: Calvary – essential viewing

IRISH POST

By Stephen Martin on April 17, 2014

Calvary
Director: John Michael McDonagh
Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Kelly Reilly and Pat Shortt
★★★★ (out of five)

“I FIRST tasted semen when I was seven years old,” are the first words of dialogue in John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary, as uttered by a disembodied voice to a discombobulated priest in a darkened church confessional.

“Certainly a startling opening line,” the priest responds, voicing the thoughts of the audience. “Is that supposed to be irony?” the disgruntled confessor asks. “I’m sorry,” the priest says, “let’s start again.”

This introductory exchange sets up the narrative style of McDonagh’s movie, fusing serious commentary with bone-dry satire.

McDonagh –a second-generation Irishman raised in central London – draws characters that spend most of the time conventionally acting out the absorbing drama, yet periodically collapse the artifice with deflating self-references.

They offer oblique winks to camera, breaking the fourth wall and waving across to the viewer. It’s a Brechtian, Beckettian, Bunuelian cocktail of forlorn hope, mordant humour and a cold moral vacuum. Yet all-the-while, it urges us not to have sleepless nights.

It’s also excellent, a cleverly-devised story (if a little thin on plot) featuring fine performances from top Irish talent. The superb Brendan Gleeson leads the cast as the embattled Fr James, vicar to an isolated coastal community, who is informed by one of his flock that he will kill him, “a week on Sunday,” in an abused victim’s revenge upon a depraved Catholic Church.

The man who makes this threat is known to Father James, though he remains a mystery to the audience until the climax.

“I’ll give you enough time to put your house in order,” he generously promises. The rest of the movie invites viewers to guess the identity of the killer among the townsfolk they meet, as the good father tends to his “pastoral duties”.

READ MORE HERE; http://www.irishpost.co.uk/entertainment/film-entertainment/calvary-review

Brendan Gleeson dedicates film role to Ireland’s ‘good’ priests

IRISH TIMES
Derek Scally
February 10, 2014



Actor Brendan Gleeson has dedicated his new movie role to Ireland’s good priests, the ones he said have been overlooked or even tarred by recent clerical abuse scandals.

Mr Gleeson, promoting ‘Calvary’ at the Berlin Film Festival, said he was motivated by the memory of a “particularly good Christian Brother in primary school ... Brother Pat Grogan, a beautiful man”.

‘Calvary’, already hailed by Sundance critics as Beckett-meets-Bresson, enthused Berlin audiences yesterday with one critic calling it a “wonderful, disturbing, sad movie”. It opens this year’s Jameson Dublin Film Festival.

“I think there have been a few false accusations of paedophilia, life-wrecking allegations, against good men amongst all the proper exposure of bad men,” said Mr Gleeson in Berlin yesterday. “Imagine being a good person who has given their life to doing good things, finding themselves wearing a uniform that has been besmirched. It must be horrible for anyone who commits to good to be reviled for doing so.”

‘Calvary’ tells the story of a middle-aged Irish man who becomes a priest in a hostile environment, a role Gleeson said was “the most pressurised” he’d ever experienced,

READ MORE HERE: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/film/gleeson-dedicates-film-role-to-ireland-s-good-priests-1.1686323

Brendan Gleeson plays an innocent priest slapped with a death sentence in John Michael McDonagh's exquisitely nuanced second feature."Calvary":SUNDANCE REVIEW

THE HOLLYWOOD REVIEW
 2:42 AM PST 1/20/2014 by David Rooney

John Michael McDonagh’s 2011 debut, The Guard, provided the wonderful Brendan Gleeson with a vehicle for some of his best screen work, playing an Irish West Country cop unencumbered by diplomacy skills. But the follow-up collaboration of the writer-director and lead actor is in a whole different league. Gleeson’s performance as a man of profound integrity suffering for the sins of others is the lynchpin of this immensely powerful drama, enriched by spiky black comedy but also by its resonant contemplation of faith and forgiveness. Representing a considerable leap in thematic scope and craft for McDonagh, Calvary deserves to reach the widest possible audience.

As with the work of McDonagh's younger brother, the playwright, screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh, an inherent irreverence is essential to the work. But don’t let the gags, the ripe profanity and the wicked comic characterizations fool you. The director of Calvary appears utterly serious about exploring the uses and abuses of spirituality in a world of toxic disillusionment and cynicism.

Set along the rocky cliffs of County Sligo, the film begins in the intimacy of a Catholic Church confessional box. Father James (Gleeson) listens as the voice on the opposite side of the covered window recounts being sexually abused by a clergyman from the age of seven. The unseen parishioner informs the priest that he’s giving him a week to make his peace with God and the world, arranging a Sunday meeting on the beach where he intends to kill him. Since the man who molested him died long ago, he reasons that the death of an innocent priest will make more of a statement.

That would appear to be an irreversibly grim departure point for a film. But McDonagh and the actors navigate supple shifts between mordant humor and emotionally complex drama throughout much of Calvary.

Father James appears to have recognized the voice, and while he seeks counsel from the Bishop (David McSavage), he declines to name his prospective murderer, even later when a violent warning suggests the seriousness of the threat. Instead, in what amounts to an anticipatory whodunit that’s equal parts Agatha Christie and Stations of the Cross, he makes his regular parish rounds.

He meets with the cuckolded local butcher (Chris O’Dowd), his tarty wife (Orla O’Rourke) and her occasional lover (Isaach de Bankole). Further encounters follow with a semi-reclusive American writer (M. Emmet Walsh), a smug financier (Dylan Moran) and an atheistic, coke-snorting doctor (Aiden Gillen). There’s also the police inspector (Gary Lydon) and the cop’s regular rent boy (Owen Sharpe).

McDonagh’s crackling dialogue makes the priest’s exchanges with the townsfolk so frequently hilarious that you don’t really notice the sobering shift that has taken place. Each of the parishioners goes out of his or her way to challenge Father James’ convictions. Whether generalized or personal, their goading remarks seem designed to remind him that the Catholic Church as an institution is at best obsolete, at worst morally broken, and that his religious compassion can do little to fix anyone’s messy lives.

Absorbing the constant criticism with forbearance and only rarely rising to the bait, James is a firmly centered man, and Gleeson etches a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, experience and hard-won serenity into the ruddy face behind his snowy beard, even if he's not without acknowledged flaws. “You’re just a little too sharp for this parish,” the butcher’s wife tells him. And it’s true, his worldly intelligence and gentle philosophical bent stick out, especially next to the lightweight younger priest (David Wilmot).


READ MORE HERE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/calvary-sundance-review-672450

Brendan Gleeson Gets Threatened For Being Too Nice In Calvary Trailer

CINEMA BLEND
Author: Nick Venable | published: December 12, 2013 8:44am PST



With his second film, director John Michael McDonagh has quite a task in trying to create something that was half as memorable as his first: 2011’s howlingly funny comedy The Guard. And it probably didn’t help that his brother, Martin, followed up In Bruges with last year’s excellent ensemble crime comedy, Seven Psychopaths. Judging from the above trailer, though, McDonagh is headed in a more introspective direction with the dark comedy Calvary, and I can’t wait to be a part of its flock.

For Calvary, Brendan Gleeson reteams with the director to play Father James Lavelle, a priest with nothing but inspiration and hope to pass to his overly troubled parishioners without appearing sanctimonious. Trouble comes to him in the oddest of ways when someone walks into the other side of the confession window and threatens to murder him for being too kind to people, giving him a week to get his affairs in line. But in order to try and get his life spared, Father Lavelle must enter the lives of his troubled churchgoers to discover their moral centers in trying to figure out the identity of his soon-to-be murderer.

Gleeson could win over audiences in a film all on his own, but he’s got a stellar cast of mostly Irish actors whose characters make the priest’s life all the more complicated. Chris O’Dowd (Thor: The Dark World) plays an oafish butcher, while Aidan Gillen (The Wire) plays a much more intense hospital worker. The middle ground is filled out by characters played by Dylan Moran (Black Books), Domnhall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), David Wilmot (Ripper Street), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), Marie-Josée Croze (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and Isaach De Bankolé (24).

READ MORE HERE: http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Brendan-Gleeson-Gets-Threatened-Being-Too-Nice-Calvary-Trailer-40663.html

Tom Hiddleston tries to explain Avatar to Chris O'Dowd

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Kelly Reilly: Gleeson is like another dad (BELFAST TELEGRAPH)

Kelly Reilly has revealed that Brendan Gleeson has become like a part of her family.

After playing the Irish star's screen daughter in the upcoming drama Calvary, the Flight actress joked that she now sees him as another father.

"He's like my new dad. I've got two dads now," she quipped.

"What a beautiful bear of a man. I adore him," she added.

Kelly, who has starred in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films, said she is "really excited" about the release of John Michael McDonagh's movie, which also stars Chris O'Dowd and Aiden Gillen and was shot in Ireland.



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/reilly-gleeson-is-like-another-dad-16269390.html#ixzz2JrufoNPp

Brendan Gleeson & Co Are Blessed With Irish Locations for 'Calvary' 31 Oct 2012 : By Steve Cummins (IFTN)

'Calvary' cast on set in The Carlyan pub in Rush

It may be a typically dull and dreary day in north Co Dublin but the small, seaside town of Rush is alive with activity. In off the main street four or five heavy duty lorries are parked beside a number of trailers and temporary dressing rooms.
Men in high-visibility vests, equipped with buzzing walkie-talkies roam up and down the street, past The Carlyan pub and on down to a newly-built temporary wooden church. John Michael McDonagh’s ‘Calvary’ is in town and excited locals are trailing the streets, pen and paper in hand, hoping for a glimpse of the film’s stars, Chris O’Dowd, Aidan Gillen, Kelly Reilly and, of course, Brendan Gleeson.

It’s the reunion of Gleeson and writer and director McDonagh, following the huge success of ‘The Guard’, that is the cause for much of the excitement. From the chatter among the locals to the media invitation to visit the set, comparisons aplenty are made to McDonagh’s surprise 2011 hit. The priest Gleeson is playing in ‘Calvary’ is, we are told, “the flipside to ‘The Guard’s Sergeant Gerry Boyle” and, like ‘The Guard’, the film is set in the west of Ireland. Cast and crew may now be stationed in Rush, but the bulk of the five-week shoot has taken place in Co Sligo.

Described as a dark, comedy-drama, the plot of McDonagh’s ‘Calvary’ follows Gleeson’s priest, a good-natured man who has become increasingly shocked at the behaviour of the locals in his small country town. After being threatened during confession, he’s forced to battle the dark forces closing in around him.

“I think that it’s got the best ensemble cast that’s ever been assembled for an Irish movie,” McDonagh says from inside The Carlyan pub where he’s just completed filming a pub scene with Gleeson, Gillen, O’Dowd and Reilly. The rest of the ensemble cast he speaks of include a number of well-known Irish names - from Dylan Moran, David McSavage and Pat Shortt, to Domhnall Gleeson and David Wilmot.

“I wanted it to feel, not only Irish, but sort of international as well,” continues McDonagh as he explains his casting decisions. “So you’ve got Isaach De Bankolé, who’s been in ‘Casino Royale’ and Jim Jarmusch films, and Marie-Josée Croze, who’s been in ‘The Diving Bell & The Butterfly’. So I don’t want it to feel like a small film, or a parochial film. I want it to feel like a film that could play on an international circuit.”

Cutting a relaxed figure, the English-born filmmaker says he always had Gleeson in mind for the lead role. Indeed, the idea for ‘Calvary’ stemmed from a bar room conversation between the two towards the end of shooting ‘The Guard’.

“It was the last night in Galway so there was a lock-in in the pub,” McDonagh remembers. “All the cast were there, and that, and at a certain point in the evening I said ‘I bet that loads of people are planning scripts about bad priests and dealing with the whole subject in a really depressing way’. I thought that it would be good to do the opposite – to do a film about a good priest - because it’s quite difficult to do films about good people. Usually, the hero is flawed in a major way or they’re an anti-hero.

“Brendan just said, drunkenly, ‘I’ve always wanted to play a good priest’. So that’s where the idea hatched. The editing of ‘The Guard’ went on so long that I wrote the script during it. So when that was finished I had the next one ready to go and Brendan really liked it. So then you’ve already got your lead actor.”

READ MORE: http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4285536&tpl=archnews&force=1

Brendan Gleeson always wanted to play a priest (INDEPENDENT)

By Laura Butler
Saturday October 20 2012

DIRECTOR John Michael McDonagh has told of how casting Brendan Gleeson in his latest movie, 'Calvary', was easy because the actor told him he'd always wanted to play a priest.

Last year, the filmmaker enjoyed huge box-office success with 'The Guard', starring Gleeson.

The pair have now teamed up for another film, set for release in 2013, and McDonagh admitted that the idea arose during a conversation after 'The Guard' had just wrapped.

"Brendan said jokingly, 'I've always wanted to play a good priest'. So I wrote it while editing 'The Guard' and Brendan luckily agreed to do it.

"He's a very committed actor and very detailed in his preparation.

"When other actors see that commitment, they come to the film in the same way."

Gleeson noted that while his character in 'Calvary' is very different to that in 'The Guard', there is a subtle underlying similarity.

"There are obviously elements that come from a certain McDonagh person and certain bits of me that go flying in a different direction."

READ MORE: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/brendan-always-wanted-to-play-a-priest-3265669.html

Brendan Gleeson back home to film new comedy (HERALD IE.)

Wednesday October 17 2012

A LITTLE piece of Hollywood came to Rush this week as award-winning actor Brendan Gleeson began filming on his new movie Calgary.

The Harry Potter star is out in the north Dublin seaside town as he begins work on the much-anticipated follow on to The Guard.

Locals were gobsmacked to see the famous actor strolling around the tight-knit town as he immersed himself in filming at Harbour Park, with the project expected to last for around six weeks.

Written and directed by the same director, namely John Michael McDonagh, it's described as a black comedy drama and began filming in Sligo last month before moving to Dublin. And there's some serious heavy hitters joining Gleeson on the movie including Bridesmaids star Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen and Isaach de Bankole.

It sees the former teacher taking on the role of a priest who's intent on making the world a better place. But he's left shocked by the "spiteful inhabitants" in his small town, culminating in him being threatened.


READ MORE: http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/around-town/brendan-back-home-to-film-new-comedy-3262900.html

Vote for GQ.com's Best-Dressed 2013! By GQ.COM 28 September 12

UPDATE: October 2, 3012
We have received over 2,000 votes so far and the current leaderboard looks like this:
1. Tom Hiddleston: 21%
2. Serge Pizzorno: 13%
3. David Gandy: 11%
4. Oliver Cheshire: 8%

The GQ.com Best-Dressed List charts the most sartorially admired and emulated British stars as chosen by you, the web-browsing public. Click on the names below to see the shortlist and then click here to vote. If you feel that we've missed anyone out, let us know by commenting via Facebook or Twitter. (NB They have to be British or Irish.) May the best-dressed man win!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR THE BEST DRESSED MAN

Production starts on new Brendan Gleeson movie Calvary (ENTERTAINMENT IE.)

 Production has started on 'Calvary' John Michael McDonaghs follow up to the box office hit 'The Guard'. Filming has currently got under way in Sligo for the upcoming movie and will see McDonagh team up again with Brendan Gleeson.

Gleeson will play an entirely different character to 'The Guards' drunk and corrupt cop Gerry Boyle in the role of priest Father James Lavelle a man with good intentions who wishes to make the world a better place but is continually shocked and saddened by the inhabitants of the small town he lives in. life soon turns a dark corner for him when he is threatened in confession.

The dark comedy will star Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes, Eden Lake), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, Shadow Dancer), Dylan Moran (Run Fat Boy Run, Shaun of the Dead), Marie Josée Crozé and Isaach De Bankolé . Other well known irish actors to grace our screens will include Domhnall Gleeson Pat Shortt and David Wilmot.

Speaking about film McDonagh said 'It is with great excitement, bordering on tumescence, that I am looking forward to collaborating once more with Ireland's greatest actor, Brendan Gleeson, and working with the finest ensemble cast ever assembled in the history of Irish cinema.

Brendan Gleeson will star alongside his son Domhnall when he teams up next month with director John Michael McDonagh to shoot new movie Calvary.

Shadow Dancer star Domhnall Gleeson (29) has landed a part opposite his dad's lead role in the €5m production which will be filmed over five weeks in Sligo and the east coast of Ireland.

Gleeson - probably best known for his role as Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films - will portray Fr James Lavelle, who is tormented by various members of his Sligo parish.

READ MORE: http://www.rte.ie/ten/2012/0825/gleesonb.html

Benedict Cumberbatch, Matt Smith, Chris O'Dowd: My looks: the unlikely sex symbols What Matt Smith, Andrew Garfield, Chris O'Dowd, Stephen Mangan and Benedict Cumberbatch think about being unlikely sex symbols (THE GUARDIAN)

Benedict Cumberbatch: 'I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I’ve lived with for 35 years, and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me.' Photograph: Spencer Murphy for the Guardian

"Do I like being thought of as attractive? I don't know anyone on Earth who doesn't, but I do find it funny. It's new to me, and I'm sure I'll get used to it and find a way of dealing with it, but at the moment it is quite odd. I look in a mirror and I see all the faults I've lived with for 35 years, and yet people go kind of nuts for certain things about me. It's not me being humble. I just think it's weird. I dislike the size and shape of my head. I've been likened to Sid the sloth from Ice Age… I have a long face, retroussé nose and have been known to be quite camp… I know I don't fit into some archetype. I'm comfortable with it. People have a hindrance if they are extraordinarily beautiful. It can be a problem. You are not given the challenges and then, when you are, all eyes are on you to see if you can pull anything off other than being beautiful to look at."

Chris O'Dowd: 'As guys, we have an easy time. The Hollywood body-conscious thing doesn’t really affect my life.' Photograph: Contour/Getty Images

"I'm 6ft 4in and I like being tall now, but it wasn't so great when I was growing up. I was 6ft when I was 11 and my features hadn't grown around that yet. So I had this big nose, big lips and a giant big rubbery head. I was a foot taller than everyone else, so there was certainly a Quasimodo situation going on. I figured out girls like laughing. So thank God for that physical abnormality. I would walk girls home who would ask about my friend. I was the funny best friend. In terms of stuff I don't like, I don't know where to start. I could get rid of this spare tyre for a start.

'Sex symbol? I don't quite know what to do with it apart from smile and say, "Hurrah!" ' Photograph: Frederike Helwig for the Guardian

"Am I really a sex symbol? I'll take that as a compliment. What can you do about it apart from enjoy the compliment? It's not like it's a tangible thing. "Sex symbol." I don't quite know what to do with it apart from smile and say – if that is indeed the case – "Hurrah!" I shall embrace it with open arms… I don't think I'm handsome enough, I think I'm more of a Bond villain."




READ MORE: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jul/27/unlikely-male-sex-symbols

Michael Fassbender, Gary Oldman: Award Show disasters remembered

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DbSbaOHhwI

Brits At The Box Office: Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, David Tennant, Mark Strong, Chris O’ Dowd & More! (BRITSCENE)

Written on March 7, 2012 by Charlie Derry

With not a lot of British-related news going on at the box office over the last couple of weeks, things are starting to heat up again with a couple of new releases this weekend. It’s actually quite a good week for a number of Brits including Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, David Tennant, and Irish comedy actor Chris O’Dowd, with a great selection of films for the next seven days, and we know that you will be happy to see a couple of these in particular on the big screen at last.






More trailers and the rest of this article:  http://www.britscene.com/2012/03/brits-at-box-office-ewan-mcgregor-emily-blunt-david-tennant-mark-strong-more/32308

Brendan Gleeson: O’Dowd, Gillen & Wilmot Join McDonagh’s ‘Calvary’ (IRISH FILM AND TELEVISION NETWORK)

‘The Guard’ writer/director John Michael McDonagh has signed Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids), Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, Love/Hate), Isaach De Bankolé (24) and David Wilmot (The Guard) to join Brendan Gleeson in his latest project 'Calvary'.

‘Calvary’ is a dark comedy that follows good priest Father James Lavelle – the opposite to Gleeson's character in ‘The Guard’ – who is tormented by various members of his Sligo parish. ‘The Guard’ picked up four Irish Film & Television Awards at the recent ceremony in Dublin, including Best Film, with McDonagh also named the Irish Film Board Rising Star.


Read more:  http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4284641&tpl=archnews&force=1

BAFTA 2012 - Miss Piggy's Red Carpet interviews

 ZeldarProductions1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpCkTw-UqyU&feature=player_embedded#! 

Michael Fassbender wins Best Actor for Shame at IFTA awards (The Vote)

'Guard' nabs five prizes at Irish Awards

Haul includes film, director and script

By Adam Dawtrey

 

 

John Michael McDonagh's "The Guard" was the big winner at the ninth Irish Film & TV Awards on Saturday evening at Dublin's Convention Center, taking five prizes including best film.

 

McDonagh won for director, script and the Rising Star award, while "The Guard's" Fionnula Flanagan was named best supporting actress. Flanagan also received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

But "The Guard" didn't have everything its own way. Michael Fassbender took the actor prize for "Shame" ahead of Brendan Gleeson, while Ryan Gosling won the international actor award for "Drive" ahead of Don Cheadle.

 

Saoirse Ronan was named best actress for "Hanna." Glenn Close won the international actress prize for "Albert Nobbs," which also took awards for makeup and hair, sound and original score.

 

Best supporting actor went to Chris O'Dowd for "Bridesmaids," while "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" won the prize for best international film. 

 

 

Read further:  http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050120?refcatid=13

 

 

 

Irish Film and Television Rising Star Awards (the Journal)

Chris O'Dowd from Bridesmaids

THE IRISH FILM BOARD and the Irish Film and Television Awards have announced the four nominees for this year’s IFTA Rising Star Award.

The nominees are: actor Chris O’Dowd of Bridesmaids; John Michael McDonagh, the writer and director of 2011 hit Irish film The Guard; actor Emmett Scanlan of Charlie Casanova; and Rebecca Daly, who wrote and directed The Other Side of Sleep.

John Michael McDonagh, centre, phographed with Liam Cunningham, Don Cheadle, Katarina Cas and Brendan Gleeson of The Guard

“All opposition must be crushed,” he added. “Especially Chris O’Dowd, who will be starring with Brendan Gleeson in my next film late this year. If he wins, his role will have to be recast.”
“I’m that vindictive.”

Meanwhile, O’Dowd said he was especially looking forward to the awards night and the “glorious shindig in the big schmoke”. He also asked if he could meet Bosco.

IFTA’s chief executive Áine Moriarty said that the Rising Star category spotlights “great Irish talent making a significant mark in the film industry at large” and described each of this year’s four nominees as “world class talents in their respective fields”.

The winner will be announced during the IFTAs on 11 February.


http://www.thejournal.ie/all-opposition-must-be-crushed-ifta-nominee-sets-sights-on-rising-star-award-330730-Jan2012/

BAFTA Boys: Meet the rising stars of 2012 (The BAFTAs for 2012)

The BAFTAs are just around the corner and the line up for the Rising Star short list has now been revealed.

And if the award which recognises actors that are speeding up the ranks of the film industry is anything to go by, in 2012 the faces to watch are all masculine.

My Week With Marilyn star Eddie Redmayne is one of the best known contenders, and the newcomer could also walk away with Best Actor for his role in the film alongside Michelle Williams.

Thor heartthrob Chris Hemsworth will go head-to-head with Tom Hiddleston, his co-star in the comic book adaptation and a cast member of Steven Spielberg’s War Horse.

Also in the running is Adam Deacon for his turn in Kidulthood, while the IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd tops off the list of hopefuls for his role in Bridesmaids.

Although delighted to be in the running, nominee Tom revealed that the concept could be misleading.

"It's amazing, because I'm 30 years old and I've been acting for 12 years.” he said.

"People sometimes think success in this business happens overnight - and the truth is it doesn't".

The Rising Star Award is the one BAFTA category that is voted for by members of the public.


http://bafta.hellomagazine.com/bafta-awards-2012/20120109849/rising-star-shortlist-revealed/