While the Oscar-nominated actor is known for his performances in films such as "The Banshees of Inisherin," "In Bruges," and "The Guard," Brendan Gleeson played football for St Finian’s GAA club in Swords as a youngster.
Looking back on one match he was playing as a full-forward, Brendan ended up "accidentally" punching someone who grabbed his jersey during a match.
"I played full-forward for St Finian’s GAA club in Swords for a number of years. I was a lover not a fighter for the most part, but there were a couple of incidents.
"It was really funny. I remember hitting a fella in the face in Portmarnock entirely by accident because he was hanging onto my jersey and I swung back – and I had been a great advocate of fair play.
"I was never in dirt really – anyway, I swung back to free myself and the jersey and I absolutely clocked him straight in the nose. I frightened the poor fella and he was afraid to come near me, and it was a pure accident – I swear, I didn’t mean to do it," he said on RTÉ Radio One’s Second Captains Saturday.
He added: "I hate bullies, I really do. I always have… the lessons of sport definitely helped me to stand my ground a little bit. So I’m grateful for that."
A massive thank you to Brendan Gleeson for one of our favourite-ever conversations on Second Captains Saturday ?
You can listen to an extended edition of our chat below or wherever you get your podcasts. See you next week!https://t.co/MkGk1pJEVO pic.twitter.com/hheI2SAlbj
— Second Captains (@SecondCaptains) July 20, 2024
Outside of following the Dublin football team, Brendan’s brother, who played for Parnells, brought him to Croke Park in around 1958 for his first taste of GAA action.
Brendan recalled: "That was what I was brought up with but in primary school, there was a fantastic Christian Brother there who took me in different directions.
"He had a choir which I really loved singing in harmony with and he’d put on concerts and that took me away from the football, it was in the background, I may have played with the juniors but I wasn’t really all that fussed."
Brendan Gleeson. (Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, the 69-year-old, who will be appearing in Joker Folie Á Deux later in the year, admitted during the interview that he almost lost his part in "Braveheart" due to his theatre work.
"We had a run-through of Juno first in Dublin and then we were supposed to go to Chicago and Mel said, 'do you think you can still do Braveheart' and I said, 'I might, yeah.'
"He rang the theatre and told them but I said, 'I have two weeks to go here and they won’t let me go' … and I thought, I could just go anyway and do the movie but that would be a really dumb thing to do and also really unethical in my hometown, I’d never work again.
"So, I lost the part in Braveheart but then they decided to switch some things around and I got to do it in the end," he said.
*This article was originally published on Extra.ie.
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