Barry Keoghan says it's "amazing" to be nominated for a BAFTA alongside Cillian Murphy: "It's surreal"

Barry Keoghan is having a good year – he kicked it off with a BAFTA nomination for Best Leading Actor, and his next project is star-studded series Masters of the Air, executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. 

After winning the gong for Best Supporting Actor in The Banshees of Inisherin in 2023, Keoghan is up again this year for his role in Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, in which he plays a working-class Oxford student drawn into the hedonistic world of a wealthy classmate. His Dunkirk co-star Cillian Murphy is also nominated in the same category for Oppenheimer, in which he plays the titular nuclear physicist. 

"It's amazing," Keoghan tells the Inside Total Film podcast about the nomination. "Getting to sit amongst those lads. It's surreal. Being up there with Cillian, as well, is nice."

Keoghan and Murphy are nominated alongside Bradley Cooper for his performance in Maestro, Colman Domingo for Rustin, Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, and Teo Yoo for Past Lives. 

In Masters of the Air, a wartime epic companion series to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, he plays Curtis Biddick, a daring and lively lieutenant in the 100th Bomb Group. He's part of a starry ensemble that includes Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle, Raff Law, and Ncuti Gatwa. 

For the full chat with Keoghan and his Masters of the Air co-stars, make sure you listen to the latest episode of Inside Total Film, available on:

• Audioboom 
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Deezer

Masters of the Air premieres on Apple TV+ on January 26 with two episodes, before airing weekly. 

For more on the streamer, check out our picks of the other best Apple TV shows available now.