There’s no shortage of neo-noir movies. Epics such as 2014’s anxiety-inducing cinematic masterpiece Nightcrawler and 2017’s unforgettable You Were Never Really Here have been near the forefront of the subgenre in the past decade or so. Both offer dark, captivating, and tense experiences that tap into the morally ambiguous worlds and pessimistic themes of film noir but with modern sensibilities, bolstered by phenomenal performances from the entire cast. The latest entry in this subgenre is 2023’s Barber, starring the great Aidan Gillen.

Many may recognize Gillen from his roles in some of the greatest television series of all time, including Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, Aberama Gold in Peaky Blinders, and of course Petyr Baelish, or ‘Little Finger’ as he is more commonly known, in the hit HBO fantasy show, Game of Thrones.

In 2023s Irish thriller, Barber, Aidan Gillen takes on the role of Val Barber, a P.I. who is tasked with finding a missing girl. While battling his own inner demons and repairing the relationship with his family, the case of the missing girl becomes far darker than Barber could have possibly imagined. The detective soon finds himself entangled with powerful men of shady morals, who are all determined to thwart his investigation.

Barber has been available to watch in Ireland since last year, but just made its international debut in theaters and on demand September 22nd. With that, MovieWeb recently had the opportunity to sit down with Aidan Gillen as he discussed playing the titular protagonist and his love for the neo-noir crime subgenre.

Why Val Barber ?

Gillen opened by touching upon why he was so intrigued by the character of Val Barber, and the film in general. “Well that’s simple enough, in that it was made by a couple of friends of mine,” said Gillen. “We’ve worked together a couple of times before. Myself and Fintan Connolly, the director, and Owen McPolin, the director of photography, who’s also a friend.”

“It started off as a project with some friends during […] the pandemic, and we wanted to get out. And we found if we got out to make a film, we might be okay. As long as we adhered to the regs, or could afford to.” Gillen then went on to discuss the film’s budget, saying, “We didn’t have much money and it’s this […] big or even middle budget film by any means. But the DP makes Dublin look good.”

Gillen has a profound love for detective and noir movies, and the idea of making a noir film in the city of Dublin excited the star tremendously. “I have a bit of a love for detective stories,” expressed Gillen. “So I suppose the idea that if we could make a possible Dublin noir, in a short period of time, on limited finances, was worth a shot. And it was really very exciting to actually be out shooting in the city.” He continued:

“Most people were staying in or not back at work. It was a very different energy on the streets. And we kind of had to show it. If you’re talking about masks, or just empty-ish streets or an extra edginess about people, we were wary that something like that can date it, but we thought, ‘Well, we’ve no choice, so let’s just do that.”

Gillen was quick to distinguish Barber from some other Irish movies. “The representations of Dublin, and there have been many, but I didn’t really feel that they’d gone there. There’s been a bit of crime, but not stylized, and old school, and more noir influenced,” said Gillen.

Beyond listing major noir inspirations (The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, and the “gothic noir” of Angel Heart), Gillen shared some of his favorite TV detectives that he grew up watching, and why they influenced his decision to star in Barber. “Growing up watching ’70s TV detectives like Mannix, and Colombo, and Jim Rockford, and Kojak,” said Gillen, “not to mention the great history of noir, which I’m also an aficionado of. And 50% of everything that is on TV, for example, or in the cinema, seems to be crime-related. People can’t get enough of it. I don’t know why.”

Filming During COVID
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Perhaps one of the best aspects of Barber is that it unashamedly showcases the effect of COVID, and its regulations. It created a sense of realism, and an enhanced atmosphere of tension. When asked how strange it was filming during the pandemic, Gillen said:

“It was strange for many reasons. It was a strange time for everybody. Not just for us. I feel like as an actor, I got away kind of alright. I was working quite a lot during the pandemic. Any production that could afford to pay for the testing and shoot, it was deemed okay. Over here anyway in Ireland.”

Gillen continued by touching upon the fact that it was deemed okay for actors and those in the film industry to go back to work. “In Ireland, it was deemed like an essential service, and essential workers could go to work. But there were a lot of hoops to jump through, and a lot of testing. And that was kind of odd. It was a lot less hard than staying in for seven months and cooking meals at six in the morning when you think it’s two in the afternoon,” joked Gillen.

“But it was definitely a relief for all of us to be back doing something. We had to get a lot of friends involved just [to] make it work, be they actors or crew. They weren’t going to make a huge packet out of it or anything like that,” continued Gillen. “Everyone was very keen to get out and do something. But yeah, it was strange, and I hope we caught a bit of that on the camera.”

Related: How COVID Cinema Is Using the Pandemic to Create Movies

P.I Barber
Brainstorm Media

P.I Barber is a very complex character. He harbors a compelling family background, and some intriguing inner demons which he battles the entire movie. Gillen touched upon his favorite aspects of the character after briefly discussing how Barber applies the film noir formula:

“The stories in these kind of noir things, they tend to play to the formula. We weren’t really trying to throw in too many surprises in there. There’s always missing persons, there’s always a semi-single, disheveled detective, and a patsy, and a powerful man or a woman with a secret.”

“For me, the attraction was playing one of those guys, because it’s quite similar to my own laconic, scruffy self,” explained Gillen. “In fact, one of my favorite gumshoes or film detectives was Elliott Gould in The Long Goodbye.”

I suppose this guy (Barber) had a few different sides to him, which you’ll get if you see the film. And I suppose the angle we thought we had, that people hadn’t seen before, was a story like this set in modern Dublin.

“I’m always intrigued by a character that we don’t know too much about or has kind of a cloudy backstory. Even the amount of revelation that’s in there is just borderline. I think I like watching people walking around and thinking, and you would get to do that. Because I’ve worked with that DP before,” continued Gillen, “as I said, he’s a great believer in just getting you to do stuff and watching. Sometimes he’s shooting when [he’s] not supposed to be and stuff like that.

Related: The Coolest Detectives in Movies, Ranked

Antagonist vs Protagonist
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Aidan Gillen has played numerous multilayered and captivating characters throughout his filmography. He has played countless antagonists, and a handful of protagonists beyond Val Barber, like Goosefat Bill in Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword. So, when asked if he prefers playing the hero or villain, Gillen said:

“I usually get to play villains. I haven’t played many heroes. I played a lot of victims when I was younger, [maybe] because I looked like one”.

“Somewhere along the way, there was a switcheroo,” Gillen continued. “I got cast in a film called Mojo where I played quite an interesting antagonist called Baby. This is a film directed by the playwright, Jez Butterworth. He’s written tons of scripts, including James Bond scripts. This was his film debut.”

“But anyway, I got to play my first villain and it kind of stuck. I enjoyed it, and people saw it and cast me. They weren’t always straight villains. I’ve done a few mustache-twirling [antagonists]. I’ve done a good few of those […] But I always tried to make you like them. That’s the thing of why people like to play villains. It’s a challenge to get people to root for you and be on your side.”

Brainstorm Media

The Maze Runner star continued by discussing his past playing heroes, or lack thereof. “I haven’t really played any heroes. I mean, this character here I guess has heroic ideas, but does end up being the patsy in the story, but it’s not for a bad intention.”

But maybe I could do [with] playing some heroes. I’ll put that down the list. See if anyone will bite. I might be too far down the mustache-twirling at this stage in my career.

Never say never; Gillan can do anything. Barber is now in select theaters and available on demand from Brainstorm Media.