‘Saltburn’ Star Barry Keoghan Reveals Past Battle with Flesh-Eating Disease

Barry Keoghan, 31, is lucky to be alive after contracting the rare flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis in the past.

He touched on his health battle in a new cover story for GQ’s February issue, revealing it happened a few years ago, just before the filming of “The Banshees of Inisherin.”

The writer notes that as Barry took off his shirt during the interview, “gnarly scar tissue that winds its way up his arm like a snake tattoo” was exposed.

The magazine notes that one in five cases is fatal, and that Keoghan was at risk of having his arm amputated.

He recalled asking the doctors, “But I’m not gonna die, right?”

The doctors told him, “Well, we don’t know.”

“Banshees” director Martin McDonagh went to see Keoghan in the hospital just days before they were set to begin shooting the film.

McDonagh shared, “I’m not sure if he was on a lot of meds, but he seemed to shrug it off. We were only about four days out from shooting, and his arm was puffed up. But he was like, ‘Yeah, no, I’m going to be fine — I’ll see you on Tuesday.’ I went to the hospital thinking, ‘Sh*t — is he going to die?’ Let alone is he going to make the movie. But I came out of there energized and looking forward to it.”

Barry said Martin told him during a hospital visit, “Just remember this when you’ve been nominated for an Oscar.” He did get nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and now he’s getting buzz once again for “Saltburn.”

Keoghan stars alongside “Euphoria” actor Jacob Elordi in the film, in which the two play classmates.

Barry said of their flirty friendship in the film, “I’m really flirtin’,” adding, “We were constantly close. It ain’t just for the cameras and the premiere[s]. Me and Jacob — he’s like a brother to me, honestly. I think when you’re comfortable with someone, you can be as close as you want, you know what I mean? It’s not like, ‘Oh, don’t come near me’ — it’s like, I’m comfortable.”

He added, "We’ve just done a movie where we had to kiss, man. Look at the scenes we’ve done. You have to be comfortable with yourself.”

Filming “Saltburn” also marked a special time in Keoghan’s life, as he welcomed his first child, a son named Brando with ex Alyson Sandro.

“They gave me a day off,” he said. “Day off, and straight on to night shoots and night feedings — boom!”

He insisted, “It was probably the best time of my life, to be quite fair. Havin’ a baby boy and leading a movie. It was the best time of my life.”

These days, Barry shared, “I feel an enormous amount of pressure, which is good. And I can’t get the little boy off my mind. It’s beautiful. Y’know, it’s crazy, but when he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world. That’s the effect he has on me. He smiles at you and you’re like, ‘Wow, you’re smiling at me like that? I don’t deserve that, but anyways, thanks.’”

He also touched on his own childhood while talking about the correlation between the Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Basketball Diaries” and his own upbringing. His mother, who wasn’t a consistent part of his life, died when he was 12 after suffering a heroin overdose.

Discussing “The Basketball Diaries” he said, “There was a personal connection — with my mother being on heroin. I really could relate to it, a lot. There’s a scene where he comes to the door and he’s begging his mom, can he come in? I was witness to that — that happened at my granny’s house, ’cause my granny was my mother’s mother. And it was similar. It hit home for me.”

Keoghan said the loss of his mother sometimes hits him during moments of success. “She’s many years passed now, but I always think about her anyway. It’s always just in and around achievements that it’s really prominent — ’cause you’d like to celebrate that wit’ ’er, y’know?”