Domhnall Gleeson: It would have been worrying to base my angry Little Stranger character on someone I know

Domhnall Gleeson said it would have been “worrying” to base his latest character on someone he knows as he is a deeply repressed man.

The British star, 35, plays Dr Farady – a man drawn into the strange world of the Ayres family at their Hundreds Hall estate.

“He was someone I couldn’t get to grips with,” Gleeson told the Standard. “He’s got a lot of repression and anger going on. He seems like he’s calm but he walks around with this explosive energy buried so deep.”

He continued: “With Farady [to base him on someone] might be a little worrying. I’ve done it before but not with this guy – it felt like a new angle. He’s so particular and beautifully written in the novel.

“He has to change over the course of the film in ways that are subtle. It’s a slow progression but it’s a large change so it didn’t work to fix him on anyone that I knew.”

Gleeson said filming the psychological thriller left him feeling drained.

“It’s got an intense feel the film – the house becomes claustrophobic but despite this we had quite a good time on set,” he said. “By the end I think we all felt it had gotten into us a little bit.

“I was really sad when it was over. The intensity drains you a bit but you want to do work like that.”

Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ psychological thriller also stars Ruth Wilson as Gleeson’s love interest Caroline Ayres as well as Oscar nominated Charlotte Rampling and Will Poulter, who he worked with on The Revenant.

He said it was “unbelievable” to work with a stellar British cast. “It was all these different generations of the best of what Britain has to offer,” he said. “Charlotte and Ruth I’ve been fans of for a long time – both very different actresses but equally powerful in different ways.”

The Little Stranger is out now