‘It was a car crash. It was a mess’: Domhnall Gleeson calls out Stephen Colbert for mispronouncing his name

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Domhnall Gleeson brilliantly called out Stephen Colbert for mispronouncing his name during a recent appearance on the presenter’s late-night talk show.

The actor, who is promoting his latest series The Patient – which he stars in alongside Steve Carell – appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert earlier this week.

Shortly after being welcomed to the stage, Gleeson told Colbert: “You can imagine my dismay when a few weeks ago you had Steve Carell on the show and you said, ‘Now, in this series, you are with Dom-nom-nall Gleeson. It was a car crash. It was a mess.”

Colbert replied: “You can’t blame me! Irish names are impossible! Siobhan?!”

“I’m not gonna take this from a Colbert,” Gleeson said with deliberate mispronunciation to whoops from the crowd.

One viewer shared a clip of the exchange on Twitter, with the caption: “Deeply obsessed with Domhnall Gleeson calling out Stephen Colbert for making a hames of the pronunciation of his name.” The post has been liked by 3,358 people, at the time of writing.

In Ireland, the term “making a hames” means “making a mess”. A hames is two curved pieces of iron or wood attached to the collar of a draught horse. They are very easy to put on wrong by accident, hence the association with messing something up.

Explaining how to pronounce the name Domhnall, Gleeson once said: “It’s pronounced like tonal with a ‘d’ instead of a ‘t’, and the ‘m’ is just there to confuse Americans.”

The Patient is out now on Hulu in the US. A UK release date is yet to be announced.