A few years back I interviewed the Irish author Marian Keyes in a Dublin hotel.

We bonded over a shared crush on the actor Brendan Gleeson, who had starred in the film In Bruges alongside Colin Farrell. So enthralled in loudly waxing lyrical about the many attributes of Mr Gleeson ("such a glorious voice, the twinkle in his eye, that lovely red hair") we almost didn't notice a figure rising from a seat at the nearby bar.

It was Farrell. Keyes and I both blushed beetroot to the roots of our hair. Still, we told ourselves afterwards, we probably hadn't said anything he didn't already know. Farrell may have been the eye candy, but it was Gleeson who stole the show with his mesmerising performance.

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that is certainly true of Brian Gleeson. The second youngest son of Brendan (and not to be confused with elder brother Domhnall who stars in JJ Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens released later this year) is set to light up our screens on BBC Scotland two-part drama Stonemouth.

Based on the novel by the late Scottish author Iain Banks, the rite of passage tale is set in a fictional Aberdeenshire village. It marks the first Banks work to be adapted since his death from cancer in 2013, aged 59. The storyline centres on the character of Stewart Gilmour, who returns home for his best friend's funeral, two years after being run out of town.

Christian Cooke, best known for Magic City, The Promise and Trinity, has the lead role as Gilmour with Line Of Duty star Charlotte Spencer as his former girlfriend Ellie Murston. Peter Mullan plays Don Murston, the father of Ellie and formidable head of Stonemouth's most notorious criminal family. Fellow Scots include Gary Lewis, Sharon Small and Joy McAvoy.

Gleeson, meanwhile, has been cast as the brooding Powell Imrie, whom he describes as "the righthand man" of Mullan's character. It is Imrie who is dispatched to set out the conditions of Gilmour's return to Stonemouth.

The Dublin-based actor says that while he hadn't read Banks's books beforehand, he was familiar with the late author's reputation. "I know how he is thought of everywhere and in Scotland, so I hope we do him justice," he says.

Gleeson, 27, originally had his eye on another role in Stonemouth. "I flew to England to audition for the main character and they said 'You're not quite right for that role, maybe think about Powell and you can keep your own accent if you want,'" he recalls. "I wouldn't have minded giving the Scottish accent a go but it made more sense for the character in terms of giving him that feeling of being somewhat exotic and from a different part of the world."

Could Gleeson have pulled off a passable Scottish accent had it been called for? "I would have given it my all," he says, is his delectable Irish brogue. "I'm sure it would have been fine. It was Kahleen [Crawford, the casting director] who said that, because we don't know where he is from, it might be interesting to have one guy among the gang who is like Mowgli or something. It just gives him a different flavour and I was happy we went with the Irish accent in the end."

Gleeson decided at a fairly early age that he would pursue a career in acting. "I loved plays in school," he says. "My father is an actor as well" - he says this as casually as his dad was a plumber or bus driver rather than a global film star - "so I used to look to him. I had always enjoyed playing characters and dressing up, but it wasn't until I got to school and I started getting on stage for plays that I got the bug. It takes a long time to start getting seen and building stuff up. It was a long road and still is."

His father, Brendan, was something of a late arrival to the world of acting, the former teacher only landing his first film role in his mid-thirties. He was famously told by a Hollywood agent that he would never be a star because he was too fat, too old, and not good-looking enough.

The 60-year-old has since gone on to carve a successful career in films such as Braveheart, Gangs Of New York, Troy, the Harry Potter films (as Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody) and Calvary. He won an Emmy award in 2009 for the role of Winston Churchill in Into The Storm.

Brother Domhnall, meanwhile, has racked up a CV that includes playing Bill Weasley in Harry Potter as well as roles in Anna Karenina, Dredd, About Time, Frank and Unbroken. Not to forget that upcoming turn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Gleeson - Brian that is - has been steadily building his own body of work including Snow White And The Huntsman, The Bachelor Weekend and The Eagle. He starred opposite Mad Men's Jessica Pare (aka Megan Draper) in rom-com Standby which premiered at Cork Film Festival last November. In the pipeline are the films History's Future and Tiger's Raid, both due out this year, and Black River.

He shared the screen with his father in the 2006 film, The Tiger's Tail, and more recently all three Gleeson men - Brendan, Brian and Domhnall - were united on stage for a four-week run of Enda Walsh's The Walworth Farce in Dublin earlier this year.

Refer to the Gleeson family acting dynasty, however, and Brian's discomfort is palpable. "I don't know about that word," he says, voice suddenly gruff with embarrassment. "I have found it a blessing and a curse. You get seen for certain things but not seen for other things, you know, 'Oh no, we don't want to be giving this to the sons.' So I suppose in total it evens out."

One of four sons of Brendan and Mary Gleeson, Brian grew up in the Irish seaside town of Malahide. "It was a very happy childhood," he says. "Malahide is lovely. It is a big shock going somewhere like London when you are first doing auditions. I always find myself coming back here to Ireland. I think that if you can work and travel, that is the best deal you can strike."

While he has recently spent time working in Los Angeles, Gleeson isn't keen to relocate there full time. "I don't really see the need to move unless it was all drying up here," he says. "I love being able to go away and then come back home."

He and brother Domhnall, 32, joined forces in a music video for Dublin band Squarehead's track 2025 last year which featured super-cute home video footage of the pair as youngsters. For Gleeson, though, his own childhood memories are somewhat hazy. "It's all a bit of blur, but there was lots of fighting - it was chaos, utter chaos," he says.

Gleeson insists there has never been any sibling rivalry between him and Domhnall when it comes to work. "Ah, who wouldn't want to be in Star Wars," he says, with good-natured affection. "Everything he has done, he's done brilliantly. Maybe if he was dropping his game, but he never has. I'm always excited to see him do stuff. We are different actors so it is never really a problem. We always help each other with auditions. There is five years between us so there is a different look to us."

His other brothers Fergus and Rory have dipped a toe in acting (both featured in one-off comedy sketch show, Immaturity For Charity, back in 2012), but aren't pursuing a career in the business. "I leave them to themselves," says Gleeson, seemingly not comfortable to divulge any further details.

His star may be in the ascent but Gleeson isn't the kind of man you would find turning up at every opening of an envelope. "I keep myself to myself," he says. "Dublin is small enough anyway so you don't need to be showing your face around."

There is a stillness to Gleeson on-screen which makes it difficult to draw your eyes away. "You really don't need to do much with your face," he says. "You need to make a choice about when to do certain things and not be spoon-feeding the audience every emotion you are going through."

As a rule, he doesn't tend to watch his performances afterwards, claiming to be his own worst critic. "You are zoning in on your tiny little mistakes," says Gleeson. "You have to get a bit of perspective on it and not judge yourself too harshly."

Gleeson's father Brendan has imparted sage advice on how to survive the acting game. "He said it is essential to keep yourself busy when you are not working," he explains. "That is an old one but always worth remembering. Most actors spend a lot of time out of work.

"Get yourself involved in some small theatre because you can put on theatre anywhere in the back of a pub. Have lots of hobbies. There are ups and downs, feast and famine, because you never know what's around the corner. It's about keeping yourself sane."

Stonemouth will be broadcast on BBC One Scotland on June 8 and 15 at 9pm