After finding work in television (including a small role in Hotel du Lac (1986), the BBC's version of the Booker prize-winning novel by Anita Brookner), and film (in particular Hope and Glory (1987) by John Boorman), he was cast in the tremendously successful The Big Blue (1988).

Luc Besson cast him in the role of French diver Jacques Mayol, alongside Rosanna Arquette and Jean Reno.

He went on to appear in von Trier's Breaking the Waves (1996), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville (2004), Manderlay (2005), The Boss of It All (2006) and Nymph()maniac (2013).

Barr and Pascal also directed the 2006 film Chacun sa nuit (eng: One to another), where they first discovered Lizzie Brocher, Arthur Dupont and Karl E. Landler.

[6] Barr played author Jack Kerouac in the 2013 film adaptation of the Beat Generation autobiographical novel Big Sur.