Interview
with Jeremy Irons
by
Giulia Ghica Dobre
Berlin 2013
Affable and relaxed, but with that amazing voice that kind of makes everything, no matter how trivial, sound profound, Jeremy Irons talked me through his ‘Night Train’ character, and gave me some insights into his unusually pragmatic approach to the often mysticized craft of acting.
Jeremy Irons: You enter a character by learning what he does, what he does not, what he likes, what he likes not, what he wants, where he lives, all the things which make up us. You make that up for the character and you live that...Once I am out of a role, than I forget about it all...I only retain the reasons for which I have accepted that character, and the story that character requires to be known. What's the character's function in the story.
When Bille told me about the other actors, they were all actors I wanted to work with. Martina Gedeck I’d seen in “The Lives of Others,” and admired her so much… Bruno Ganz was an actor I’d never worked with but always admired. Tom Courtenay I knew but hadn’t worked with, Christopher Lee -- again, a man I knew but never worked with. Charlotte Rampling I had worked with before, but they were all good actors and the joy of working with good actors… it’s like if you love driving to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari or something. It’s great, it’s easy - you can drive well, easily.
...However Irons confesses to finding learning his lines difficult, and learning new languages even trickier.
Jeremy Irons: I was so impressed with Christopher [Lee] that he knew all his lines -- I’m sometimes a little edgy on my lines, and I thought if he can remember them, at that age, get your act together Jeremy. [With languages] I’m hopeless. It’s all I can do to learn my lines. I’ve been in Hungary for 15 months filming “The Borgias” over three years and I know about four words of Hungarian. It’s actually rude.
Jeremy Irons: I was so impressed with Christopher [Lee] that he knew all his lines -- I’m sometimes a little edgy on my lines, and I thought if he can remember them, at that age, get your act together Jeremy. [With languages] I’m hopeless. It’s all I can do to learn my lines. I’ve been in Hungary for 15 months filming “The Borgias” over three years and I know about four words of Hungarian. It’s actually rude.
Jeremy
Irons: ...I
think that is probably my age, rather than the date, which makes me feel in an
evolution...I think I have learnt with the age to be more laid back than I was
six, ten, twenty years ago.
But I am still looking for risk, I am looking for things that
interest me. Because I get bored very easily, I like new things . I like to be challenged. I like to feel the risk.
Giulia Ghica Dobre: What if you lose? Can you
take it?
Jeremy
Irons: Oh, yes. If I lose, that's all for the best. If I win, even more so. I
just risk. I think that one of the great joys of risking is that you could
lose, or you could win. I find more joy in doing that than in doing things I
know I can do, which are safe, which I might get bored with.
Giulia
Ghica Dobre: So what would be the essential tool for your job?
Jeremy
Irons: Imagination. And a fit instrument, which in my case is the body. For a
musician it may be a piano. But I have to use all the things which so far
computers aren't able to do...Which is to imagine, which is to communicate on
deep levels with audiences.
Giulia Ghica Dobre: Your characters are
always so unusual...How have they shaped your actual persona?
Jeremy
Irons: I think when you play a character which is different from you, and many
of the characters I've played are very different from me, cause I'm quite a
normal person, is very much like you're going on a holiday, in a different
place, and I'm then a different person.You explore a side of yourself you never
use in your life. When you come back to
your normal life, you see your life differently. When you come home from your
holiday, you've changed a bit. And I suppose I probably changed a little bit
because of my work. May be I get to know myself better...
Jeremy
Irons: No, I just try to do things that I haven't done before...As I've
mentioned earlier I am easily bored. So I like to play characters that aren't
like the ones I played before, so a certain evolution occurs because of that. I
like to play characters who are very different to me because I like to get
excited from exploring a person who's new to me.
Alongside that i have to
remember that an audience has an expectation, so I try to upset that
expectation by giving something which they haven't expected, so they are
surprised...Delighted...I've always been attracted to characters who drew at
the very extreme, who live on the edge of normal experience. But alongside that
I ma mixing films which will allow me to play to a wider audience. I like
change. I like variety...
Giulia Ghica Dobre: Your characters are
usually living on the edge and are also driven by a sexuality on the edge...Do
you think sexuality, love are a central compound of your work, of the world
going on?
Jeremy
Irons: I think love is... Certainly...I think many people are driven by their
sexuality. I don't know if my characters are raw-models...
Jeremy
Irons: I think our sexuality is a very big part of ourselves. I suppose it's
inevitable, that is a part of what makes up a character...I think our desire to
love and to be loved is one of our biggest desires. We are taught to rechanel
that in our ambitions towards success...But I think it has nothing to do with
me...
Giulia Ghica Dobre: Is this what pushes life
ahead?
Jeremy
Irons: No. I think the dawn of a new day is what pushes life ahead...You know,
that happens, whatever you do. A new day dawn means that you need to get going
on with something else.
... Describing his marriage as ‘dysfunctional’, Irons reveals:
Jeremy Irons: Sinead and I have had difficult times. Every marriage does because people are impossible. I’m impossible, my wife’s impossible, life’s impossible. No marriage is what it seems. I will say that it is very difficult to be everything to one person.
Giulia Ghica Dobre: Are you building yourself
a story in your own reality that matches the character's story, in order for
you to get in that character better?Is there anything there like a magician
trick?
Jeremy
Irons: No... There is not trick, this is what children do all the time, they
have a great facility of doing it. If you concentrate on the perceptions of a
child, it's perfect. Most people grow out of it, but the's no use in doing
that. They leave childish things behind.
But to play-and to act, are the same
thing, the same understanding. That's what children do. They imagine, they
create brand new worlds. That's all...Well, that's not all, but that' s one of
the main things to do. Then they have to establish a bridge tot their audience,
so the audience could know what are their feelings, their story. They have to
play with their bodies, their eyes, their voices, to communicate what they are
feeling. It's like when you play a piece of music.
Playing means having all the
channels of communication open. That's what I am, I am a
telephone wire...
Giulia Ghica Dobre: How much do you let a
Director interfere with your work?
Jeremy
Irons: Completely, he can do what he likes, I am employed by him! He is my
boss. I work with him. If he;s a good director, he'll cope with the ego, with
everything. Hopefully, everyone puts the ideas all together: the crew, the
actors, and finally he will cut it through all that. It's a collaboration, for
the best. Good ideas are always coming in the process...Working with each
other...
Giulia Ghica Dobre: What would you call a
very good actor?
Jeremy
Irons: Someone who's very free, who's very open. A lot of confidence is
required. And then, not too much confidence, so he peaks up on his
gifts...Somebody who is an interesting person, has an interesting life. Who is
ready to try, ready to risk anything. And who listens. Listening is one of the
most important...To listen to what is spoken to you.
Most people think that
acting is about talking. I'd say it's about thinking...Acting with a good actor
is very easy. It makes all the difference....
...Irons’ major influences are mostly culled from the ranks of Great British Classical Actors.
Jeremy Irons: ...Laurence Olivier for his bravery, Ralph Richardson -- there was really Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson. Ralph never got quite as famous, but he kept until his dying day a childlike quality. Peter O’Toole! I love the wildness and the magic and the Celtic-ness of Peter. Long before I became an actor I remember seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” and thinking “Wow! I would love to be able to do what he can do.” Of course I’ve never got anywhere near it, but then I don’t have his blue eyes.
Jeremy Irons: ...Laurence Olivier for his bravery, Ralph Richardson -- there was really Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson. Ralph never got quite as famous, but he kept until his dying day a childlike quality. Peter O’Toole! I love the wildness and the magic and the Celtic-ness of Peter. Long before I became an actor I remember seeing “Lawrence of Arabia” and thinking “Wow! I would love to be able to do what he can do.” Of course I’ve never got anywhere near it, but then I don’t have his blue eyes.
Giulia Ghica Dobre: What are the movies/the
authors you prefer?
Jeremy
Irons: I am very open. Everything that touches me. A film should give me the
feeling of having travelled, it should dislocate me completely from the
present, I should get out, for instance, from a cinema in New
York and feel like totally being in Nepal
Jeremy
Irons: Well, I have been there for a bit more than four months.
At
the beginning, I thought I'll have nothing to do there.
Through that special friend I came to know other
Romanians, very interesting and different of each other, but mainly warm and
very cultivated people.
I
might be going back with my bike, sometimes, in a near future, and travel
freely from North to South...
By Giulia Ghica Dobre
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