Actor Gabriel Byrne says hits don’t make you happy

By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Irish actor Gabriel Byrne says he
never had a hit movie but unlike many actors, there’s a note of
relief and even pride in his voice when he says so.

After “Miller’s Crossing” in 1990 and “The Usual Suspects”
in 1995, the former teacher from Dublin was frequently tipped
as Hollywood’s next big thing. But even after more than 50
movies, he says he’s no star and that’s the way he likes it.

“I was never in a huge hit movie which is what really
counts to give you power and longevity,” he said in an
interview in his dressing room between performances of Eugene
O’Neill’s “A Touch of the Poet” on Broadway.

“I’ve never gone after that kind of stardom that a lot of
people thirst after,” said the former husband of actress Ellen
Barkin, with whom he has two children.

“People in this country are obsessed with fame, obsessed
with celebrity,” Byrne said.

“You give up a lot when you inhale the narcotic of fame and
power. I’ve seen quite a few people become very dependent on it
very quickly and I’ve seen the withdrawal symptoms when it’s
not been there, so I’ve been very careful.”

Byrne, who was abused by a teacher as a child, studied at a
Catholic seminary before deciding against the priesthood and
worked as an archeologist, a cook and a teacher before taking
up acting at the relatively late age of 29.

Biographies frequently note that he once trained as a
bullfighter — a career he has said he was drawn to while
living in Spain where he taught English before returning to
Ireland to teach at a girls’ school.

Though he says teaching and acting are similar, he
eventually chose the latter, winning a role in the 1970s Irish
agricultural soap opera “Bracken” as a brooding heartthrob.

“Would I have been better off as a teacher in Ireland or
Spain? It’s a very difficult question to answer,” said Byrne,
now 55. “You take the road and you travel along it. I probably
would do the same thing again.”

FINDING THE GOOD IN THE BAD

For the past month he has been seen swaggering, slurring
his words, bullying and boasting as Cornelius “Con” Melody, a
drunken Irish immigrant inn-keeper with delusions of grandeur
and a fondness for Byron in O’Neill’s play set in 1828 Boston.

It is a grueling and exhausting role that Byrne likens to
“climbing a mountain” nightly. Melody’s daughter Sara is in
love with a rich man whose father will have nothing to do with
the penniless innkeeper, forcing him to face up to reality.

The last time Byrne was on Broadway in 2000 he won a Tony
nomination for his role in O’Neill’s “A Moon for the
Misbegotten” and he has won good notices this time round,
though the production as a whole has been criticized by some.

“O’Neill presents a very complex multi-layered kind of
challenge,” Byrne said. “His characters are always deeply
complex and, to a great extent, inaccessible.”

The challenge for Byrne is to find something attractive in
a man who initially comes over as deeply unpleasant, bullying
his wife and daughter, dwelling on his glory days as a
womanizing major and condescending to his drinking partners.

“Not to oversimplify it, somebody once said a good rule of
thumb in interpreting a character is to find the good in the
bad people that you portray and the bad in the good,” said
Byrne, who somehow manages to convey charm alongside cruelty.

“It’s a brave fearless kind of play in that it doesn’t care
whether you like it or not,” he said.

The New York Times said Byrne showed an “air of splendor”
in the second act as Melody’s life unravels.

“Con’s climactic metamorphosis into the man behind the
aristocrat’s pose is embodied with shattering, scary violence
and precision,” the paper’s reviewer Ben Brantley said.

Looking haggard on a break between a matinee and the
evening performance earlier this month, Byrne said working on
the stage was a mixture of fear and excitement.

“I think every actor gets stage fright,” he said. “It’s a
very real demon that waits in the wings.”

“A Touch of the Poet” runs to January 29, after which Byrne
plans to take a break in Ireland and then he may do a movie.

“No great earthshaking plans,” he said, adding that he
wants to tackle Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” one day.

His recent films include 2004′s “Vanity Fair” and “Assault
on Precinct 13″ last year, neither which did particularly well,
but Byrne seems happy with his relatively low-key success.

“It depends on your definition and what it means to be
successful,” he said, speaking quietly in a soft Irish accent,
eyes down to avoid eye-contact and his body turned away like a
man who hates being in front of a camera.

“If your definition of success is that you live a happy,
contented life then you don’t need to have a hit movie every
summer.”