• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Actor Gabriel Byrne says hits don't make you happy

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 08:12 CST

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."

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category