AUSTRALIAN VIDEO EZY ENTERTAINMENT, MAY 2000
“BYRNE IN HELL” - Maree Allen
Gabriel Byrne took a trip to hell and back for his evil role as the Evil One opposite Arnold Schwartzneggar in End of Days.
Gabriel Byrne doesn’t do things in halves. His two latest films - this month's new release End of Days and the up-coming Stigmata - see him playing the devil and a priest respectively. And with the roles are at opposite ends of the religious spectrum, the characters did have one thing in common - they wore identical coats.
“Ironically, the two costume designers came up with the same idea: an Armani cashmere coat. Of course every priest wears an Armani cashmere coat,” he jokes.
“They said it hangs better on the camera. So the devil goes to the same clothing store as the priest; the only difference is the collar.”
Surprisingly, the actor says there wasn’t much difference between the two roles at all. What’s that? Not much difference between the devil and a priest?
“I’m talking as an actor;” he explains. “One role is playing a good man who’s lost his faith. The other is playing a man who believes he’s good and who has lost his soul. So, therefore, the sense of torment is the same.”
Gabriel is pretty well qualified to play both roles, thanks to his strict Irish Catholic upbringing. When he was growing up in Ireland, he dreamed about being a priest - and left home to join a seminary at age 11. But he decided it wasn’t the place for him after being physically and sexually abused by the priests. Now he says years of Catholic guilt have led him to turn his back on the church completely.
But he denies his early experiences directed him towards these kinds of roles.
“It’s not like [they] are some kind of examination of who I am spiritually. It’s just a movie at the end of the day. It’s not an examination of the nature of good and evil. It’s a shoot-‘em-up.”
After leaving the priesthood, Gabriel turned his attention to archaeology. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be his dream come true either.
“I found that my romantic expectations as an archaeologist and the reality clashed greatly,” he admits. “It was rain, mud and scraping things with little brushes and being shouted at and bumping into people in confined spaces and not finding the lost city.”
It was years - and a bizarre array of career choices - before Gabriel finally decided on acting. He tried bullfighting - even going to Spain to study the sport - as well as teaching and a brief stint as a journalist. Finally at age 29, he turned his attention to acting. He appeared on stage in Dublin before making his movie debut as the father of King Arthur in the blood-thirsty epic Excalibur. Before long he was popular fixture in British film, becoming a Hollywood star at age 40, playing an Irish gang lord in Miller’s Crossing. Roles quickly followed in such diverse films as A Dangerous Woman, Little Women, The Usual Suspects, The Last of the High Kings, Enemy of the State, An Ideal Husband, and of course the 1999 blockbuster End of Days.
Gabriel says working with his End of Days co-star Arnold Schwartznegger was great fun, although he said he had trouble relating to Arnie at first - he insists he never has any idea what to say to famous people. They broke the ice set the first day when Gabriel had to grab Arnie by the neck and throw him through a window.
“He squeezed my arm and he said, ‘Oh you obviously work out a lot’, “Gabriel jokes. “He told me that his private gym was at my disposal, so I did a few push-ups and he laughed. He can do push-ups on one hand and I did 10 push-ups and fell on the floor, so after that day he kind of took to me and we got on well.”
When he’s not making movies, Gabriel loves spending time with his two children, Jack 10, and Romy, 7 (he remains on good terms with his ex-wife, actress Ellen Barkin, whom he met on the set of the 1987 movie Siesta). “I enjoy my time off very much,” he enthuses. “I love reading, going to see movies, spending time with my children…”
Not that he gets too much time off these days. Gabriel also keeps active behind the camera, often professing to be more talented as a writer, director and producer. He has produced movies including In the Name of the Father and Mad About Mambo, and he wrote the script for Last of the High Kings.
“I’ve gotten great satisfaction out of the films I’ve produced because they’ve enabled me to express things I’m passionate about,” he says. “As an actor, I don’t have that opportunity because I’m not a No 1 box office star. I don’t see myself as a successful actor, and though I admire great actors, I’ve never been obsessed with acting.”
Now 49, Gabriel divides his time between Ireland and Los Angeles. He grew up in a lime-washed cottage outside Dublin and the memories keep drawing him back there. While he’s now based L.A., he makes a film in Ireland every year. “I keep going back to Ireland, not just because I feel a responsibility for putting something back, but because it’s very important for me to keep in touch with the place,” he explains. “But I do feel dislocated in both places. I now realize I need both. My real home is and always will be Ireland. But I have great friends here in L.A. I guess there’s truth to the saying that home is where the heart is.”