ACTOR SINGS TO TUNE OF UPCOMING MOVIE

By Emily Forester
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Most people in Hollywood want to make as much money as they can and gain as much popularity as possible. But actor and Academy Award-winning producer Gabriel Byrne is not the average Hollywood player. He would rather do quality films and maintain his mildly popular status than do mediocre movies and make millions as a huge celebrity.

"The pressures of being on the A-list are horrendous," says Byrne. "If you are being paid an awful lot of money to be a particular kind of actor, and you suddenly look over your shoulder and there's a 23-year-old version of you comin' up behind you, it's not a very comfortable feeling. People get addicted to the whole notion of celebrity, they get addicted to fame, they get addicted to the huge salary, they get addicted to the exclusivity of the lifestyle, and they lose contact with reality to a great extent. " "I've been around long enough to have seen people be affected by it. The only thing that matters really in this business is longevity. I want to be in it for the long haul."

With a filmography that boasts several low budget, high quality films like "Miller's Crossing" and "Usual Suspects", it looks like Byrne's career is in good shape. As he gazes out at the UCLA campus from a suite in the Westwood Marquis, Byrne discusses his latest film, "Mad Dog Time." A typical film for Byrne in terms of it's tiny budget of 5.7 million and it's lack of commercialism, the Irish actor explains how he got involved in the project and why he's glad that he did.

"Larry Bishop came over to the house one day, and he said 'I'm doing this picture and I've got Richard Dreyfuss and there's a couple of roles that I think you could play.'" recalls Byrne. "The role Jeff Goldblum has in this was the one I would usually be cast in. So this time I said, 'You know what? I'll go with the other one cuz that's kind of weird.' And it offered an opportunity to do something lighter than I normally do."

"So I took it to a restaurant to read it over breakfast and I was reading it and I was laughing away at the dialogue. The waitress came over and said, and this could only happen in Hollywood, but she said, 'Is it an offer or is it just a reading?' I told her it was an offer and she said to me, 'If it was up to me, I would do it.' And when I asked her why, she said, 'Well if you're laughing like this now, can you imagine the fun you're gonna have on the set?' And I said, 'You know, you're right.' So I did the movie."

Once Byrne was on the set, it was not all fun and games. At times he found his outrageous character's lines difficult to swallow and he was quite uncomfortable when it came time for his character to sing.

"I think the language which (my character) uses is like a cross between maybe Dr. Seuss and Dr. Dre," says Byrne. "He's a weird, wacky figment of (director) Larry Bishop's imagination. We actually did a couple of takes where I said, 'You know, Larry? This is insane.'"

And as uncomfortable as Byrne was with his character's over-the-top dialogue, he found singing Sinatra's "My Way" even more unsettling. During a scene at the club where Byrne's character sings the classic song made famous 40 years ago, he battled with his first and most likely last singing experience in a film.

"When I heard it was going to be Paul Anka that was singing with me, it was doubly unnerving because he wrote the song." says Byrne. "They had to put a big idiot board up in front of me because I kept forgetting the lyrics. And I was never gifted as a singer, but I did think, for some illusory reason, that I was in tune while I was singing. And for some other illusory reason I thought that Paul Anka was out of tune. And I said to people, 'Isn't it amazing? Paul Anka out of tune after a career of 50 years of singing?'"

"When I looked at the results on screen I realized selective hearing is something I also suffer from. I was out of tune on all takes, but then it's the kind of part where you didn't have to be in tune, thank God."

In spite of the discomfort Byrne dealt with, he is thrilled that he enjoyed such an interesting film experience. With Mad Dog Time's amazing cast, Byrne got to know some of Hollywood's legends.

"Every day was fun," recalls Byrne. "Burt Reynolds would be sitting there talking about life and what it was like to be the world's number one box office star for five years in the 70's. Henry Silva, who was one of the original Rat Packers with Sinatra, and Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., would be there saying, 'Life is precious, life is worth living, every day is a gift.' Michael J. Pollard, who was in the original 'Bonnie and Clyde,' would be there. Christopher Jones, who hasn't been in front of a movie camera for 26 years was there in this movie. I wasn't there the day Billy Idol was there but I saw him one day on the set and he said 'You and me are in the same movie, you know that?' I was like 'God, that's right.' Every day there was somebody on the set that made you say, 'Oh my God, I can't believe you're in this.'"

And Byrne is also glad he did the movie because he likes to do films that are original. According to Byrne, "Mad Dog Time" is definitely one of a kind.

"There's a lot of things buried in the movie," says Byrne. "These guys are gangsters but they're also philosophers, and they ruminate about life, death, sex, love. And it's also, I think, about friendship and about loyalty in a skewed kind of way. But mostly it's a weird, off-the-wall, one-of-a-kind movie, and thats what really attracted me to it. I've never seen anything quite like this."

1996