Lesley O'Toole meets the sexy Irishman who is playing Satan. But will this be his last movie role for a time? There's been something of a trend in 1999 for actors insisting their movie star days are behind them - first Anthony Hopkins then Liam Neeson. Hopkins did not retract, Neeson claimed the story was bogus. Whatever, both are still making films.
Gabriel Byrne is the latest to throw his hat in the ring. "I've been doing pictures for a long time and I've learned a lot about making films but I really feel I need a break." He wants to return to the theatre and has a Broadway project lined up - Eugene O'Neill's Moon For The Misbegotten.
But Byrne is not here to discuss his career plans. If he is taking a break from films, he's going out with a bang. "Action pictures are not my favourite type of movie," he says sheepishly, but his latest, End Of Days, is an action picture and not just any old one. He plays the ultimate villain - Satan - fighting the ultimate adversary, Arnold Schwarzenegger. "It is such a difficult time to be an actor but you have to live and work."
He sounds slightly embarrassed and it's easy to fathom why. He is not a Hollywood A-list star, and has never embraced commercial studios. End Of Days will undoubtedly introduce him to his widest audience yet: cinemagoers who are unfamiliar with his parts in films like The Usual Suspects.
Two aspects of the movie convinced him to take the part; one a surprise ending , the other a scene in which Schwarzenegger throws down his gun and opines that violence cannot be fought with violence. "In some sense I think it is almost a symbolic goodbye to the action movie. Stallone and Van Damme seem to have faded and I think with the undertone of this film being about faith, Arnold is moving away. He's still staying within his action roots but trying to appeal to another audience."
Byrne was also lured by a role many great actors have attempted but few have nailed - Satan. Most recently, Al Pacino wildly over-acted in Devil's Advocate but still made compelling viewing. What Pacino lacked was sex appeal; something Byrne has in spades. Byrne tried to make "a guy who is accessible and charming and loves his work".
"The devil needs to be sexy because evil is attractive and seductive. A French writer said 'Seductiveness is at the edges of all horror'. Hitler rose to power because there was a seductiveness and charisma there that people were drawn to in spite of themselves. It eliminated logic. We are drawn to evil and badness and the dark side, just as much as we are to the other."
He believes in Satan, because he believes in evil. "If you believe in evil, then you must believe in Satan because he is the personification of evil, just as God is the personification of good. But what really interests me about the notion of Satan is that evil usually exists in a harmless and unremarkable form. It doesn't announce itself in a hugely obvious way."
Next month, Byrne will be seen in another religious-themed film, Stigmata, in which he plays a Jesuit priest sent by the Vatican to investigate purported miracles. Coincidence or an attempt at a Holy Trinity period? "Yeah, maybe," he laughs. "So what's next? God?
"There's a lot of millennium paranoia and in a weird way Hollywood reflects what's going on in the real world. Look at the films which have been successful in America this year like The Sixth Sense and Stigmata, which no one expected to make a dime."
Byrne does not believe in any sort of Biblical apocalypse. "The Biblical idea that a god would come out of the clouds and strike everyone dead is so old-fashioned. The world could come to an end because of man's greed but nothing will change from December 31 to January 1, and I will be doing my best to avoid it. My horror would be to be stuck somewhere like Times Square. I don't like New Year's Eve at the best of times so wherever I'll be it'll be some place quiet."
He laughs at the suggestion that he was the solitary Catholic on the set of either End Of Days or Stigmata. "Arnold is Catholic. That floored me when I found out. He goes to Mass. But I wasn't worried about what either film has to say about the Catholic Church. It's survived for 2,000 years."
Byrne now lives in New York. Divorced from actress Ellen Barkin since 1993, he shares custody of their two children and was most recently linked with his Smilla's Sense Of Snow co-star, Julia Ormond. That his co-stars fall for him (he and Barkin met making the film Siesta) is no surprise. At 49, Byrne is extremely sexy, and also relishes the compliments of his End Of Days co-star. "I think the world of Gabriel," enthuses Arnie. "He is such a talented actor and he's unbelievably good as the Devil. With my films, it's usually about finding someone who is bigger and more threatening than me. Gabriel is a small guy but he has the inner power."
Byrne was equally impressed by Schwarzenegger. "It took me such a long time to get past the fact that Arnold is such an icon. But when I did, I discovered that he's an incredibly warm man with a great sense of humour. If you think about the phenomenon of turning yourself from an Austrian weightlifter with an unpronounceable name to one of the biggest movie stars of all time, that's not something that can be dismissed."Byrne has also transformed himself - from teacher to actor at a comparatively elderly 29. Let's hope End Of Days is not the end of his movie days.
© Express Newspapers, 1999