Monday, November 29, 1999
Byrne stars in End Of Days
By BOB THOMPSON -- Toronto Sun
NEW YORK -- Call it the 'aw-shucks' of the Irish, for Dubliner Gabriel Byrne
surely knows how to downplay a role.
"I tried to do him like a guy who really enjoys his work," says the dapper 48-year-old relaxing at the Essex House Hotel recently.
The portrayal in question is Lucifer. The film is End Of Days, and the star is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who plays an ex-cop battling the ultimate evil at the end of the millennium.
If you're thinking, 'What's a thespian like that doing in a mega-action thriller like this?' wonder no more.
After more subtle performances in less manic pictures such as Excalibur, Miller's Crossing, The Usual Suspects and The Man In The Iron Mask, Byrne has crossed over to the other side.
Cynical folks might be surprised that it took him more than 30 films and lots of good intentions to be seduced. Others would say, 'Whatta waste.'
Byrne being the subtle Byrne that he is, merely suggests that the End Of Days big paycheque opportunity presented itself at a time when he was ready to take it.
"It was also a chance for me to be in a lighter movie," he reports with a barely disguised grin.
An end-of-the-world feature is lighter?
SERIOUS-MINDED
The mostly serious-minded former seminary student --he was kicked out at 15 for smoking -- can't help but chuckle.
Despite Schawarzenegger's claim that End Of Days is an anti-violence action piece with a philosophical brain as well as brutal braun, Byrne would prefer to think of the movie as a less complicated bit of escapism.
"Come on," he says, commenting on the Schwarzenegger theme reported to him, "this isn't really a study in the nature of evil or even deeply psychological."
It is, well, fun, he maintains. "I've never done a picture of this size before."
And no, he adds, he wasn't intimidated by the previous portrayals of Satan by such U.S. acting icons as Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate and Jack Nicholson in Witches Of Eastwick.
"I just looked at a couple of agents I know, and said, 'Hmmm. interesting,' " says a cheeky Byrne, referring to his research.
Perhaps his next assignment will be more taxing.
He's scheduled to do Eugene O'Neill's A Moon For The Misbegotten in Chicago early next year, then head to Broadway with the production a few months later.
In that play, the suave and handsome Irishman will play a hard-drinking poet.
Byrne smirks like he's got a bad taste in his mouth. Is it the reference to the Irish "hard-drinking poet" cliche?
No, it's the handsome business.
"I don't think of myself that way at all," says Ellen Barkin's former husband, who's often listed as one of the sexiest men in movies.
"I've lived with myself for a long time, but this is relatively new for me. And where I grew up, nobody ever remarked on how you looked unless it was to joke about it."
Handsome? Byrne is a serious actor, after all.
But he raises his hand in peace and to forgive.
"Okay, the older I get," he finally acknowledges, "the sweeter it sounds."
Now there's an 'aw-shucks' if ever there was one.
Wednesday November 24, 1999 Byrne goes from Arnold to Broadway Gabriel Byrne is taking a break from big-screen action to try his hand at alcoholic poetry. The Irish actor, who can be found in theatres playing the devil in "End of Days" opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, plans to head to Broadway, Variety reports. Byrne will star in Eugene O'Neill's classic "A Moon for the Misbegotten". He'll play James Tyrone Jr., an alcoholic poet who can also be found in O'Neill's flagship work, "Long Day's Journey Into Night." The $1.5 million production will have a trial run at the Goodman Theater in Chicago in January, then open on Broadway in March. Byrne is not the only Hollywood actor to give Broadway a go recently. Kevin Spacey, who starred with Byrne in the 1995 film "The Usual Suspects", acted in "The Iceman Cometh" last year. Spacey also starred in a film version of O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night". "Moon For The Misbegotten" was written in 1943. It opened on Broadway for the first time in 1947.
-- JAM! Theatre