Gabriel Byrne: Byrne-ing Up

Q: Didn't you meet that film's director, Jim Sheridan, when you were just starting out?

A: Yes. We worked in a small theater group in Dublin in 1976 that had Neil Jordan, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea and myself. We were all in that same little dump of a theater. It was a great, very exciting time.

Q: What's a message that was left on your answering machine that you play over and over?

A: Kevin Pollak calls me up regularly. He's a brilliant impressionist and he calls as, say, Johnny Carson or Alan Alda or William Hurt or Gregory Peck. He called up one day as Bill Clinton phoning from the campaign bus. And he said [as Clinton], "Hi, Gabe, it's Bill here. Hillary and I are coming into town and we were going to get liquored up at Dan Tana's, maybe get hold of those Baldwin boys ..." It went on for 20 minutes.

Q: You made The Usual Suspects with Pollak. I heard that set was pretty frolicsome.

A: It was. I had a serious mental block with that name, Kee-Keezer... even now it's difficult.

Q: Keyser Soze?

A: I could never get it. One night we were shooting, it was like midnight, and I was supposed to lean on the billiard table and say, "There is no Keyser Soze." Instead I said, "There is no Keezer... excuse me... there is no Koozer. Excuse me. What's his fucking name?" It was so embarrassing because everyone just sat there looking at me. We have it on a gag reel.

Q: What scene have you been in that you're truly thrilled with?

A: That scene in the forest with John Turturro in Miller's Crossing. He was brilliant. Each time that we did that scene, I could see the goose bumps on his arms. I think that's what's addictive about acting. That for a few seconds, you get a hit of being in some other world.

Q: What's the worst costume you ever had to wear?

A: The suit of armor in Excalibur, which was made from real iron. I was in it for months. It was torture because they didn't design any trap doors for, you know, for obvious functions. We were on horses all the time, and you would just see clouds of steam coming out from the armor. People just got used to it, you know. It was appalling.

Q: Would the director be like, "OK, film's rolling, nobody pee!"

A: It was mostly the look you saw on people's faces where you'd see that they were like [grimaces] and then you'd see this total relaxation. It was really Monty Python-esque.

Q: Do you have a favorite souvenir from a movie set?

A: No, but Melanie Griffith gave me a bar of crystal and said, "This will be a magical thing in your life, and it will change your life if you rub it every day."

Q: How long did you do it for?

A: Well, I've rubbed it every day for two years and nothing has happened. [Laughs] Not really, but I take it up occasionally. It's something I value a lot.

Q: How did you learn the facts of life?

A: From this kid who brought a medical encyclopedia to school one day. We all went into the bathroom and he showed us all the things. It made no sense whatsoever. None. Here was this illustration of this guy on top of this woman and I just couldn't understand it. And then you try to apply it to your parents and people on the street and you just can't imagine.

Q: When did you catch a clue?

A: Three years ago. I finally said, "Oh, that's it." [Laughs]

Q: Do you remember the first girl you had a crush on?

A: I was eight. It was a little girl in a raggedy dress and all I wanted was to sit beside her at the movies, and I couldn't because I thought that if I sat beside her, she'd know what my intentions were, which were actually just to sit beside her and to inhale her aura and her beauty. She's a married woman now with, like, eight kids.

Q: You saw her recently?

A: Yeah. Going back to Dublin provides great continuity for me. I see women pushing kids down the street and they say, "Hello Mr. Byrne, you used to teach me," because I used to be a schoolteacher there. And I start to think, "How could I ever have taught you? You're a married woman with four kids."

Q: In your early 20s you worked as a tutor in Spain. Were you girl-crazy?

A: Completely. The Basque women there were so beautiful and they had this built-in arrogance. I fell in love with a girl there who I later found out was a terrorist. We would be in bars and she'd say, "Shhhh! Secret police, secret police." At that time, Franco was still the guy and they had secret police who kept tabs on everybody and she was a member of the Basque guerrilla force. But she had this delicacy. Her room was like an altar with all these little vials of perfume and nail polish. Then she'd show you how to assemble an AK-47, like, blindfolded. I thought she was the most beautiful girl in town. I used to go to this bar and one night she was there and she started talking politics to me and she became really passionate about it. Soon, I became as heated as she was.

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