Gabriel Byrne: Byrne-ing Up

Q: And you know where that leads.

A: That can only lead to one place--the bed, consulting a medical encyclopedia.

Q: That's when those illustrations come in handy. What's something you're good at that might surprise people?

A: Playing the accordion.

Q: Have you ever wooed a woman with your accordion skills?

A: You know, embarrassingly to report, yeah.

Q: Did it work?

A: It did actually, but it has to be used in combination with other things. You can't walk up to a woman and start playing the accordion and say, "Oh my God, where have you been all my life?" The way to do it is ... No, I better not give the secret away.

Q: Do you ever get mistaken for other actors?

A: I was mistaken for Sam Waterston in a strip club in Las Vegas. We were doing night shifts for [Cool World] and I went into this bar coming home from work one night. The guy was saying, "Now for your dancing pleasure, Candy!" and this stripper came out and she was bored to death, and then the guy says, "Tonight, we have a really amazing surprise. We have movie and TV star Sam Waterston." And I thought, "Sam Waterston is here?"

Q: So you let them think you were Sam Waterston?

A: What was I gonna say? "I'm not Sam Waterston!" I eventually told Sam Waterston this story and he just looked at me. But back to the story--I got an invitation from the stripper to go backstage to see her, which I did, and then I bought her breakfast.

Q: Because you don't want to look back at age 80 and think, "I could have taken Candy to IHOP."

A: Why not? I was going with the experience. She was 42 or 43, married with two kids, husband had left. We talked for two hours. She ate a steak, two eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, then she said she was going to the bathroom and I never saw her again.

Q: You were raised a Catholic. Why don't you tell us what you talked about during your last confession.

A: [Laughs] I should say, that's between me and my priest. People who are not Catholic are amazed at the whole concept of confession. When they say, "How could you?" I say, "Do you go to therapy? It's exactly the same thing only less expensive." I always think my confessions are serious when I'm telling them, but there are far more serious sins. That's another thing that I'd like to teach my kids; that everything passes and that nothing really is that terribly, terribly important. I remember reading about this guy who jumped out a window during the San Francisco earthquake. If he'd waited eight more seconds, he would have survived. I often think of that guy, because no matter what it is, everything that happens eventually passes, the good things, the bad things. They all pass and it's a matter of keeping your balance.

Q: If you could relive one day from your childhood, what day would you pick?

A: There was one day, when I was about six, where I learned that life was not eternal. As a child I thought that life went on forever. My father used to work for the Guinness brewery and they had their 100-year centenary celebration. It was a big field day for the kids with free ice cream cones and lemonade--everything that a kid wants. We weren't that well-off growing up, so it was exciting. There was a greasy pole, pillow fighting, races and prizes, and everything was free. It was an incredibly beautiful, still summer's day, a child's paradise. So I remember saying to my father, "Can we go to the next one, because this is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me." He said, "It's going to be in a hundred years. I'll be dead and you'll be dead." And I remember thinking to myself, "That's one thing I'm never going to experience again, ever." What I'd like to do is go back and change it and not ask that question because it spoiled the day for me.

Q: Were you named after the angel?

A: My mother told me that when she was pregnant with me an angel came in the window and told her to call me Gabriel.

Q: Did he have a horn?

A: She didn't go into the details.

Q: What's one thing you were picked on for at school?

A: My name. I used to be called Gabby and then later on it was Gay. Now I think it's a really cool name.

Q: Is it true you worked in a gay bar for a while and didn't realize it was gay?

A: Yeah. I was 16 at the time. I was a busboy and I remember saying one night to the bartender, "Not many women come in here" and he said, "That's because it's a bar for homosexuals."

Q: How long had you been there?

A: About four years. [Laughs] No, about two weeks. I remember a guy asked me if I was gay, and I said yes because I thought he was referring to my name. It was an experience because I witnessed two guys getting married in the bar, which for Dublin in 1967 was truly amazing. Everybody was lined up on either side singing "San Francisco (If You're Going To)." People were in tears and cheering--it was moving. I still keep in touch with the bar owner.

Q: You seem to have a wonderful inventory of the things that have happened in your life and what they've meant to you.

A: I think that we have to do that. If everything just happens and you don't ever think about it, what's the point? There's nothing that doesn't mean something. It's fun to think of your life in that way. What's amazing is that we all have the same life, basically. We all have the same fears, the same highs and the same lows. When you can spread it out and give it to other people, people identify with it and that brings people closer together.

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Dennis Hensley interviewed Milla Jovovich for the February '97 issue of Movieline.

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