One of Ireland's most respected actors, Stephen Rea is back with his old buddy Neil Jordan once again for The End Of The Affair. Paul Byrne speaks to the Belfast-born actor.
Every journalist knows that when they go to talk to Stephen Rea, you should never, ever mention the missus. In particular, you should never, ever mention the missus and her part in the war. It's been twenty-six years now since Dolours Price was convicted of taking part in the Old Bailey bombing, but her criminal record is still very much standard-issue material for every journalist who writes an article about Stephen Rea. In recent years, with the Belfast-born actor letting it be known that he no longer wants to talk about that part of his life, journalists have cleverly taken to trying to get Rea to talk about why he no longer wants to talk about that part of his life. I decide to skip the subject altogether. Besides, he's clearly in a good mood today, and I like Stephen Rea too much as an actor to give him any reason not to be.
The reason for the good mood today no doubt has something to do with the fact that Rea's latest film - The End Of The Affair - is a rather fine addition to his already impressive CV. His eighth film with writer/director Neil Jordan, in this latest adaptation of Graham Greene's semi-autobiographical 1951 novel Rea plays the cuckolded Henry Miles, husband to the fiery Sarah and friend to her egotistical lover, Bendrix. Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes complete the top-lining triangle, with Ian Hart giving a wonderfully comic turn as the private investigator trying to placate Bendrix's crushing jealousy.
"I've worked with Neil so many times now, I feel a certain tingle of delight every time he tells me he has another role in mind for me," smiles the 56-year old actor. "He knows I'm going to say yes to whatever he
offers, but we have the understanding that I may change that character if I'm not completely comfortable with it."
With Henry, Rea was determined that he be sympathetic rather than just pathetic.
"I told Neil you couldn't have this character start off and finish the same," he states. "He's got to experience some growth, and he had to be quite successful in his life too. Someone who would have been attractive to
Sarah at some point. And, of course, he does love her, deeply. You can't have this kind of love triangle unless everyone loves someone else. It's just the measure of that love that's at stake."
That he and Jordan have been working together for almost 20 years now is something, Rea says, that makes him feel very lucky. And old.
"I remember when Neil first came to me with this idea for a movie, and I was like, 'How the hell can you be making a movie? In Ireland'. It just wasn't done. I knew Neil for his novels too, and he handed me this script for Angel, and I was just totally taken by it. I think I knew then that Neil was going to be a good filmmaker. Of course, he actually turned out to be a great one."
Despite the critical and commercial success of Angel, and the international breakthrough that came for both himself and Jordan ten years later with The Crying Game, Rea has stubbornly stuck with the principle of considering the work first and the size of the audience second. The fact that he spent the eighties working five months of every year with the Field Day Theatre Company - the acting company he started with Brian Friel - in 1980 - reflects his indifference to the Hollywood treadmill.
"It takes an awful lot of your time and energy to run a theatre properly," offers Rea, "and that meant I just had to be there. And the truth is, of course, I was very happy to be there. Back then, the theatre was the place for an Irish actor to learn their trade, to express themselves, because there wasn't an Irish film industry to speak of. Now that film is so popular in this country, it's kind of knocked theatre back a little. It's certainly not as vibrant and exciting as it used to be."
What's currently getting Stephen Rea excited is the prospect of directing his first movie later in the year. Having directed before in theatre, and produced the 1997 film, A Further Gesture, Rea is clearly looking forward to stepping behind the camera.
"I'm working on a script at the moment with a young Belfast writer, Brian Loane," he states. "It's called No Man's Land, and I'm hoping Neil and his producing partner, Stephen Woolley, will put up the money for it. Soon."
And the fact that his previous offering, A Further Gesture, wasn't well received by critics or audiences doesn't put him off?
"A Further Gesture didn't work for various reasons," offers Rea. "It wasn't perfect as a film, and there were purely artistic problems, but there was also the subject matter - a sympathetic IRA figure - that saw it being treated negatively by some critics. The Crying Game also had a sympathetic IRA figure at its centre, but once it was a hit in the States, the English critics looked at it in a whole new light.
"Those boundaries and prejudices are still there, and it's really up to artists out there to help break down those walls. Art is all about looking at the grey areas and helping people understand what they might fear or
hate. Truly great art can help us do that."
Paul Byrne
