Thursday, November 7, 1996
FILM:
Gabriel Byrne describes working on the unique ‘Mad Dog Time’By
Emily Forster
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Most people in Hollywood want to make as much money as they can
and gain as much popularity as possible. But actor and Academy
Award-winning producer Gabriel Byrne is not the average Hollywood
player. He would rather do quality films and maintain his mildly
popular status than do mediocre movies and make millions as a huge
celebrity.
"The pressures of being on the A-list are horrendous," says
Byrne. "If you are being paid an awful lot of money to be a
particular kind of actor, and you suddenly look over your shoulder
and there’s a 23-year-old version of you comin’ up behind you, it’s
not a very comfortable feeling. People get addicted to the whole
notion of celebrity, they get addicted to fame, they get addicted
to the huge salary, they get addicted to the exclusivity of the
lifestyle, and they lose contact with reality to a great
extent.
"I’ve been around long enough to have seen people be affected by
it. The only thing that matters really in this business is
longevity. I want to be in it for the long haul."
With a filmography that boasts several low budget, high quality
films like "Miller’s Crossing" and "Usual Suspects," it looks like
Byrne’s career is in good shape. As he gazes out at the UCLA campus
from a suite in the Westwood Marquis, Byrne discusses his latest
film, "Mad Dog Time." A typical film for Byrne in terms of its tiny
budget of $5.7 million and its lack of commercialism, the Irish
actor explains how got involved in the project and why he’s glad
that he did.
"Larry Bishop came over to the house one day, and he said ‘I’m
doing this picture and I’ve got Richard Dreyfuss and there’s a
couple of roles that I think you could play,’" recalls Byrne. "The
role Jeff Goldblum has in this was the one I would usually be cast
in. So this time I said, ‘You know what? I’ll go with the other one
‘cuz that’s kind of weird.’ And it offered an opportunity to do
something lighter than I normally do.
"So I took it to a restaurant to read it over breakfast and I
was reading it and I was laughing away at the dialogue. The
waitress came over and said, and this could only happen in
Hollywood, but she said, ‘Is it an offer or is it just a reading?’
I told her it was an offer and she said to me, ‘If it was up to me,
I would do it.’ And when I asked her why, she said, ‘Well if you’re
laughing like this now, can you imagine the fun you’re gonna have
on the set?’ And I said, ‘You know, you’re right.’ So I did the
movie."
Once Byrne was on the set, it was not all fun and games. At
times he found his outrageous character’s lines difficult to
swallow and he was quite uncomfortable when it came time for his
character to sing.
"I think the language which (my character) uses is like a cross
between maybe Dr. Seuss and Dr. Dre," says Byrne. "He’s a weird,
wacky figment of (director) Larry Bishop’s imagination. We actually
did a couple of takes where I said ‘You know, Larry? This is
insane.’"
And as uncomfortable as Byrne was with his character’s
over-the-top dialogue, he found singing Sinatra’s "My Way" even
more unsettling. During a scene at a club where Byrne’s character
sings the classic song made famous 40 years ago, he battled with
his first and most likely last singing experience in a film.
"When I heard it was going to be Paul Anka that was singing with
me, it was doubly unnerving because he wrote the song," says Byrne.
"They had to put a big idiot board up in front of me because I kept
forgetting the lyrics. And I was never gifted as a singer, but I
did think, for some illusory reason, that I was in tune while I was
singing. And for some other illusory reason I thought that Paul
Anka was out of tune. And I said to people ‘Isn’t it amazing Â
Paul Anka out of tune, after a career of 50 years of singing?’
"When I looked at the results on screen I realized selective
hearing is something I also suffer from. I was out of tune on all
takes, but then it’s the kind of part where you didn’t have to be
in tune, thank God."
In spite of the discomfort Byrne dealt with, he is thrilled that
he enjoyed such an interesting filming experience. With "Mad Dog
Time’s" amazing cast, Byrne got to know some of Hollywood’s
legends.
"Everyday was fun," recalls Byrne. "Burt Reynolds would be
sitting there talking about life and what it was like to be the the
world’s number one box office star for five years in the ’70s.
Henry Silva, who was one of the original Rat Packers with Sinatra,
and Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr., would be there saying ‘Life
is precious, life is worth living, every day is a gift.’ Michael J.
Pollard, who was in the original ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ would be
there. Christopher Jones, who hasn’t been in front of a movie
camera for 26 years was there in this movie. I wasn’t there the day
Billy Idol was there but I saw him one day on the set and he said
‘You and me in the same movie, you know that?’ I was like ‘God,
that’s right.’ Everyday there was somebody on the set that made you
say, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re in this.’"
And Byrne is also glad he did the movie because he likes to do
films that are original. According to Byrne, "Mad Dog Time" is
definitely one of a kind.
"There’s a lot of things buried in the movie," says Byrne.
"These guys are gangsters but they’re also philosophers, and they
ruminate about life, death, sex, love. And it’s also, I think,
about friendship and about loyalty in a skewed kind of way. But
mostly it’s a weird, off-the-wall, one-of-a-kind movie, and that’s
what really attracted me to it. I’ve never seen anything quite like
this."
United Artists
Gabriel Byrne is Ben London in Larry Bishop’s "Mad Dog
Time."