Jeremy Irons: A Life in Pictures

Jeremy Irons, world-renowned actor and star of Dead Ringers, Die Hard with a Vengeance and The Lion King, shared how he keeps his career energised by “taking risks”.

Irons’ first major film role was as Meryl Streep’s lovers in The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1981 – scoring a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor. He was also nominated in 1982 for playing Charles Ryder in ITV’s era-defining TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited.

“When I start an acting job, I always feel like I can’t do it,” he told a packed audience during a special Life in Pictures interview with Danny Leigh on 9 September, 2016.

“I like risk. It seems it energises me.”

Irons was originally attracted to acting because he thought it “might be a nice way to live my life.” He started off busking outside Leicester Square cinemas where he discovered a love for performance, nurtured by training at the Bristol Old Vic.

In the 1980s, he made his name on TV with the hit series Brideshead Revisited – joking that he wanted to play the part of Charles Ryder mainly because he survives to the end.

He told the audience how Meryl Streep helped him prepare for the love scene in his breakthrough hit film, A French Lieutenant’s Woman.

“By the time we got to the scene it felt completely natural,” he said.

After filming, Irons went for dinner with Streep and her family: “And Meryl was Meryl again, mum and actress. But she had chamaeleoned into my lover for that day to make it easy.”

Less happy was his experience on Roland Joffe’s period drama The Mission. His clearest memory on set was a spiky relationship with co-star Robert De Niro. De Niro spent two months refusing to speak to him – maybe because their characters were enemies.

After a bust-up, they eventually became friends. “I don’t know how much of it was method, but it was very unpleasant,” he told the audience.

During the in-depth interview Irons spoke about everything from his first “juggernaut movie”, Die Hard with a Vengeance, to working with director David Lynch on the experimental Inland Empire. He also discussed winning an Oscar for Reversal of Fortune.

“It’s a very comfy place to be, having an Oscar. You feel you’ve got a seat on the sofa,” he said.

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