Battle of the Belge

Brendan Gleeson, star of In Bruges, talks about consequence and collaboration.

Few actors have worked with Hollywood heavyweights Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Steven Spielberg, not to mention eclectic auteurs such as John Woo, Neil Jordan, John Boorman, Danny Boyle and Mel Gibson. Fewer still also have a Harry Potter character under their belt. But Brendan Gleeson does. And he’s also quite happy to put it all on hold.

“A couple of years ago, I made a silly rule that I would not go a full year without doing something that I considered of undeniable artistic merit,” Gleeson says. This year is no exception: The bearish Dubliner talked to TONY in Park City, Utah, where he was promoting Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges, the opening-night selection of the Sundance Film Festival. The cheeky gangster drama, in which he and costar Colin Farrell play hit men sent into hiding in Belgium, opens theatrically Friday 8.

Gleeson has loved acting ever since he was in a high-school production of Waiting for Godot. Despite attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he never considered making a career of it until he was 34, choosing instead to be a schoolteacher. “I didn’t want to be beholden to it for my living, and have to do soap-powder ads or anything,” he says. “And I also found teaching very satisfying. It’s kind of the same job, isn’t it? You gotta go up there and keep people interested.”

The decision to enter the profession so late hasn’t limited his opportunities. Since he gave up teaching to pursue acting full time, the 52-year-old has appeared in more than 30 features. His latest is McDonagh’s debut as a feature filmmaker, following a decade of writing such Tony-nominated plays as The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman. And then there was McDonagh’s 2005 Oscar for his short film “Six Shooter,” which also stars Gleeson.

The actor played no small role in the short’s success. “I was a bit too nervy and a bit of a wuss on the short,” McDonagh says. “And one of the things I learned from Brendan is that you’ve got to stand up for the art.” Gleeson even dressed-down a producer of “Six Shooter” who wanted to cut a scene that didn’t add to the plot but built character. “I could happily make every single thing with Brendan,” adds McDonagh. “He’s a joy to be around, he’s smart, he’s got a really strong sense of integrity, and he’s just a great actor. Why wouldn’t you want to work with him?”

Although In Bruges wasn’t written specifically for Gleeson, McDonagh was thrilled to have him sign on as the older hired gun who takes trigger-happy Farrell under his wing while whittling away time in one of Belgium’s most picturesque—and boring—medieval towns. (“It’s very chocolate-boxy in the way it looks,” Gleeson says. “But you do need to bring your own fun with you.”) And the actor was just as tickled to be working with McDonagh again. “The timing and the mastery of language and the bizarre scenarios he creates are just hilarious,” he says. “But once you put yourself in there, it can be quite grim.”

Gleeson, Farrell and McDonagh actually holed themselves up in Bruges for three weeks’ rehearsal that helped them get a firmer grasp of the characters and offered the opportunity for rewrites. “The script is full and it’s not cheating and it’s not glib,” Gleeson says. “It doesn’t get a kick out of something like blowing people’s heads off. It says, What are the consequences?”

Repercussions are important to Gleeson, who kept his own sons away from acting until they turned 18. “I’ve come across fantastic kids, like with Harry Potter, so I’m not saying it can’t be done,” he notes. “But it’s too dangerous on film sets for people to be denied their childhood. It’s too much of a head wreck.”

Then again, it was thanks to his son Domhnall’s role in The Lieutenant of Inishmore that he was introduced to McDonagh. And another son, Brían, plays his fictional offspring in The Tiger’s Tail, Gleeson’s fourth film with John Boorman, scheduled for U.S. release in April. “Collaboration— that’s what it’s all about for me,” Gleeson says. “There isn’t a clash of sensibilities. And you find you raise the bar for each other.”

But the actor isn’t always about integrity and art. “I love entertaining people, and I love being onstage when I get a laugh,” he says. “So I don’t want to become a grimhead, and at the same time, I don’t want to become a flibbertigibbet. It’s great, if you can get away with it.”

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