Special interview with Irish actor Stephen Rea
EuroLang
Brussels 15/3/02 , by Eva Blässar
He has been in over thirty movies, as well as having a long career in
television and on stage. He is perhaps most famous for his role as Fergus in
The Crying Game, for which he received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations.
One magazine article described him as the personification of the
mysterious, alluring side of Irish culture. In an interview with Eurolang,
Belfast-born Stephen Rea says that he loves being European, but stresses the
importance of being conscious of ones own culture. For him, the Irish
language is very important and he has been taking private lessons for the
past year.
I made several attempts to learn Irish before, both in classes in Belfast
and in London. But because of my job, Ive never had the time to focus
properly. It is a complex language, you know, says Rea.
However, last year in February he was contacted by the Irish Member State
Committee of the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL), which in
connection to the European Year of Languages wanted to promote Irish. This
solved Stephen Reas problem. He now gets one-to-one lessons every week with
his private tutor, and Rea says its going well. The actors two sons, aged
13 and 11, are also both in an Irish-medium school and are bilingual.
I want to give my children a deep-rooted sense of belonging in Ireland. And
language is all about identity. But I also think its important that they
travel and learn other languages. Two languages are better than one, three
languages are better than two, et cetera.
Apart from English and Irish, Rea himself speaks French, German and Spanish,
but the problem is that everybody speaks English with me wherever I go, he
laughs.
For Stephen Rea, Irish is very important: A language is a memory, and
allows access to the countrys history - an emotional history. And it gives
me enormous pleasure to know the language from the inside, rather than from
the outside.
Rea is however worried about the future of the national language of Ireland.
Irish is a threatened language and I think that the government is turning
its back on it, he says. Rea thinks that a big threat comes from
incompetent language teachers and from the fact that everybody uses English
everywhere. Commenting on the debate on the Irish Language Act, and the
governments promise to give Irish speakers the right to use their language
with public authorities, Rea simply says I wonder if its not only
lip-service.
Theres a lot of antagonism towards the Irish language, Rea tells
Eurolang. He says its hard to describe why, but draws parallels to the
experience of a friend in Botswana. My friend says that people there hate
elephants. I think this symbolises that people who have been colonised and
oppressed, are somehow ashamed of whats originally essential to them. Its
the same with Irish.
Rea is currently working in London, where hes filming with the BBC. Its a
film based on a play called Copenhagen by Michael Frayn, explains Rea. He
will also shortly be on the screens in American cinemas, in a thriller
called Feardotcom. Im the murderer in this movie - I think its fun not
to always play the good guy, reveals Rea.
Rea says that of his work, he likes The Crying Game the best. Another
favourite is The Butcher Boy.
I think this is one of the best Irish movies ever made, says Rea, but adds
that too Irish movies dont always please the American market. He says
that because Ireland has an Anglo culture, but is still not American nor
English, the Irish culture often get stereotyped into a being sub-branch
of these cultures. People look at Ireland like its not quite a country.
Stephen Rea is very humble about his fame, but says he thinks hes got the
best job in the world. He has received a number of awards, and although he
didnt get an Oscar for his role in The Crying Game, he did get the
American National Society of Film Critics Award of Best Actor for it.
Awards are nice to get, in acknowledgement of your work, but they dont
improve the work as such. As for an Oscar, Ive already got one of those,
says Rea. One of my sons is called Oscar. But if I get an Oscar Award, Ill
take it of course, smiles Rea. (EL)
