photo by Café du Monde on Flickr
Three men sit at the end of bar, talking about Jeremy Irons.
I know it sounds like the opening of a joke, but it isn’t. A couple of weeks ago, while enjoying my traditional late Friday afternoon wings and a drink at a local establishment, I overheard three men, two thirtysomethings and a middle-aged man, inexplicably talking about the British actor.
Funny thing is they didn’t know why they were talking about him either.
“I don’t know what made me think of him the other day, but I did: Jeremy Irons.”
“Jeremy Irons?”
“Yes, Jeremy Irons, the actor known for Reversal of Fortune….”
To me, I always associate Irons with creepy roles like he had in David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers or Damage with Juliette Binoche, the kind of role where you just go “Ewww” after seeing him on the screen and shudder for a minute uncontrollably.
“She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks, she was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always – Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin. My soul.”
- Irons as Humbert Humbert in Lolita
So when I heard his name, a shudder without warning came over me.
At least, I was in a bar and could take a drink or two or three to (try to) forget the gaunt ghost of Jeremy Irons that has haunted me lo these many years.
When I hear the name Jeremy Irons, I immediately think of his amazing narration of the audiobook version of Brideshead Revisited. I haven’t seen any of the movies you’ve mentioned, though.
I think I remember him in Brideshead Revisited and thinking he was amazing then. Now, I don’t know he just makes me shudder
.
I think of him in that move with Liv Tyler where he was a dying old man and slightly lecherous.
See? Creepy, huh?
Jeremy Irons was so dishy in Brideshead. I admire the fact that he took on other roles instead of just sticking with the obvious romantic male lead. I thought he was fun as the villain in Die Hard. Deliciously creepy! I haven’t seen the other movies, though, and from what you mentioned I don’t think I’d put them on my “must see”.