Michael Madsen
Published in GALWAYnow, LIMERICKnow and CORKnow Magazines Dec/Jan 07
Having just finished the Cork movie, Strength and Honour, directed by Cork’s own Mark Mahon, Jo Lavelle caught up with Hollywood movie star, Michael Madsen, on the set of what is set to become next year’s blockbuster.
In our exclusive, Michael tells us why he loves Ireland, what he really thinks of Hollywood and why he badly wanted to play the lead role in the movie.
Strength and Honour, which will hit the big screens in 2007, is set in contemporary Cork and tells the story of an Irish boxer who accidentally kills his friend in the ring. He promises his wife he will never fight again, but when he discovers his only son is dying of the same heart disease that took his wife, he’s forced to break his promise.
Best known for his roles in Resevoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise and Donnie Brasco, it’s easy to see why Michael is typically chosen for the part of the tough bad guy. With his broad 6′ 2″ build, dark good looks and his gravely, testosterone-soaked voice exude masculinity.
However, this time around, Michael was happy to take a break from the bad ass guy and play the role of good guy, Sean Kelleher.
“Mostly, I’m pretty much remembered for playing various people - a lot of bad guys and killers and things like that and to be honest with you, I was getting a bit tired of it and I wanted to change. I wanted to be one of these guys who rides off into the sunset, which I don’t often get a chance to do. So originally, I was offered the other part in this movie of the killer, of the ‘Smasher’, but I said no.
“Then when I found out they had Vinnie Jones to play ‘Smasher’, I thought that was a great idea and I finally convinced them to let me play Sean. I think Mark wanted me for Sean all along but I think there was some other people he had to talk into it. And I’m working with people like Finbar Furey, and Patrick Bergin. I mean, these guys are great actors in their own right and it makes my job a lot easier.”
Pulling off the Irish accent is notoriously difficult for actors, with a long list of disastrous attempts down through the years, but hanging out in Ireland for a couple of months was all Michael said was needed to pick it up.
“I leaned a lot more about it from hanging out with the local people than I did from any books or anything of that nature. You pick it up pretty fast just being there, you know? Everybody talks a certain way and pretty soon, you start talking the same way and it just becomes part of your speech pattern after a while. And besides, I’m supposed to be Irish American, which is what John Wayne was when he did the Quiet Man. It was a similar story about someone who kills somebody in the boxing ring and later on, they have to come back and face the realities and what that cost.”
Although the father of six boys, whose Malibu neighbours include Mel Gibson and Pierce Brosnan, admits that Hollywood can be crazy, mad and extremely superficial, he says much of it is overly hyped and overrated.
“It’s a very, very aggressive business and a very manic way to make a living. And you know, Hollywood can be incredibly stale and overrated. The lifestyle is overrated. There’s not a lot of glamour. A lot of that stuff is in tabloids and papers and things like that. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that and been all over the whole scene, that whole Hollywood idea and I can tell you for sure it’s overrated. I just want to make a living. I just want longevity. I just want to work and all the rest of it isn’t important to me.
“I was never one of those people who was chased around by paparazzi and you know slugging photographers and that kind of thing. It wasn’t really my thing. I mean, I had lots of fun but I never became tabloid fodder and I was lucky. I did a million things before I became an actor. So I had life experience. I was an orderly in the hospital. I was an auto mechanic and I built a couple of race cars. I worked for a landscaper and a pipe fitter and I sold Christmas trees, drove tow trucks and worked in construction. I think a lot of the kids that are in Hollywood, they jump into the career and it’s all bullshit. You know what I mean? They’re making a lot of money and they’re living the high style and they never had any life experience at all. At least I have something to compare it to.”
Of the 70-odd movies that Michael has made, he says there are a few he is truly proud of and believes that Strength and Honour is going to be one of those. “I’ve made a lot of pictures and I don’t necessarily think that all of them are good. There’s a hand full of them that are made well and done by good people. I think Donnie Brasco, The Getaway, Reservoir Dogs and Thelma and Louise. I just did a picture in Canada called vice with Daryl Hannah; I play a pretty dark cop. I think that one is probably gonna to make a big deal next year. Along with this one - Strength and Honour.”
Michael says filming the movie was made a lot easier due to a great working relationship with director, Rochestown native, Mark Mahon. “Me and him understand each other very well. I met him on a couple of occasions and he told me about this dream he had to make this movie and you know, I know how difficult it is to raise money to make a picture and I know how difficult it is when you’re not considered to have any experience and how people can not really want to give you a chance.
“I know what it’s like to be the underdog and I know what it’s like to have people doubting you and I think that he went through a lot of that - a tremendous amount of it and so I have this great respect for him that he finally said, “Fuck it. I’m gonna go do this on my own,” and that’s exactly what he did. He had to convince a few people to let me play Sean. But once I showed up over here, everyone realised that he was a little wiser than what they gave him credit for.”
One of the things that undoubtedly surprises a lot of people who knows Michael only from the characters he plays in most movies, is that he writes poetry and has had some books published.
“I think there’s a lot of things that would surprise people but for whatever reason, I’ve played a lot of characters that are etched in people’s minds because of the violence behind them but I didn’t write any of that stuff, I just interpreted it. All the stuff I’ve written is mostly short stories and poetry and biographical stuff and I didn’t really plan on it being a book, it just worked out that way.
“At one point in time, I was just going to destroy it and a friend of mine encouraged me to give it to a publisher instead. What’s good about it is that I look back on it now and I read a lot of stuff that I wrote a long time ago and I’m really glad I put it down because now I can see that there’s a memory of it and there’s a lot of lessons I learnt in my life and I learnt it all the hard way and if I can write that down and help someone else down the road who is going to read it, then they might be able to interpret it for themselves. You’re kind of almost a teacher in a way. You’re not going to learn everything there is to learn and God knows there’s a lot I have left to learn, but if I can pass anything on to anyone else then I’ve done my job, right?”
Leaving for the States just two days after we spoke, Michael says he would have loved to have stayed longer. With this being his first visit to Ireland, he says he’s come to love it so much, including the rain, that he’s planning on buying a place here himself.
“I liked Ireland so much that I didn’t really want to go. I wanted to look at some land and some property so I’d have some place to come back to. I’m just looking for 20 or 30 acres with a small house, some place I can keep a couple of horses. Nothing big, no big deal. I just know that if I had an address here, I’d probably come back and forth more often.”
“I’ve written a lot of things about Ireland, which will probably be in a book some day from my visit here. It would be pretty impossible to be here and not. I mean, it’s raining all the time and everybody has a lot of pub time and there’s the pub-crawl as they call it and there are a lot of things that put you in the mood of a writer. I’m sure that Beckett and some of those other characters got it from the mood of Ireland. It really gets a hold of you after a while. Travelling through the countryside - that was really educational to me and I also learned a lot about the history of the place, the difference between Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.
Michael names Kinsale pub ‘The Greyhound’ as a regular haunt of his during his stay, along with ‘The Spaniard’ and one of Ireland’s best known restaurants, Man Friday and Italian restaurant, Portofino’s in Kinsale.
“I’m gonna miss a lot of the people I worked here with. I met a lot of great people and made some good friends but when you’re in film, basically you’re just a part of a travelling circus and everyone’s just a bunch of carnival people and we’re all just moving from one location to another and finally when it’s over, the circus just leaves town and there’s a lot of people left behind wondering whatever happened and then you meet a lot of folks you’re never going to see again for the rest of your life so it’s kind of a neurotic way to live your life, but it’s what I’m doing.”
“You know, it’s funny cause I think I’m having more fun now than I ever was making movies cause I’m settled into it now, everything isn’t so serious. I’m more comfortable in my skin than I used to be.”
For more info on Strength and Honour, log onto www.strengthandhonourthemovie.com.