The Method to Robert Carlyle's madness
jaimejeske
May 3, 2007
A wee bit of Method to his madness
He played a psycho in Trainspotting. Now he's a zombie. Robert Carlyle
is a seriously crazy guy
By Kevin Maher
It's just after lunchtime and Robert Carlyle, OBE, award-winning actor,
Method heavyweight and terrifying screen presence, is crouched down on
the floor of a hotel wardrobe. The 46-year-old Glaswegian actor is
promoting his latest movie, the high-octane zombie chiller 28 Weeks
Later. He has opted to reside in the wardrobe not as a zany actorly
prank or self-conscious affectation, but simply because he wants the
Times photograph to be the best possible picture taken on the day, at
whatever cost to his own comfort and personal dignity.
This is typical Carlyle. He is the actors' actor, a perfectionist of
unerring dedication to every aspect of his craft. On screen he makes
impeccable choices and meticulous characters out of every role, from a
gay seducer in Priest to an ex-terrorist in The Mighty Celt. He has,
according to Danny Boyle, the producer of 28 Weeks Later, "Never given a
bad performance, no matter what film he's in. He brings excellence and
intensity to everything he does."
And Boyle should know. He directed Carlyle in the Nineties classic
Trainspotting and propelled him to stardom as the mustachioed psychopath
Francis Begbie. And while others from the Trainspotting cast drifted
into relative anonymity (see Jonny Lee Miller), or were blasted into the
glare of Hollywood banality (see Obi-Ewan-McGregor), Carlyle emerged
with his credibility intact and his instincts as a breathtaking Method
actor truly honed.
"I hate that term, Method," he says, sitting on the couch this time and
nursing a peppermint tea - he's recovering from the previous night's 28
Weeks Later premiere party. "It's definitely been given to me over the
years, but I don't know if it's true. My belief is that every actor's
got their own method, and as long as it works that's OK."
Carlyle, diffident in person and polite to a fault, is being slightly
disingenuous. Those who worked with him on 28 Weeks Later will tell a
story of arch-perfectionism in action. The movie, a bold and beguiling
sequel to the sleeper horror hit 28 Days Later, depicts a zombie-plagued
London and features Carlyle as a loving father transformed into a
vengeful and cannibalistic psychopath. Here, during his climactic
"transformation" scene, Carlyle banged his head so hard and so often
against a toughened glass window that he suffered splitting headaches
for days afterwards.
Elsewhere, completely lost in his zombie character, he threw himself
into a hospital trolley and sent his co-star Catherine McCormack
crashing painfully to the ground. "Oh man, I f***ing lost it that day,"
he admits, head hung shamefully in hands. "And Catherine hurt her leg,
and I love Catherine, so it was terrible. It was a big moment." He
pauses, searching for some rational explanation. "I suppose it was about
believability. So I just thought, 'F*** it, if this is the situation, I'm
gonna go nuts'."
Carlyle's whole career, he says, has been about believability. And
certainly, when I first met him, in 1999 on the set of the period romp
Plunkett & Macleane, he was a portrait of the obsessional actor,
immersed in 18th-century apothecary studies as part of his own detailed
character research. He was also so excited about the prospect of playing
Renard the nerve-damaged Bond villain in The World is not Enough that he
was already investigating neurological disorders and brain diseases and
how to replicate their symptoms with credibility.
At the time, however, he seemed haunted by the long shadow cast by
Trainspotting. The movie had become an instant cult classic, and was the
harbinger of an entire new cultural era. Begbie, with his rough threats
and thuggish charisma, became an iconic figure, and the normally modest
and retiring Carlyle would hear Begbie's signature line barked back to
him by fans. "Tha' wee lassie got glassed," he says, in perfect Begbie
mode. "And nae c*** leaves here till I find oot what c*** did it!"
He shrugs. "I know that's going to be on my tombstone."
Carlyle's response to the Trainspotting hoopla was to drop off the media
radar and ignore all press speculation about his career and his private
life. The son of a painter and decorator (his mother left home when he
was still a toddler), he had a profoundly close relationship with his
father, who died last year. However, while Carlyle's father was
staunchly Labour the actor is supporting the Scottish Nationalist Party
in today's elections.
Carlyle was raised in Glasgow's then-gritty West End, became hooked on
drama after a chance reading of The Crucible on his 19th birthday, and
studied at the Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama. But he hated
the institution and its demands for students to speak in Standard
English. "There was no way I was gonna go back to the pub and to my
mates saying, 'Pant of bittah please'."
After standout roles in Cracker on TV and Michael Winterbottom's Go Now,
he was snapped up by Boyle for Trainspotting. Now free from the
whirlwind Britflick hype, he looks back on that movie and era with
pride. "It's been a wee jewel in my crown," he says. "It was the right
time, the right place, the right mood, everything."
He's less press-shy now too. Older and wiser, married to the make-up
artist Anastasia Shirley, and with three young children, he's more
comfortable with his star status. He's even parlayed his profile into a
production company, Four Way, with Irvine Welsh, who wrote
Trainspotting. Their first feature project is The Meat Trade, written by
Welsh, about two murderous organ thieves haunting modern-day Edinburgh.
Carlyle will star, opposite Colin Firth. "It's black humour at its
absolute blackest," he says, eyes beaming. "But it's brilliantly
written, and very funny too."
He says that he'd like to direct, someday, the story of the Scottish
boxing hero Benny Lynch, but otherwise he's pleased with his career
progress, bouncing from blockbusters such as Eragon and 28 Weeks Laterto
personal projects such as The Meat Trade. And there are still many
directors on his hit list. "People like Jim Jarmusch or Spike Jonze make
the kind of American cinema that really interests me," he says. "And
working with them has, so far, been the only thing I haven't been able
to do. But other than that I'm perfectly happy with where I am."
Nor is he worried about being typecast as a screen psycho. Unlike
previous career strategies, where he has pointedly announced a
moratorium on playing killers and hardmen, it seems that Carlyle has
finally learned to embrace his inner Begbie. "I get sent a lot of
head-case scripts," he explains. "But I always try to look for a bit of
light in there. Maybe a bit of tenderness. Because, in the movies, I
always love the baddie. And I want to do it right." 28 Weeks Later is
released on May 11.
Jaime