Jeremy Irons / ‘I love villains, I identify with them’

The British actor Jeremy Irons.GIANFRANCO TRIPODO

Jeremy Irons: ‘I love villains, I identify with them’

‘Brideshead Revisited,’ ‘The Mission,’ ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’… these are just some of the titles in film and television that forged the career of this great British actor. Irons originally intended to be a musician, but his physique, voice and acting skills led him down the path of cinema. EL PAÍS spoke with him in Seville

BORJA BAS

Seville - JAN 18, 2025 - 23:45 COT

He shows up alone, without a manager, and refuses to go through makeup and hairdressing. We don’t even talk about styling. It’s impossible to separate Jeremy Irons, 76, from the image he has carefully cultivated: that of a gentleman who has fled the countryside. He wears a scarf around his neck, a docker cap, jeans, cowboy boots and a worn, woolen vest.

Franco Zeffirelli

'An obsessive, mischievous genius': actors pay tribute to Franco Zeffirelli

Brooke Shields, Robert Powell, Jeremy Irons and Fanny Ardant share their memories of working with the virtuoso directorShares

¡Comments43Chris Wiegand

Tue 18 Jun 2019
Chris Wiegand

‘You’d have thought that God had just walked down the aisle.’ … Brooke Shields with Franco Zeffirelli in 1981. Photograph: Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

Brooke Shields on Endless Love: ‘It was: more, more, more’

He was very tough but in a loving way. Franco was always wanting and expecting more from me. You want your director to have enough faith in you that they urge you to be your best. Not all directors are like that. Then there was another side to him that was very playful – there were in-jokes and many meals together. He would eat risotto con piselli and flatten out the rice to carve a perfect profile. He wouldn’t eat risotto without doing it.