THIS CULTURAL LIFE: AIDAN GILLEN:
Betrayed at the last by PJ
The Independent on Sunday, 05/08/2005
What are you reading in bed?
The John Fante Reader. I came to Fante through Charles Bukowski who is a favourite of mine. Both are kind of outsider American writers. I've got a couple of other books on the go too. Robert Mitchum's biography Baby I Don't Give a Damn and Errol Flynn's autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways. But I spend more time making up stories in bed than reading.
What book have you been meaning to read?
I've had an Albert Camus biography on my shelf for about five years that I haven't got round to yet.
Do you ever re-read books?
No. If I really like a book I usually give it away to someone and probably never see it again. I like people to give me books too.
What's the soundtrack to your life right now?
I'm listening to Sufjan Stevens. It's kind of brittle music, like Nick Drake. When you listen closely you hear the songs are about Moses and Abraham and Jesus. So I like well-crafted, gentle songs. I also like loud-as-fuck music, so I'm listening to My Bloody Valentine.
Who should play you in the Hollywood version of your life? And who would be your nemesis in the last reel?
John Garfield. He'd have to come back for one last gig to do it. I think I look a bit like him. The nemesis would have to be someone pretty and dangerous. A lady maybe. P J Harvey. We'd go way back. We'd be ex-lovers. It would be a Judas kiss.
What is you ideal alternative job?
Lying on a pier in south-east Mexico counting clouds. We'd have to create that position.
Do you have a hole in your cultural life?
I've only been to one opera and I haven't seen any ballet. But I look forward to it when I do.
Which painting most corresponds with your vision of yourself?
You know those mass-produced pictures of crying boys? I feel like that sometimes. Cheap, bruised.
What was your cultural passion when you were 14?
Around that time I started acting in plays. I didn't go on about it too much to my friends or at school. I know one of my teachers was surprised when he went to see a play at the Project Art Centre in Dublin about the heroin scene and I walked on stage huffing a bag of silver paint. It was quite a rough start. I didn't know much about how to behave myself on stage. There were a lot of syringes lying around back stage which we'd carry round like airguns which would unnerve everybody. One of the more senior actors taught me a lesson with a hard, open-hand slap across the face. So I was meeting a lot of interesting people and some degenerates too. Hanging out in bars, running round the streets. The city was completely different then.
What is your secret passion now?
I go out at night dressed up as an old lady. Well, I don't really. But if I had a secret passion that's what it'd be. She'd glare at people out of the shadows.
Do you like parties?
I certainly do. And I don't get invited to half enough. I'll always be in the kitchen and I'll always have my coat on. I like having parties too. Getting the place ready. Hiding the good furniture. Sorting out the music. Starting the party three hours before everybody else gets there. Wondering where everybody is.
What is the most fashionable thing you own? And the most uncool?
I have a pair of runners "or trainers, as you call them over here" which I recently saw high up in a glass case in a trainer shop. They've achieved classic status apparently. The most uncool? Probably my chipped pink Prada shades.
Are you yourself cool?
Asking oneself that question definitely isn't cool.
Your house is on fire, what object do you save?
Pictures and things that my kids drew. There's one my daughter did of a rat that's really cool.
You die and go to heaven, who would you most like to meet in the bar?
Well, you're in for the long haul there. So you'd want someone entertaining. Brendan Behan.
And what question would you ask first?
How did you get in here? And where the hell's everybody else?
'Someone Who'll Watch Over Me': Ambassadors Theatre, London WC2 (0870 060 6627), to 18 June
Copyright 2005 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
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