:00:04. > :00:14.Cabrera in a play-off at Augusta. That's all from me. HARDtalk is
:00:14. > :00:15.
:00:15. > :00:22.next. Welcome to HARDtalk. My guest today
:00:22. > :00:27.he is one of Britain's most Jeremy Iron?I ? Jeremy Iron of
:00:27. > :00:33.the very troubled brooding upper- class gentleman. He has just
:00:33. > :00:38.finished making a documentary film about the potentially devastating
:00:38. > :00:48.impact of the mountain's of toxic waste polluting our planet. He is
:00:48. > :01:03.
:01:03. > :01:08.an actor with very strong opinions. Jeremy Irons, welcome to HARDtalk.
:01:08. > :01:18.In the last few years you have very definitely become an actor with the
:01:18. > :01:25.causes, with campaigns, that you think about going down that route?
:01:25. > :01:30.I don't see it say rude, I see it as part of life. Like a lot of
:01:30. > :01:38.people who do not have a voice, I have opinions about how we live our
:01:38. > :01:47.lives, what we do to their environment and being an actor I
:01:48. > :01:55.have a bit of a voice. One rarely taken seriously because I am actor,
:01:55. > :01:58.but did back it is harder for you to make the serious point? I think
:01:58. > :02:06.we think people in politics are serious. We do not necessarily
:02:06. > :02:13.trust them and we probably think they are less informed than most
:02:13. > :02:17.people in the street, but nevertheless I think there is an
:02:17. > :02:21.element - you look at somebody who is committed, like Vanessa Redgrave,
:02:21. > :02:27.who has taken a lot of flak - I think a lot of people are very
:02:27. > :02:32.worried when people step out of their path, so to speak. As you
:02:32. > :02:36.would probably if you saw David Cameron pla?I ? Cameron pla-
:02:36. > :02:39.Lady Windermere. One thing that sticks in mind mind is no longer go
:02:39. > :02:46.on HARDtalk we spoke to Rupert Everett. He has written very
:02:46. > :02:50.frankly and with great humour and also some pain about his role for a
:02:50. > :02:56.going going to some of the poorest places,
:02:56. > :03:00.seeing people in desperate straits and the difficulties he sometimes
:03:00. > :03:07.had matching that with the lifestyle he was living, with the
:03:07. > :03:13.publicists and the international two can be very difficult. I wonder
:03:13. > :03:17.whether you feel that? I don't find it difficult. I know the role I
:03:17. > :03:20.have. For a time I was an ambassador for the feud it -- Food
:03:20. > :03:26.and Agriculture Organisation. was all about the world's hungriest
:03:26. > :03:31.people. Yes. I came to the conclusion that it was a very
:03:32. > :03:35.inefficient organisation are not what I wanted to be a part of, so I
:03:35. > :03:38.resigned. You walk away because he did not believe in what they were
:03:39. > :03:43.doing? I went to a conference in Rome and came away thinking it was
:03:43. > :03:46.a lot of talk and not much action. There was a huge amount of money
:03:46. > :03:53.being spent their and a huge amount of money being wasted. It is not
:03:53. > :04:00.the way to do it. We know this is a problem with a lot of the UN. I
:04:00. > :04:08.felt I couldn't be useful because I - had I continued to do so, then I
:04:08. > :04:12.would have known that whatever value my photograph was in a
:04:12. > :04:19.refugee camp or whatever, at least it got it out there and I think
:04:19. > :04:28.what we have to do if we have that ability is to get causes are out
:04:28. > :04:33.You have very different team are now made a commitment to one
:04:33. > :04:39.pressing global issue and that is how we manage waste globally. --
:04:39. > :04:47.you have very definitely. And in particular the dangers of poisoning
:04:47. > :04:51.the planet in the way we handle the trash. What you -- what tree to
:04:51. > :04:56.that? I am interested because it is something that has happened in my
:04:56. > :05:01.lifetime. It didn't happen before the Second World War. Wigan have a
:05:01. > :05:11.throwaway society that we have developed over those years. -- we
:05:11. > :05:11.
:05:11. > :05:15.didn't. It also seems to me to be a problem but because it is what we
:05:15. > :05:25.throw away, it is a problem we forget. A problem we do not think
:05:25. > :05:30.about. Yet it is a problem that has our ocean, on our air-quality and
:05:30. > :05:36.economics. What we are doing is making things and throwing away
:05:36. > :05:41.having used them, not re-using them. Isn't it a problem born out of the
:05:41. > :05:46.very nature of consumer capitalism? When you take on the subject, and
:05:46. > :05:50.you have made a film and that it - which has taken you around the
:05:50. > :05:55.world to look at the most egregious incidences of mishandling of toxic
:05:55. > :06:00.waste in different countries - when you take it on, you are basically
:06:00. > :06:08.saying how consumer capitalist culture is dysfunctional. It is
:06:08. > :06:10.dysfunctional. We know that. you saying capitalism... Just
:06:10. > :06:16.because something is dysfunctional doesn't mean you have to change it,
:06:16. > :06:21.you just have to operate. Same as capitalism hinted at -- 2008, we
:06:21. > :06:25.discovered it did not work. It was a pyramid scheme and it didn't work.
:06:25. > :06:31.In order to grow the economies, it relied on its borrowing money we
:06:31. > :06:35.didn't have. Now we are paying that back. I am not saying that
:06:35. > :06:42.capitalism doesn't work, but it wasn't working very well up until
:06:42. > :06:47.then. I think consumerism is the same. I believe we need to be a
:06:47. > :06:53.healthy economy and grow at 2.5%, or do we? Why can't we have a
:06:53. > :07:01.balanced economy? We know that the world has finite resources. Just do
:07:01. > :07:08.Do the sums on 3% economic growth every year. Put that forward 100
:07:08. > :07:12.years and see what that means as far as consummation is concerned.
:07:12. > :07:17.People watching and listening to this in India, China and many of
:07:17. > :07:21.the emerging and developing economy say that is fine, but you are
:07:21. > :07:25.speaking from a position of greater luxury in the West and you can
:07:25. > :07:30.afford to countenance different ways of approaching our economic
:07:30. > :07:34.model. We still want to acquire just a very little piece of what
:07:34. > :07:39.you have had for the past 50 years. And they absolutely should, and
:07:39. > :07:44.they will. While they do it they must be careful about what they are
:07:44. > :07:48.throwing into the atmosphere. We have made terrible mistakes. The
:07:48. > :07:57.air quality we know in China and probably parts of India is not
:07:57. > :08:02.history and I am sure the Chinese and the Indians are looking and
:08:02. > :08:06.seeing how we have managed and thinking, we must manage this in
:08:06. > :08:12.another way. I'm not saying that people must live poor. If anyone is
:08:12. > :08:15.going to be poor, it is going to be us in Europe, not Asia. I am not
:08:15. > :08:22.saying that you cannot have what we have it. I am just saying let's
:08:22. > :08:27.make staff, let's train people to repair that staff and let's make it
:08:27. > :08:33.last. You focus on, in terms of solutions or approaches that might
:08:33. > :08:37.work for saving our planet from poison, you focus on first of all
:08:37. > :08:42.reducing consumption... Not saving the planet. We must be very clear
:08:42. > :08:47.here. We are talking about saving lives. The planners will take care
:08:47. > :08:53.of itself. The planet will outlast lives,
:08:53. > :08:58.lives, saving hospital bills, saving not having to we buy
:08:58. > :09:04.commodities because we are using them. Very practical things. Do you
:09:04. > :09:06.see an irony in ute pushing very hard on this issue when if one
:09:06. > :09:12.hard on this issue when if one looks at the industry in which you
:09:12. > :09:17.work, it is to the outsider one of the most wasteful, won the most
:09:17. > :09:23.excessive, and one of the most extravagant industry's one could
:09:23. > :09:27.imagine? Not from where I stand. I work with people who - I am working
:09:27. > :09:32.out of Hungary a lot of the moment. We recycle the food we do not eat.
:09:32. > :09:42.If it is fresh enough, we'll send it away to be eaten by other people
:09:42. > :09:42.
:09:42. > :09:49.all we will composted. We drink out the Hollywood way, is it? I think
:09:49. > :09:56.you sort of may be joined the world in thinking that the movie industry
:09:56. > :10:05.is fast the wasteful. It is not. It a lot of money to make that money.
:10:05. > :10:09.A if you are a politician, I would am going to do it to you. You are
:10:09. > :10:17.an actor who believes passionately in the sort of campaigns. Therefore,
:10:17. > :10:20.I think it is fair to ask you, why, for example, you feel it is right
:10:20. > :10:28.to own multiple homes? Given everything we have just talked
:10:28. > :10:34.about. Because I have earned that money and I paid the tax on that
:10:34. > :10:44.money and what I value in life that his privacy. The only way I can
:10:44. > :10:45.
:10:45. > :10:50.have - I live in a very public and I am not filming, I like to be
:10:50. > :10:55.with my family or my own. You don't need half a dozen homes to the
:10:55. > :11:00.private. No, but I don't actually private. No, but I don't actually
:11:01. > :11:10.have half a dozen homes. I have two homes. One in this country and one
:11:11. > :11:12.
:11:12. > :11:17.in Ireland. I happen to love houses and I do own more than that, but
:11:17. > :11:26.they are not homes. They are places that other members of the family
:11:26. > :11:32.living. To see that they may be questions that arise... But what is
:11:32. > :11:42.behind your question is, if you are in a fortunate position in life,
:11:42. > :11:44.
:11:44. > :11:46.then how can you criticise anything? Well, the people who run
:11:46. > :11:56.the world are all in fortunate positions. The difference between
:11:56. > :12:03.me and a politician and why maybe that I live life. Politicians love
:12:03. > :12:08.politics. One of the problems now have done nothing else in their
:12:08. > :12:12.lives. I have built. I have been a builder I have been an actor. I
:12:12. > :12:16.have played other sorts of people. I have put net huge numbers of
:12:16. > :12:26.people and work in different countries all over the world. I
:12:26. > :12:29.have seen how they are and how they are different from us. Of course I
:12:29. > :12:33.have opinions and of course I see ways that we are living life that
:12:33. > :12:38.we are running a world at that do not make sense. And I talk about it.
:12:38. > :12:48.You do. What I am picking away at his Port SES potential
:12:48. > :12:50.
:12:50. > :12:57.pick another one. The message of the film, Trashed, is very powerful.
:12:57. > :13:04.authorities, for governments, to do more, to regulate more, to be much
:13:04. > :13:07.stricter in the way they organise the disposal of waste. And yet
:13:07. > :13:15.there is another part of you, Jeremy Irons, that seems to me to
:13:15. > :13:23.regulation, of government red tape, of public officials telling in did
:13:23. > :13:27.do. That comes out in your attitude towards smoking. The recognition --
:13:27. > :13:31.recognised a contradiction between the man who was to see regulation
:13:31. > :13:41.and the libertarian? Of course. I have always believed, and I know it
:13:41. > :13:45.is a very fine line, have always believed - I don't like Wall's, it
:13:45. > :13:50.is in my nature. I think we have to act in a way that does not harm
:13:50. > :13:55.others. Smoking harms others and yet... If I'm walking down the road
:13:55. > :13:59.or walking in a park, it doesn't hurt anybody. And yet it is illegal.
:13:59. > :14:05.It is telling the atmosphere. It is deeply unpleasant to people nearby.
:14:05. > :14:11.coming out of motor cars and what is putting into the beef we are
:14:11. > :14:21.reading and what is sprayed on the are eating. I mean, please, have a
:14:21. > :14:26.
:14:26. > :14:31.Nothing is being done! Why do you think cancer is still rising even
:14:31. > :14:36.Because of Because of what people are
:14:36. > :14:40.ingesting in the air and food. Do not told me I am not allowed to
:14:40. > :14:44.smoke in a 58 acre park in the middle of New York because I will
:14:44. > :14:54.kill someone or myself. If it is myself, it is my own choice. It is
:14:54. > :14:55.
:14:55. > :15:02.stupid thinking. Would you call insistence on the primacy of
:15:02. > :15:10.individual liberty when it comes to has to come -- there has to be the
:15:10. > :15:14.primary thing. It has been, in this country. Looking at recent public
:15:14. > :15:21.pronouncements you have made, you have made quite a few... Are never
:15:21. > :15:26.interviewed by people because I'm selling a product. A documentary
:15:26. > :15:31.called trashed mac. People go off subject because they don't want to
:15:31. > :15:35.talk about trashed or whatever film I am talking about. They want to
:15:35. > :15:39.connect to you to your campaigns. They come off subject. I make a
:15:39. > :15:43.comment because we are discussing. Then it is called a public
:15:43. > :15:49.pronouncement. It is not. It is my personal opinion. That is a fair
:15:49. > :15:54.comment. Like many other people, I am fascinated by your opinions.
:15:54. > :15:57.There are interesting. You are not frightened to put them out. Another
:15:57. > :16:04.one which was reasoned and fascinating was your view of gay
:16:04. > :16:12.marriage. You clearly expressed disquiet about the idea. You did it
:16:12. > :16:19.because he said you were not sure if in and... Fathers might want to
:16:19. > :16:24.marry the signs for tax purposes. Yes. I do not have any opinion
:16:24. > :16:30.about gay marriage. I do not have much opinion about heterosexual
:16:30. > :16:35.marriage. I think it might possibly protect children. That is why I
:16:35. > :16:40.married my wife. A gay marriage is not something I have feelings about
:16:40. > :16:44.at all. Quite interesting, what it does to marriage, which is why we
:16:44. > :16:51.are having this bizarre conversation, Budget uses from an
:16:51. > :16:55.American journalist. -- it is from an American journalist. You thought
:16:55. > :17:02.it might debase the institution of marriage. Which is an interesting
:17:02. > :17:08.Marriage is about procreation, really. Historically, that is how
:17:08. > :17:17.it has always been. But I am about the informed. I actually do not
:17:17. > :17:21.know the difference between a Civic country, and marriage. I do not
:17:21. > :17:26.know what the difference is. I know the Church has problems
:17:26. > :17:32.historically. I don't know if those problems will go away. In America,
:17:32. > :17:38.it is different. In some states, you can marry, same-sex partners.
:17:38. > :17:42.In sum, you cannot. I was amused by the idea that I put forward. It had
:17:42. > :17:49.nothing to do with my feelings. I think a marriage is wonderful. At
:17:49. > :17:53.the end of the interview, which was not reported, if anything cause
:17:53. > :17:57.anybody together in a relationship, it is great. If it works as a clue,
:17:57. > :18:07.if it makes you feel better, if it makes you laugh your part not more,
:18:07. > :18:07.
:18:07. > :18:15.great. -- partner more.I felt I should have buttoned my lip. I was
:18:15. > :18:20.your view of where we are at terms of gender and sexual politics,
:18:20. > :18:25.relations between men and women. The other thing or you said which
:18:25. > :18:33.caused a huge stir. I wonder if you wished you had but and your lips.
:18:34. > :18:42.You said a while ago, I am paraphrasing,... Go ahead.
:18:42. > :18:48.Paraphrase. You said, in your view, it was not a big deal for a man to
:18:48. > :18:56.pat a woman's behind. Any woman worth her value would deal with it.
:18:56. > :19:05.Yes. That peed off an awful a lot of women. Many women were upset. I
:19:05. > :19:15.do not say part the behind. That is If I touched a woman in a way that
:19:15. > :19:16.
:19:16. > :19:20.was not welcome, that any woman and told me not to do that. Is it
:19:21. > :19:26.better for men not to do it in the first place? No. We need to touch
:19:27. > :19:31.and love each other and communicate. It is all part of that. I wantart of
:19:32. > :19:41.get to some pass -- acting before we finish. I have not got there yet.
:19:41. > :19:46.Let me ask you about politics. You have strong opinions and beliefs.
:19:46. > :19:54.They are political in one way or another. It seems to me, you have
:19:55. > :20:02.made a political transition, whether Republic in the '90s. Tony
:20:02. > :20:10.Blair developed his project. -- very public. You even gave money.
:20:10. > :20:14.Quite a lot. It was.How much? telling you. Do you regret it?No.
:20:14. > :20:21.It was the right thing to do at the time. How was put up with the
:20:21. > :20:31.Tories. We needed it. The whole country for that. I was part of
:20:31. > :20:31.
:20:31. > :20:35.that. Eight years later, you have had enough. I was disappointed.
:20:35. > :20:41.Governments are terrible. I look at all of them and I think, you poor
:20:41. > :20:46.things. If you look at the heart of your career, your great television
:20:46. > :20:51.and film career, a lot of actors like you have decided to make their
:20:51. > :20:56.homes on the west coast of America. To focus on the American market and
:20:56. > :21:05.sustaining a career in America. You never did that. I thought about it.
:21:05. > :21:09.Broadway. My son was at school there. We have one child. We
:21:09. > :21:13.discussed whether we would stay and make a career at there. She is
:21:13. > :21:21.Irish. She is transplanted by living in England. I am a garden
:21:21. > :21:27.there. They are nice gardens in America. I am a delicate plant.
:21:27. > :21:30.Operating things is not necessarily the best th?I ? the best th
:21:30. > :21:37.rooting. For my make-up, if things rooting. For my make-up, if things
:21:37. > :21:43.are like Devine, what I love about life and this country, and Ireland,
:21:43. > :21:50.I need to b?I ? I need to bAn act what he comes out of. What he cares
:21:50. > :21:57.about, but his passions are. Partly what you are saying is that acting
:21:57. > :22:03.is not the all and end all for you. No. Not all of Jeremy Irons is
:22:03. > :22:09.driven by your job. The job we identify with you anyway. I love
:22:09. > :22:18.the job. It is a small percentage of the time. These days, I get paid
:22:18. > :22:26.to do publicity. Films are so hard there and do it. We are almost out
:22:26. > :22:31.of time. Can we reflect on something interesting about your
:22:31. > :22:40.career. He rolls people will always have in their minds when they think
:22:40. > :22:46.of you. From Brideshead Revisited, one of the greatest TV dramas ever
:22:46. > :22:50.made, to reversal of fortune. There is a type that you hhat you h yours
:22:51. > :22:55.yourself playing. Somewhat aristocratic. The mask of a
:22:55. > :23:05.gentleman, but a sort of breeding and with lots of demons beneath the
:23:05. > :23:07.
:23:07. > :23:12.find it easy to identify with those because there is something of that
:23:12. > :23:17.in you? I do not know. It is interesting why you want to do
:23:17. > :23:22.something, why you want to buy a certain car, a tie, why you want to
:23:22. > :23:28.eat a certain Bill, work for a certain person, told a certain
:23:28. > :23:34.story. Very interesting. Many things go into that decision. I
:23:34. > :23:43.also used to say, it is my appetite. I want to discover the geography of
:23:43. > :23:49.that person. You said acting takes up a small space in your life. Will
:23:49. > :23:54.small. As if small. As if you get older, you get
:23:54. > :23:59.offered less that is interesting. You have less energy. I want to
:23:59. > :24:06.start writing or something. You have to get rid of all of this
:24:06. > :24:11.malaise. In life. To find a bit of calm to get onto something else. I