Jeremy Irons - Actor and Campaigner HARDtalk


Jeremy Irons - Actor and Campaigner

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Cabrera in a play-off at Augusta. That's all from me. HARDtalk is

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next. Welcome to HARDtalk. My guest today

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he is one of Britain's most Jeremy Iron?I ? Jeremy Iron of

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the very troubled brooding upper- class gentleman. He has just

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finished making a documentary film about the potentially devastating

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impact of the mountain's of toxic waste polluting our planet. He is

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an actor with very strong opinions. Jeremy Irons, welcome to HARDtalk.

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In the last few years you have very definitely become an actor with the

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causes, with campaigns, that you think about going down that route?

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I don't see it say rude, I see it as part of life. Like a lot of

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people who do not have a voice, I have opinions about how we live our

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lives, what we do to their environment and being an actor I

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have a bit of a voice. One rarely taken seriously because I am actor,

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but did back it is harder for you to make the serious point? I think

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we think people in politics are serious. We do not necessarily

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trust them and we probably think they are less informed than most

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people in the street, but nevertheless I think there is an

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element - you look at somebody who is committed, like Vanessa Redgrave,

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who has taken a lot of flak - I think a lot of people are very

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worried when people step out of their path, so to speak. As you

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would probably if you saw David Cameron pla?I ? Cameron pla-

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Lady Windermere. One thing that sticks in mind mind is no longer go

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on HARDtalk we spoke to Rupert Everett. He has written very

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frankly and with great humour and also some pain about his role for a

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going going to some of the poorest places,

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seeing people in desperate straits and the difficulties he sometimes

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had matching that with the lifestyle he was living, with the

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publicists and the international two can be very difficult. I wonder

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whether you feel that? I don't find it difficult. I know the role I

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have. For a time I was an ambassador for the feud it -- Food

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and Agriculture Organisation. was all about the world's hungriest

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people. Yes. I came to the conclusion that it was a very

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inefficient organisation are not what I wanted to be a part of, so I

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resigned. You walk away because he did not believe in what they were

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doing? I went to a conference in Rome and came away thinking it was

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a lot of talk and not much action. There was a huge amount of money

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being spent their and a huge amount of money being wasted. It is not

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the way to do it. We know this is a problem with a lot of the UN. I

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felt I couldn't be useful because I - had I continued to do so, then I

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would have known that whatever value my photograph was in a

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refugee camp or whatever, at least it got it out there and I think

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what we have to do if we have that ability is to get causes are out

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You have very different team are now made a commitment to one

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pressing global issue and that is how we manage waste globally. --

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you have very definitely. And in particular the dangers of poisoning

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the planet in the way we handle the trash. What you -- what tree to

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that? I am interested because it is something that has happened in my

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lifetime. It didn't happen before the Second World War. Wigan have a

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throwaway society that we have developed over those years. -- we

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didn't. It also seems to me to be a problem but because it is what we

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throw away, it is a problem we forget. A problem we do not think

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about. Yet it is a problem that has our ocean, on our air-quality and

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economics. What we are doing is making things and throwing away

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having used them, not re-using them. Isn't it a problem born out of the

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very nature of consumer capitalism? When you take on the subject, and

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you have made a film and that it - which has taken you around the

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world to look at the most egregious incidences of mishandling of toxic

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waste in different countries - when you take it on, you are basically

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saying how consumer capitalist culture is dysfunctional. It is

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dysfunctional. We know that. you saying capitalism... Just

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because something is dysfunctional doesn't mean you have to change it,

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you just have to operate. Same as capitalism hinted at -- 2008, we

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discovered it did not work. It was a pyramid scheme and it didn't work.

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In order to grow the economies, it relied on its borrowing money we

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didn't have. Now we are paying that back. I am not saying that

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capitalism doesn't work, but it wasn't working very well up until

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then. I think consumerism is the same. I believe we need to be a

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healthy economy and grow at 2.5%, or do we? Why can't we have a

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balanced economy? We know that the world has finite resources. Just do

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Do the sums on 3% economic growth every year. Put that forward 100

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years and see what that means as far as consummation is concerned.

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People watching and listening to this in India, China and many of

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the emerging and developing economy say that is fine, but you are

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speaking from a position of greater luxury in the West and you can

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afford to countenance different ways of approaching our economic

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model. We still want to acquire just a very little piece of what

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you have had for the past 50 years. And they absolutely should, and

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they will. While they do it they must be careful about what they are

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throwing into the atmosphere. We have made terrible mistakes. The

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air quality we know in China and probably parts of India is not

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history and I am sure the Chinese and the Indians are looking and

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seeing how we have managed and thinking, we must manage this in

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another way. I'm not saying that people must live poor. If anyone is

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going to be poor, it is going to be us in Europe, not Asia. I am not

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saying that you cannot have what we have it. I am just saying let's

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make staff, let's train people to repair that staff and let's make it

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last. You focus on, in terms of solutions or approaches that might

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work for saving our planet from poison, you focus on first of all

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reducing consumption... Not saving the planet. We must be very clear

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here. We are talking about saving lives. The planners will take care

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of itself. The planet will outlast lives,

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lives, saving hospital bills, saving not having to we buy

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commodities because we are using them. Very practical things. Do you

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see an irony in ute pushing very hard on this issue when if one

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hard on this issue when if one looks at the industry in which you

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work, it is to the outsider one of the most wasteful, won the most

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excessive, and one of the most extravagant industry's one could

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imagine? Not from where I stand. I work with people who - I am working

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out of Hungary a lot of the moment. We recycle the food we do not eat.

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If it is fresh enough, we'll send it away to be eaten by other people

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all we will composted. We drink out the Hollywood way, is it? I think

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you sort of may be joined the world in thinking that the movie industry

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is fast the wasteful. It is not. It a lot of money to make that money.

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A if you are a politician, I would am going to do it to you. You are

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an actor who believes passionately in the sort of campaigns. Therefore,

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I think it is fair to ask you, why, for example, you feel it is right

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to own multiple homes? Given everything we have just talked

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about. Because I have earned that money and I paid the tax on that

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money and what I value in life that his privacy. The only way I can

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have - I live in a very public and I am not filming, I like to be

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with my family or my own. You don't need half a dozen homes to the

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private. No, but I don't actually private. No, but I don't actually

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have half a dozen homes. I have two homes. One in this country and one

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in Ireland. I happen to love houses and I do own more than that, but

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they are not homes. They are places that other members of the family

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living. To see that they may be questions that arise... But what is

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behind your question is, if you are in a fortunate position in life,

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then how can you criticise anything? Well, the people who run

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the world are all in fortunate positions. The difference between

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me and a politician and why maybe that I live life. Politicians love

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politics. One of the problems now have done nothing else in their

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lives. I have built. I have been a builder I have been an actor. I

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have played other sorts of people. I have put net huge numbers of

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people and work in different countries all over the world. I

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have seen how they are and how they are different from us. Of course I

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have opinions and of course I see ways that we are living life that

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we are running a world at that do not make sense. And I talk about it.

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You do. What I am picking away at his Port SES potential

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pick another one. The message of the film, Trashed, is very powerful.

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authorities, for governments, to do more, to regulate more, to be much

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stricter in the way they organise the disposal of waste. And yet

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there is another part of you, Jeremy Irons, that seems to me to

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regulation, of government red tape, of public officials telling in did

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do. That comes out in your attitude towards smoking. The recognition --

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recognised a contradiction between the man who was to see regulation

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and the libertarian? Of course. I have always believed, and I know it

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is a very fine line, have always believed - I don't like Wall's, it

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is in my nature. I think we have to act in a way that does not harm

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others. Smoking harms others and yet... If I'm walking down the road

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or walking in a park, it doesn't hurt anybody. And yet it is illegal.

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It is telling the atmosphere. It is deeply unpleasant to people nearby.

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coming out of motor cars and what is putting into the beef we are

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reading and what is sprayed on the are eating. I mean, please, have a

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Nothing is being done! Why do you think cancer is still rising even

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Because of Because of what people are

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ingesting in the air and food. Do not told me I am not allowed to

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smoke in a 58 acre park in the middle of New York because I will

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kill someone or myself. If it is myself, it is my own choice. It is

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stupid thinking. Would you call insistence on the primacy of

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individual liberty when it comes to has to come -- there has to be the

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primary thing. It has been, in this country. Looking at recent public

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pronouncements you have made, you have made quite a few... Are never

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interviewed by people because I'm selling a product. A documentary

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called trashed mac. People go off subject because they don't want to

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talk about trashed or whatever film I am talking about. They want to

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connect to you to your campaigns. They come off subject. I make a

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comment because we are discussing. Then it is called a public

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pronouncement. It is not. It is my personal opinion. That is a fair

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comment. Like many other people, I am fascinated by your opinions.

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There are interesting. You are not frightened to put them out. Another

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one which was reasoned and fascinating was your view of gay

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marriage. You clearly expressed disquiet about the idea. You did it

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because he said you were not sure if in and... Fathers might want to

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marry the signs for tax purposes. Yes. I do not have any opinion

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about gay marriage. I do not have much opinion about heterosexual

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marriage. I think it might possibly protect children. That is why I

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married my wife. A gay marriage is not something I have feelings about

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at all. Quite interesting, what it does to marriage, which is why we

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are having this bizarre conversation, Budget uses from an

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American journalist. -- it is from an American journalist. You thought

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it might debase the institution of marriage. Which is an interesting

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Marriage is about procreation, really. Historically, that is how

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it has always been. But I am about the informed. I actually do not

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know the difference between a Civic country, and marriage. I do not

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know what the difference is. I know the Church has problems

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historically. I don't know if those problems will go away. In America,

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it is different. In some states, you can marry, same-sex partners.

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In sum, you cannot. I was amused by the idea that I put forward. It had

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nothing to do with my feelings. I think a marriage is wonderful. At

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the end of the interview, which was not reported, if anything cause

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anybody together in a relationship, it is great. If it works as a clue,

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if it makes you feel better, if it makes you laugh your part not more,

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great. -- partner more.I felt I should have buttoned my lip. I was

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your view of where we are at terms of gender and sexual politics,

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relations between men and women. The other thing or you said which

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caused a huge stir. I wonder if you wished you had but and your lips.

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You said a while ago, I am paraphrasing,... Go ahead.

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Paraphrase. You said, in your view, it was not a big deal for a man to

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pat a woman's behind. Any woman worth her value would deal with it.

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Yes. That peed off an awful a lot of women. Many women were upset. I

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do not say part the behind. That is If I touched a woman in a way that

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was not welcome, that any woman and told me not to do that. Is it

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better for men not to do it in the first place? No. We need to touch

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and love each other and communicate. It is all part of that. I wantart of

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get to some pass -- acting before we finish. I have not got there yet.

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Let me ask you about politics. You have strong opinions and beliefs.

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They are political in one way or another. It seems to me, you have

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made a political transition, whether Republic in the '90s. Tony

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Blair developed his project. -- very public. You even gave money.

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Quite a lot. It was.How much? telling you. Do you regret it?No.

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It was the right thing to do at the time. How was put up with the

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Tories. We needed it. The whole country for that. I was part of

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that. Eight years later, you have had enough. I was disappointed.

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Governments are terrible. I look at all of them and I think, you poor

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things. If you look at the heart of your career, your great television

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and film career, a lot of actors like you have decided to make their

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homes on the west coast of America. To focus on the American market and

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sustaining a career in America. You never did that. I thought about it.

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Broadway. My son was at school there. We have one child. We

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discussed whether we would stay and make a career at there. She is

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Irish. She is transplanted by living in England. I am a garden

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there. They are nice gardens in America. I am a delicate plant.

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Operating things is not necessarily the best th?I ? the best th

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rooting. For my make-up, if things rooting. For my make-up, if things

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are like Devine, what I love about life and this country, and Ireland,

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I need to b?I ? I need to bAn act what he comes out of. What he cares

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about, but his passions are. Partly what you are saying is that acting

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is not the all and end all for you. No. Not all of Jeremy Irons is

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driven by your job. The job we identify with you anyway. I love

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the job. It is a small percentage of the time. These days, I get paid

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to do publicity. Films are so hard there and do it. We are almost out

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of time. Can we reflect on something interesting about your

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career. He rolls people will always have in their minds when they think

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of you. From Brideshead Revisited, one of the greatest TV dramas ever

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made, to reversal of fortune. There is a type that you hhat you h yours

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yourself playing. Somewhat aristocratic. The mask of a

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gentleman, but a sort of breeding and with lots of demons beneath the

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find it easy to identify with those because there is something of that

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in you? I do not know. It is interesting why you want to do

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something, why you want to buy a certain car, a tie, why you want to

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eat a certain Bill, work for a certain person, told a certain

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story. Very interesting. Many things go into that decision. I

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also used to say, it is my appetite. I want to discover the geography of

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that person. You said acting takes up a small space in your life. Will

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small. As if small. As if you get older, you get

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offered less that is interesting. You have less energy. I want to

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start writing or something. You have to get rid of all of this

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malaise. In life. To find a bit of calm to get onto something else. I

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