Cillian: Ah yeah, I mean growing up in Ireland I think you'd have to be. But I think he's a world director first and foremost; his movies are loved by everyone all over the world, and even though he deals with Irish themes, he's also dealt with themes as far removed from Irish topics as you can get. There isn't a great visual history in Irish cinema, you know what I mean? Great storytelling, but… I think he has the visual flair. I think his films always look beautiful, and they're always interesting, and so all of those things appealed to me, years and years before I had a chance to even meet him!
What drew you to the role of Kitten?
Well, The Butcher Boy had a tremendous effect on me—the book and the film. I read Breakfast on Pluto when it came out, and I fell in love with that character as well. It's one of those roles of a lifetime; I'm very careful not to use that phrase too lightly, but I think it applies in this context. I did a screen test for Neil when he was thinking of doing it about four years ago, maybe longer. We both felt there was something there, but I don't think he had the money or the inclination to go back to those topics that soon. Then Alan Moloney, who produced Intermission with Neil, came to us and said "what about this Breakfast on Pluto script?" We were out one night in Dublin somewhere and he said "look, give me three weeks and I'll have the money for you." We sort of drunkenly said "go on," and he did it, you know?! He deserves a lot of credit for getting this thing going.
The film as a whole sort of rests on your shoulders; your character appears in almost every scene. Was that a frightening prospect or was it something that excited you?
I think if you look at the thing and go "yeah, I can do this," you're starting from a weak position. It was terrifying, the prospect of it, because it's sort of the ultimate informative role, but that's what actors thrive on isn’t it? Well they should, anyway! But when you've a director like Neil, as well, you feel in very safe hands. But if you don't feel sort of scared or trepidacious about it it's not worth it for me, really.
Neil's talked a lot about innocence, in terms of Kitten's character, but she's also very fearless and wise. Was it a difficult balance to achieve?
Yeah, it's very very interesting because she's very dynamic, with all of the conflicting strengths and weaknesses that she has. Someone asked us if the film is about the loss of innocence, and Neil said it's about the maintenance of innocence, you know, which I think is a smart way of looking at it. But I think that she's very very intelligent and knows exactly what's going on; she feigns innocence, and feigns ignorance of the troubles and what side is what. But it's a defence mechanism ultimately, isn't it?
As the film progresses, your costume and make-up get more extreme. Did this make it easier or more difficult to act?
I kind of knew very early on that I could do the looking pretty, looking beautiful stuff; it was to back that up with the soul of the character, that was the challenge. We had brilliant hair and make-up on this job; Lynn Johnston did the make-up, and she was just incredible. But it was a joy, I loved doing all of that—that's what we do, we put on clothes and we put on funny voices. You get into looking pretty and beautiful very easily. The only thing I did that was sore was shaving the legs, and chaffing, but you know nothing that was unbearable. There were a lot of hours in make-up; you have to commit to it 100%, so I did.
The rest of the cast is a real roll-call of Irish acting. You've worked with most of them before, but was there anyone you particularly enjoyed doing scenes with?
I've a particular soft spot for Brendan Gleeson, the problem with doing the stuff with him was trying not to laugh! But I did my first ever part in a film with him, the barman in Sweety Barrett, and I just remember he was so gracious and generous back then, and has continued to be all the way up. I always go to him for advice and stuff, you know. And he had that character John-Joe down from the start, right from when we walked into rehearsals. The whole thing from the look, the accent, everything. As did Stephen Rea's character, and Liam Neeson—I guess they have the shorthand with Neil, they know what he's going to want, and they know they have a freedom to go a bit mad. I also found working with Ian Hart was amazing, like in that scene in the police cell he didn't lay a finger on me, and it was a very very brutal scene.
Obviously, the Irish public is well aware of your range, but do you worry that you'll be typecast internationally as a villain, based on the more extreme roles you play in films like Batman Begins and Red Eye?
Yeah, I mean that's probably a fair point; I do enjoy characters under pressure, and I do generally enjoy the darker side of things, although Kitten is the complete opposite in that regard. In terms of Red Eye and Batman, I did get a lot of that in the American press, you know, "Hollywood's latest bad guy," but it was just a fluke of distribution, I shot Pluto in between the two of them. And of course most of the moviegoing public there wouldn't have seen the earlier films. Having said that, I've just finished Ken Loach's film about the trouble in West Cork…
The Wind That Shakes the Barley?
Yeah, and the flying columns and stuff. And then I'm doing Danny Boyle's movie, and I'm certainly not the bad guy in that. Having said that, they're dealing with pretty heavy conflicts, both of them. I guess that it's not a deliberate thing, it's just that in the scripts that I've read the ones that appeal to me are the darker ones. That's not to say that Woody Allen movies don't, or anything like that, but my movies, and the great sort of works of art I find in fiction and film anyway, the ones that investigate the dark side of the psyche I find more appealing. I'd love to do a good Woody Allen movie, or a very smart comedy, and I think that when these films come out—the Loach one and the Boyle one—that hopefully they'll show a slightly different side of me.
