Speaking out

Michael Ironside on set with his Confession co-stars

He may not be winning the big awards or getting blockbuster leading roles, but Michael Ironside is one of just a handful of actors working today who can truly be described as legendary, and what’s more, he’s managed to hold onto that status – and a massive fan following – for over thee decades. He doesn’t usually talk to the press, but his latest film, Confession, deals with a subject which is very important to him on a personal level, so he wants to give it all the support he can. In it he plays a detective working alongside a bright young district attorney who is determined to investigate a rape allegation which, on the surface of it, doesn’t seem very convincing, but which may have secrets hidden underneath. When we met to discuss it in a conversation which also explored his recent work in BlackBerry and some of his past hits, he insisted that we take our time, regardless of scheduling, because he feels strongly that this is a subject which doesn’t get talked about enough.

“Confession was sent to me by one of the producers, Jon Keeyes, who’s a friend of mine. We’ve done two or three smaller films together, and he said, ‘You might enjoy this,’ because we have very similar political attitudes towards subjects, and he was right. I read Confession, and the idea of dealing with the subject matter of rape and non consensual sex...” He sighs. “I’m the father of two daughters. I’m Irish Catholic. I have family members who were raped, so it’s a subject that I’m very close to. Also I was sexually abused as a child. So it was just the idea of talking about things that are very difficult to talk about in a public area, which are important.

Clark Backo in Confession

“The whole purpose of doing this film was to allow us to talk on a more public level, or give people permission to talk. I don't want to give the impression that this is a documentary about rape and about the evils of sex, and we're pounding the pulpit about it. No, we're not doing that. This is a very engaging, I think, mystery drama. It has an incredibly good, incredibly powerful performances. And all of us actors came to it not for the money – we came for the subject matter.

“My character, which was sent to me, I really got to understand. I feel Dayna is an amazing director, and I got to talk to her on FaceTime before we started shooting. She's from the state of Washington and I think I was on location in Europe. We talked about my character, a grizzled old detective who's close to the end of his career and who doesn't want to take the case that he's put up on the shelf years before and dust it off and look at it again. And Clark Backo plays a young assistant DA who I think is politically motivated, and she tries to force the situation so we re-open this case. And through the film, I go from being somebody very strict and very, very inflexible to somebody who is ready, by the end of the film, to become a champion for the subject matter. That arc of his education, I hope that we can reach some of the people that also feel the same way.”

Whilst the character does change, I note, there’s also a flashback scene in there which shows him losing his temper with an fellow officer who mistreats a complainant in an earlier case. He’s quick to praise co-star Matthew Tompkins, who plays that other officer.

“He flew up from Texas, to where we were shooting in upstate New York, and he did a half a day playing this very, very angry detective who's berating a witness, and did a fabulous job, and all the way through the film we have these performances where actors are giving themselves over to playing some very unseemly and very uncomfortable characters, and they do a fabulous job.

“If you look at Sterling Beaumon, who plays one of our bad guys, he has everything in life. He has money, property and prestige, this young man, and he's an absolute slime ball. He didn't pass comment on it saying ‘This isn't really me.’ He gave himself over to this character. He's a wonderful young man, a very gifted actor, you know, but he played this very, very unlikable guy and put a face on that act that he was involved in.”

Confession poster

He tells me about one of his daughters, who is in her mid-20s now, and how, when she was 14, they sat down at the kitchen table because he’s decided that it was time to have a talk about sex.

“We were talking to her and right in the middle of that she very politely said ‘Dad, did you have sex education in school?’ I said ‘Yeah.’ ‘What did they teach you?’ I said ‘Well, they taught me how to have protected sex and not get a girl pregnant, and about sexually transmitted diseases,’ and she said ‘You know what? I was taught not to get raped.’

“I said ‘What?’ She said that girls are taught to wear their hair down at night so they can’t be grabbed by their pony tails, and to walk in the middle of that road. She said if you're going out at night, you’re told to carry walking shoes so you can run, because you can't run in heels, and stay away from dark alleys and dark streets.

“The idea that my daughter, at 14, already was looking at the world as a predatorial state was a real shock to me. And I thought I was very well versed and educated by 40. It was absolutely amazing. It was like having the scales lifted, and that's why the subject matters. I think if we can look at this as a really good film - it's a murder mystery, there's a lot of duplicity, there’s some incredible performances - the subject will hopefully start a conversation about rape and stuff like that. And it's something we have to talk about public level. And not just men against women and stuff like that.”

He tells me about a friend of his who was raped by somebody who kicked her door down after she rejected him at the end of a date.

“When she went to the hospital, a female attending doctor said ‘Were you drinking? Is this the outfit you were wearing? Your ass is hanging out. What did you expect?’ and berated her for being a victim. So it's not just men – I think it's a societal way of looking at the subject matter where we vilify the actual victim. Everyone I talked to has some reference or has a story to tell about inappropriate sexual behaviour.”

What was it like being on set when the film was dealing with such a fraught subject?

“Well, Dayna is an incredible director. She really understands that if you pick good material and you cast it correctly, and then you let your actors do what they can do. She basically said faster, slower, louder, softer. She did a very good job. You know, it's not a huge budget film. She made it a very safe environment for people to play these dark roles. And I’ve got to tell you, everyone stayed within their their lanes, you know? You know, my partner, Detective Rodriguez – Rob Giumarra – he came up out of nowhere. She hired him in New York. He's done stage and a lot of smaller parts and he showed up and he played a character who didn't overstep. A lot of actors do sometimes. He played it to a tee. Sterling did an amazing job. Sarah Hay put so much complexity in her character and hides all this stuff. That's such an amazing job. And then Clark, who's very, very attractive and very, very talented. And on set, she’d take the piss out of me.” He laughs. “On set, you would think it would be church like but it wasn't. It was safe for everyone to be who they had to be, which was wonderful.”

BlackBerry Photo: courtesy of Glasgow Film Festival

I ask if it’s ever a challenge getting co-stars to relax around him, given his iconic status.

He shrugs. “I can't really speak for how other actors approach me or how they see me. I try and be as friendly as possible. I work because I want to. I love it.

“I do very large films and I usually play very, very evil characters. I get paid a lot of money. So I can affect distribution. I can garnish. You have one good star or a few stars, and then they throw me in and I'm kind of like the asparagus or the mashed potatoes on the big steak. I'm not the main course. But I do go to fill that plate, and it makes it more attractive. And I do those big films so that I can come down and do other projects that I choose based upon the subject matter and, usually, who's telling the story. I like doing things with new directors and new writers, to see who they are. And usually if they're really good and we get along, we can work together again.”

I mention that I recently saw his work in BlackBerry.

“Now you've got one over me,” he says. “I haven't seen that.”

I explain that I caught it as part of the Glasgow Film Festival and he tells me that his grandfather is from Aberdeenshire. We discuss the film and I mention that its director, Matt Johnson, was full of praise for him and even said that he’d helped with the directing.

“Matt's absolutely amazing,” he responds. “I really hope we get to work together again. You know, we were in a situation and he said ‘Whoa, this is kind of weird. How would you do it?’ I said ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘Well, I have four set-ups for this scene.’ I said ‘Okay, well why don't you just follow me through. I'll walk right into a medium close-up and then you can back off there and pick up the other actors.’ It was already pre lit. So he said, ‘Okay, we'll do that.’ And, you know, he trusted me.

“He's another person who casts projects correctly. You don't have to really talk to anybody when you're directing if you cast correctly and you're letting your actors have a safe environment. And he says, ‘Look, you've done 300 plus films, I've done five as the director. If you see me getting into a corner, let me know.’ He gave me permission. And I got a better question. ’If you get confused in any way and you want help, why don’t you ask?’ And he said ‘Absolutely.’ I really hope we get to work together again. I want to try and get down to South by Southwest, so I can have a look at it because I haven't seen it. How did I do?”

Michael Ironside with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall - "where I made the most friends."

I assure him that he doesn’t have anything to worry about and go on to explain that Matt said he’d sought him out because he needed somebody who could be scarier that Glenn Howerton.

“It was almost like I had to be a parent,” says Michael, reflecting on his character. “There's this other generation of characters where everyone's running around with spitballs. The idea was that I had to play the adult with a bunch of people that are very childlike in a lot of their behaviour, that are creating all this computer stuff. And I had to be the person to come in and get them all in line. You know, I had to herd cats. And it was fun, doing what I love to do.

“There’s one scene in front of the window when I'm watching them all and he's having a bit of a meltdown. And Matt's basically his friend who's having that problem with him saying ‘Don't you understand?’ We actually reshot it. We shot it one way, and then a couple of days later, Matt said, you know, there's something else I want to get into that.’ And I went ‘Okay,’ and he wanted more of my emotional involvement in the actual outcome of that.”

I ask what he looks for in a project these days.

“I'm pretty well self sufficient when it comes to money,” he says. “I mean, I'm not going to say no to money, but basically, first I look at the material. Is it something I haven't played before, or is it going to allow me to reach for something that I haven't done before? I’ve played a few grandfathers just recently, and husbands whose wives have passed, so I got to be able to plumb some emotion and stuff that comes from my own life. I'm very well trained as an actor – that's not just me waxing – and I don't often get the opportunity to reach for something.

“Whenever I've played really bad, unfair or discriminatory characters, I try and show that their way of doing things doesn't work. In the 340 plus films I've done, all those characters, there are only two that I really wish I had never done, and they were both jobs I did for money, because I had a new baby. And to this day I wish i’d not done them.

“When I choose to do a project. I'm putting my vote behind that subject. And when I play bad guys and I play really, really busted and damaged people, I'm basically shutting down. I'm trying to show that these are not positive people. They’re people who have been damaged and growing up, didn't have the opportunity to have good parenting or something. I do believe that we're all born out of a place of love.”

Michael Ironside in Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers - "Paul actually keeps saying we're going to do a third film together."

He doesn’t have favourites amongst his characters, he says, because that would be like trying to choose between his children.

“The film I’ve made the most friends on was Total Recall. And that same crew under Paul Verhoeven and Jost Vacano, the DP, we did Starship Troopers. Paul actually keeps saying we're going to do a third film together, and we really should do it. I agree. He actually came up with a project about five, six years ago, he said I want you to play Hitler’s architect, Albert Speer. I found that really interesting. I did so much work on this guy. He had lied about his test scores, he had stolen affidavits and essays from other students. I mean, he was a total sociopathic, he was perfect for the Nazi regime.”

The funding didn’t work out on that one, he explains, but he’s sure that he and Paul will work together again.

I tell him that something I like about his work in Confession is that he plays the kind of ageing detective whom we see in a lot of films, yet makes him feel specific and human.

“I just think that's in the writing and bringing that character to life,” he says. “You know, so often, I think we have caricatures of who people are. Again, this speaks to Dayna, our director, and Jon Keeyes, our producer, who basically went out and got the right actors.

“I get hired for a lot of characters that can be cliché. I take a job if I look at the writing and I think I can find a way to make it real, make them human – sometimes damaged, but people with a real emotional history and a real emotional background”.

Confession is in US cinemas now.