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Interview Exclusive HTF Interview: Academy Award Winning Actor Jeremy Irons (The Man Who Knew Infinity) (1 Viewer)

Neil Middlemiss

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In The Man Who Knew Infinity, Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons portrays Cambridge’s Trinity College Professor, G.H. Hardy, who in 1913 discovered a young, poor mathematical genius from India, Srinivasa Ramanujan, played by Dev Patel, a man who would profoundly change Hardy’s life. Hardy would mentor Ramanujan over the course of several years as they faced and fought deep prejudice from an England largely unable (and unwilling) to see the magnificence of Ramanujan’s mathematical gift. The film examines cultural, spiritual and racial differences through the lens of a shared passion for numbers.

As much a love-letter to the universal language of mathematics as an inspiring tale of overcoming differences to form unlikely bonds, The Man Who Knew Infinity is a beautifully produced film with superb performances throughout.

The Man Who Knew Infinity is available now on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital HD.

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HTF: Hi good afternoon Jeremy, this is Neil Middlemiss with Home Theater Forum, I hope you're having a good day today.

Jeremy Irons: Neil, nice to talk to you, I am. It's the end of my day here and I'm in the UK and the light is just fading, I'm sitting in my garden on a swing seat, very comfortable and looking forward to talking to you.

HTF: Wonderful. The Man Who Knew Infinity is a beautifully produced film. The kind that we don't see quite as often as from years past. How important is it that films like this – intelligently written dramatic pieces that aren’t the CGI or explosion and action-driven spectacles - get financed and seen by audiences to bring some balance to the theatrical offerings?

“I think it's a beautiful film about relationships. Yes, mathematics is the wallpaper - so to speak - to the room they're moving in, but it's basically about human beings interacting.”

Jeremy Irons: Well, of course I think it's terribly important because all the films that I've enjoyed making the most are those sort of films. And as you know it's getting harder and harder. Thank God our dogged producer, Ed Pressman, got this made because the director was a fairly inexperienced director, and the subject, mathematics, I mean who's going to go and see that [chuckles]. I'm glad you think [it’s important] -- I think it's a beautiful film about relationships. Yes, mathematics is the wallpaper - so to speak - to the room they're moving in, but it's basically about human beings interacting. And I agree with you, it's the sort of film I like to go and see. And well, there's no two ways about it, it's getting harder and harder to make them. So I think it's incredibly important and which is why I'm so happy that The Man Who Knew Infinity is striking audiences so well. Because I think the studios will recognize that there is a market still - despite the huge audiences that now watch cable TV and these wonderful series that are being made, and despite the massive sort of CGI blockbusters - two of which I've just been involved in and I'm very proud of. But I have to say they're not quite as fun to make for the actor as these performance-based films like The Man Who Knew Infinity.

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HTF: And the film is enriched by the dynamic you have by Dev Patel, who plays the mathematical genius Ramanujan. Your characters has a fatherly, scholarly influence that evolves to the truest forms of friendships that I think is captured so well in the arresting speech you have towards the end of the film as you memorialize the character. But talk about your partnership and your relationship with Dev, and to a large extent, Toby Jones's Littlewood character, with whom you also share many wonderful scenes.

“And when I read Hardy's essays which he put together in a book called The Mathematician's Apology, I realized that he had as much fun and felt as much passion about pure mathematics as I do about acting and film and so on.”

Jeremy Irons: Well, [these men all] shared this passion for pure mathematics - something which, for me, I was never very good at it. And when I read Hardy's essays which he put together in a book called The Mathematician's Apology, I realized that he had as much fun and felt as much passion about pure mathematics as I do about acting and film and so on. So it was that that I got ahold of. And I was fascinated with the relationship between these two such disparate people. I mean, young Indian man, no experience of Europe and certainly not at university, and Hardy, like Littlewood - although Hardy is much more socially inept than Littlewood - had that sort of mind, which is fantastic for mathematics, not very good for social interaction. And to see how they communicated through this fashion, and how Hardy sort of flowered in a strange, rather subterranean English way emotionally with Ramanujan. He talks about that period when he writes about it as the only romantic period in his life, and I think he means romantic in that it was more colorful, it was brighter. I don't think he was in love with Ramanujan or anything like that but I think to find a shared spirit and somebody who excited him by his originality and his amazing genius was really extraordinary for the man and something that he never experienced again after Ramanujan's death. So to play that locked up man slowly being unlocked, was a lot of fun as always, of course to play with Toby Jones is joy because he is a great actor, as is Dev Patel.

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HTF: Looking back over your career, it's quite magnificent really. I'm still mesmerized by your performance [as Claus von Bülow] in Reversal of Fortune and [as Elliot] in David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers. But you've continued that through your career, I'm interested to know what draws you to certain projects. As you said, you’ve recently done some enormous films - Justice League which will be out next year, and you were just in Batman v Superman, so what is it that you look for in the character that you might play or the story or the structure of the piece that you might be a part of?


"I'm very conscious of trying to do both films like "The Man Who Knew Infinity" and "Justice League", or "Batman v Superman", or "Assassin's Creed" which will go to a very wide audience, and hopefully some of them may like what I'm doing and think, "Well he's also in The Man Who Knew Infinity, so we'll go and see that." I hope for cross pollination."


Jeremy Irons: Well, I think it's purely appetite. I read a script rather like an audience goes through a movie. When I'm reading, am I enjoying it? Is it a character personally for me, unlike something I've played before - which is always nice because it's new territory. Is the film a good story? Will the director take care of it? Also of course there's the career box you think about so that I'm very conscious of trying to do both films like The Man Who Knew Infinity and Justice League, or Batman v Superman, or Assassin's Creed which will go to a very wide audience, and hopefully some of them may like what I'm doing and think, "Well he's also in The Man Who Knew Infinity, so we'll go and see that." I hope for cross pollination. My business sense thinks about that. But basically it's just, do I like the character? Do I like the story? Am I going to have a good time making this? And will it be something that audiences enjoy?

HTF: Wonderful. Thank you very much for speaking with me today. A genuine pleasure. And enjoy that lasting English sunset.

Jeremy Irons: [chuckles] Thank you very much, Neil
 
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Neil Middlemiss

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Neil, you must have enjoyed talking with such an intelligent, accomplished actor. I can just imagine his voice and cadences. Thanks for sharing with us.

You know, I've talked with many actors and directors and such over the years for interviews here at HTF - and have loved every minute of it and been enormously grateful - but rarely have I been as abuzz after I've hung up the phone as I was with Mr. Irons. I've had a deep appreciation for his work for many years and to hear his distinct voice talking to me with grace and intelligence was quite something.
 

titch

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Kevin Oppegaard
Seriously looking forward to updating my Criterion laserdisc with Shout! Factory's release of Dead Ringers in a couple of month's time. My favourite Jeremy Irons film.
 

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