Carolyn: I know you’ve talked about this a million times, but give me a brief synopsis of how you got into acting.

Gerry: Yeah I was studying to be a lawyer. I finished at school , went on to train at a law firm for a couple of years, where I managed to royally mess that up. I didn’t really wanna do it, they knew I didn’t wanna do it. My life was, umm, I wasn’t living a particularly healthy or happy life at that time. So, they umm, we, umm, how would you say this……okay, I was fired. {giggles}. And they said "ya know what? This is not your dream. Why don’t you go off and do what you want to do." And literally the next day I packed my bags and moved down to London and said, okay, one, I’m gonna sort out my life, but secondly, I’m gonna get into acting, cause that’s what I’d always wanted to do. And then I took some odd jobs, ya know, some very funny odd jobs….still wearing the suit that I’d worn while I was training as a lawyer. Demonstrating toys at the London toy show and walking around shopping centers trying to get people to sign up for boiler makers, and a bunch of crazy jobs. And then eventually I managed to (?) my way into an audition with an actor/writer/director called Steve Berkoff, and I got the role. And then I got another role playing the lead in TRAINSPOTTING, the play, and then I got an agent, and then I got a film! Ya know, I think it was my first film audition and it was MRS. BROWN, or, over here it’s called HER MAJESTY, MRS. BROWN with Dame Judy Dench and Billy Connolly, and it kinda went from there. So, I had a very charmed existence at the beginning of my acting career.

Carolyn: And, it didn’t take that long for you to get as far as you did, so soon.

Gerry: No, it happened, it kinda happened pretty quickly, I mean, it took off quickly, and then, I would say, probably leveled out for 2 or 3 years over in the UK, but pretty much the second I stepped off the plane….just to come and…I had a manager here after MRS. BROWN and I came out, and I thought I would literally just come out for a month and check it out. But after 2 weeks I landed ATTILA THE HUN, the mini-series for USA network, and while I was doing that I landed DRACULA, and suddenly my whole life changed. I mean, it pretty much changed in a week, ya know, my career, my life, everything, everything. And, yeah, since then it’s kind of, ahh, it’s been, it’s been, a pretty charmed existence again, I guess. But I’ve worked hard, I mean, it’s been a lot of hard work, much harder than I thought it would ever be, {chuckles} but it’s also been really…I’ve had so much fun doing it, cause this was always my dream to do this. And it’s been a different dream than I expected, but it’s still my dream.

Carolyn: So what is it about acting that appeals most to you?

Gerry: Well, that’s what I mean it’s been a different dream than I expected, I mean, when I was younger my dreams were always so insane and fantastical, and to me, that was, in a way, what acting represented. And that’s the one thing that still holds true. I mean, I love to delve into fantasy, to take on another character, to take on another time, ya know, another story. I mean, I do love that, but what it’s come to mean to me as well, is just creativity. Being able to create something, create a character, to work through challenges, things that don’t work, and to see it all come together. To see your ideas merge with the ideas of other actors, and the writer and the director, and the excitement that you have. And also, the work that it takes, cause, ya know, when I’m filming we do 12, 14-hour days sometimes 6-day weeks, and also a lot of the jobs that I’ve done have been a lot of training as well. So, it’s definitely a roller coaster ride, but it’s being able to work as a team and try and create something that you think is going to say something to somebody else. And that’s what I love…..when there’s a message in there. And you meet somebody, or people afterwards that say "oh my God, that really got me. That made me think about this." Or, "this moved me", or "this made me laugh."

I have another phone here, by the way, my British phone. Ha! I have so many cell phones.

Carolyn: That’s okay.

Gerry: These little things, they make me jump. Ya know? They’re plugged into various different walls, and I’m "Oh God, there’s that one!" "Oh, where did that come from?!"

Both: {Giggles}

Gerry: Umm, so, yeah, yeah, did I finish?

Carolyn: Yeah, I think you did. So, growing up in Scotland, you’re so far from mainstream Hollywood. So, what was it like when you started to get more acting jobs under your belt, and your career really started to take off, and you realized your dream of becoming an actor was going to happen? What did that feel like?

Gerry: Well, it involves a lot of excitement, a lot of pitching yourself. And at the same time, what I’ve found, and I actually think this is, in a way, kind of sad, but when your perception of what it takes to succeed kind of changes. Like, I remember when I first started acting, it was so often when I thought, oh my God, if this happened it would just be too good to be true. But when you get your head down and do the work, and you know, you have that power of intention and focus, you’re taking it… and that’s what I mean when I say it’s different than I thought it was gonna be, because I think that it takes so much focus and dedication and determination that, in a way, it takes some of the magic out of the journey. But at the same time, that’s how the journey goes for longer and better, and you take it a lot more seriously and you really dedicate yourself to the craft. So, what I found was that the more I got away from that belief, which was, oh, I can’t do this, ya know, I’ll never be successful, this will never work for me….which I hate to say, but I think is very much in the psyche of Scots people, ya know, I mean much as I love them, and they are wonderful and warm and have a great sense of humor…..there is a definitely also, and me as well, you know you’re kind of brought up generally with a bit of a chip on your shoulder, ya know? The English, the big brothers, you can do that. They can do that, not us, ya know? So, what I found was that the more success that I got and the more it came just from pure hard work and dedication and faith and trust, then the more you kind of grow away from those really kind of negative and useless ideas. So, it becomes exciting, exhausting, ya know, thrilling, depressing…..you really kind of get all the ends of ,ya know, every kind of emotion, up and down, but it’s certainly been…the last few years have been so busy and hectic for me, and it’s been a joy, but they’ve been exhausting as well.

Carolyn: A lot of successes the last couple of years, that’s for sure. What is it about a character that really pulls you in, where you think I have to play this role?

Gerry: I mean I have no hard and fast rules about that. In fact, very often the characters that excite me are ones that I didn’t expect to be looking at. You know, when you see something that surprises you or is unusual about a person or is something that you’ve never really seen before or felt before, then you think Oh God, that’s great, ya know? But often it’s , what would it be in characters….I mean a lot of the characters that I have played it’s been…..umm, I guess it’s been….umm, I’m trying to think of a line through what I’ve done….I don’t know, I feel like I’ve been so all over the place with my characters, and some have been very comedic and some have been dark and some have been, ya know, pained and full of grief and some have been full of absolute motivation and determination or sacrifice, I mean, I guess it’s just some powerful emotion or part of the character that really kind of appeals to me - - Either because it’s something that I think Oh I really relate to that as a person and I think other people will as well ,or it’s something that I don’t think that I have, perhaps? and I would like to kind of work on or try and understand, or that it would set a challenge for me. Ya know, it can be, as I say, I have no rules for that, I just know that I read a script and it either all works for me or it doesn’t. I love the character for a variety of different reasons… Either because he might be insane, he might be hilarious, he might be brutal, or he might be somebody that is trying to get over some impossible challenge. It’s when it’s all put together, ya know, the script, the character, the directing, and then you say okay, this works. And what’s great is that the more you go on through your career, and at least for me, the more successful I become, that starts to happen more and more often - - you get the quality of scripts and the interesting characters that it was harder to get a stab at before.

Carolyn: So when you see the finished product…. cause I know you put everything into your roles. I’ve seen a lot of your movies and you work so hard…..are you your toughest critic? Are you generally pleased with your performances?

Gerry: Ah, no, I would definitely say I’m my toughest critic. Ya know, I often sit through performances with my head in my hands, and going Oh my God, no, oh what are you doing? And I have to say that has got less as the years have gone on. One, I think I’ve probably got better, and two, I’ve got more used to watching myself. But I still, I’m not gonna say which performances, but there’s been certain particular performances where I’ve had a lot of great feedback on them, but for me, I still find it really difficult to watch myself. In fact, my very first one which was my very first film, MRS. BROWN, I’ve never been so excited. It was the first time I was in a film and I was gonna see myself on the big screen opposite these wonderful actors…..and when I came on in the film I could quite honestly say it was the most intensely putrid awful experience I’ve ever had. I thought I was gonna vomit, I got all hot, I got all cold, I thought I was gonna faint, I just wanted to leave and I thought, Oh my God. I literally thought that everybody in the cinema was, it was silent, which of course it was supposed to be, people were watching a film…but in my head everybody had their hand on their mouth, going "Oh my God, this guy is just terrible." And I’ve never really changed. {laughs} I think it’s just weird when you see yourself, it’s strange, ya know? On a screen just raising your eyebrows is probably 3 feet, and you’re like, Oh NO, NO! And in actual fact, often it’s the things that I cringe at the most that people say were their favorite parts of my performance. Perhaps it’s just when you kind of step out of those boundaries that you normally kind of exist within, and you do something which is a little bit different….which to you, in your own ego and vanity, you think Oh, that’s just wrong……when it’s other people, perhaps it appeals to them for a completely different reason.

I often finish a scene in a movie, and I think Oh, that was fantastic! They must think I’m the best ever, and they go, "Okay, that was crap. Lets go again." Or you finish a scene and you think that was just awful, and they go "Oh my God, that was fantastic! Great!", and I’m like, Are you crazy?? You can never really tell, and that’s something that keeps you on your toes and is still, to this day, really refreshing about it. I still feel in a lot of ways that I know nothing about this. I mean, I feel I know everything, and yet I know nothing.

Carolyn: This film version of Beowulf is a bit different than the original poem, right? I mean the character of Beowulf is a little bit different. Tell me what it was like to play this more human, conflicted Beowulf.

Gerry: Well, it goes back to the question that you asked me earlier about what appeals to me about a particular character, and I say that I don’t know until I see it. So, I come across this script, and one, it’s written with such a kind of bawdy tongue, and already the second you get into it you think this is not a typical film script, a typical story, a typical plot…the normal kind of emotions. It didn’t seem to go to that kind of formula that you normally get with scripts. So, here’s a guy who, initially, you would see as your typical kind of epic hero, except he’s not. You know, because he’s a little bit full of himself, and at the same time he is a little bit over himself, and yet at the same time he’s a little bit over his life and you see on the one hand, a kind of bravado and yet on the other hand, a man with a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conscience about him. And, what was different was, this is, to me, what feels like a hero epic but with everything pulled down and bare, and there’s nothing fancy about it or fleshed out about it, it is as it would have been. With these guys walking about on scarred landscapes and wind blowing them all over the place, and freezing cold conditions….but they were men and that’s how they lived, ya know. They talked down and dirty, there was nothing flowery or eloquent about the language. Although , I actually think the script is very eloquent in a completely different kind of way. And he comes across a situation which initially you think, okay, it about honor. It’s about loyalty. It’s about standing up for your beliefs. And then the whole hero epic is kind of turned in on itself and turned upside-down, because you realize that the foe who he has gone to fight, which is this kind of troll-like monster called Grendel….he comes to see in actual fact, that it’s somebody who isn’t too different than himself, and that he hasn’t been told necessarily the truth. It causes him to, one, become a detective more than a hunter because everything does not go according to plan. He thinks he’ll just go there and do his fight like he normally does, and win, and it doesn’t happen like that because the thing that he’s chasing turns out not to be so stupid, not to be so ignorant and doesn’t actually want to fight because he doesn’t have a qualm with these guys. So, this causes him to think a little deeper, and what he comes to realize is that this thing that they are chasing, hunting down, is in actual fact, in a lot of ways not so different than himself…and has a lot of the same qualities that he has. So, you feel that even though they’re heading toward this inevitable clash that, in actual fact, there’s some kind of bond developing between them and some kind of understanding and respect. That’s what really grabbed me about the story. That kind of metaphor, that allegory for racism and intolerance that we have for things that we don’t understand, which Beowulf himself comes to see. He goes there the same as everybody else : A troll, we don’t know it, we don’t wanna know it, it’s stupid, it’s ignorant, and it’s dangerous. And its dirty, and it’s, ya know, the kind of things that we’ve often said about our neighbors or other religions or other people that we don’t understand, ya know?

Carolyn: Right, I do.

Gerry: And then, in actual fact, he realizes "who am I to say that?" because ya know, what the film shows, geniusly, is the other side of things, where this thing is coming from. What’s he actually done wrong? He’s just living his life the way he knows best and he didn’t ever set out to hurt anybody, ya know? It’s just the way things have been tainted according to their culture. What’s gonna fit in with them to justify their aggression towards this thing. Basically allowing them to make more space for themselves, which is what humans have always done against anything that’s non-human and then, within themselves, against anything that is not their culture or their country, or their…ya know? It was, I found it really powerful from that perspective. And in that respect, also, just seeing nothing but that and everything else just torn away in these primal landscapes. That was another thing got me into it was when I sat down with Sturla and he showed me some of the photographs that he had from Iceland and where we would be shooting, and then played some of the music and I thought, I don’t care if this film doesn’t make a penny, I have to be involved with this. Ya know, it just spoke to me for many reasons that came from deep within. Some that I knew and some that I knew I didn’t know. I mean, often I feel that I come from another place and another time and the Vikings and the Celts are very similar anyway. In fact, kind of bonded together. So, I think that was some kind of past collective consciousness that was within me that was, kind of, coming up and saying "Take the sword!", ya know?

Oh my God, my puppy has eaten one of my cigarettes. I just got a little puppy.

Carolyn: You did??

Gerry: I did. A little pug, and she’s beautiful. And she eats everything.

Carolyn: Oh my gosh, they’re so cute.

Gerry: She’s, and I’ll tell ya, every single person that sees this pug says that it’s the most beautiful pug they’ve ever seen.

Carolyn: You’re kidding?

Gerry: She’s very slim. I think she was the runt, but she’s also so smart and insane. But at the same time she’s like a little lady.

Carolyn: Oh my gosh! Are you traveling with her, too? I mean, you bring her all over with you?

Gerry: Umm, well, so far I haven’t really traveled so much since I got her. I went to Vegas actually, just after I got her and I took here there. So she came gambling with me, and flirting with the girls by the swimming pool.

Carolyn: Oh, how funny.

Gerry: But since then she’s been here. But I’m desperately trying to get her a passport as quickly as possible because I would love to take her to Scotland to meet my family. I can imagine her running around the hills there, and in the grass and in the valleys, and I have these romantic ideas about her, ya know, being in my homeland.

Carolyn: That is so cute. I didn’t know that dogs needed passports.

Gerry: Well they do for the UK, because the UK have these quarantine laws.

Carolyn: Oh yeah, that’s right. That’s true.

Gerry: yeah, so they recently changed them, so now you can get away without quarantining your dog, but you need to get her a passport. So, I’m trying to get that.

Carolyn: Oh how funny. So, what’s her name?

Gerry: Lolita. Lolita, yeah.

Carolyn: Oh my God.

Gerry: She’s looking up. She’s looking at me. She’s chewing her little, she was chewing her little bone there, and she just kinda looked up to go "what? what do you want?"

Do you want to say something? Do you want to say something?

Carolyn: Oh that’s so cute! How old is she? How many months?

Gerry: umm, she’s… she’s coming up on 5 months, actually.

Carolyn: Oh my gosh.

Gerry: I got this new place and I did it all up, and I was so excited about it, and now my carpets are just all stained.

Carolyn: I notice that your look changes from movie to movie, sometimes really drastically. Do you have any say in how you want your characters to look?

Gerry: Oh, absolutely.

Carolyn: You do?

Gerry: Absolutely, yeah, yeah. A lot of say. I mean, especially the more you get on in your career, cause I think that the one fortunate thing is that I kind of have an innate, kind of instinctive understanding of my characters, so often it’s not even being forceful or having the power but I always try and focus on this…not to have ideas that are based on my ego, my wanting to look good or look pretty or not look, ya know, it’s all about the character. I don’t care, for Beowulf I put the big scar on my face, ya know, I know I could have looked better than that but I thought you see movie after movie with your hero who’s supposed to have fought in battles his whole life and yet he doesn’t have a mark on him, ya know?

Carolyn: Right, right.

Gerry: I’m like, give me a big scar down my face. I like that.

Carolyn: That worked, yeah, that worked.

Gerry: Yeah, ya know? Because to me, that, it just feels more like the character. So, I feel like I’ve had a lot of input, but I’ll also listen to other ideas cause at times I’ve had input and ideas which have blown me away, ya know, fantastic. So I’m never closed-off to that. It’s always been, I think, a process of discussion between myself and the director and the make-up artist. The thing about me is, I think even as a person , I look different week to week. I leave LA, I come back into town and I go out to a place and see somebody that I know pretty well that won’t recognize me. Because the last time, I don’t know, I didn’t have a beard or my hair was shorter or my face was skinnier or fatter…I don’t know, I just seem to look different all the time.

But, I have to say, especially with the characters, there’s a lot….I mean, I look back on these characters and I look at them and I go, Oh my God, is that me? Is that me? I think I’m becoming a Lon Chaney, you know that man of a thousand faces?

Carolyn: Yes. You don’t even recognize yourself, do you, sometimes?

Gerry: No! no. I mean, I look at some of the stuff that I’ve done and I go, I can’t believe that’s me. Yeah, and that’s kinda cool. I mean, I love it when I can see myself in something and really think……and the first time that ever happened was ATTILA THE HUN. That was a time that, okay there was a lot of it that I was still with my head in my hands covering my face, but at the end of it I actually went home and that night I had a dream. And I had a dream about Attila the Hun, but he was me, except he wasn’t. And I know that sounds strange, but it was the person I’d seen in that film, but I wasn’t dreaming that he was me. I was dreaming he was Attila the Hun. And I thought, that to me was a sign that I really had created this character, this warrior. And I love it if I can go and see something and really feel, in a way, that I can see bits of me in it but I can also see a lot of stuff that is completely from another character, and feel that I created that character and they stand outside of me, ya know, as somebody else.

Carolyn: That’s so cool, yeah. Your eyes look like, really, like mesmerizing in that movie. Did they put contacts in? What did they do?

Gerry: Which one are you talking about?

Carolyn: In Attila, I’m sorry. In Attila.

Gerry: That’s okay, I’ve always wanted to say that…"Which one are you talking about?" {giggles} "I loved you in that film", and I go "which one?" No, they were my eyes. They were my eyes.

Carolyn: Oh my God. Wow. Even from the promo, I don’t know if it’s how they shot you or, whatever, but your eyes just stood out in that. It was just awesome.

Gerry: Umm, I think they were probably helped by a little too much eyeliner, but there were no contacts involved or anything.

Carolyn: Wow. You even notice that, though, right, about yourself? That they were really prominent, right? It’s wild.

Gerry: Yeah. Yeah. I’ll tell you a funny story. A friend of mine once, she was looking through some photos of mine, and she was looking at a picture of Attila and a picture of Dracula and she said "I can’t believe that these are the same person, and that this is you." And then she said, "because you know, you look so good as Attila….. ", And then she stopped, because I realized she was about to say, she was about to go, you look great as Attila, but as Dracula……ya know, so she stopped herself. And I found that very funny. It was like, you look completely different. You look great there, but there you look like, ya know, shit.

Carolyn: Oh that’s funny.

{laugh, laugh, laugh}

Carolyn: So, I’ve been to your websites. And, I’ve gotta tell you, your fans are some of the most loyal fans I’ve ever seen. And you’re really dedicated to them as well. Why is it so important for you to connect to them?

Gerry: Because I’ve always kind of defended myself in this, I mean, at times when I’ve spoken with other actors and you talk about fan mail, they’ll often dismiss their fans, or anybody who would ever write fan mail as being kind of crazy, or there has to be something wrong with them if they’re actually going to sit down and write you a letter. And I say, no, why? I mean, because I’ve read so much of that fan mail and I connect with what they’re saying. I mean, it’s not like they’re going "Oh, you’re amazing blah, blah, blah…". They can say things incredibly intelligently and very meaningful about why they like what they like in you. And for me, a lot of it is for the nicer reasons, ya know? Because they connected with an emotion, a feeling of hopelessness, a feeling of grief, or something that they’ve had in their life. I’ve always, as well, as a person, I’ve not tried to take the role of an actor, ya know, I try in my interviews to be honest and straight. Not to play a game and pretend to be cool. And, so, I guess they see something in that. And I’ve met so many of them. And what they do, I mean what they do for charities and what they do…..and everything. There’s a lot of incredibly inspired, as you say, loyal, intelligent, emotional, FUNNY, a lot of them are hilarious, ya know?

Carolyn: Yep, yep, they are.

Gerry: They’re a great group of people, and they’ve helped me so much in my career in their support. It’s incredible what they will do in any way if they think they can help me…whether it’s voting you the sexiest man on some website, or ya know, gathering signatures to lobby some film company to make sure "Beowulf" gets distribution in the U.S., ya know?

Carolyn: I know, I saw that.

Gerry: They’ll go to any lengths, ya know, and they feel so passionate about it. I think it’s hard, therefore, to agree with those other actors and say, you’re telling me that all these people are crazy? Because they’re not. I mean, I’ve met hundreds of them, and thousands of them, probably. And they’re such a great, fun crowd of people, ya know? A lot of them have the same kind of values in life that I do, so I love them for that. And I love them because, you know what, I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there don’t like me, so why should I spend my energy thinking about them? {laughs}

Carolyn: Right, don’t worry about them! Don’t think about them.

Gerry: Yeah. Just let me focus on the ones that DO like me.

Carolyn: Exactly. And have you seen some of these videos that they’ve made?

Gerry: Yeah, yeah.

Carolyn: Oh my god, they’re awesome, aren’t they?

Gerry: I know, they’re amazing.

Carolyn: They’re wonderful, they really are. So Gerry, what’s in your future? Do you think maybe a romantic comedy, we could see you in, maybe?

Gerry: Umm, well actually, I think I’m about to do a romantic comedy.

Carolyn: You are?

Gerry: Yeah. And it’s beautiful, it’s beautiful. And it’s heartbreaking, and it’s, it’s, I don’t know how to describe it. You could call it a romantic comedy with the biggest twist you’ve ever seen. But it’s, I’m playing opposite Hilary Swank

Carolyn: Lucky you, she’s awesome.

Gerry: I think she’s so amazing. And I’ve met her a couple of times and she’s just so lovely as a person. So I’m really excited about this, cause it’s a role that I get a chance to be, ya know, funny and romantic in because, I’d love to start doing…..I think it’s time for me to lighten up a bit. {giggles} So I’ll get a chance to do that in this, cause it’s really just the best role. And it’s Richard LaGravenese who’s directing it. He wrote it, he wrote THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY and THE FISHER KING, and in actual fact, he wrote and directed Hilary’s last film that they’ve literally just finished, and now she’s working with him again. So, if that’s not a sign of affirmation, then I don’t know what is. But I’m really excited about it, and I’m doing that, I think, quite soon. I think I’m starting in October.

Carolyn: Oh, that’s wonderful. So, what about PRIEST, is that still happening?

Gerry: Yeah, I’m still doing PRIEST, but that’s been pushed back til January. And I’m excited about that as well. That should be a really cool film. And then I have BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL coming out as well.

Carolyn: Oh right, I saw that, too. Yeah. You’re a busy guy. And then you’ve got 300 coming out in March. Right?

Gerry: I know, Jesus.

Carolyn: I know, Jesus!

Gerry: I should go back to bed again, start catching up. Start getting sleep ahead of time.

Carolyn: {laughs} I know, cause you’re not going to be getting any sleep in the months coming.

Gerry: Yeah. I can sleep when I’m dead.

Carolyn: Oh yeah, right, right. One other thing, what advice do you have for young people who want to be actors?

Gerry: Oh my God. Oh, I hate that one, because I came in through such a strange route. I would say to get their head down, work as hard as they can, follow their dream….but at the end of the day to believe it’s what they have in their souls that they have to offer, not what somebody else tells them. Because I think too many people have too much, or believe they have too much power and authority and knowledge when it comes to telling other people how to perform. And, in actual fact, it all lies within you, it’s already there, a part of you. So, to trust that, and not too quickly to take a guru, and kind of become somebody else’s idea of your performance, ya know? Does that make sense?

Carolyn: Okay, yes it does. Thank you so much, Gerry. Good luck.

Gerry: Alright Carolyn, nice to talk to you.

Carolyn: Nice to talk to you, too. Good luck with all your upcoming projects and the films you’ve got coming out. And good luck with your dog.

Gerry: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Carolyn: Okay, take care Gerry.