Gabriel Byrne: ‘I was never not conscious of being Irish’

Gabriel Byrne: ‘I wanted to capture how memory actually works.’ Photograph: Katalin Vermes/The Observer

There is a short video on YouTube of Gabriel Byrne being interviewed by the Irish comedian and actor Tommy Tiernan. “Do you think you’re a strange man?” asks Tiernan. “I do think I’m a strange man, yes,” replies Byrne without hesitation. He then bats the question back to Tiernan, deftly sidestepping any further discussion of the subject. I ask him if now he could elaborate on the nature of his strangeness.

“I like to think I’m pretty normal and not given to extremes, but people who know me well would probably think I’m a little strange,” he says. “It surprises me when they do, but, of course, an eccentric does not know he’s eccentric. So, yes, maybe I am a bit strange, but not in the sense that I’m weird.”