Byrne-ing rage

Arguably the finest living Irish actor, Gabriel Byrne - star of such well-loved classics as Miller's Crossing and The Usual Suspects - has now sunk his teeth into one of the most arresting major roles this year has to offer.
In the new apocalyptic millennium-meltdown blockbuster End Of Days, Byrne plays none other than the Prince of Darkness himself, a Satan in human form who squares off against ex-cop Arnold Schwarzenegger in a winner-takes-all battle for the soul of mankind. It's a profusely enjoyable, if gruesome and disturbing, cinematic experience with more depth to it than the premise might seem to suggest - and if you see it, try to ensure you get there before New Year's Eve.
The film manages to tap into the general sense of millennial panic that seems to be engulfing much of the planet as the year 2000 approaches. Has Byrne noticed this phenomenon?
"Yeah, I have. I think it's basically a load of bullshit and people are reading way too much into it - but at the same time, there's no doubt that a lot of people are scared, scared of the future and the terrifying range of possibilities that could be in store.
"For centuries, people always had comforting certainties to cling to, which usually involved organised religion or some sort of spirituality. These traditional sources of faith have rapidly become redundant over the last century or so, because the pace of technology has accelerated so much, and there's a lot of confusion out there and I think that's definitely reflected in the way people are treating this Millennium with such significance.
"There's a universal yearning for some kind of faith, and people are finding theirs independently of one another in a way that didn't apply to earlier generations. And while technology has been immensely helpful in getting humanity to the point it's reached - from the guy who invented the wheel onwards - it's obviously made the world a much more complex place, for good and bad."
Goodness, in End Of Days, finds its unlikely embodiment in the form of Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose performance is an absolute revelation in the context of his career thus far. Byrne, it transpires, was as taken aback as I was by the sensitivity with which Arnie portrays the man who must save the planet.
"Never having worked with him before, I hadn't quite expected the degree of complexity that I found. You're used to him being this indestructible, invulnerable force of nature who is completely unfazed by anything, and here he is getting completely into the skin of this guy who has to save the world while his inner demons are completely eating him alive - he's an alcoholic, he's lost his wife and kids, and he's extremely depressed all the time and probably somewhat suicidal.
"I know Arnie was really moved by the role. I know it, because I saw him in tears during one especially tough scene, and it's a sight that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I was stunned. This huge, massive mountain of a man reduced to tears by the truthfulness of what was in that script."
At all points throughout the film, Byrne's Satan is as memorable a representation of evil as any seen on screen since Angel Heart: the actor's perfectly understated performance eschews hellfire histrionics, and presents the Dark One as charming, smart, suave and truly evil. Does Byrne believe in the existence of evil?
"Well, completely. You have to. How can you believe in goodness without believing in evil? It obviously exists, it's all around us - and while I personally might think it's ridiculous to suggest that Satan exists as a manifest deity, there's obviously evil out there.
"You only have to look at world history, look at the Twentieth Century. This race of ours has produced Hitler, it's produced Milosevic, Saddam Hussein, that list could go on and on and on. Evil manifests itself in all manner of ways, and continues to, and will probably never be eliminated completely. Which was part of the attraction with End Of Days: the fact that it's 1999 is immaterial. It's about the eternal battle between good and evil, and that battle is an ongoing one.
"You know, the history of humanity is a violent one, and one of the most important functions of cinema is to reflect what goes on in the real world," Byrne continues. "Which is why I have such a problem with anybody who would try to censor films because they reflect areas of life some people find unpalatable. I heard Bob Dole giving out in really strong terms about some movie or other because of how violent it was, and I just thought 'the fucking hypocrisy, I can't believe I'm hearing this - this is coming from a man who supports the bombing of Kosovo, and he pretends to have a problem with some film because it's got a few instances of fictional violence.'
"I can remember my kids asking me during that whole episode: 'Daddy, why are we bombing those people?' and I just couldn't answer it, there was no answer, I don't know how you could even start to explain this evil to a child. There was no attempt to negotiate whatsoever, they just went in and they bombed the place to bits"
Does Byrne number American global imperialism among the "evils" to which he is referring?
"American global imperialism would most definitely be one of them, yeah. It's probably more of a cultural thing than anything else, it hasn't quite reached the levels Orwell might have foreseen, there's still a reasonable level of free speech which people have preserved for themselves and which we should be grateful for - but it's definitely there and it's a process which has been underway for some 50 years now, and I would say that the chances of that being reversed by this stage are practically nil.