NIGHTMARE ON SHANKILL ROAD

HOWTH-BORN Stuart Townsend, who first rose to minor prominence last year with the lightweight comedy Shooting Fish, has confirmed his immense thespian talent with an utterly mesmerising performance in what must rank as the bleakest Irish film ever made. The words unnerving and disturbing cannot possibly begin to hint at the content of Resurrection Man, a blood-curdling thriller based loosely on the Shankill Butcher s mid- 70s reign of terror, which goes further than any film about the Northern conflict has dared go before.
The film is a stunning work, but it s about as enjoyable as a visit to your local vivisectionist. If you re sure you can handle it, you must I mean must see it. But if you only think you can handle it . . . you won t. It s that simple.
Townsend plays the central character Victor Kelly, a smouldering psychopathic serial killer whose favoured weapons include butchers knives, scissors and hacksaws. In contrast, the real Townsend is a smiling, laid-back and completely charming individual, the polar opposite of the bloodthirsty killer he plays with such relish in Resurrection Man.
Stuart, you ll never know how close I came to walking out . . .
I know, yeah, it s not everyone s cuppa cha. (Smiles) That s a reaction, though, right? So it s worked. It s like Greenaway s films, I go and see his films and they really disgust me. Something gets to me. And I hate his films, I fuckin hate them, but at the same time he s doing something to me he manipulates me, so it s definitely working on some sort of level. I m kinda glad people are having these extreme reactions: if people don t, if they watch the film and then walk out and forget about it, there s no point.
How did you feel after watching the finished product?
I couldn t speak for about an hour. Couldn t. I was just phew . I mean it s hard to tell while you re making it, cos when you re an actor you re not making the film, it s not your vision, you re just a prop, so you re never quite sure how it s going to turn out. We were on location, and when you re on location it s just hotel, set, hotel, set. We were in Manchester and there was nothing else to do except work. It s pretty grim, so I was just switched off for the whole time.
Did you hestitate at all about taking the part?
(Firmly) No. I made up my mind straightaway. Cause I m an actor, and it s a fucking great part. It was a chance to really get my teeth into something. This guy was there just in print, it was a case of stepping into his shoes.
Has Resurrection Man left you worried about being typecast as a psychopath?
Yeah. (Pause) But I was lucky, though, cos three months before I d done Shooting Fish, and I played this real nerdy, shy guy. And when I finished it I was like Jesus, I hope I can get something to counterbalance that . . . (smiles) . . . and then this guy came along. I d like to keep it as diverse as possible, you know? I m playing a really quiet, intense guy next.
The character of Victor Kelly is based on the late Lenny Murphy, leader of the Butchers. Did you read up on him at all?
Yeah, a fair bit. I read Martin Dillon s book (The Shankill Butchers) . . . I knew a fair bit about the Butchers, but I hadn t read it before in any detail.
What elements of the film s violence horrified you the most?
Some of that stuff . . . (shudders) . . . there s one scene where he gets a pliers and he pulls out the guy s molars . . . I mean that s just fuckin (pause) that s just pure psycho. I mean, it was a really dark time, because it was winter, it was Manchester, in this hotel in the middle of nowhere, it was fucking grim. Couldn t wait to see the sunshine.
And can you begin to contemplate what goes through the mind of such a killer?
Yeah.(smiling broadly) I kill about three or four people a week. No, I just went into myself, really. I didn t want to be, like, letting loose on people. There s no excuse for that, you know? When I hear stories about actors doing that, I think it s a load of wank. I don t think you have to be all methody about it, like not talking to anyone for weeks, or killing your little brother and sisters.
The vast bulk of films about the North have been slightly airbrushed, skipping around the subject without addressing the brutality of the whole business, whereas Resurrection Man just charges straight into your face with a razor at the ready . . .
Yeah. It does. And that s why people are going (gasps) Fuck that ! Everyone in it is completely sinister. The beauty of the script for me was the relationships, these relationships were definitely true, the mother and the son, the girlfriend, all the underground fellas all these relationships exist. And everyone s hard, everyone s tough, even the mother figure who you d expect to be really caring, she s a fuckin sinister, tough woman.
raving mindless psycho
The brilliance of Townsend s performance lies largely in his reserved, quiet, cold and brooding demeanour, which rings far truer than to take one recent example Ian Hart s uncharacteristically cartoonish, wild-eyed, scarcely believable loyalist terrorist in Nothing Personal.
Victor was stylised, y know, and we wanted him to be that way. He was going to be different from everyone else. We wanted him to be cool, thinking he was Cagney, thinking he was a rock star. He s a presence. And you look at the script . . . he doesn t talk much, people talk about him. The myth is weaved around him. You see him in the beginning cutting up people, but then he disappears for a while, and the myth starts being created.
But I was really concentrating on being an evil presence, rather than a raving mindless psycho. He was more controlled, and more genuinely psychotic. And very intelligent . . . whether it be psychotic intelligence or whatever, he had it.
The film s release, in 1998, has coincided with the resurgence of loyalist terrorism.
It s a strange time for it to come out, all right. But I m an actor, not a politician.
Does it impact on you at all, though?
Yeah. Yeah, it does. I mean, people keep telling me, the LVF have done this and that . . . and then the film s coming out around all that. But I just keep thinking . . . well, fuck it, man, it happened, and that s what the film s about, and that s what films are meant to do, to reflect real life. And I m just an actor who jumped on the chance to play a really good part. Regardless. Okay, I won t be taking any weekend trips to Belfast but I loved doing it. I always felt really passionate about it. And so did all the Belfast actors, who were Protestant and Catholic.
Critically, Resurrection Man is already a mammoth success. Commercially, however, it is doomed . . .
(sharply) Yeah. I know. It doesn t stand a chance. That pisses me off. Really pisses me off. Cause I do something like Shooting Fish, which is a comedy, and everybody goes and fuckin sees it. I mean in England, it was a massive success. And Resurrection Man comes out and a fair few people saw it, but not nearly as many as Shooting Fish. And that breaks my heart. But I understand that: most people just don t want to see it. Movie students may, film students might wank off at the whole prospect, but Joe Public ll just go fuck this, my life isn t that great anyway, what do I have to watch this for? Then again, it s a thriller, and it s beautifully shot, it s exciting, and a lot of young lads love films with violence and everything that surrounds it, it ll appeal to them.
Did you find it distressing, or have problems switching off after the cameras stop rolling?
Yeah. We shot one time, it was a full moon and we were shooting in a mental asylum, and I tell you, man, I was just fucking Take me home! The whole scene was about me, I was slicing this person up and that night I was just (shudders). I was all over the place. Yeah, it was a fuckin nightmare. n
Resurrection Man is now on general release.