Maybe it’s a Begbie hang-up but, viewed from a distance, Robert Carlyle seems like one of the planet’s most intimidating beings. Even on the smallest of screens he’s never been anything less than a ferocious presence. His fallen Liverpool fan in Cracker, his King James I in Gunpowder, Treason and Plot or his maelstrom portrayal of Der Fuhrer in Hitler; The Rise Of Evil.
“I turned Hitler down three times before I said yes,” recalls the 44 year-old actor. “But I suppose they wanted someone small and scary and kept asking. It’s a very difficult character to inhabit as an actor. It was a real psychological challenge.”
Though Carlyle is immediately recognisable as the guy with the mile-long stare in Trainspotting, Priest and The Beach, his reputation for being taciturn and difficult has far more to do with prior run-ins with the British press than with any discernable personality flaws.
Several years ago, he publicly denounced the media as a cancer on society when a Scottish newspaper tracked down his estranged mother Elisabeth. Though there had been no contact between them since she left the family home during Robert’s infancy, the tabloids quickly swooped and the private Glaswegian soon found himself in a red-top feeding frenzy.
While understandably still wounded by the incident, today he’s perfectly happy to laugh it off.
“I should have handled it better looking back. I should have ignored it. But I do think they acted like vultures. It’s a family thing. I don’t think it’s anything they needed to know. I mean, who the fuck cares about some actor’s mother?”
Wry and articulate, Carlyle more readily brings to mind his various turns as lovably roguish ne’er-do-wells than Begbie, the iconic psychopath of Trainspotting.
In this mode, you can soon catch him in The Mighty Celt, the latest breakthrough in canine-human relations from Man About Dog screenwriter Pearse Elliot.
Though rather more gentle in tone than last year’s knockabout greyhound comedy, The Mighty Celt once again explores the bond between a boy and his dog against the unlikely backdrop of post-ceasefire Northern Ireland.
Like the previous film, the plot hinges on a wager; 14 year-old pup-whisperer Donal (the impressive Tyrone Mc Kenna) spots racing potential in the wiry titular dog and bets his hard-man boss (Ken Stott) that he can turn the creature into a “ball of speed”.
Just as the Celt appears in Donal’s life, so too does Robert Carlyle’s former IRA recruit and one-time love of Donal’s mother (Gillian Anderson). The ensuing reconciliation plays out against a discordant backdrop of animal abuse and republican schisms in West Belfast.
While that constitutes hardly anyone’s idea of exotic location work, the actor claims to have been pretty comfortable in his temporary environs. “I had a great time in West Belfast. I went out with Pearse a few times and that was interesting. And I felt right at home. It’s very similar to where I grew up – same backstreets, same housing. Even doing the accent wasn’t too bad. It was a slight move east. They don’t call it Ulster-Scots for nothing.”
Being the shy retiring type, Robert admits that although he didn’t get to know his glamorous co-star too well, (“we were supposed to be an estranged couple in the film, so I didn’t think it was appropriate to spend time together”), he did find friendship with his onscreen son.
“Any actor who says children are difficult to work with is talking shite,” guffaws the actor. “Maybe I’ve just been very lucky with the kids I’ve worked with but it’s a privilege and an education to watch them. They’re totally free, totally uninhibited. Somebody like Tyrone is humbling to work with. There’s no bullshit, just performance.”
If Mr. Carlyle has mellowed over the years, he admits he’d still love to get back to Begbie, should Porno ever come to grace our screens.
“I’ve always said I’d be interested. He’s such an important character in his way. I think he’s really interesting in terms of a certain kind of Scottish male psyche. It’d be fascinating to see that kind of person ageing. Still a bastard but older.”