I don't think there's much difference between cutting off people's heads on video to cutting a pound of flesh out of somebody 
Jeremy Irons' melancholy features have graced many a film from 1981's The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1990's Reversal Of Fortune - for which he won the Best Actor Oscar - to Die Hard With A Vengeance and Lolita. In his latest film, Michael Radford's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice, they are used to terrific effect in his performance as Antonio, the hapless merchant who finds himself at the business end of Shylock's knife when he is unable to pay a debt.
Controversy surrounds The Merchant Of Venice because some people say it's an anti Semitic play. What is your opinion?
I've always felt it was about extreme behaviour - fundamentalism - and is a tract against fundamentalism, either Christian or, in this case, Jewish. So I think with today's political climate, where the world seems to be fuller and fuller of fundamentalists doing appalling things, it's very apposite. I don't think there's much difference between cutting off people's heads on video to cutting a pound of flesh out of somebody, or blowing up a school full of children. You know, you can't get worse than that. I think it's that kind of extreme human behaviour that the play addresses.
However, does the resurgence of anti Semitism in countries like France make the play dangerous?
Well, it's an old story. I argued this about Lolita; you know, isn't it a little bit risky? Will it encourage paedophilia? We have problems in life. We have anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism - or whatever you call it - anti-Christianism; I don't think you can say we mustn't make stories about that because it will encourage people to do horrible things. That's rubbish. The movies are full of people killing each other but we're not supposed to be doing that. Therefore I don't think we're going to create a worse situation with this movie. I don't believe that.
The Merchant Of Venice was written as a comedy but has achieved tragic overtones over the years. Do you prefer doing comedy or tragedy?
I see comedy in tragedy and tragedy in comedy which, I think, is the art of playing it anyway. You always have to see the obverse side of anything and it's very much in my nature to do that. I think I have been used in film mainly in the darker areas because I have a melancholic quality, and because I can express quite a lot without doing very much, and that suits that kind of area. I'm making a comedy at the moment, Casanova, and I'm enjoying that enormously. But once again I flick and I play a character where you're not quite sure where he is coming from.
You recently completed the Ridley Scott Crusade movie, Kingdom Of Heaven. What was it like wearing the period costumes in the desert?
When you've got armour and chain mail and very flowing stuff, boots and swords and daggers and helmets, you probably feel like an American Marine going over the top with a big backpack and flak jacket and all of that, and you just sort of survive. Anyway, I think it's going to be an amazing movie. It's a great period to talk about now because it's Muslim against Christian. I think Ridley has found a very good balance in the script between the behaviour of the Muslims and the Christians; I don't think there are good guys and bad guys, there are just bad guys on both sides. And more bad guys on the Christian side.
