As we begin our conversation, Max Irons puts
aside an article he's been reading in the Daily Mail. "The US Navy's
'Ghost Hunter' Hits The Water: Robo-Boats Set To Track Down Silent Enemy
Submarines For Months At A Time," reads the headline—one he relays with
earnest excitement. The 29-year-old actor is the most unsuspecting Cold
War nerd.
Irons, the son of acting royals
Sinéad Cusack and Jeremy Irons, is assuming his own throne as a leading
man among the recent wave of young breakout Brits to take Hollywood's
center stage. This month, he appears alongside Helen Mirren and Ryan
Reynolds in Simon Curtis's triumphant WWII art theft stunner Woman In Gold, and he next stars in George Mendeluk's Soviet-set epic The Devil's Harvest (sating
both his fascination with espionage and his inner romantic—which, too,
is alive and well). His thoughtful curiosity is just one facet of
Irons's understated charm, which, at its core, seems to be comprised of
the manner of a man who's never known quite how pretty he is and the
humble assurance of one who always has.
In other words, Max Irons is a perfect gentleman—just not in his latest movie, The Riot Club,
a gruesome glimpse of the depravity that results when a group of
well-bred, elitist Oxford boys, drunk on mob mentality, swears
commitment to a life of hedonism. "I get people coming up to me in
places like West London, saying, 'You're attacking the best of
Britain,'" says Irons, whose character Miles is the mildest and most
likeable member of the university's secret dinner society, a
fictionalization of the historic Bullingdon Club, which, in reality,
boasts alumni of the grandest pedigree (including British Prime Minister
David Cameron) and a rap sheet of even grander ethical violations.Shortly before the Woman In Gold premiere (and after delving into the bummer histories of all his latest films, of course), Irons opened up about taking opera lessons to lip sync like a pro, Law & Order nights with his girlfriend Sophie, and a curious knack for making passion fruit party drinks that dates back to his barman days.
Do you ever practice lines with your parents?
No—it's a bit like when your parents give you driving lessons. You know they're right, and they have wisdom to impart, but nonetheless it's inexplicably irritating.
What do you do to unwind?
I hang out with my girlfriend or I go to the gym, and I drink lots of tea. Lots of fruit tea—I love it; can't get enough of it.
Hear you there. I'm just about the only New Yorker who doesn't drink coffee.
There is a really good tea place in Grand Central Station in the market, where they sell really nice fruit teas. I can't remember what it's called, but I am actually specifically going to go back for this red tea. Red berries and stuff—it's delicious. Check it out.
What are your morning and nighttime routines?
Coffee—that's pretty standard I guess; read the news. At night, I have this thing, because I used to get very home sick when I started boarding school—my parents used to send me tape recordings of them reading books, and I'd get one every couple of days. Now, if I can't sleep I will listen to audio books. Very unsexy.
No, it's adorable! What audiobooks are you listening to right now?
It's usually about The Cold War, I'm not going to lie.
Let's talk about your obsession with submarines. How did that come about?
I don't know. Mechanically, they are amazing. And what they did during The Cold War is sort of hunting and stalking. The Cold War I find fascinating because it was like an incredibly high-stakes poker game going on between two very powerful countries. It's almost make-believe; you couldn't write it. Submarines are the epitome of that.
Do you do podcasts too?
I quite often I do comedy podcasts. But I cannot fall asleep to comedy.
No Serial for you?
No, but I actually have it ready to go on my iPhone. I keep hearing how amazing it is.
Who's your ideal dinner guest, living or dead?
My girlfriend! Is that very boring?
What's your favorite kind of date with Sophie?
We like watching SVU.
A worthy pastime.
They are very good conversation starters, SVU episodes. We usually watch an episode—and we have already watched most of them—and then sit around talking about these things. It's good. I like the darker episodes.
I started watching it from the very first episode a few months back, and it's like looking at old awkward family photos. Gotta love Mariska throughout.
Gotta love Mariska, but also, you gotta love Ice-T, though, with his one-liners. It's a New York institution.
How did you get into character for Woman In Gold?
Woman In Gold preparation was mainly about speaking German. There was also a bit of opera singing so I had to work with an opera coach, even though, believe it or not, I was dubbed in the movie. I had to look as if I was breathing correctly so when we were filming I was actually singing—but I didn't make the film.
Is that what you're singing in the shower these days?
Yeah—Mozart, Puccini. I think Carnegie Hall was trying to book me.
Can you actually speak some German now?
It is unfortunately just those lines.
I don't rattle easily, but The Riot Club made me queasy, more because of the total lack of humanity the characters display than the actual gore. How did you feel watching it?
Watching it wasn't the problem; it was actually the filming of it that was so unpleasant. To me the violent scene was unpleasant, but the scene where Holliday Grainger, who plays my girlfriend, came in and was basically assaulted, was the worst. These are all great, young actors, and the dialogue is full of bile and violence and sexism and homophobia that it gets into your bones. There was one day in particular, when Sam Claflin had a monologue that peaked on the quote, "I fucking hate poor people." A scene like that takes a whole day to film, so you're hearing this dialogue again and again.
What was the general response you have gotten to the film?
Well, it's funny. Because it's talking about the class system so much, I get a lot of people coming up and saying "It's really good that you made that film; it's addressing the Bullingdon Club and the origins of people who run our country: David Cameron, Boris Johnson, George Osborne." But then I also get people coming up to me, especially in places like West London, saying, "How dare you attack the hand that feeds you; you're attacking the best of Britain." We wanted this film to spark debate and get people thinking about who are the people actually representing us.
I know you interviewed alumni of the actual Bullingdon Club in the research phase. How did their stories compare with the way the club was depicted in the movie?
We were very cautious that we didn't want to exaggerate. We wanted it to be a real take. What we did was we interviewed those people that were in the club and we interviewed various equivalent clubs in Cambridge, and the response we got, especially from Cambridge, was that the stories aren't true enough. That, in fact, worse things happened.
Seriously? That's hard to believe.
Yeah! There are documented examples in the press of pretty terrible behavior. We're not sure what our prime minister and the mayor of London actually did, but they certainly at one point or another stood shoulder to shoulder with people who stood for these ideals. It's really interesting.
Have you ever been a part of a club or fraternity? (I'm assuming not one like this.)
Never. I didn't go to university—I went to drama school. So, if anything, I was in a club of actors, which is a nightmare as you can imagine.
Who are your best acting buddies?
Sam Claflin is a very good friend of mine. So is Doug Booth. Freddie Fox, Jessica Brown Finley, Tatiana Maslany from Woman in Gold.
What was your first-ever job?
I worked in an office as a receptionist, then I was a barman for a couple of years.
What was your go-to drink to mix?
I used to be very good at doing stuff with passion fruit and experimenting with different types of hot toddies.
Exotic! You were also a teacher in Zimbabwe for a short period, right?
My parents send me there me there when I was 15. I taught English and woodwork and football. I was getting in trouble a bit at school, and they thought they should send me away to make me appreciate how lucky I was to have the education I had. A friend of my family sponsored a young child there named Lovejoy, who founded a school there, so I went to live with him and work for his school. Initially I was terrified, but it turned out to be a great thing. It's a thing that my parents have been very great to offer me—the privilege to travel and see different ways of life.
What did you do to warrant your exile?
It was usually being somewhere with a girl, maybe drinking—that sort of thing. Never anything I am morally ashamed of!
What was the role that made you want to become an actor?
When I was at school I did a Neil LaBute play called A Gaggle of Saints, which is a two-hander. It was about two Mormon kids that went to Central Park and ended up beating a gay guy to death—very bleak—but Neil LaBute is a great writer, and it was my first intense acting experience I've ever had. At that point I realized that it was more thrilling than anything I'd done at school, and I put all of my attention into acting.
Did your parents weigh in on your decision to pursue acting as a career?
They didn't persuade or encourage. They gave me an honest appraisal of what it is to be an actor. They said it is a very unpredictable life of discombobulation; you can find yourself in different parts of the world, not knowing what you're doing next, and it takes a toll on the family. It involves rejection and instability. But they said, as long as I really wanted it, they would back off and let me do it my way. And they did, which I am grateful for.
What in your closet gets the most wear?
Hats! I have a Borsalino, white-rimmed one. It makes me feel like a spy in The Cold War. It makes me feel like Dick Tracy.
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