Six-time Oscar nominee Jim Sheridan is back in the hunt this season with “Brothers”, a remake of Danish filmmaker Suzanne Bier’s “Broders.” The new movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman in a drama about a soldier struggling to reintegrate with his family after returning from Afghanistan.
Sheridan came to the United States with a wife and two kids in tow when he was 31. He had made a name for himself in his native Ireland as a theater director, and hoped to repeat his success on Broadway. Living in a Harlem tenement, Sheridan scoured the city for work, but struggled to get by. It paid off, however, as that chapter in his life became the basis for his semi-autobiographical movie “In America,” for which he received an Oscar nomination for original screenplay. He’s been twice nominated as director, for “My Left Foot” and “In the Name of the Father”; both films also were nominated for Best Picture.
Jim Sheridan talks to TheWrap about the changing film industry, why “Brothers” has been on the shelf for a year, losing his brother at a young age and America’s state of denial about the war.
Q: They say the era of the movie star is over, and here you are with three of the hottest actors in their age group.
A: What these guys know from making so many movies is technically they’re very gifted. Sometimes on other movies you’re trying to stop people acting, or overacting. But with these guys you start at a kind of higher technical level. I think star personalities sometimes find it hard to be real people, so it’s trying to keep everything real, y’know.
Q: You lost a brother when you were 10 years old. How did that affect your outlook on life as a man and as an artist?
A: I think when you’re a kid, you think you’re responsible for the death because the only way of making sense is if it has something to do with you. There’s a level of guilt. And so when he kills the guy in the movie it’s almost like he’s killing a brother in arms he’s taken responsibility for in a way. It’s almost like God’s put him in a position that’s untenable and he chooses to live.
Q: Do you think war brings out the best or the worst in people, or both?
A: I think it is both. I think men go and they bond, so when somebody’s protecting your ass it’s like the deepest relationship you’ve ever had. It’s almost like having a parental relationship but as an adult. I think people come back with the idea that those relationships are deeper than any relationships they have. So it’s very hard to get past. So they come back and they’ve lost their family relationships, y’know, because the one they left behind was deeper and made sense and now the threat’s gone and maybe the person’s dead.
