Jeremy Irons Hailed In 'Europe's Oscars'
by Jackie Burdon, Showbusiness Correspondent, PA News, Press Association Newsfile
Saturday, December 5, 1998
British actor Jeremy Irons was given the European Film Academy Special Achievement Award last night at a revamped ceremony intended to become Europe's answer to the Oscars. Irons, attending the awards at London's Old Vic Theatre, has appeared in many notable films, but has been embroiled in controversy during the past year after his appearance in Adrian Lyne's movie Lolita. Other notable winners were former Bread star Peter Howitt, who won the Best European Screenwriter Award for Sliding Doors, the romantic movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Winslet, who scooped an award for Titanic. Irons said that, since Lolita, he had spent the past year renovating his small Irish castle, but insisted that this did not mean his acting days were over. He said: "Hopefully I am half way through my career, and I value and treasure this." Kate Winslet was voted Best European Actress in the People's Choice awards, chosen in a write-in poll of cinema-goers across Europe. But Scotland's Peter Mullan was pipped for the best European Actor Award by Italian Roberto Benigni.
Irons was presented with his award by Italian Enrico Lo Verso and Austrian Senta Berger, who said: "He is an actor who has achieved the status of a true star without compromising ever." His films included The Mission, Dead Ringers, Damage, Stealing Beauty and Reversal of Fortune, for which he received an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. Accepting his award, Irons said: "God, I feel so old." But he added: "Although awards were pleasant, it was not the selling of a movie or going to premieres that I enjoyed about acting. "When I decided to become an actor, much to the surprise of many people who knew my talents, it was because I wanted to keep outside the society I had been educated in, which I didn't much like. "I wanted to be a gypsy, and it sounds ridiculous." He enjoyed working with a small band of people, telling stories and then moving on, he said. But he had spent the past year renovating his small Irish castle. "God, there aren't many good scripts about, are there? Or is it just me?" He added that he valued the award particularly because it was from the world of European film, he said - "those funny people who make those funny films that sometimes stop you in your tracks and break your heart. It's a great honour and I thank you from the bottom of my heart."