Jeremy's Travels
by James Servin, Woman To Woman
September 1, 2001
As an Academy Award-winning actor, Jeremy Irons is a master of Hollywood illusion, but his performance in the current Donna Karan New York campaign taps into real-life experience. For Irons, the role was a chance to live out one of his favorite ways to spend free time: out in the world, outward-bound, out on a trek.
"Different pleasures for different people," says the man who has cornered the market on character-enriched intonation and knows the power of the extended pause. "It all depends upon what your day-to-day life is like. I spend a lot of time in hotels. My chief pleasure is to get away from the hubbub of modern life. Trekking is one very good way to do that."
His first expedition was a solitary one, with appropriately cinematic overtones. When he was 16, his family took him sailing around Denmark. At 21, Irons ventured to the English moors on horseback. "I traveled from pub to pub," he says. "After you've been alone all day, you've got an apppetite for company. When you come to a pub, you're in the mood for talking and writing. Very soothing for the soul." From that point on, Irons considered himself a true traveler. "I like real travel -- not flying somewhere and being dropped into a spot but actually traveling."
When he's not on the set, Irons takes flight from the crowd in search of adventure. While filming The Mission, Irons journeyed across South America for five weeks. "I went into the jungle in Colombia for a couple of weeks," he recalls, "then saw the Galapagos Islands. Went to Cuzco, took the train from Cuzco to Puno, crossed Lake Titicaca into La Paz and after that traveled down to Iguacu."
These days treks are his preferred family vacation option. With his wife, actress Sinead Cusack and two sons, ages 21 and 15, Irons recently embarked on a trek across Nepal. "I'm often away working. My wife is often away working. My son's at university and my other son's at school. The great thing about trekking is you're all walking in the same direction."
Irons says he doesn't do any pre-trek exercise to warm up for a journey. "I'm quite fit," he says. Prior to departure, considerable care is taken in planning and packing. "I try to pack minimally. I tend to trek in comfortable walking boots, shorts, a T-shirt, another shirt to go over that. You need to travel with layers, especially if you're trekking in the mountains. I'll pack a wool jacket for the evening. I always pack a scarf, something to wrap around the head to keep the sun off or wrap around the neck to keep the wind away."
The best and worst part of travel is dealing with the unexpected. Irons relishes the challenge. "Travel is for surprises," he says. "It has to have an element of risk." In Nepal unexpected difficulties arose in dealing (of all things) with the donkeys carrying the provisions. "They're difficult, donkeys," Irons muses. "You've got to know them. I had one particular donkey who didn't like the color red, who panicked when he saw the color red and went a bit AWOL. Monks traveling through Nepal tend to wear red, so we had a problem. The saddle was falling on this donkey and he let the wine go, which was a shame, and then another day we lost all the tomatoes down the ravine. We kept the beer. But I think I would have preferred it had the beer gone and we kept the wine."
For an actor who often plays men who are both involved in the world and somehow detached from it, emotionally or otherwise (Claus von Bulow, for one,) a trek offers an ideal way to combine adventure and introspection, exploration and isolation. It's hard work, but the dividends are many. "It's great to earn your pleasures," says Irons. Those being? "The view. Dinner at the end of the day. A comfortable sleeping bag at the end of a long day is also a great reward." Next on his trekking itinerary: Tibet. "I'd like to do more trekking toward the far reaches, which is very difficult and takes about five weeks." But of course. The dashing Mr. Irons always favors the road less traveled.