PROFILE: JIM SHERIDAN: Despite a penchant for stories of Irish-Americans doing the wrong things for the right reasons, the Sheriff Street kid has remained in the movie limelight. As his new, quite different, offering, 'Brothers', is released, DECLAN BURKEdetails the director's many successes
HE'S COME a long way from Kansas, Toto, but Jim Sheridan won't be going to the Emerald City any time soon. A story about Irish mobsters thriving in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Emerald Cityhas been on Sheridan's slate for some years now. On paper it seems the perfect Sheridan movie: the personal (Sheridan lived in Hell's Kitchen when he emigrated to America in 1982) meets the political (the culture clash, the dubious morality) with a generous dollop of yes-we-can (working-class emigrants triumph despite overwhelming odds).
Sheridan has recently cooled on the movie, perhaps for its similarity in theme to another proposed project, Black Mass, which is based on Irish-American mobster Whitey Bulger's collusion with the FBI.
But if that sounds like Sheridan is pigeon-holing himself as a peddler of stories of Irish-Americans doing the wrong things for the right reasons, consider his current offering, Brothers, a claustrophobic tale of small-town America backdropped by the war in Afghanistan; or Dream House, a New England-set thriller starring Daniel Craig which starts shooting next month; or I, Claudius, a proposed Roman epic based on the Robert Graves novels.
The Sheriff Street kid with homes in Dalkey, Ballsbridge and LA; the creator of working-class agitprop who is worth millions; the proud Irish emigrant who declares his love for America in the strongest Dublinese: Jim (aka Shay) Sheridan is, to paraphrase Kris Kristofferson's The Pilgrim, a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.
He was born in Dublin in 1949, to Anna and Peter Sheridan, the latter a railway worker who was also involved in local theatre as an actor and director. The Sheridans’ eldest son graduated from UCD and then worked as writer-director at Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, returning to Dublin to work in the Abbey and form the Children’s Theatre Company. In 1969, he and his brother Peter took over as artistic directors at the Project Arts Centre, working alongside artists such as Robert Ballagh, Neil Jordan and Vinnie McCabe. Sheridan wrote and directed at the Project, where he met a singer called Bono when his band played their first gig as U2. Afterwards, he offered to instruct Bono in the art of mime to improve his onstage persona.
His political themes appeared early . Journal of a Hole, first staged in 1971 and co-written with Neil Jordan, was a story about institutional abuse in industrial schools. He would return to hard-hitting material throughout the 1970s, with Women at Work(1976), Mobile Homes(1976) and The Ha'Penny Place(1979).
Now married to Fran, and with a young family to support, Sheridan moved to New York in 1982, where he took over as artistic director at the New York Irish Arts Centre. He also enrolled on a filmmaking course at NYU.
In the late 1980s, Dublin theatre producer Noel Pearson came to Sheridan with an idea for adapting Christy Brown's autobiography, My Left Foot. Brown's story, a working-class Dubliner who overcame severe cerebral palsy to establish himself as a critically acclaimed poet, author and painter, set the tone for Sheridan's career in filmmaking, blending the personal and the political with a triumph against overwhelming odds.
Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Christy Brown, as did Brenda Fricker for her performance as Christy’s mother. Despite being nominated for directing and writing awards, Sheridan went home empty-handed, a disappointment that was to be repeated on many subsequent awards nights.
The Field(1990), an adaptation of John B Keane's play and starring Richard Harris, was another critical and commercial success for Sheridan, and was the biggest box-office draw in Ireland in the year of its release, no mean feat in a cinema-hungry country not noted for supporting indigenous film. He followed that with the overtly political In the Name of the Father(1993), a fictionalised telling of the Guildford Four's travesty of justice that focused on the personal relationship between the father and son pairing of Giuseppe and Gerry Conlon, played by Pete Postlethwaite and Daniel Day-Lewis, respectively.
SANDWICHED IN BETWEENcame his screenplay for Into the West(1992), while the screenplay for Some Mother's Son(1996), co-written with Terry George, his writing partner on In the Name of the Father, dealt with the human story behind Northern Ireland's hunger strikes of 1981. The pair again worked together on the script for The Boxer(1997), a Northern Ireland-set tale starring Daniel Day-Lewis as an ex-IRA man determined to leave his past behind by succeeding in the ring. Yet again, the film was critically received, this time earning three Golden Globe nominations; yet again, Sheridan came away without a single gong.
A stint as producer followed, with Sheridan producing Agnes Browne(1999), Borstal Boy(2000), On the Edge(2001) and Bloody Sunday(2002), all but the first film containing strong political messages. His most personal film, however, also arrived in 2002. Sheridan was candid about the fact that In Americawas an autobiographical and cathartic story, concerning itself with a young Irish family emigrating to New York's Hell's Kitchen, with the father – played by Paddy Considine – an actor hoping to succeed in the Big Apple while also coming to terms with the recent death of his child (Sheridan, aged 18, had lost his brother Frankie to a brain tumour). Co-written with daughters Kirsten and Naomi (he has a third daughter, Tess), it was also a love letter to the American dream. "Let's not beat around the bush," he said in an interview at the time. "America was the 'Magic Land' for us."
In Americaalso saw him reunited with Bono, who had provided soundtrack material on In the Name of the Father. Bono and the Edge also contribute an original track to Brothers, which contains a scene in which two of the characters bond over U2's Bad. Notoriously loyal, Sheridan is also known for the extent to which his personal and professional lives overlap – Kirsten and Naomi made their debut in film not with In Americabut on the set of My Left Foot,when both played children's roles.
Get Rich or Die Tryin(2005) was regarded at the time as something of a creative non sequitur for Sheridan, being an account of rapper 50 Cent's rise to fame, but the ex-gangster's graduation to stardom from the violent mean streets through a combination of perspiration and inspiration strikes a familiar chord when placed against the body of Sheridan's work.
Amiable though he is in person, Sheridan does not suffer fools gladly while working. That said, he has in the past invited a stagehand behind the monitor while shooting a scene, subsequently changing it according to her advice. Perhaps it's that common touch that accounts for the superb performances he invariably draws from children. From Hugh O'Conor's precocious turn as the young Christy Brown, through In Americaand now with Brothers,Sheridan's child actors offer superbly naturalistic turns.
That Tobey Maguire was Brothers'only (losing) nominee in this week's Golden Globe Awards suggests that Sheridan won't be attending the Oscars this year, let alone leaving empty-handed. That shouldn't obscure the fact that Sheridan the director has been heavily nominated all over the world for a mere seven films, that the awards he has won include a Berlin Golden Bear, and that he has directed seven actors in Oscar-nominated roles.
Not that he's likely to lose the run of himself if he ever does win a statuette. Whether he follows Dream Housewith I, Claudius, Black Massor something else entirely, his dream project will remain, as it has been now for many years, a story called Sheriff Street.
CV: Jim Sheridan
Who is he?Film director, producer, writer and occasional actor.
Why is he in the news?His latest film, Brothers, opened at a Cineplex near you yesterday, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman.
Most likely to say:"It's nice to be nominated me bollix."
Least likely to say:"You like me, you really like me!"
