PETE Postlethwaite is enamoured by the Sundance Film Festival and has the highest praise for Robert Redford. "There's no way that you'd get a film like Brassed Off to open the Cannes Film Festival, unless it was in the best foreign film category from Yorkshire." He adds that Sundance stands alone among film festivals: "It's very different. It's more truthful, more alive, more young. It's more to do with the business of films and not to do with the selling of films." He also has the highest praise for the man behind the event, endearingly referring to him as "Mr Redford".
Asked about his next projects, Postlethwaite is coy. He won't be drawn on whether or not he'll be in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer, starring Daniel Day Lewis, which is due to start shooting in Ireland within weeks. Day Lewis, a student of Postlethwaite, asked Sheridan to cast his friend in In the Name of the Father, so another pairing could be on the cards.
Postlethwaite is deeply interested in things Irish and appears to have many Irish friends. Take the example of an encounter between this reporter and a Belfastman on a transAtlantic flight just weeks ago. Mickey Tohill, who works in an entertainment law firm in Los Angeles mentioned how he was a friend of Postlethwaite. The chance meeting elicits disbelief from Postlethwaite. "Mickey Tohill," he says, reaching for some jewellery, "that's his ring".
And how does Postlethwaite choose his projects? "It's always the script," he replies. "The script of The Lost World (Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park) is a fantastic script. It's more character driven. I play a philosopher/hunter really. It's the last of the proper hunters." The film opens in the US at the end of May.
Postlethwaite's next film is Romeo and Juliet, due out in Ireland soon. Baz Luhrmann's (Strictly Ballroom) modern take on Shakespeare, got rave reviews when it opened in the US towards the end of last year. Postlethwaite got the pivotal role of a priest, after it was turned down by Marion Brando.
So what does he like so much about the craft of acting? The answer is simple: "I love what I do; I love being me."