Byrne tired of image

He's played both a priest (in Stigmata) and Satan (in End of Days) and as a boy growing up in Dublin he seriously considered becoming a missionary … and while you're discussing the life and times of Gabriel Byrne please don't mention the words dark or brooding.

He positively hates being called dark or brooding - though he is - and says: "I'd like to break out of that image, because I'm actually not like that at all. In Ireland, brooding is a term we use for hens. A brooding hen is supposed to lay eggs. Every time somebody says: 'He's dark and brooding' I think: 'He's about to lay an egg.'''