By: Valerie Milano and Lorraine Chambers – Hollywood, CA (Hollywood Today) 2-20-12

 Spotlight on Gerry O’Brien – Vice President of Irish Equity

 Irish actor Gerry O’Brien is back in Los Angeles for the month of February and he has let HollywoodToday.net know that he is attached to the feature ‘Unlimited’, due to shoot over the summer. ‘Unlimited’ will be directed by R.Christian Anderson for Embarcadero Films.  Per Gerry “This is an extremely funny script, and I’m really looking forward to it as it is a contemporary piece which will be a change for me as I’ve been working mainly on Historical Dramas for the last couple of years”.

 Gerry O’Brien holds an important leadership role with Irish Equity as the vice president and he is engaged in the ongoing fight for equal exploitation rights for Irish actors. He points out that Irish actors are forced to sign contracts that are inferior to any other contracts offered to actors in the US and the UK and even ridiculously, to the contracts signed by actors working on the same island, in Northern Ireland. Per Gerry. ‘It’s slowly changing but sadly not quick enough. The contracts Irish actors sign are solicitor drafted documents rather than agreements that ‘buy out’ the exploitation rights for as little as a few cents a year, and any effort by Irish Equity to negotiate fair contracts is met with dire warnings that all the big films will pull out of Ireland, and we are branded as ‘those greedy actors’. It’s interesting to note that not one penny in royalties has found its way back to Ireland from the worldwide sale of Tudors, and yet actors in the US still receive checks from the Soprano’s. And we’re greedy??????’ 

 Little has been written of the plight of Irish actors in Ireland as it is a double edge sword as Irish actors want whatever work can be had yet not at the risk of being blacklisted for speaking out about the injustice of below industry rates and compensation. Recently many young Irish actors have joined the ranks of fleeing Irish actors who have left Ireland as they cannot make a proper living as actors in their homeland. There are many well known successful veteran Irish actors who shy away from supporting Irish Equity’s pro actor support as many of the Irish producers and directors benefit from the current allowed setup. Gerry hopes in this modern age of social media and blogging that more will be written about the state of financial affairs in the Irish entertainment world to change to provide a better lucrative future for Irish actors to work in Ireland especially since the Irish Film Board provides a great stimulus for projects to be filmed in Ireland. Gerry used to teach acting classes yet his knowledge of the strive of actors in Ireland caused him to stop due to his concern that he was ‘misleading actors into a career with no realistic financial future’. Gerry has several businesses going besides his acting as it is necessary in order to thrive and survive while auditioning for work.

 Gerry has worked on ‘Tudors’, ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘King Arthur’ amongst his other works of ‘Pirates of the Carribean’, ‘The Matchmaker’, ‘Veronica Guerin’, ‘Fr. Ted’. HT writer Lorraine Chambers met up with Gerry last year at the Grove in the Fairfax District to learn more about his multi dimensional career in the entertainment industry. Gerry is one of those actors who comes to Hollywood with an incredible and impressive grounding in his craft. He started working in the theatre in Dublin at the famous Gate Theatre and over the years he has honed his craft across all the disciplines – Theater, Television, Film and in the field of Audio work.

 In theater he played practically every theatre venue in Ireland from the Abbey and Gate Theaters down to small converted rooms where the stage was made up of, according to Gerry, ‘a couple of planks stretched across some empty beer crates, and the audience consisted of about five people who were there to get out of the rain. That makes Shakespeare a real challenge”. But despite this what comes across when talking to Gerry is his great love of what he does. “It doesn’t matter who the author is, for me the adventure, the journey, is the same every time. From day one of receiving the script, be it for a theater production, television or film there is that moment of, how do I get from here to that moment in front of the audience where they are willing to suspend their disbelief and accept the truth of the words, the story, the situation. Incredible, exciting”.

 Gerry just finished working on a new play called ‘Sick and Indigent’, which was performed in one of Dublin’s great little boutique theaters situated in Bewely’s Cafe on Grafton Street. Referred to as ‘the lofty clattery cafe’ by Joyce, the venue specializes in lunchtime one act plays. It was a first play by a new writer and explored the lives of two homeless people in a shelter whose stories are slowly revealed to their caseworker through the clearing out of the effects of a deceased roomate. “It was a very moving piece and at times the audience was moved to tears. It focused peoples thoughts on the stories behind the person sleeping in the doorway and how each of them has a story, as the deceased character in the play says in a letter, ‘This is my story, it’s not Dickens or Shakespeare but it is my story none the less’. We all have stories”.

 Gerry has also amassed a huge body of work in television and film over the years. His work for the National Broadcaster in Ireland has made one of those actors who everybody in Ireland knows, but because he tends to play character parts they can never quite put a name to and instead he constantly has people say to him, ‘Hey, I know you don’t I? You’re him, the guy in that film…. with the thing. You know…. Him’. The life of any actor is always punctuated by long spells of waiting,

 However Gerry is not one to let the grass grow beneath his feet. He set up his own website to as he says ‘Bring back a little romance into the world and to make poetry fun and accessible”. Poemsandroses.com is a fun site and allows people to send a friend or a loved one a poem recorded by Gerry and a beautiful image of a rose that unfurls in slow motion and the sender can attach a personal message. “It’s really cool, and creates a moment in the daily traffic of emails that allows you to take a moment and listen to some beautiful words, look at a beautiful image and just smile. Anything that creates a smile has got to be worth it. Right?”.

 His other project, due to launch in March, is ‘A Gift of Heritage’ an audio book company. Gerry has been nominated for a number of international awards in the field of Audio books, one of the fastest growing areas in the media world and he will be launching a catalogue of beautiful short stories to either buy as CD or to download. ” Ireland has a great tradition of storytelling. From tales about ‘The Good People’, fairies,  leprechauns, goblins and ghosts through to the contemporary writers of today,  I have been recording some wonderful stories. As an actor, I’m lucky to have been born in Dublin, a city that both produced and influenced some of the greatest writers in the world of literature. The names just resonate with all who love good writing – Yeats, Joyce, Beckett, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, Joyce, Sheridan la Fanu. Great story tellers.Every actor needs words to speak and these guys have given us a few good ones, don’t you think? Am I lucky or what?’

 http://www.poemsandroses.com

 http://www.gerry-obrien.com

 http://www.youtube.com/user/gerryob10?feature=mhee

 http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0639569/