The British actor began his acting career as a busker before joining the Bristol Old Vic drama school.
In 1971, he moved to London and started working odd jobs. Then he starred in the role of John the Baptist in the blockbuster musical "Gospel", which started his career as an actor. In his early career, after "Rock Gospel", he successfully expanded his stage development in London's West End Theater (equivalent to British Broadway). He also developed well in television and made his screen debut in the movie "Nijinsky". In the early 1980s, his 1981 TV series adapted from Evelyn Waugh's famous novel of the same name Brideshead, produced and broadcast by Granada TV, became famous overseas and became a household name. Later, the film industry rushed to invite him to be the leading actor. Especially romantic dramas. Since then, he has embarked on a stable film career.
In 1979, he won an Emmy Award for his performance in the famous drama "The Place Revisited". He later starred in the film of the same name adapted from the play, which also won a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Award. The following year, director Karel Reitz invited him to co-produce "The French Lieutenant's Woman" with Meryl Streep. This is a play within a play, with Irons playing two roles and performing it very successfully. In 1988, Irons made further progress. He played a pair of twin brothers in David Cronenberg's psychological thriller "The Knuckle". Irons has indeed accumulated experience in playing dual personalities or dual characters. Have rich experience.
In 1984, he made his Broadway debut. He co-starred with Glenn Close in Tom Stoppard's award-winning play The Real Thing, and in the mid-1980s he appeared in three Royal Shakespeare Company leading roles. In 1988, he won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor for his astonishing performance in David Cronenberg's film "The Bad Guys," and was unanimously recognized by film critics. In 1990, his outstanding performance in "Reversal of Fortune" won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He is married to actress Slade Cusack, with whom he collaborated in the 1992 film Waterland and in a Royal Shakespeare Company production. In 1989, he also starred in the TV movie "Danny, Champion of the World" adapted from Roald Dahl's famous children's book with his son Samuel Irons and father-in-law Cyril Cusack.
As we all know, this actor is good at playing "twins", "twins" and other types of roles. In "The Indebtedness", although he did not play two roles simultaneously, his exquisite performance made the character of Klaus still seem to be two people: an innocent person and a guilty person. Irons's "ambiguous" performance is truly amazing.
"I like to play two completely different characters at the same time - similar on the outside but very different on the inside. This requires a lot of skill" This is Irons' motto.
Irons won the 1990 Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in "Reversal of Fortune." At the award ceremony, Irons was so excited that he said thank you more than ten times. In order to portray the character realistically, Irons made considerable sacrifices: he cut off a lot of his thick hair, shaved off all of his forehead, and dyed the remaining thin hair gray; he injected silicone rubber into his chin to cushion it. Highlight it; during filming, many linings were embedded in the costume to create a frame. In the film, Irons did a great job. His strong British accent, elegant gentlemanly manners and eyes that are both good and evil make Dershowitz's characters come alive. The most exciting thing is that in order to eliminate the suspicion of people around Klaus, Irons always forces a smile on his face, but only moves the corners of his mouth. This expression not only shows the character's inner embarrassment, but also maintains his self-confidence. In addition to his solid foundation, being good at collaboration is also one of the reasons for this actor's success. In "The Indebtedness", he partners with Glenn Close, who plays Sunni. The two always get along as a couple both inside and outside the rehearsal and filming locations, drinking tea, whispering, going for walks, and exchanging lines and movements.
In 1991, Jeremy played the great writer in the low-cost film "Kafka".
The whole film is always shrouded in a gloomy and depressing atmosphere. He never smiles once from beginning to end, and Kafka's inner depression and tragic fate are all condensed on his slightly thin face.
In 1992, Jeremy and French actress Juliette Binoche*** performed "Love Is Bad" together. In the film, he plays a high-ranking official who has an affair with his son's lover. He brings out the sexiness of a man to the fullest, and his unique melancholy temperament brings a perfect ending to the character's tragic fate. In this film, he displays qualities that few others know about him: he is overwhelmed, humane, and sensitive.
In 1993, Jeremy co-starred in the movie "M. Butterfly" with the Chinese-American Hollywood movie star Zun Long. The film made a breakthrough in disregarding biological gender.
Perhaps because he was too deeply involved in the drama and could not extricate himself, Jeremy once always wandered into the depressing and tragic characters of abnormal love, such as "Fire Lover", " "Stealing Beauty", the most famous performance of which is the modern version of "Lolita".
Of course Jeremy will not be satisfied with repeating the "old man" trapped in abnormal love again and again. He is eager to try different types of roles.
In 1995, he played a villain, the gangster leader Simon, in the action film "Pop III", almost overshadowing the male lead Bruce Willis. In the same year, he starred in the great director Bertrucci's "Stealing Beauty" and "China Box" with Gong Li. Jeremy has worked with actors from many Western countries such as Italy, France and Germany, but this is his first time filming with Chinese people. He needs to work with several actors and actresses who speak Chinese (including Cantonese and Mandarin), and the barriers to emotional communication are not small, so he often makes helpless expressions, smiles, or shrugs. But after filming for a while, the emotional communication between them became smooth and natural, and his grasp of the characters' personalities was also good.
In 2011, he starred in the TV series "The Borgias", in which Jeremy played Rodrigo Borgia, the "Pope of Beauty" Alexander VI. He will be cunning, steady, and aggressive. The scheming Pope is vividly portrayed.
At the 2012 London Olympics, the series "The Empty Crown" was launched as a tribute drama to the Olympics. Jeremy plays the protagonist Henry IV in it. Jeremy's performance does not emphasize his noble arrogance as a king. He is more like an old captain who has been wearing a cloak all his life and has gone to the end with melancholy and exhaustion. years of kings.
Alfred will be played in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" in 2016.