Do we like Stephen Rea?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A five-decade career with no harmful words or acts found and some real advocacy, though the record on LGBTQ+ issues specifically is thin.
Stephen Rea grew up in north Belfast in a Protestant family. His dad drove a bus, his mum kept no telly in the house, and the family borrowed three library books a week. He studied English at Queen's University Belfast before scraping together a stage career in England.
The turning point was 1980, when he co-founded Field Day with playwright Brian Friel and a crew of heavy-hitting writers. The company toured plays around Ireland, and Rea has said it wanted to unify rather than claim one tradition mattered more than another. Then came Neil Jordan's Angel in 1982, the first of many films together, including The Crying Game, which earned Rea an Oscar nomination.
On the harm test, we found nothing from him. No nasty comments, no culture-war grandstanding, no conspiracy rabbit holes. In 2017 he launched Ireland's first international human rights film festival in west Belfast and became its patron. There he called Direct Provision for asylum seekers “internment” and “torture”, and said that if you aren't a citizen, he can't be one. Fair warning: we found no statements from him on LGBTQ+ issues either way.
As for scandals, honestly, there's nothing. No court cases, no allegations from any credible outlet, just a stack of gossip-site junk like fake death and retirement hoaxes, which we ignored. The only thing resembling a stoush is that he and Friel parted ways in 1994, and he has declined to say why.
The recent stuff is warm. He has taken roles in new films from up-and-coming Irish directors, and says that's because he's always looking for “the next writer”. He's also performing Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape in Paris, which he says is his final run in the role. He told the Irish News he doesn't like watching himself, which is a very Rea thing to say.
Awards-wise he has an Oscar nomination, a 2015 BAFTA and three IFTAs, and this year the Belfast Film Festival gave him its Réalta Award. He has described a career of collaboration with “the most generous and creative artists you could ever work with.” On the record we read, he's a decent bloke who has backed asylum seekers and fresh talent.