Byrne begins unexpected romance in ‘Juliet, Naked’
NEW YORK — In “Juliet, Naked,” Rose Byrne triumphs as the calm, sane center between two comically “outlandish, dysfunctional” men.
Adapted from a Nick Hornby (“About a Boy,” “High Fidelity”) best-seller, “Juliet” finds Byrne’s character Annie leaving Duncan (Ireland’s Chris O’Dowd), her partner of 15 years.
He’s a pretentious film studies teacher obsessed not with her but the mysterious singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe, who hasn’t been heard from in 20 years.
Duncan reveres Tucker as one of the greatest, if not well-known, musical artists ever. His life and website, with its few followers, are dedicated to that proposition.
When Annie disparages Tucker on the website, the real Tucker (Ethan Hawke) responds — positively! And another, equally offbeat comical relationship begins.
“I love the tone of Nick Hornby’s world,” Byrne, 39, said, “and how he writes great female protagonists. Annie particularly, I thought, was really endearing.
“This is an examination of obsession and being a fan, of people’s obsessions in relationships and how they can just erode and erode. Like, avoiding decisions for 15 years in a relationship and then ending up in this situation.
“I know Annie. I’ve met so many Annies in my life. She’s very wry with her humor, she’s very self-effacing and very quick witted,” she added.
The Aussie native has a family of four, with partner Bobby Cannavale (“Ant-Man and the Wasp,” the upcoming Martin Scorsese gangster film “The Irishman”), Rocco, 2, and infant Rafael. How does she cope with child-raising, filmmaking, publicity, life?
“Just drugs and alcohol,” Byrne answered gleefully and immediately with a straight face. “Heavy drugs, light on the alcohol.”
Is trying to find the right balance worrying?
“Of course. You go bonkers trying to figure out your life. Then it’s even more bizarre when you’ve got children. They just change everything.
“You always have this constant, immediate concern in your head, of consciousness of, Where are they? What are they doing? So it just changes every moment, in a way.”
Acting was her priority. “Of course they take priority. Then it becomes: You want to work for the right reasons. You try to be more selective, whereas probably I was a little more stumbling along.
“Now everything’s more finite. This is honestly the fastest year of my life. Definitely. After the birth of Rafael, this year feels like it’s been like five minutes and he’ll be a year in November and he was my little newborn like a week ago. It’s bizarre.”