Jeremy Irons's Walk of Fame

"In Shubert Alley, which runs between West Forty-fourth and Forty-fifth Streets, Jeremy Irons, dressed in a tweed cap turned backward and three artfully arranged layers of European workwear, pointed to a patch of asphalt beneath the marquee of the Booth Theatre. "This is where I used to argue with the police that I should be allowed to park my motorcycle. But they made me put it in the damn car park up the street," he said."

"Stoppard had sought out Irons for the original London production, but he had already committed to a screen adaptation of Ibsen's "The Wild Duck," to be filmed in Australia. While there, he received a disquieting bulletin: "I heard that Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline had gone to see the London show. I thought, Well, fuck that. So I called my agent, Robby Lantz, and said, 'If you don't get me that role, I'm leaving.' ""

Jeremy Irons recalls details from his early Broadway debut in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing, pointing out dressing room windows and a spot where he argued with police about parking his motorcycle. He described being cast after insisting his agent secure the role when he learned notable actors had attended the London show. The production featured Glenn Close and future stars Christine Baranski, Peter Gallagher, and Cynthia Nixon, and was directed by Mike Nichols. Irons and Close won Tonys in 1984, amid a run that included television fame in Brideshead Revisited and a film role opposite Meryl Streep.

Read at The New Yorker