Showing His Independent Spirit

What happens when an older, very English discerning man of letters on one side of the big pond falls for an all-American teen movie heartthrob on the other?

As the love-struck writer in “Love and Death on Long Island,” John Hurt’s Giles De’Ath (death, get it?) eventually leaves his London study, hops on a plane and heads for the fictional Chesterton, Long Island, N.Y., home of Jason Priestley’s Ronnie Bostock.

Esteemed by directors for his deep understanding of character during 35 years on screen, Hurt has portrayed Caligula in the legendary series “I, Claudius” and received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a drugged-out hippie in “Midnight Express.” He has always been willing to work with independents and first-time directors, and that’s the case again in British filmmaker Richard Kwietniowski’s debut feature.

With razor-sharp precision, Hurt gives an astute study of obsession as the fastidious De’Ath, whose old world lifestyle has resisted vulgar modern-day contrivances from the VCR to the answering machine. De’Ath becomes infatuated with golden boy Bostock on a rare visit to his local duplex when he stumbles by mistake into “Hotpants College II,” culturally the antipode of the film he’d intended to see, E.M. Forster’s “Eternal Moment.”

Hurt responded with enthusiasm during an interview in Manhattan when asked for his first reaction to the script. “My agent called and said, ‘See what you think. I’m not sure about it.’ I read the script and said, ‘Well, I’m very sure. If there’s a green light on this, please tell whoever’s connected with it I’m definitely interested.’

“What the script succeeded in doing was talking about somebody who was homosexual without it appearing to be so, without tedious and boring details. And by the time you’ve finished watching the film, you suddenly realize you’ve been watching a relationship about a homosexual obsession.

“But I have a feeling that for the heterosexuals, being heterosexual myself, it transcends the homosexuality. The fact that it was well-written was the first thing that got to me. . . .”

Smitten with the all-consuming impact of a schoolgirl crush, De’Ath seeks out every image of Bostock he can lay his hands on, either on video or in print, and assiduously compiles a scrapbook of clippings that he calls “a file of smiles.”

“You constantly had to be aware on two levels,” Hurt said. “One, it [Giles’ obsession with Ronnie] was not funny to the characters; two, as an actor you had to play things humorously because it’s intended to be funny to an audience.”

One hazard of the role: Hurt had to take up smoking again. “When I started smoking, it was romantic and grown-up and everyone said you should look nervous without a cigarette,” Hurt said. “I have given smoking up on several occasions, but Giles in ‘Love and Death’ smokes, so that makes you take it up again, particularly if you like it.”

Hurt’s career took off with a memorable turn in 1975 as Quentin Crisp, the flamboyant drag queen in “The Naked Civil Servant.” “Quentin was the first character I played that really did cause a storm,” Hurt said. “There was a scene in ‘Civil Servant’ where I tried to get into a taxi to get away from some roughs. I had flaming red hair. [After the film], taxi after taxi would refuse to take money from me. I’d never known anything like it before.”

Born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, to a Church of England clergyman, Hurt described his father as “a professional Christian, straight and puritanical and someone who’s in another form of entertainment, spiritual entertainment.” Hurt’s own adolescence, he said, was “very rebellious.”

Hurt now lives on a stud farm in Ireland. “I have a cottage surrounded by horses,” Hurt said. “I don’t leave often. I do have one racehorse. She’s a 2-year-old called Heed My Warning,” Hurt said. “She’s doing fantastically well. She has a trainer and she’s been run in three races. She won the second one. Her colors are midnight blue with a silver star.”

Hurt makes no bones about his love for independent films, despite his studio box-office successes (“Aliens,” “A Man for All Seasons,” “The Elephant Man”). “The reason I like independents is a very simple one,” Hurt said, “the smaller the project, the more adventurous the content.

“Acting is my joy, my life, and I’m very thrilled that I chose to do it. You don’t do it for the applause. Applause is wonderful, very nice, pat on the back, terrific. The late Ralph Richardson, who’s one of my all-time favorites, was receiving an award once and started talking about pride as a dangerous thing, then said, ‘But I intend to paddle in a puddle of pride for the rest of the night.’ Alliteration and prizes go together.

“Of course, it’s wonderful to receive praise, not because it means you’re such a clever boy but because it means a lot of people have enjoyed [the performance].”