Jeremy Irons Helps Free the Human Spirit

by Adam Gonshor at andPop.com — June 1, 2007

The man behind bars for life isn’t much different than Jeremy Irons, the English actor explains.

Irons was putting together a charity event at a prison in England recently and was speaking with one of the inmates.

The prisoner explained that he had been arguing with his girlfriend in the kitchen when he saw a knife lying nearby. He picked it up, the knife went through her heart, and he’ll be spending the rest of his life behind bars.

“And I thought, anybody could have done that,” Irons tells andPOP. “And now this man’s life was ruined. I realized that so easily could have been me in there. There is no difference. We tend to think of prisoners as people totally different than us and we throw away the key, when in fact in many cases, these are people who just got it wrong because of anger, or lack of education, or frustration.”

One way prisoners can deal with their anger and stay out of jail once they are released, Irons explains, is through yoga and meditation.

Seems far-fetched – both that the spiritual practice can help prisoners transform themselves into better citizens, and that the assessment is coming from an Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning actor.

But Irons knows what he’s talking about.

For many years, Irons has been a proponent of Freeing the Human Spirit, a program started by Sister Elaine MacInnes, who has been teaching meditation in prisons since 1980.

They had met when MacInnes – who was appointed an office of the Order of Canada in 1999 – was living in England. Irons continued helping whenever he could when she moved to Toronto.

“It’s very tough to say I want to put meditation and yoga into your prison,” Irons says, “but she’s a determined woman.”

Her determination has paid off. The Freeing the Human Spirit program has been accepted in 27 prisons in Canada and is being practiced in 14.

The goal is to lower the likelihood of reoffenders. “What this is planned to do is to break that cycle so that when prisoners leave, they have a sense of their own worth, their own individuality, their own being,” says Irons, known for his roles in Eragon, the Merchant of Venice, The Man in the Iron Mask and Die Hard 3 and as the voice of Scar in the Lion King.

And while there aren’t many costs involved with the program, there are some, which is why Irons will be in Toronto on Monday (June 4) for a fundraiser at the Jane Mallett Theatre (visit freeingspirit.com for ticket info). Kate McGarrigle, the legendary folk singer and mother of Rufus Wainwright, will perform.

What can people expect once Irons takes the stage?

“I don’t know,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll get something together.”

Further pushing reveals that Irons plans to do some readings and poetry. “I’m almost as excited to see what we’re going to do as you are.”

It can be unsettling to some to know that if a celebrity doesn’t attach themselves to a charity or cause like this, it may go unnoticed, or not noticed as much. If Al Gore wasn’t so passionate about the environment, global warming wouldn’t be as highly spoken about. If Irons didn’t take time to speak about Freeing the Human Spirit, perhaps it too would suffer.

It’s just the nature of charity, Irons says.

“There are so many people doing good work in the world,” he says. “But you have to raise funds. It’s just something I’m able to do because of my position and I’m delighted to do it. I’ve been very fortunate. I had a great upbringing and I have a career I love. Things have been easy for me. And for a lot of people they haven’t been easy so this is something that gives me great pleasure to be able to give back at least a little something.”

And maybe the cause he’s fighting for now can improve his life a little bit, too.

“[Sister Elaine] is always telling me I should [meditate and do yoga] regularly because it would stop me from smoking so much and it’s a great antidote to the pressures in my life but I have yet to get into the daily practice of it,” Irons says. “One day I will grow the wisdom to do so.”

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