QUOTED: Jeremy Irons, Oscar-winning actor, says he can identify with Rob Ford

“The great thing about being an actor is that you play all these strange characters and it allows you to relate to almost anybody. I’ve played over 60 different people and seen life through their eyes. So when I see something like your mayor, I think, yeah, it’s a tough call, but you’ve got to deal with it.”

—Jeremy Irons, while being interviewed on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. The Oscar-winning actor was in town to discuss Cronenberg Evolution—the David Cronenberg retrospective at the TIFF Lightbox—but instead, he got Strombo to talk about the same thing everyone is talking about in Toronto right now: mayor Rob Ford. “The characters I played in Dead Ringers had many similar problems to the mayor,” Irons said of his dual role in the creepy 1988 flick, although “they were gynaecologists, not mayors.” It’s terrifying to think that one of Cronenberg’s most unsettling movies—about twin gynaecologists pulling bait-and-switch seductions on unsuspecting patients—may contain insight into the mayor’s current predicament.

To see the full interview, tune into George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight on CBC Television on Monday, November 18 at 7 p.m. or 11:30 p.m.