Jeremy Irons is comfortable enough, surely, that he could rest on his laurels and not give a hoot about all this.  He is more than likely removed from the subject of the film he has just completed, most if not all the time.  So why bother?  But he got off his duff and did something, and for that we are impressed and give thanks:

A new documentary about the ultimate fate of just about everything we lug home from the mall opens on Friday in limited release in the United States. “Trashed,” directed by Candida Brady and starring Jeremy Irons, delves into the less festive side of consumerism and waste disposal — overflowing landfills in England, a toxic trash incinerator in Iceland, a hospital for children with birth defects in Vietnam.

We sat down recently with Mr. Irons to talk trash. Following are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity.Q.

“Trashed” opens with a powerful image from Lebanon of a mountain of trash stacked high next to the ocean. Can you describe what it was like sitting on that trash mountain?

A.

It was appalling. I’ve never been so grateful to leave the “set” of a film.  It is certainly something to look at, but what people who see the film don’t experience is the smell of dead animals and wafting chemicals that make you gag. There are flies and fleas everywhere, stray dogs tripping over rubbish and yapping furiously at the scavenging birds circling overhead.What really made my stomach turn was watching the steady stream of evil-looking runoff oozing from the bottom of the mountain of garbage straight into the sea. It looks and smells like poison, and there are still fishermen out there, although far fewer than there used to be.

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