In Ireland to film a new comedy, Canadian actor/comic Dan Aykroyd is pacing around his on-set caravan looking for his cigarettes. Having turned everything upside down and inside out, he suddenly stops in front of the fridge, opens the door, pulls out his cigarettes, lights one and then puts the pack back in the fridge. Does it keep them fresher? "I've no idea. Sorry, you probably think I'm mad for keeping my cigarettes in the fridge," he says. Whatever floats your boat. "I know, but it's just that I've no idea at all why I do things like that."
A slightly portly 48-year-old, the softly-spoken Aykroyd has a personable and engaging manner whether he is talking about the effects of refrigeration on tobacco, his time as a comedian terrible on the seminal Saturday Night Live programme, his huge success as one of the Blues Brothers, his fondness for Co Kildare (where he's now filming) and his utter belief in the existence of UFOs and extra-terrestrials.
His conversational topics are as varied and as diverse as his career path. Known as one of the hardest-working people in show business, he's a dramatic and comic actor, a screenwriter, producer, director, musician and restaurant chain owner. So why Ireland, and why now?
"I'm here doing a film that was called Delaney's Flutter and is now called On The Nose," he says. "It's a great comedy film written by Tony Philpott and starring Robbie Coltrane and myself and it's about how a porter at a Dublin medical college has found an ancient relic which has the ability to predict the winning horse at the local races. I don't want to say too much about it, but for me it's like a Carry On or an Ealing comedy venture. It's all about concealing things, people playing to their own agenda and the absurdity of it all. There's a real Full Monty sense to it."
Why choose this film over the countless others you're offered on a regular basis?
"I have four criteria when it comes to deciding on which scripts to do," he says. "First, it must have good laughs and with this one I laughed out loud at least 15 times. Second is the role, and I'm really happy playing the `Senior Anatomist' part in this film. Third is `Who else is in it?' and when I heard Robbie Coltrane was confirmed, I was interested and fourth is: `Am I required to be the main actor or am I just a character? And in this case, it was the latter so I was able to nip in and do two or three weeks. It was also a chance to come to Ireland - I've never been here before - and check out my ancestral routes."
Although he says he grew up in a "very Catholic" family in Ontario, he adapted quite quickly to his "black sheep" status, which was only enhanced by being expelled from the local Catholic seminary school. After college, he became a full-time stand-up comedian and joined the famous Second City improvisation team in Toronto. There, he was spotted by Lorne Michaels (the producer of Saturday Night Live) who invited him down to join the programme when it was in its "golden age". "I really see Second City as my Masters in Comedy and Saturday Night Live as my PhD," he says, "I had four golden years on the show and you have to remember just how different and anarchic the show was in terms of television comedy. Before SNL, all there was was Milton Berle and Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, but then suddenly in 1975 there was myself, Eddie Murphy, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Andy Kaufmann, Gilda Radner and John Belushi let loose on live television. There was no network interference at all, not like these days, and we were able to get away with very edgy political satire. The only concession we made was that we allowed the network to use a seven-second delay on the programme.
His characters on the show, The Coneheads, Fred Jarvin: Male Prostitute and The Czechoslovakian Playboys count among SNL's greatest hits, but it was a throwaway sketch he did with John Belushi, The Blues Brothers, that proved to be the most enduring.
"I don't know why, but people just reacted so well to those two guys in their pork-pie hats singing all those blues classics. After myself and Belushi (who died from a drugs overdose in 1980) left the show, we put out two blues albums, Briefcase Full Of Blues and Made in America and made the film, Blues Brothers. We've now sold over 10 million albums worldwide and we still go on tour, where John Goodman (aka Roseanne's husband) fills in for John." A sequel to the original Blues Brother film, Blues Brothers 2000, was released last year and performed badly at the box office.
Comedy aside, he has appeared in dramatic roles in Driving Miss Daisy and Grosse Point Blank to great acclaim, although his directorial debut with Nothing But Trouble, in 1991, was a commercial flop. He's fared better on the business side of things as executive manager of the themed House Of Blues restaurants, of which there are seven in the US, with plans to expand into Europe.
Oddly enough (or maybe not) for a comic actor, what most enthuses him is his impassioned belief in the existence of extra-terrestrials. He has pursued a lifelong study of the paranormal and used to host a series on Canadian television called Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal. In fact, he credits his long-time interest in the paranormal as the source for the Ghostbusters films, which he appeared in during the 1980s.
He's full-on in his beliefs: "There was an incident about 15 years ago. I was lying in bed asleep, it was about three in the morning and I suddenly woke up and felt compelled to travel to an area near my home where there was this pink spiral. The next morning I was listening to the radio and it was reported that about 12,000 other people in the area felt compelled also, at the exact same time, to travel towards this pink spiral."
"I believe that instead of the usual dimensions of time and space, there are at least 11 dimensions out there - and that is why UFOs and extra-terrestrials exist. If you don't believe me go to a place called Marta in Texas where these inexplicable lights are there for everyone to see, all year around. Nobody can explain what those lights are doing there. It's the same with crop circles, nobody can explain why they exist. People say they're hoaxes but I believe that they're caused by the spirits of the earth, using sophisticated communication. I know this communication takes place because I myself have been telepathically communicated to. I'm not talking comedy here, I'm talking about the paranormal, about gravity being bent and UFOs. It's all out there . . . just open your eyes."
On The Nose starring Dan Aykroyd and Robbie Coltrane will open later this year.
