Role of Soldier Haunted by Internal Battle Is Close to Actor’s Heart

Role of Soldier Haunted by Internal Battle Is Close to Actor’s Heart
By IRIS HISKEY ARNO
Published: June 15, 2008
Dobbs Ferry


“SOLDIER’S Heart,” an independent film that won the prize for Best Narrative Feature Film at the G.I. Film Festival in Washington last month, stars an actor for whom the film has personal resonance. The actor, James Kiberd, who has lived here for 21 years, said his father served in World War II “and his friends all said he came back changed.”

“He never talked about what had happened to him in the war,” Mr. Kiberd said. “But he inflicted it on his family.”

Shortly before filming “Soldier’s Heart,” Mr. Kiberd (pronounced KYE-bird) found out the specific event — related to a battle in the North Atlantic — that had haunted his father, who is now deceased. Mr. Kiberd has kept the knowledge to himself, for the most part, but used it to develop Elliot, his character in “Soldier’s Heart.”

Elliot is a Vietnam War veteran struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, previously known as “battle fatigue,” or “Soldier’s Heart” during the Civil War era. Brian Delate, the film’s writer and director, who also plays a smaller role, is himself such a vet. He suffered from symptoms of the disorder upon his return home from Southeast Asia and again after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A study released by the RAND Corporation in April reported that as many as 20 percent of veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan showing signs of post-traumatic stress or major depression. Mr. Kiberd is emphatic about the importance of reintegrating these soldiers into society. “We prepare them to go to war, but do we prepare for them to come home?” he asked. “You have to welcome them back, invite them to share their stories and then, as a culture, be willing to bear the burden of the stories. We are not doing that yet.”

Mr. Kiberd has portrayed soldiers before, including the emotionally scarred Vietnam vet Mike Donovan in the ABC soap opera “Loving.” But the role for which he is best known is Trevor Dillon, the mercenary turned detective on another ABC daytime drama, “All My Children.” Originally conceived as a five-day role, that character, which Mr. Kiberd helped develop, became an integral part of the show for 11 years. It was so popular that the actor harnessed his fans’ passion to raise more than $100,000 for Unicef. He became one of its celebrity ambassadors, traveling to Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and the Dominican Republic.

“I’ve always wanted my art to challenge and examine who we are,” Mr. Kiberd said. Before he took up acting, he was trained as a painter, and with financing from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts, he became an artist in residence in Haverstraw, in Rockland County. He worked in a storefront studio and ran a cultural arts enrichment program, hiring disadvantaged youths to paint murals and otherwise beautify their community through art.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/15/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/15vetwe.html?_r=1&ref=nyregionspecial2&oref=slogin