This is London
December 24, 2001
Polly Vernon
As unremittingly fabulous as Christmas telly is, it is traditionally lacking on the gratuitously beautiful man front. A schedule dominated by Only Fools and Horses and EastEnders extravaganzas doesn't tend to leave much room for that kind of thing. But nestling in between Alastair McGowan's festive Big Impressions and Toy Story, is the BBC's big budget Christmas Day adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. And starring as hapless journalist/ explorer Edward Malone, is 26-year-old Matthew Rhys, accomplished actor, unapologetic Welshman and distractingly pretty young man.
Rhys could have been custom-designed to titillate women. The actor - who played Benjamin Braddock to Kathleen Turner's Mrs Robinson in the Gielgud's version of The Graduate - is boy-next-door appeal incarnate. His hair is curly, his eyes are bright, his complexion is luminous and clear, and somehow suggests that he hasn't spent the past eight years in London at all, but has only just this moment come in from wandering the valleys of his native Wales.
He's got those sexy, lithe, wiry proportions that work so well on screen. And he's distinctly eager to please - smiley, excitable, inclined to laugh at all your jokes in a tremendously gratifying way. The Lost World is Walking With Dinosaurs meets fin de siëcle period drama. Assorted adventurers, academics and hangers-on discover a land which has somehow avoided evolving and is populated by dinosaurs. Rhys mostly fancied the part because it involved heroics and action.
"I'm a sucker for any Boy's Own adventure stuff," he says. "I'm an action tart." The fact that the cast were shipped out to New Zealand to film was a bonus. "It's God's own country," he says, marking the inverted commas in the air with his fingers, before adding, quickly, "after Wales."
Rhys grew up in Cardiff. His grandparents were farmers, his parents were teachers, he had one older sister, and no theatrical ambitions. "Oh God, this is stupid, but I thought I'd be in the armed forces," he says. "Don't ask me why. And then I thought maybe I'd be a farmer. That was another silly notion. I think I'd last about five minutes, being a farmer."
At 16, he was cast as the lead in a school production of Elvis, The Musical and got hooked. Eventually, he progressed to the Welsh National Youth Theatre and won a scholarship to Rada, relocated to London, landed his first film role in House of America before he graduated and has worked solidly since, dividing his time equally between stage, TV and film.
Beyond his impressive biog and his prettiness, the particularly appealing thing about Rhys is that he comes as one half of a package deal. His celebrity foil is the equally tantalising, equally Welsh actor Ioan "Hornblower" Gruffudd. Best mates, flatmates, they reconfirm the other's appeal by contrast and by association.
Gruffudd is exotically luscious where Rhys is straightforward, boyishly handsome, and they're identically credible, accomplished actors. They've known each other since they were seven and eight - Rhys made Gruffudd cry during a frenzied primary school snowball fight. Gruffudd was in the year above at school, and they ended up at Rada together. They've shared flats, stages, and a social circle ever since.
There's something about the Rhys/Gruffudd domestic arrangement that intensifies the whole, giddy thrill of their communal allure. They share the mortgage on the Kilburn flat and they've just got a cleaner. "And a small guy who comes in and lights our cigars and mixes us cocktails," he jokes. Half way through the interview Gruffudd calls. Their conversation ends when Rhys agrees, mysteriously, to meet his flatmate at a venue called Statton Island. He later reveals that this isn't the name of a dubious Kilburn nightclub, as you might assume, but is in fact a level on Grand Theft Auto 3, a PlayStation game the two are obsessed by. "It's my only vice," he says. "That and the booze."
Unsurprisingly, Rhys doesn't think he's a sex symbol. He laughs long and hard when the issue is raised. "What's that all about, really?" he asks. "Ioan was talking about it the other day. He was up for some sexiest man poll, and we were saying, what does it mean?" His protests, though predictable, are also convincing. "I'm even scared to say it's flattering, because that's like admitting: yes, I am actually."
He has fallen for his on-screen love interests, he admits, which can be a nightmare. On one occasion, he acted on a crush and dated a co-star, though he won't name her and he certainly won't do it again. "I learned that lesson very quickly." However, he inevitably fell for Kathleen Turner a bit, too, while in The Graduate. "When she turned on the seductive charm, the acting went out the window. I was sweating for real. This woman, who you've seen in Body Heat and Romancing the Stone, and the next minute she's whispering in your ear. You're like: Oh my God! Oh shit! I can honestly say, in five months of doing it, I never properly looked at her when she was naked."
He's single at the moment. A longish involvement with PR Ciara Parkes (his senior by around 10 years), ended five months ago, but he insists he isn't on some debauched, promiscuous kick. "I'm being very dull and Welsh," he says. "Not that those two go together." How does he while away the long winter evenings, then?
"At the moment, I'm enjoying curling up with Mr Gruffudd and playing PlayStation 2." And if that image doesn't get you through the bleaker moments of the festive period, nothing will.
Lost World, part one, is on Christmas Day; part two on Boxing Day.
