WOW!
Paul Byrne
April 2001
"I don't think Peaches is going to set the world's box-offices alight, but it's great that small films like this are being made. Having the opportunity to work outside the studio system is important. Whether you can beat Hollywood at their own game is another matter entirely."
Matthew Rhys is nothing if not practical. With four films due on the big screen over the coming year, and a major TV series about to hit our small screens, he could afford to be arrogant. Cocky even. But the Welsh-born actor is keen to keep his feet on the ground.
"It's a really big thrill to be so busy," he smiles, "but you should never think that, oh, I've made it now, I've got four films coming out. That would be the death of you, because you never can tell how those films are going to go down, how your career is going to progress.
"Look at Julia Ormond. A few years ago, with films like Legends of the Fall and Sabrina, she was tipped to become the biggest star to come out of the UK since Sean Connery. That was a hard pitch to live up to, and she paid the price for such hype. I don't want the same thing happening to me."
Certainly, on the strength of the first of his four films this year, the Irish-produced Peaches, it's unlikely Rhys will be propelled to international fame and fortune just yet. A low-budget comedy about two British lads spending a lazy, hazy summer in London, Peaches has been receiving a large amount of press for the simple reason that it was shot entirely in Dublin even though it's set in London. Other than that, there's very little to write home about.
"As I said, Peaches isn't the sort of film that's going to turn into this year's Full Monty or whatever," continues Rhys, "but I think its heart is in the right place. Nick Grosso, who adapted it from his own hit play, has captured a certain kind of cultural clique wonderfully, and if even half of the charm he managed to put into those words makes it up there onto the screen, then you've got a film worth seeing."
Actually, it doesn't, and you don't, but Rhys has a few other tricks up his sleeve that look more promising. Having made his big-screen debut with the Welsh-based drama House Of America (having done his time at RADA), Rhys came to international attention playing one of Tamora's sadistic sons (Cork-born Jonathan Rhys-Meyers playing the other) in Julie Taymor's acclaimed Shakespeare adaptation, Titus. Taking on the Dustin Hoffman role opposite Kathleen Turner's Mrs Robinson in the recent London stage production of The Graduate was a further step in the right direction.
"That was a real eye-opener," he states. "And not because my co-star got naked for a few seconds. What was interesting was seeing how the media works with such a scene, milking the titillation factor for all its worth. It made me realise just how the press works, and how it can exaggerate any situation to make a story. You realise that everything is really spin in this day and age, where the media has blurred the line between real news and entertainment."
Not that Rhys has had much time to ponder such developments, having practically walked from the London stage of The Graduate onto the set of the Welsh comedy Very Annie Mary (he and his London flatmate, Ioan Gruffudd, playing gay couple Hob and Nob). And then there was the TV series Metropolis, alongside When Brendan Met Trudy headliner Flora Montgomery, before Rhys made his way to Ireland to shoot The Abduction Club, the 1780-set drama that deals with the phenomenon of highway men literally raiding houses and taking away the daughters.
"That was an incredibly fun movie to make," smile Rhys. "Running around on horses, giving it loads of swashbuckling with the old swords. We had a great time making that movie - when it wasn't pouring rain, that is. We'd do a short scene, then the skies would suddenly open up, and we'd all be huddled under a tree for the next hour or so waiting for the next dry spell. And I thought Wales got a lot of rain..."
The fourth movie due from Rhys this year is Tabloid, David Blair's satire on celebrity television. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays the TV producer who pushes Rhys's seedy talk show host to get ever darker and deeper with his guests.
"It's a pretty funny but insightful film really. You only have to look at how violent and intrusive TV has now become - from Jerry Springer to Cops - to see that a film like this is somewhat timely too. Why these people allow themselves to be ripped apart on TV just baffles me."
Fame.
"Hmm, you may have a point there. Kinda like the pot calling the kettle black, I guess. So what do you want to know about my seedy personal life?"
Currently in New Zealand shooting the BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs sequel, The Lost World, alongside Irish actress Elaine Cassidy and Peter Falk (aka TV’s Columbo), Rhys is looking forward to a little time off when they finally wrap.
"It feels like I've been working non-stop for the last few years," he finishes, "which, as an actor, is obviously a very, very good thing indeed. But I feel I need to step off the merry-go-round soon, just so I can take a step back and see where I want to go next. Of course, a lot will depend on the success of these films coming out, but I really don't mind what happens, as long as I can just keep on working.
"It's not about the fame. It's about the money."
