Western Mail
May 21, 2001
What do you remember about the first time you met?
Ioan: I first met Matthew when I came down from Aberdare to school at Ysgol Melyn Gruffydd in Whitchurch, Cardiff, and Matthew was in the year below me. We were always friends outside school, in Chapel and Sunday School. The first memory I have is playing on the school yard and when it was snowing. It was the seventh year against the sixth year and Matthew chased after me and pelted me with snow and made me cry, which I was so embarrassed about because he was a year younger than me. After Ysgol Glantaf I went to RADA and he came a year later and we shared a flat. We still do eight years later.
Matthew: We didn't get off to the best of starts. We were thinking about this the other day. It was a snowball fight. He ended up running away and I ended up going after him and hacking him to the floor. I tripped him and he started to cry and I panicked because I'd made someone cry.
What do you like best about him? / What are Ioan's best characteristics?
Ioan: First and foremost he's my best friend in the whole world. He's always there, he always listens and we have good intuition. I'm very impressed by his patience and generosity with people and with strangers. I think his tolerance level is much higher than mine, say in a social environment when somebody is getting on your nerves, he's always the one to keep a lid on it, but I want to get away.
Matthew: The danger is I'll sound very sycophantic but he's got a lot of good characteristics and it's hard to separate his best. He's nice. It sounds crap but he is. He has the most open generous personality and is honest. Immense loyalty as well.
What is he like as an actor? / How do you rate him as an actor?
Ioan: He's probably my favourite actor. I think he's probably one of the best actors of our generation. He inspires me, professionally.
Matthew: We have very different qualities and I admire the ones he possesses. He's got real sensitivity which he can portray very well. And there's a real innocence to him as well. Hornblower is perfect for him because he starts out as this innocent, quite naïve seaman and we see him progress. He's got every quality that is needed to see this guy mature. The fact that he can go from young and innocent to quite battle-hardened... he's very versatile.
Are the two of you competitive? / Have you ever envied him or his career in any way?
Ioan: Not really. We are both up for the same parts so often. Very often if one of us hasn't landed the part the other has. This time we had a chance to work together.
Matthew: No, we've had very different careers, but I've feel the projects I've done are... if not equal in popularity... I don't look at his performance and think, "Oh hell, how does he do that?" As a friend you look at him and think, "Bloody hell. Top job".
What was it like playing a gay couple together?
Ioan: When Sara Sugarman asked us to come in and read for Very Annie Mary, because we live together Matthew and I do these 'camp Valleys boys' anyway, so we just went into the audition and did those caricatures. She obviously loved it. We had to improvise a little bit on set but because we knew each other so well we both knew exactly where we were. We did about 10 days work altogether and it was just a blast, really. They're cameo roles and I think everybody will be having a good laugh at our expense. They are comedic parts and we wanted them to be believable as well.
Matthew: A scream. Dangerous. Because we've got so much history maybe we were in danger of going over the top, I don't know. Maybe some people think we have. It was just like being at home messing about in the flat. We do have a few characters that we like to mess about with. These two established themselves on the tube ride we used to do to college and back everyday, and we went from there. And because you have that media history you just run with it. It was a gift really.
Were you worried about playing a gay couple with Matthew? / Did it worry you that people might think you were a gay couple in real life?
Ioan: My first ever part on film was snogging Stephen Fry in Wilde. That was my first screen kiss, so there was no taboo about it.
Matthew: No, not at all. In all honesty there have been the rumours which we have heard. What do you do? You laugh. Good luck. No, they are a light-hearted couple in the film. Even if we played a couple who the film centred around and it was a serious piece and they were lovers, if the work's good and we want to do it, we'll do it.
What is Matthew's/Ioan's most annoying habit?
Ioan: I don't know what I can say. There isn't anything.
Matthew: He's not great on sorting out things in the flat. When there are bills to be paid... but it's not through laziness or malice or shifting of responsibility. If I've been away and come home and said, "Why's that phone been cut off?" he'd be like, "Oh damn! Sorry, sorry, sorry..." There's touches of that about him. Innocent oblivion to things that need to be dealt with. He can be efficient but he needs guidance.
