Two new interviews!!!!!!!!!!
There’s something about me physically which makes me look just a little bit dangerous...
Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Back on the box ... Dracula is Rhys Meyers' first telly roles since worldwide hit The Tudors
BY PATRICIA DANAHER
WHEN Dubliner Bram Stoker sat down to write his horror classic Dracula he could have been channelling actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Everyone working on the set of the upcoming NBC/Sky series of the same name, which airs later this year, says the Cork native was born to play the role.
It’s the whiff of danger around Rhys Meyers that makes him the perfect seductive vampire.
Speaking to me on the Budapest set of the new series, he’s inclined to agree.
He said: “I have to make him diabolical and erotic at the same time and let it pass between these two things so that it’s a balance between, ‘Oh my God, I’m really repulsed by this but I can’t stop watching.’”
Vampires have been everywhere in recent years, from True Blood to the Twilight phenomenon, but Rhys Meyers does a compelling and terrifying Dracula like you’ve never seen before.
He told me: “There’s something about me physically which makes me look a little dangerous. I have too much of the serpent in me to play someone erstwhile.
“I don’t get offered that many sweet parts because directors have this idea that I always want to be incredibly serious and that’s not necessarily the case.
“Parts like August Rush and Bend It Like Beckham are sadly few and far between.
“I wouldn’t exactly call myself Twilight material! I’m nearly 36 and a bit older than most people think I am.”
It’s hard to believe how much Rhys Meyers has packed into those years.
He’s made more than 30 movies, won a Golden Globe for playing Elvis in Diamond Goldmine and was nominated for another for his unforgettable portrayal of King Henry XIII on The Tudors.
He is represented by the Ennis-born uberagent Hylda Queally, who has clients like Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard on her books.
This is Jonathan’s first television show since those five years spent filming The Tudors in Co Wicklow.
He likes moving between film and television, likes being in Europe and is very happy to be working with two Irish actresses on Dracula.
Victoria Smurfit plays a seductive vampire killer, Lady Jane, and Katie McGrath, who worked with Jonathan on The Tudors, plays Lucy Westenra.
Jonathan said: “Katie is an angel who I’ve known for a long time and I’m incredibly fond of her. She’s very grounded and very well educated.
“Victoria has this incredible elegance that’s very different to Katie and she’s very, very powerful. It’s a pleasure to work with women like that. They keep me in line.”
He was in a long-term relationship with heiress Reena Hammer for over eight years, but they split in 2012.
He now lives with Australian model Victoria Keon-Cohen in London.
He’s also reportedly been off the booze for a few years now after a series of embarrassing and very public incidents.
Everyone talks of how calm and focused he is on Dracula and how much he brings to the part.
He said of the filming: “I don’t get much time to go out really. I try to go home to London once a month, but I live very quietly here in Budapest. Some trips to restaurants with people are always nice.
“Hungarian is a very difficult language and mine is non-existent. There’s a charm in trying to communicate with people by not using a language. You have to search a little bit harder.”
Music has been a great passion of his for many years and he confesses that he thinks actors are really frustrated musicians. His father John O’Keeffe is a musician, as are his three brothers, who are in a band called Suzy’s Field.
He said: “It’s a strange thing to say but music allows you to smell things and I think that’s really important.
“Being from a family of musicians, I, of course, love to play music — but I’m not allowed to play with my brothers because I’m not good enough!
“‘You’re an actor,’ they say, ‘go act like you can sing, go act like you can play guitar!’ If I was in a fantasy band, I suppose my ego would say that I would definitely have to be the lead singer.
“Robert Plant would definitely be there. I’d probably have Keith Moon on drums... Django Reinhardt.
“The backing singers would be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali party. I would do a few duets with Sade, Billie Holiday and Aretha. Cole Porter would write our music.”
A rich fantasy life indeed, and why not given the range of dark roles he plays?
With all the versions of Dracula there have been, from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman, I wondered how terrifying it was to undertake such an iconic role?
Jonathan revealed: “Gary Oldman was pretty spectacular because he brought romance as well as horror and he balanced the pain with the monster. I am not afraid of not being as good as somebody else and I am not afraid of being better than somebody else.
“I think I’m old enough now not to be intimidated by those who have come before me.
“Success has very little to do with me — beyond my performance and paying attention to what is happening on set. Success will be decided by the people who view it.
“We are working very hard to make it as erotic, as entertaining and as provocative as we can possibly make it, so that people can enjoy it.
“I’ve taken my part of my interpretation of Dracula from the book, part of it from the history of Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler, who influenced Stoker’s character) himself and partly from my own personal experiences, both the good and the bad. These will all come out.”
DRACULA will be on Sky One later this year.
http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/news/4897813/Theres-something-about-me-physically-which-makes-me-look-just-a-little-bit-dangerous.html
Jonathan Rhys Meyers talks about his part in the role of Dracula
‘It’s almost like the ultimate fear of a man to have a monster growing inside them and then to have that monster take him over — it’s the ultimate sadness,’ the Cork-born actor says.
‘Dracula is the ultimate monster,’ the actor says, speaking in the Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest, where the series is filming until July.
‘Bram Stoker picked up on this manifestation of a man from a normal human being into a power beyond human power. It started in Marino in Dublin for Bram Stoker and then he travelled to London to actually write the story and discovered where he could take this character.’ Rhys Meyers has rarely played cuddly or cute in film or television roles.There is an intensity to him in person and on screen which he does not deny.
‘Can I be scary? I’m not quite sure I’m the person to answer that,’he laughs. ‘I think I could be. I try to be as charming as possible, but everybody’s got their off days.
‘I have something in my physicality that lends to a slight haughtiness and, I suppose, arrogance that I portray. I don’t try to do it purposely, but on screen that’s what comes off. I’ve got quite direct eyes that lend to a slight scariness that I’m able to do. I’m not quite sure I’ll be playing that many heroes in my life.’The portrayal of Dracula in the new NBC/Sky series is a new take on the old story — described as ‘twisted, sophisticated and provocative’.
Dracula arrives in London posing as an American entrepreneur who claims to be bringing modern science to Victorian society, while in reality planning to wreak havoc on those who ruined his life centuries earlier.
Rhys Meyers, it seems, believes he is perfectly suited to the role — and he speaks about it enthusiastically.
‘I’m almost 36 and I think it makes sense to have Dracula in his mid-30s. He has to have that element of vitality and I like him being younger, erotic and diabolical at the same time.’ Rhys Meyers, who is incredibly well read, is philosophical about the recent popularity of vampire-driven plots and franchises, fuelled by everything from Bram Stoker to Twilight creator Stephanie Meyer.
‘The modern obsession with vampires is, I suppose, connected to eternal youth,’ he says. ‘You don’t age once you become a vampire,which is always attractive to humans for some reason. If you’ve been around for 400 years, you’re going to have an immense amount of charm and wealth. It’s diabolical but attractive.
‘Would I like to live forever? Of course it would be very attractive to live forever if I was to stay the same age as I am now, with all the emotions that I have and experience I’ve gathered — but that’s not Dracula’s journey.
‘He has to live forever in emptiness and I’m not sure I’d like to be imprisoned by my loss and to live forever in that way. If I could live as I am now, forever, then yes, I’d definitely want that. But I would hate to live forever like Dracula.’ Rhys Meyers, who has had more than his share of loss and turbulent experiences, is particularly introspective when discussing the role. The ten-part drama is set to air in the autumn and could also boost the US career of another Irish star, Victoria Smurfit.
Sitting comfortably in a casual white V-neck shirt and tan blazer, Rhys Meyers seems more at home in his own skin — and in his newest role.
Among them is Smurfit and another Irish actress, Katie McGrath, whom Rhys Meyers worked with on the Tudors. She plays the winsome Lucy, while Smurfit plays Lady Jane, a vampire killer and socialite.
‘It’sa pleasure to work with women like that,’ Rhys Meyers says. ‘Iget a great joy out of it. Victoria is very, very clever and powerfuland she has this incredible elegance.
‘Katie I’ve known for a long time and she’s from this very beautiful Irish family. She’s very well educated and has a degree from Trinity that she did before going off to become an actress. Her talent and beauty is matched with an incredible intuitiveness and brain power. Those two keep me in line — that’s always a good thing.
He says his intensity extends from his working life into personal relationships. ‘If I find somebody attractive, I pay more attention and I try to pour on all the sort of Irish lilty charm,’ he says.‘If it’s a woman I really, really want, she sees through it very quickly.
‘I love women; I truly love women, not just in the essence of “I love her and I have to have her”. I can sit with a beautiful woman and I can have dinner with them and I don’t need to have a hidden agenda.I love their company.
‘There’s something soft, something delicate and there’s something very powerful and strong at the same time, which I really appreciate. I love their company and most of my friends are women anyway.’ Rhys Meyers says he is fascinated by stars of years gone by and the grace they displayed.
‘I kind of fancy all the ones from the past, you know? Maybe Ava Gardner in her day or maybe Ingrid Bergman in her day. I think I prefer the old world movie stars. Marlene Dietrich would have been interesting. She’d have been at least a bit of a challenge, you know?
‘BelaLugosi and Christopher Lee did versions of Dracula that I appreciate, but Gary Oldman’s performance is for me the best,’ he says. ‘This is a very modern take on Dracula. We’ve eliminated a lot of the unexplainable supernaturality and given very human explanations as to why things are happening to the main character. You’re not going to see our Dracula flying across the sky,’ he says. ‘That said, it’s now the kind of show that could run on and move into many different eras, even into the future.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/jonathan-rhys-meyers-appreciation-group/edited-highlights-from-interview-in-irish-daily-mail-20th-april-2013/457462244328660[url][/url]
Subject: Re: Jonny in the media 
Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:20 am
. I would love to know more about his visit there. And don't bother about your english, not all of us are very good at it, but we can understand each other.
Most journalists invent stories, that's in their job description. Sometimes I cant even understand them. They could ruin someones life for what, for a couple of pennies. This is not such a big deal, it's not life changing but still... This interview looks and sounds fake or at least manipulated, probably both. 
) and someone in the comments said that Victoria is known in Australia for being a gold digger. That person said that she's worse than Reena (according to that person because personnally I like Reena) and uses all her boyfriends (who are all rich, talented and handsome) to get ahead.