Written interviews

I think this is a very good interview with some very nice quotes from our Jonny. It's a bit old, 2001, so you all probably know it already. But it's just to beautiful not to post.

11-07-01 news WHO
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers Interview...

He glammed it up in Velvet Goldmine and went Gothic in Gormenghast but, as Stephen Walsh finds out, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is just your average bloke from Cork who once did a Knorr commercial and broke a girl's heart.

Rhys Meyers was born in Dublin in 1977, moved to Cork when he was three. A wayward youth saw him leave school and enter the pool hall at 16, where he would probably have stayed had it not been for a talent scout spotting him and asking him to audition for War of the Buttons. He didn't get the part, but he did get a slot in a Knorr commercial.

Since then, he's shot the Big Fella (Liam Neeson) in Michael Collins, glammed it up with Ewan McGregor in Velvet Goldmine, hung from Gothic rafters as the devious Steerpike in BBC's Gormenghast, and appeared in a dozen or so other films.

In the next few months, you'll see him in Tangled, a remake of The Magnificent Ambersons with Madeline Stowe, and Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci.

When I talk to him, he's walking around London's salubrious Holland Park area, "watching the beautiful cars and girls. There's so much money here. I don't have any of it, though."

A few years ago, money was something that came up a lot in interviews with Rhys Meyers. Specifically, how much he wanted it. Either he's got it now, or he's decided it's just a little crass to talk about cash all the time. What he wants now is a little harder to pin down. "It's not about money, fame, people knowing you. It's not even about enjoying yourself and being happy. It's about achieving something that's brilliant, creating something that's brilliant, for other people. For yourself, you're always going to be unsatisfied, but if somebody comes up to me and says, that was a brilliant part, and I really, really got it. That's essentially it."

It's not unfair to say that his success to date has more to do with his face than his acting prowess. He's one of those men who women call beautiful.

Reading past interviews with him it's not uncommon to find paragraphs describing his pillow-like lips, tender playful wide eyes, etc. Of course, that's not for me to comment on. I don't fancy him... But I digress. Does it bother him that people talk about his looks more than they do about his acting?

"They do that when you're a young man. You can't avoid it. Look at Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp - all the same. He does brilliant performances, but nobody talks about his performances - he's gorgeous, that's the point. With Brad Pitt nobody talks about his performance, it's all about being Brad Pitt. I did a film with Bruce Greenwood last year (Ride with the Devil). He was a very, very pretty man, but he couldn't get jobs for years and years, until he did 13 Days, and he played John F Kennedy and he was absolutely brilliant. And now everyone's giving him jobs - so his time eventually came."

Rhys Meyers admits that his time hasn't come yet. "I've got it all to prove. I've got it all to do. At the position I'm in now, I'm hovering between being 'you're well known and on your way', and 'you're there'".

Not a bad place to hover. But he thinks the hard work is still ahead. "If there's a good script and a good part, you can be guaranteed that all the best actors in the world are trying to get it. There's no such thing as once you get to a certain stage, everything becomes easy. Everything becomes harder, you want the best roles, the biggest roles. And so does everyone else".

But the face that put him where he is could also take him away. Does he fear that as he gets older and his looks fade, the work might disappear? "No it won't," he says defiantly. "If the looks went, I'm not so sure. I think if you're good you're good, that's the end of it. If the looks go, you achieve other looks."

Many actors in the same bracket have given in to the financial temptation of the blockbuster. Has Rhys Meyers any plans to attend the Ben Affleck School of Sellout? "I'd love to do a big blockbuster action film, it'd be great, can you imagine? Pay me, no problem. I'd love to do a huge big 'Mike and Jerry' type film. They're really great but I don't think Micheal Beam or Jerry Bruckheimer think too fondly of me. Wait until I go off and get an Oscar nomination, then they'll love me to bits."

They might, but what if it was a choice between something like Pearl Harbor and an independent arthouse film, which would allow him to grow more as an actor? "All depends on the role, all depends on the director, I'll tell you. If it was a choice of a Pearl Harbor or Before Night Falls, I'd do Before Night Falls. You get to work with a superior director in a superior part, and you let your muscles grow. Pearl Harbor is something you do to become a superstar. If someone wanted me to do that, then no problem. I'm not going to be one of these actors who says, oh no, I'm only going to do roles of a certain quality. Yeah, I'm looking for quality, it's the first thing I'll think about, but at the same time I'm also looking for other things."

Refreshingly, he's not one of those actors looking for a chance to direct his own script. "If I was going to write, it'd be books, not scripts. I think I'd be awful at writing a script, and worse at directing one. I think any actor who thinks he can direct a movie just because he's hung around a film set 30 times is full of shite. It's a skill, either you're born to do it or you're not. Some actors can do it, like Matthew Modine, he's a wonderful actor, but he's a born director. I've seen a few of his five-minute films and they're extraordinary. Sean Penn is very smart, Tim Robbins is a very smart director, too. But I just think it'd be rather vain of me".

Rhys Meyers does write short stories ("sometimes they get a bit too long"), and thinks "books are beautiful. I love Dostoyevky, Pushkin. I love Russian writers. Samuel Beckett is the business, too, and James Joyce and Banana Yoshimoto."

He's currently reading Ross Leckie's gruesome account of Hannibal's drive across the Alps. He'd like to play the ruthless, ambitious young general "in a f##king instant. That's exactly the role I'd like to play."

And it's exactly the type of role you expect him to land. There's also talk of him playing a young Salvador Dali in the near future: "I always tend to get cast in an extraordinary role for whatever reason. It's usually because of the way I look, I suppose. But that's why I'm doing the role in this film (a currently unnamed project in London), because in this one I'm playing a normal bloke, a no-strings-attached Irish kid, who's become a young football coach because he busted his knee on the way to becoming professional. That's it."

Is that more challenging than playing an extreme character? "That's exactly why I'm doing it, because it is harder. Nobody expects this of me, everyone expects 'extraordinary deep drama' with me, But I'm going to try and do as little as possible in this film and get the biggest effect I can from it. I'm going to try to be less."

One of the other reasons he may not be in Return to Pearl Harbor is his refusal to go and live in LA, preferring to stay in Cork. "I've got a farm I live on in Cork, it's really beautiful. I love horses. I've no love for cows. They don't take a saddle well."

He thinks that life in Hollywood is the undoing of a lot of actors: "A lot of movie stars go and make movies, and then after a while, their performances suddenly aren't as good. That's because they're constantly hanging around with movie stars, constantly in that world. They get stale, they're going to lunch with this agent, this producer. I don't have any friends who are movie stars. I go to the local pub in Cork, I get refused from it, I've never had that huge fame thing to be bothered about."

There's still a touch of youthful insecurity about him. "Anybody's praise or approval is important to me. Anybody's at all. And anybody's criticism. If the guy selling The Big Issue turns around to me and says, 'hey man, in that performance, in that scene, I don't think you quite got it', I'll listen to him. I take advice from everybody. The less people have an investment in you, the more honest the advice is going to be. But the best thing that was ever said to me was from my brother. He saw me in Michael Collins and rang me up and said 'You were shite. You'd want to cop yourself on.'"

Does he ever worry it's all been a big mistake? "Every time someone shouts my name, I think it's someone going to say 'Johnny, actually you're crap. You're finished, and you should never have been here in the first place'.Anyway, one moment you're nothing, the next moment you're everything. It's just a grand illusion."

Assuming the illusion sustains for another six years, where does he hope to be when he's 30? "Sitting at the right hand of God." Failing that? "I'd hope to have grown, and become quite (long pause) I hope to have understood what I'm doing more."

At 23, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a curious mix of charming self-deprecation and hard, clear ambition. He's wise beyond his years about the business he finds himself in. "I'm not preventing nuclear war or anything like that. As Oscar Wilde said, 'All art is useless.'"

Who on Jonathan Rhys Meyers? Jonathan Rhys Meyers was born in Dublin on 27 July 1977, and moved to Cork with his family when he was almost one year old. When he was three his father moved out of home and with that followed a rather turbulent childhood. He spent some time in an orphanage and was expelled from school when he was 16. Hubbard Casting discovered him in a pool hall and he subsequently got the lead for the David Puttnam production of The War of the Buttons. After doing the infamous Knorr commercial, he got his first film roll in A Man of No Importance. The credentials Since then, Rhys Meyers has filmed The Governess, Velvet Goldmine, The Loss of Sexual Innocence, Titus and Gormenghast.

Useless bits of information: He likes listening to Bob Marley; he sings traditional Irish music and he's apparently rather embarrassed about the Knorr affair!

Quote: He told Rolling Stone magazine in 1998: "You get on a set and immediately people are wiping your ass for you, and nobody tells you when you're being an asshole. I'm sure nobody working for Tom Cruise would turn around and say, 'Tom, don't do that anymore because you're a dickhead to do that.' Actually, he might quite like it."

Here's another one on Mission: Impossible

We catch up with the fast-flying, multiple-language-spouting Irishman who stars as Declan in Paramount Pictures' "Mission: Impossible III" and learn that he's truly a very polite young man with loads of potential.

Question: Given that this is your first big scale action movie what was your initial reaction to the scale of this?

J. Rhys-Meyers: You know the scale of the movie is… it is enormous, but you do not really know how enormous it is until you see the movie. When you are making it you do not think, “Oh my God, this is the hugest film”. It is just another film that you are working on because it is a really intimate process making the film regardless of how many millions of dollars you have to make the film the process is still the same at its core, but when you see the movie you realize that you are in a big, big action movie.

Question: What would you say was your favorite stunt or scene to do in the movie?

J. Rhys-Meyers: You know I really like doing the scene with Tom when we are in Rome, and we are screaming at each other in Italian, and arguing. We changed the dialog slightly so it would be more tolerable for a younger audience, but I said some things to Tom that people do not say to Tom even in Italian so it was good fun. It was good fun, and it was our first scene where our first dialog scene with each other so it was kind of strange. It was like an… it was so intense, but really broke the ice between the two of us, and it was great.

Question: How many languages do you speak?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I speak a little Italian. I speak a little French, English that is it.

Question: So you actually knew what you were saying in Italian?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, I use to live in Rome. I made a film called Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins seven years ago.

Question: Could you tell us a little bit about the actual training regiment that you have to go through for this film, and I understand you have gone from playing one king to another. Can you tell us a little bit about your future role as Henry the VIII, and the Tutoress* because you seem kind of skinny for Henry the VIII, but I am sure you can nail that one just right.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Okay, the first… I will answer the second question first. Playing Henry the VIII is the (inaudible) conception of why Henry is, is he is rather… he is this chubby red-haired guy who eats lamb legs, and he is (inaudible/coughing) paintings of Henry. Nobody actually painted Henry while he lived. So nobody really knows what he looks like, and anybody who spends that much time hunting, and bedding women is not going to be round, rotund, chubby looking guy. The modern… our perception of him is actually an artist impersonation of what they thought Henry was going to be like, but I am playing Henry from a very, very young age, and he was a very physical athletic guy. He was the ultimate tutor alpha-male. So this is how we are going with Henry. He was a very, very aggressive, very competitive guy, and the first part of the question was again?

Question: Can you tell us a little bit about your actual training regiment for MI3.

J. Rhys-Meyers: MI3. It is physically quite demanding, so I had a lot of working out. We had to train… we had to go to the gym everyday because even if you do not have to do these stunts you have to look like you can do anything at any moment, but I did have to learn how to fly a helicopter. That was about it.

Question: With all these exotic, and wonderful locations that you go… shot this movie, I hope you had time to explore, and if you did what was your favorite memory?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Well, you know it was nice to go back to Rome because it is almost like a second home for me. I use to live in Rome. So it was nice. I had some friends there, and I was able to catch up with them. Shanghai I spent very little time in, but I managed to go to the circus with Tom, and it was a lot of good fun, and LA I know, so that is it.

Question: And I noticed you are working with Keri Russell again.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, we just completed a film called August Rush, which is a beautiful, beautiful love story with Keri, and Robin Williams, and Terrence Howard, and Freddie Highmore. It is beautiful.

Question: You said you actually learned how to fly a helicopter.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, I did,

Question: Boy, like how well? Like could you actually go flying, and do you put that to use now?

J. Rhys-Meyers: No I do not. I think my flying expertise is very, very limited. I am not sure that anybody would trust me to go up in a helicopter by myself, but I learned the basics of it. Once you get the chopper off the ground it is pretty much simple from there on. The hardest thing about flying a helicopter is just get over the fact that you are flying a helicopter, and that you are up in the air, and it is just… things look different from up there, but it was good fun, but I have not flown a helicopter since.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q and Ving Rhames in a scene from "Mission: Impossible III." Copyright© Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q and Ving Rhames in a scene from "Mission: Impossible III." Copyright© Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Question: Are you actually doing any of the flying in the movie

J. Rhys-Meyers: A little, but it is very, very limited. I always had a pilot there with me, but for those scenes where I fly through the windmills there is absolutely no way that they would let an actor do that. It is too dangerous.

Question: I see that one of your upcoming films is a horror film.

J. Rhys-Meyers: I am not doing an upcoming horror film. Adeena is not a horror film. It is a ghost story, but it is not a horror film at all, and I spoke to Nicholas Roeg about doing it, but the film has not generated, and it is on IMDB, but IMDB are very rarely right.

Question: How was it to work with the team because you have to bond before you started shooting?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes. It was easy to bond with everybody. Tom, myself, Maggie, and Ving Rhames spent the first day of shooting in a speed boat, so it was really, really easy to do that, and Tom Cruise is a really, really easy guy to work with.

Question: With Mission Impossible coming in, with Match Point having done so well earlier have you noticed a big change in things for you at least recognition wise certainly when you come to the states?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes. There has been a change. It happens when you make films that are successful, and the people like, things change, but for my own personal life, nothing has changed, but for my own personal life nothing has changed very much. I work as hard as I did before. I live a very, very low key, simple life so I try to keep it that way. I like that… the recognition has come from the work…

Question: What is it that you look for in a director, and two, how… since J.J. Abrams was basically making a leap from television to a major feature film did you have any trepidation about working with somebody who had not worked on a project of this scale before?

J. Rhys-Meyers: No. No trepidation whatsoever. From the moment I met J.J. I was completely confident that he was going to take this movie, and he was going to knock it out of the ballpark. There is not that much of a difference between shooting something for TV, and shooting something for film. The difference is film is in the Cinema, and TV is in your home. J.J. has had an awful lot of success in television. He is probably the most successful guy in television, so it was very easy for him to make that transition from TV to film. It was really natural for him.

Question: What sort of qualities do you normally look for in a director? What makes you feel like this is the guy I want to work with?

J. Rhys-Meyers: It is all about the (inaudible). It is all about their work, and I will choose a great director over… I am the kind of actor that does not go, “Oh well I want to play this role”, It is more like I want to work with this director regardless of what the role is because if you scratch a good director usually you will find a good role underneath it, and a good film, but a mediocre director will always make a mediocre movie.

Question: What sort of qualities do you think make for a good director of actors… is there a certain level of kind of confidence that they have or just the ability to communicate or articulate what it is that they want from an actor or…?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I think it is important to be able to articulate what you want. I could cause problems if there is a lack of communication, but you know I am not an actor that requires much talking to a director, I do not want to sit down, and discuss a scene for hours, and hours. It would bore me. Hence why I enjoyed working with Woody Allen. I never had a conversation more than ten minutes long with Woody. Ever. Ever.

Question: You must have gotten tons of questions about this movie, and I know you all had to keep a lot of the details secret. How hard was it to keep it secret for you? And what did you learn about keeping secrets like this?

J. Rhys-Meyers: For me I found it hard because I felt sorry for the people who were asking the questions because you know their boss sends them out going, “Get me something on Mission Impossible”. And you know they would ask me questions, and it would just be simply, “I am not going to tell you”, and then every so often they try, but can you just tell us a little bit or they would try to work it into another question. I have to say to them, “You know guys I am under contract, and I am not going to tell you anything so you can keep asking the question, but I am just going to keep smiling”, and it is hard because I do not want to seem rude. It is part of my job as it is the same way a part of their job to ask, it is part of my job to keep it secret.

Question: Do you still live in Ireland, is that correct? Have you had any thoughts about moving to the U.S. as far as your career goes?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I do not live in Ireland. I live in London with my girlfriend and it is because of the globalization of our planet it is not necessary for you to live in Los Angeles anymore to be a successful actor. Any country is just an airplane ride away. If there is an interesting director that would like to meet me or if there is something that I got to do, I can always hop on an airplane. The world is small now.

http://www.upcoming-movies.com/interviews/jonathanrhysmeyers/

JRM Source has put an interview on their Facebook page. It has some things in their that have read elsewhere (or maybe I just know the interview), but thought I post it anyway. You've got to do something waiting for new interviews...

60 SECS: Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Jonathan Rhys Meyers grew up in Ireland and, at the age of 19, won the role of Michael Collins' assassin in Neil Jordan's film. He has since starred in Bend It Like Beckham, played Elvis on US TV, seduced Scarlett Johansson for Woody Allen in Match Point and been a sexy Henry VIII in BBC drama The Tudors. His new film, August Rush, is out this week.

You play a musician in your new film. Aren’t your father and brothers all musicians?
Yes, but I don’t quite have their musical talents. I don’t think I’d ever be anywhere near as good a musician as I am an actor. Just because you’re good at one thing, it doesn’t mean you’re good at everything. I’d never want to be mediocre at something.
Match Point was your big break in the US. Was it an ambition to work with Woody Allen?
He was great to work with because it was a very straightforward process. I love his films but I didn’t feel like other actors do: ‘Omigod! A Woody Allen movie!’ I think Match Point is the best film he’s made in the last 15 years.
Didn’t you have a less happy time with Oliver Stone while making Alexander?
I did have a difficult time with Oliver. You have to have a very strong sense of yourself to do a film with Oliver.
You seem like you do.
I have now. Alexander gave me that. I wouldn’t change my experience on that film for anything. I really grew up an awful lot on that film. I became responsible for myself as an actor and also realised that nobody really has the answers.
Did you get to know Tom Cruise when you made Mission: Impossible 3?
A bit. Not too much. I don’t spend time hanging out when I’m working. But he’s very professional and focused. He’s a very easy-going fellow who loves his job. He’s also the boss so he has a lot of pressure.
You live in LA now. What’s your life like there?
I’m quite insular when I’m working. I live very healthily – I have done for a while now. My big thing is going to the gym. It’s very LA. And I don’t drink alcohol any more, under any circumstances. [This interview was conducted before Jonathan was arrested this week for public drunkenness and breach of the peace in Dublin.]
Why did you stop?
I got bored. It’s not a way to live. I stopped. I wanted different things.
Such as?
Better work. My health. If you go out and party six nights a week in your twenties, you think you’re invincible. Then you find at 35 you’re not getting good roles any more because you’re a fat ugly f***, because you’ve been out hitting the booze for years, doing drugs and screwing different girls. Growing up in Ireland, I saw many a handsome young man walk into the bar with great dreams. Then I saw the same man sitting there 15 years later, still nursing the pint.
Don’t you miss drinking?
Sometimes it would be nice to go out and go on a bender but no, not really. I don’t like hangovers. It’s just not my deal any more.
Did you want to act from an early age?
No, I just knew I wanted to be rich and do as little work as possible. I’m in the right business for a little work and great reward. But then I’ve never been paid huge money for my job.
What drives you crazy about Hollywood life?
I can’t stand actresses who won’t take their clothes off. It drives me nuts. I want to cut their ears off. If it says in the script you’re naked, be naked, instead of moaning and saying: ‘I really don’t want to show my tits, I don’t want to show my arse.’
Who’s the best actress you’ve worked with?
Scarlett Johansson is very good, very talented. She’s extraordinary because she’s very beautiful, wealthy, talented and is in all the magazines. Everything that a young movie star is – except Scarlett gets major awards. Other actresses her age don’t.
What male stars do you rate?
Loads. Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy are gorgeous. Orlando Bloom, as a movie star, is very hard to beat. He puts bums on seats. I’d go to see an Orlando film, no problem. I know Joaquin Phoenix quite well. There are an awful lot of actors that I respect. There are some very good guys out there.
Do you worry about becoming more famous?
No. I don’t care about it. I couldn’t give a toss. I just want to do the work I do and get paid better money. Fame is just part of it but it’s not something I dwell on. It’s not like I wake up in the morning and try to get more famous.
So we won’t hear you moaning about the price of fame in a couple of years’ time?
I’m not going to bitch and moan about it, no. I find it very hard when those guys sitting in their 20,000 acre estates go, “Yeah, the fame thing really gets to me”. Fame is part of the deal.
You’ve never been romantically linked with any of your co-stars. How come?
I don’t think I’d ever date an actress. There’s only room for one in my life, and I’m it.
Are you vain?
I used to be more vain than I am now. I’d go out and party with my friends and I’d be on set, constantly looking at myself thinking: ‘Oh f***.’ Now I do all the things in my life to avoid that. When I go to bed, I know I’ve gone to the gym, slept well, eaten well and drunk a lot of water. I do everything to present the best person I can be. Now I don’t even look in the mirror. If you take care of yourself, physically, spiritually and mentally, that’s all you can do and everything else is down to other people’s perception of you.


Read more:
[url=60 SECS: Jonathan Rhys Meyers]60 SECS: Jonathan Rhys Meyers[/url]

Somehow I don't think this interview is really from 2011, but I'll post it anyway. Just because I think it's a very nice interview with an honest Jonny. I seem to have lost the link to this interview though...

Sullivan on Cinema: Jonathan Rhys Meyers by Chris Sullivan, Apr 15, 2011

Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers went from being kicked out of school to working with such directors as Woody Allen, Neil Jordan and Oliver Stone – and he’s the star of a raunchy historical TV drama The Tudors. So what’s the secret of his success? He tells Chris Sullivan.

Your first big film was Michael Collins. What was that like?
I loved that film. I didn’t even have a character name but I was the man who shot Michael Collins. No one actually knows who shot him. Some have said it was an IRA man who was once in the British Army called Sonny O’Neil – but no one knows for sure.

Was it daunting working with so many big names when you’re a kid?
Yeah it was nerve-wracking shooting with Liam Neeson and being directed by Neil Jordan but Alan Rickman helped my immensely. I was lucky to work with an actor of such quality and with such a great temperament. He really helped me along.

Not bad for a kid from Cork who was kicked out of school…
Yes I was expelled for truancy but it’s not something I’m proud of. The Christian Brothers did what they did but they weren’t as trained to be teachers. Teachers today are trained to be social and emotional teachers as well as academics. They do an exceptional job and they should get more praise.

You grew up in difficult circumstances. Do you think you were trying to escape?
People have made up this fantasy rags to riches story about me: I did have a disadvantaged youth but so do 95% of people. I just happen to have been lucky that my life turned out this way. I was kicked out of school at 15 and went on to become a successful actor – so one half of my life has been very different from the other: when I look back to that person growing up on a council estate in Cork, I’m not sure I even recognise him.

How did you get from being that lad to where you are now – especially without any training?
With great difficulty. I’ve managed to achieve some things that are unique but in others I’ve failed entirely. I think the difficulty of learning on the job is you make all your mistakes in public.

Were you ever tempted to quit acting?
If I hadn’t have been an actor I don’t know what I would have done. When I was 18 years old if someone had offered me a job at Burger King or McDonalds, and I hadn’t been acting, I would have taken it. Work is work. I grew up in Ireland in the 80s when there was a lot of unemployment – so I respect people who work. And my work ethic was installed in me early by not having any money.

Which explains how you followed Michael Collins with several films in quick succession. Tell us about Velvet Goldmine.
Velvet Goldmine was difficult. People expected this very commercial film but Todd Haynes’s films are so existential: he’s a philosopher with a camera. He’s one of the few directors with the guts to bring his vision to the screen at the expense of box office success.

Your performance (as fictional Glam Rock star Brian Slade) was spot-on. Did it feel like you were getting it right on set?
Not at all. I felt wooden and restricted. It was a very tiring shoot. I had one moment where it all got too much. I was doing a scene with Ewan McGregor and he looked really cool in his leather suit and I saw this ridiculous polka dot suit and lost my bottle. I said: “I’m going to look like a Christmas tree and he looks like a rock God.’ It was stupid actor insecurity and I should have just bitten the bullet. I’m sure Sandy Powell, who is the best costume designer in the world, is still livid with me.

That film also featured your first on-screen kiss…
I know a huge amount of women might think that snogging Ewan McGregor is the best thing that could ever happen, but it was not the most pleasant I have ever had.

Is it important to you to pick edgy projects, rather than play it safe?
Yes, I’ve been brave as an actor and sometimes it’s succeeded and other times it’s failed but I think you have to do that. There has to be a certain dark and a certain light for you to be interesting.

I’ve read you’re a fan of Brendan Behan (the Irish writer and family friend of Michael Collins).
I think he was an extraordinary artist with an extraordinary intellect. He never realised his own potential and I think that was because he never wanted to. You might say that someone like Brendan Behan might not have gone further if he didn’t spend so much time in the pub but I think that the pub was where he found a lot of his inspiration.

You’ve enjoyed a similar reputation yourself…
I was one of these kids in school that trouble followed – that’s why I was expelled and I didn’t expect my early adult life to be any different to be honest. I never drank till I was 25. Since I was 27 I must have drunk maybe a dozen and a half times. But when you’re a young actor you’re tarred before you start. Anyway I kind of like people having this idea that I’m this rebellious wild guy even if the reality is that I am not. I shoot 12 hours a day so the last thing I want to do is go out running around parties and clubs.

What was it like playing the lead in a Woody Allen film?
Woody is the most extraordinary director, so getting the chance to play the lead in one of his films was extraordinary. It was a difficult part for me: I could have easily played him as a scheming, psychotic guy but Woody didn’t want that. He wanted him to be this pathetic character who does a terrible thing. And the reason he gets away with it is because Woody believes that, 90 per cent of the time, the bad guy does get away with it.

Woody Allen says Match Point is one his favourites (of his own films) but it wasn’t well received?
The film had a hard time, especially in the UK, because of the way he viewed London: partly because the language he used was quite archaic and partly because London likes to see itself as a vibrant, multicultural society – but that element of Englishness will always be there.

And you’re now playing the very English Henry VIII in the hit historical drama The Tudors. What’s your approach to the character?
I don’t see him as this jolly bloke eating a leg of mutton. That’s how Charles Laughton played him. Henry didn’t even wipe his own bottom – anybody that has that privilege from birth is going to think he’s a living God and Henry did. He was arrogant and egotistical.

I heard you’re a big fan of history, so this must be a dream come true…
I am but you can’t deliver a history lesson when you’re making entertainment. If we wanted to stick to historical facts, we’d be talking about 60 hours of television and everybody would get very bored. To make it interesting we had to take his story and cut years out of it. The situation with Anne Boleyn took 10 years: seven to get special dispensation to get rid of the first wife, Catherine of Aragon, then Henry married Anne and within three years she was executed. It’s like some man who marries, makes millions, gets rid of his wife, buys a Ferrari and starts dating a 22-year-old model.

There’s a lot of sex in The Tudors.
Well in England the sun goes down at 4.30 and there’s only so much folderol you can do of an evening and only so many legs of lamb you can eat. Sex was the highlight of the evening.

And finally, is there anything you miss from home when you’re in LA?
I take Barry’s Tea to Los Angeles. I love a good cup of tea.

A story just after the airport incident in May 2010 (NY)

Will Jonathan ever be able to beat his demons?
By Joe O'Shea
Wednesday May 19 2010
After his latest airport bust-up, Jonathan Rhys Meyers' people are perhaps alone in hoping the Icelandic volcano has a long and productive life.
The Irish actor has fallen foul of airport police, yet again, after an early morning drinking session in the VIP lounge of New York's JFK Airport.
And the star of the hit TV series The Tudors can now add United Airlines to his own personal no-fly zone with reports he has been banned by the US airline.
Rhys Meyers, who has been in and out of rehab for an alcohol problem, was reportedly "belligerent" and "disruptive" at JFK as he tried to board a flight earlier this month.
The Corkman had been relaxing in the first-class lounge before the 7am flight from New York to Los Angeles when airline staff became concerned about his alcohol intake.
Sources within the airline claimed he was "pounding" drinks and becoming increasingly out of control.
When the actor tried to board his flight, he was told that he would not be flying because of his disruptive behaviour.
One US-based celebrity gossip website is also claiming to have a source at JFK who alleges Rhys Meyers uttered a racial slur while arguing with airline staff.
It's not an isolated incident as Rhys Meyers has a history of misbehaviour at airports.
In November 2007, seven months after checking into rehab for the second time, he was arrested at Dublin airport and charged with being drunk and in breach of the peace. The actor had fallen out of a chair in the bar and passed out on the floor.
Airport police twice confronted him over his erratic and abusive behaviour as he tried to board a BMI flight to London.
Further arguments with staff on the BMI desk led to the airport police calling in their garda colleagues who arrested the actor.
The charges were later dropped.
In June 2009, three months after checking out of rehab for a third time, Rhys Meyers was arrested after allegedly attacking a member of staff at a bar in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The 32-year-old star of movies such as Bend It Like Beckham and Match Point was reported to have challenged French airport police to a fight.
In 2007, after his second stint in rehab, Rhys Meyers said he was ready to face up to his drinking problem.
"I used to drink like a 14-year-old kid," he said.
"Jesus, I did the most embarrassing things. But about a year-and-a-half ago, I woke up and asked myself where I wanted to go. I decided I wanted to be a really successful movie actor. So, I just gave up partying completely."
However, shortly after giving that interview in late 2007, Rhys Meyers' beloved mother, Geraldine Myers, passed away in his native Cork, an event that sent him spiralling back into problem drinking.
Just hours after her death at the age of 50, Rhys Meyers was photographed alone in a London street at 10am, wearing a battered donkey jacket and slugging from a can of strong cider.
The Hollywood star was obviously in severe distress and had turned to alcohol once more.
The young Jonnie, as his family in Cork knew him and his friends still call him, had what at best could be described as a chaotic childhood.
His father left his mother when Jonnie was just three years old. Jonnie and his three brothers would spend time bouncing between his mother and his paternal grand-mother's home in Cork.
The family struggled with poverty and had to move around Cork city. Jonnie spent time in care and became, what one friend later described as, a "wild, dangerous kid, a bit screwed up".
Rhys Meyers' mother also had her own problems with alcohol and family friends remember her boys having to scrounge for food after their mother had drank most of their social welfare money.
He was permanently expelled from school at 14 and spent most of his time on the streets in Cork, usually hanging around fast-food joints or in pool halls.
The story of his discovery in a Cork pool hall by casting agents working for the British producer David Puttnam is well known.
The story of his 'adoption' by a Cork gentleman farmer called Chris Croft is less talked about.
The pool hall was also where the 16-year-old Jonnie O'Keeffe (as he was known then) met Croft, who offered to take him on as a hired hand at his 650-acre farm in Buttevant, Co Cork.
Rather than travel to his new job, Rhys Meyers moved in with Croft and his three sons and came to regard the farmer as his "adoptive father".
Croft, who has said publicly in the past that he is gay, was arrested in Morocco in 2006 charged with the sexual abuse of a homeless 15-year-old boy. He was convicted and later appealed the verdict.
However, both he and Rhys Meyers have said since that their relationship was strictly father-son.
Rhys Meyers has found some solace in a long-term, on/off relationship with heiress Reena Hammer. However, despite the success of TV mini-series The Tudors and some interesting film projects (including an upcoming film adaptation of the Flann O'Brien novel At Swim Two Birds), his movie career has stalled.
This latest airport bust-up may be symptomatic of what was a very promising, potentially A-list career coming to a messy end.
Rhys Meyers is smart enough to know where he could be heading.
"Growing up in Ireland, I saw many a handsome young man walk into the bar with great dreams," he said in an interview shortly before his mother died.
"Then I saw the same man sitting there 15 years later, still nursing the pint."
The question for the actor now is if he wants to be that man in the bar, even if it is as salubrious as the VIP lounge in JFK.
- Joe O'Shea
Read more: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/celebrity-news-gossip/will-jonathan-ever-be-able-to-beat-his-demons-2184720.html#ixzz1it3861hq

Interview with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
"The Tesseract"
＋ I interviewed Oxide Pang the other day, and he mentioned that he thought that you have lot of things in common with the character Sean. How do you feel about this yourself? Do you find this character similar to yourself?
J: At that time, yeah. Because, as an actor your life is always dictated by the part that your are playing. So soon as I knew that I was going to do the film, I started to become more like Sean. It's very very important specially for film acting that you don't try to fake it, you try to make it real to yourself. So from the time I arrived in Thailand, I isolated myself in the same way that Sean does. Only venturing to break the sort of panic. Um..yeah, it' s a bit disconcerting to think that I'm very very like Sean. But um..If it makes the film better, I'm willing to put my self out risk personally.

＋ It seems that you really enjoy your work acting, I heard that you were found when you were playing pool in a billiards club, then you went to an audition and that's how your career started. But from what time did you actually start to enjoy acting?
J: Sometimes I don't enjoy acting at all. It's very very difficult. Because some days you come to set and you're doing a scene where you're eating with your friends and you're laughing and that's fun. Other days you're killing somebody or being hurt in someway. So you have to emotionally put yourself in that position. So I have to unnaturally put myself in different emotions which can be quite difficult not always enjoyable. And sometimes I find it really thankless work. Because you do a film and you don't see it for 2 years and then of course you are very very separated from it. But I had a hunger as when I was a young boy. Because, came from a poor family. So, when I got the opportunity to be an actor it was something that was really really extraordinary. Because I'd always watch television and thought that these people were from different planet. And I wasn't meant to do these sorts of things. So I always find it hard cause you know I find it very very hard to believe in myself. I'm insecure as a human being and not very very confident. So, acting is where I can be a confident person. But it's not who I am. It's just that I can tap in to those emotions at any given time. Which I don't think is a great talent. It's almost a curse. Because, then I do it life also. So, I sort of ..it's not that I'm separate from reality but I have a different reality. I see things differently than most people do.

＋ In your role, you have a part where you point a gun at a boy, but I heard in your real life experience which you were on the other side of the gun. I also read that incident had gave you confidence in being an actor in your work. Can you tell us about that?
J: It's a very very scary experience to really have a gun pointed at you. It's something that I wouldn't wish on anybody. But it makes you believe in some small fashion that you have to do other things if you come out of it safely, which I did. And it was really surprising because during that experience, I was very calm. It was because I was in shock. And it took three days for me to come out of this calmness. But it also given me a respect for guns and what they can do to people. And Yeah, I found it hard to point a gun at a child. Because I would never do that as a human being. But also Sean would never have shot the kid. He was trying to intimidate him. But he was more frightened than the actually boy was. And he had a lot less confidence than the boy. But yeah, I saw the film and I didn't like myself in that scene. Because I didn't recognize myself in that person. Because I know what it's like to be on the other side. That was quite difficult.

＋ This could be as an actor or as an individual but, what is your motto?
J: My motto...um..it will pass, everything will pass. So you're if you're feeling good, you know that you will feel bad. If you feel bad, you know that you will feel good. So, I think that's probably ..will pass..be brave.

＋ What are your dreams in the future. Are they any specific types of roles that you would like to play? And apart from film, is there anything else that you would like to try?
J: I think my dream for the future is to become a good person, to become a good human being. And to be interested in people and have empathy for people. As an actor, to play many roles and to be employed you know. Every actor when they finish a film, they think it's going to be their last. Because we are insecure in our nature. I also..I think I' d like to direct a film at some point. You know, yeah..I think it would be a good experience and it would be fun. I'd like to buy my house. I like interior designing. Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll become an architect or something. No actually I couldn't become an architect cause, I ﾔm terrible at math. Maybe something like that or writing. It will have to be something artistic because I could never work in an office. I couldn't do that kind of job because I'm not intelligent in that sense. So it'll have to be something artistic. And to sleep peacefully..would be very nice.

＋ Now you are in Japan, you must have seen some architects different from the ones that you are used to. What are the impressions of them?
J: I learned while I was at dinner last night that Tokyo was destroyed by lot of bombs in The Second World War. And some of the beautiful architects that were here were actually destroyed. So when I came to Tokyo I noticed that it was very 60's in the design. And the concept was not of the city but of panic to house people very very quickly. But I think the most beautiful architecture in Tokyo is the people. Because you are so individual and so beautiful as people. The architecture of your hearts is fantastic and you don't have to look very hard to find true nature of your country. And the true nature of your country is being very very hospitable, being very very generous and very individual. Which I think..I think that the west could embrace their individuality more than copying other people. So yeah..I think architecture of the people is the most beautiful thing here.

＋ Comment to WOWOW viewers.
J: It's WOWOW!!
Hello viewers of WOWOW. My name is Jonathan Rhys-Meyers....and I playSean in "The Tesseract". Which is directed by Oxide Pang and produced by Artist House, Japanese company. I think you should go and see it. Because it was directed by a very very good director and I was very very lucky to be in it. Thank you for welcoming me to Japan.

Audrey, I really enjoyed this interview. Good questions and great answers.

This is from my computer. I'm sorry, I have no date or where it was published, but is very touching and a comparison of himself, with the character, Steerpike.

"From The Art of Gormenghast by Estelle Daniel."

This is Jonny's part:

What can I do that has never been done to Gormenghast in all its years? I’m not trying to complicate it. I have been reading a little bit of Samuel Beckett, just for myself because I like him. He hates to colour things. You just have to say it. If it is there, it is there. You know, that was my fear–how am I going to do this? How am I actually going to please everyone in this? And then I decided to please no one. Just do it. It has been difficult. Because I have this huge doubt and insecurity. There hasn’t been one take that I have done on this that I’ve not actually felt could have been better.

Steerpike is myself, he can’t be anyone else. If I tried to make him somebody else, and tried to change myself totally, it would be a disaster. I don’t think I could actually do it at all. The evil in him comes from loneliness, and rejection. That’s something I feel. I feel this rage. Steerpike is just rejected. When you are rejected you can’t accept love, and you most certainly can’t give it. And if you can’t give love then there is nothing really else worth it, you know? All this climbing the ladder of Gormenghast, essentially all he wants is love and respect, and this is what it brings. He thinks, ‘If I am the king of this castle, everyone will love me.’ So it is about wanting to be cuddled more than anything else. My childhood was one of rejection and this is what it was about. It has had its strongest effect on me. But I’ve gone into a career which has a lot of rejection in it, and plus I’ have got into my head that I want to be a great actor, which is the last thing I should have done. I don’t want to be perfect, I just want to be great. Like Steerpike I would rather die than fail, and that’s honest. I would rather die than fail.

It is not a very healthy way of living. And there is sexual frustration. I’m feeling huge sexual frustration. This is another part of Steerpike, because he has never actually had sex. All this sexual frustration, all this doubt, all this insecurity, all this fear, all this anger and rejection is hopefully what you are getting. I hope it makes people feel something. I would rather be called extremely bad or even extremely good, but never just ‘all right’. If somebody is really truly, truly awful, then it is fascinating to look at. If someone is extremely, extremely good, there is also joy in that. But when people are kind of good-ish, perfectly adequate, then I think that’s the worst. Mediocre. To be mediocre at anything is like pouring a bottle of water into the sea. You are just the same as every other wave.

I tell you what. I really don’t know what Steerpike is, I only know myself now. I’ve kind of lost that part of it. Maybe for the first two weeks, I was like Johnny, Steerpike, Johnny, Steerpike, Johnny, Steerpike. And now it is really inseparable. I just can’t take it off.

There are not really many things in life I want. I don’t desire a car, or friends or clothes or clubbing or parties. There is a space that you can get into sometimes–and you get one or two moments during a job that you do or a script that you do, where the world just disappears and it is nothingness and it is emptiness and it is fantastic. And it is almost like you are elevated off the ground a couple of inches, and you can’t feel the clothes you are wearing, you can’t even feel yourself.

Emptiness is probably the highest level that you can reach, because if you are empty you are like water and it can go right through you and right back out of you and it filters, but when you have all these things inside knocking then…that’s Steerpike. Steerpike can’t take something in and just let it flow out again. He takes it in and it rocks all his cages and little pieces stay in this cage, and that cage, and this cage, and that cage, and slowly it is like water going into wood, slowly it begins to rot and rot and rot and rot. Because he’s not just letting it flow through at all. It’s the same for me.

JRM Appreciation Group posted many cover photos from magazines. One photo included a scan of an interview in Attitude, in 2005. It was hard to read there, but I found it at JRM Source Gallery. I typed out the interview and will share it here. Will post the pictures in the pictures thread, they are absolutely gorgeous!

But here's the interview:

Irish son

Since he first swaggered into the gay conciousness in Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been a superstar in the waiting. Now, with a hat-trick of red hot roles about to be released, including Alexander alongside Colin Farrell and the new Woody Allen project, the Cork-boy done good is about to go supernova.

Welcome to the year in which Jonathan Rhys Meyers – or the artist formerly known as the interesting, beautiful actor with never quite the right films – gets his just desserts. Exhibit 1) Vanity Fair. In Mira Nair’s film of the Thackeray novel, he cads about as a delectable and ultimately dead rake, dastardly charming the knickers off a period lovely and behaving like the kind of disarming rogue you strictly wouldn’t mind a bite of. It’s the JRM turnaround year’s opening shot.
Exhibit 2) Alexander. His Oliver Stone number. Playing opposite fellow Irishman Colin Farrell. In a homoerotic slice of adrenaline-charged legend. Could the credentials get any more stellar. Well, as it happens...
Exhibit 3) is his year’s trump card – the film that will make a full-blooded movie icon out of this deliciously lowly kid from Cork. We’ll come back to that in a minute. The plaudits for exhibit 2) will inevitably go to Farrell and in Exhibit 1) he’s sharing screen space with America’s sweetheart Reese Witherspoon, so he may yet fall into his ever-the-bridesmaid’s role. No matter. By 2006 he will be on everybody’s lips.
Rhys Meyers first came to Attitude’s attention as a drug-ravaged glam-rocker in Todd Haynes’ epically misunderstood early 70s fictional rock biopic Velvet Goldmine. But accompanying the never-hotter , post-Trainspotting Ewan McGregor and, indeed, McGregor’s cock, somewhat deflected from his own individual prowess. He should’ve scooped up a mainstream league in Bend it like Beckham, of course.
But then the world decided to go unfathomly Keira Kneightley bonkers for awhile and he lost out again. So just as he most needs an equal footing opposite an ascendant screen goddess, he lands the lead role in W.A.S.P., a film shrouded in such secrecy that it is only known by a strange acronym; it’s title, plot line, subject matter and full cast list are being kept strictly under wraps, on pain of death (or something). W.A.S.P. is the Woody Allen Summer Project, the first film that that most esteemable old Jewish New Yorker has deemed fit to shoot in London. Jonny’s carrying it. Opposite Scarlett Johansson. Heat? On fire. Officially.
We love Jonathan. Of course he’s a beauty, but it is not contained in this alone that his own story would always have to find his way on these very pages. It has homo overtones by the bucketful. Born in Dublin in 1977, little Jonny and his band of three younger brothers were the product of a deliriously fucked-up upbringing. Each fostered out, he ended up in County Cork under the auspices of an elder gay man called Christopher, who took on the role of surrogate father.
None of which ever bothered the boy. He now talks of Christopher with reverence, delight and intuitive understanding of how his sexuality operates. In many ways, the undercurrent of his story is that he saved our hero of the hour. Kicked out of school, a little wayward to say the least, Christopher encouraged Jonny in his acting pursuits, eventually culminating in his first movie role, a bit-part opposite Albert Finney in the updated Oscar Wilde feature, A Man of No Importance.
From thereon, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been laughing. He has a magnetic screen presence and [is] one of the most live-wire individuals you could possibly encounter. Jonathan claims to be ‘bi-polar’, which we obviously deliberately want to misunderstand, but don’t. He’s one of life’s fidgeters. He is up and down in the space of a second. He can flirt for Britain (when Mira Nair gave him the part in Vanity Fair, she famously said to him, “OK, Jonny, you can stop flirting now. You have the role”). And he positively shrieks ‘broken wing’. And, of course, he is absolutely stunning.
What, we ask inwardly, as we site for a post-shoot bevy in a fashionably run-down Shoreditch bar where all female eyes, and, indeed, many male ones, instantly gravitate towards him, is there not to love?

How was the filming of Alexander?
It was incredible. It was an Alexander experience. Really, it was that huge, as huge as the man himself. I knew quite a lot about the story before I went into it, but I didn’t quite know the depths of him and that began to come out the more filming we did.
How much research do you do into something before you take on a job?
It depends. I play Cassander in it, but Cassander didn’t actually appear until Babylon and so I couldn’t do much research because there wasn’t much to do. So I was given pretty much a free reign. Jared Leto had a character he could read about, which makes it a bit easier. I was more of a wild card.
What was Colin Farrell like?
Gorgeous, man. I worked with him first about ten years ago. We never hung out or anything but when we meet each other it’s always lovely. He’s a gorgeous hard-working man. He’s out there doing what he ought to be doing. He was very generous with his time. I’d say he was a leader, so he was definitely living Alexander.
Does the Irish connection forge anything more between you than the other cast members?
Of course, it’s a huge bond. But in Alexander we all have Irish accents. Oliver didn’t want it to be American, he wanted it wilder and more feral. There’s a lot of Irish actors in it.
Were you aware of the bisexuality in the story before you went into it?
Yeah, of course.
Stone doesn’t shy away of it, doesn’t he?
No. The lover (Bagoas) is played by a Spanish dancer called Francisco Bosch. He was an absolutely beautiful boy. Really quite incredible. I’ve never seen anyone do things with his legs that he could. Physically, he was fantastic. And he’s gay. It was a funny situation. When he first came in the bar and Colin saw him, he was introduced and Colin was like, “Fuck it, you’re gorgeous. Just gorgeous.” He warmed to it, but he’s great like that. He’s a man’s man, but as for snogging Francisco? He probably enjoyed it. Anyone would.
Do you think there is something more mannish about being comfortable with playing gay?
Yeah, Christ! I mean, it’s people who have issues that are homophobic, dead on. If they’re not comfortable with it then you can pretty much guarantee that they’re not comfortable with themselves. I remember bringing a mate of mine into the Astoria years ago for G-A-Y and he was so fucked up. Anytime anyone came near him he’d shit himself. He’d be like, “I’m sure this fella here’s trying to ride me” and I was like “for fuck’s sake, you’d have to chat him up first, buy him a drink, it’s no different from a woman”. Maybe you are guaranteed to score a little bit more in a gay club. But that’s the sort of attitude of people with problems. Nobody was even paying attention to him. They were too busy having a good time with a pair of fucking hotpants on and a bottle of poppers under their nose.
What are your feeling about Ireland and your own heritage?
I love it. It’s a great country to be from. It’s an amazing passport around the world. I really wouldn’t rather be from anywhere else. You’ll always get into a conversation with someone with an Irish accent. My Irish accent isn’t as strong as it used to be. But it can still soften me up a bit.
Was the Oliver Stone role a pivotal one?
It would be, wouldn’t it?
He was on your check list of dream directors?
Yeah. Most of them I’ve tried out for and haven’t got the parts! I really wanted to play the role of the priest in Chocolat for Lasse Halström and I had long hair at the time and had a guitar with me and he said I was interesting but that he’d already promised the role to Hugh O’Conor, another lovely Irish actor. Then I watch the fucking film and Johnny Depp’s character is a fucking Irish-speaking guy with a guitar and a pony-tail. I thought, ‘you cheeky cunt!’ [laughs].
When did you first start thinking about acting?
When I was about 15. My famous tail is that I was picked up in a pool hall and immediately whisked off to start making films. But that doesn’t happen, of course. I was up and down to Dublin all the time and I’ve been rejected more times than I could possibly fucking think of. I’ve been rejected more times than cigarettes that I’ve smoked. And that’s thousands. All actors are. Even really, really famous actors don’t always get the parts they want. George Clooney famously said that to get the part in Three Kings he had to basically fucking tie Mel Gibson up. Everyone still auditions.
Was acting always something you were clear in your mind you would do?
No, but there was an inkling that I could possibly be OK at it. And I didn’t have many other options or opportunities to go for. I was kicked out of school, I didn’t go to college, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have any money. OK, I’ll do it. I had no options. Which I feel really bad about. You know, some kids of 16 or 17 have dreamt about being actors all their lives, it’s all they ever wanted to do. I wasn’t like that. I’ve made tons of mistakes in every aspect of my life. I never sat down with a piece of paper and said I want to do this by that time and made a list. There’s never been a great game plan. I’d just land myself in shit.
You feel the mistakes quite consciously?
Mistakes are fucking important things to go through, as long as you heed them. You have to be conscious of yourself. As an actor you have to be conscious of your emotions, your body, your health, everything. I’m an unhealthy bastard. I smoke too much. I work out a bit, but not intensely.
You look younger than you are.
[Laughs]. Yeah, and long may that fucking last. I had a facial yesterday and my first pedicure. You feel a bit of a fucking ponce but only in that way that you were feeling funny when buying condoms when you were 15. It’s like, just do it. Buy a pack of condoms and a fucking huge vibrator for your wife and a pair of dirty knickers and have a facial and a pedicure. We’ve got past all that now. That should be a fucking stag party. It beats kebabs, fruit machines and wanking off to a video, y’know?
When did you realise that this was all working out nicely?
I’ve never thought ‘O, this is my career now.’
You have insecurities?
Huge ones. It’s what actors do. They have insecurities. We’re bases on insecurities. It’s a breeding ground for insecurities.
The first time you went on a film set was for A Man of No Importance, right?
Yeah. Man, was I happy to be on set. That was it. It felt a bit weird, really. It was strange to look at myself in the mirror in costume and make-up. Just stunningly fucking weird. My first scene on film was with Albert Finney. Amazing. My first big film role was in The Disappearance of Finbar and I played Finbar. It wasn’t fun. I didn’t get on that well with the other actor and I really fucking fancied the pants off the actress. It was all learning, though. Once I’d finished that I met Neil Jordan and he cast me in Michael Collins. I played opposite Alan Rickman on my first scene in it. You wonder why I’m insecure? That’s why. I go on and do these things and put my head in the place where I can do it and then go and bash my head against the wall later. It’s an automatic thing. I can’t explain it. At all.
Did you enjoy Vanity Fair?
I’ll tell you what. I didn’t read the book. I was a bit afraid of find depth to the character that wasn’t in the script. I just wanted to work with the material I had. I’ll tell you what book I read years ago, like, when I was about 15, and I really wanted to play the part. That was The Motorcycle Diaries. [Laughing]. That fucking Mexican bastard [Gaél García Bernal, recent start of the film version]. Fuck him. Fuck them for making it in Spanish. Any part for a young handsome latino is fucking sewn up now. See, that’s where the insecurities come from! Between him and Diego Luna the whole job’s sorted now.
Do you feel like a celebrity?
No, I never have done and I don’t think I probably ever will do. I could go to fucking Chinawhite and see 50 photographers outside and not one of them would recognise me. If I had Jodie fucking March on my arm I’d be fighting them off. That’s celebrity, isn’t it?
Fame is an end to itself now. It isn’t about doing something. Great work if you can get it, you know?
Good on them. I’ve a huge fucking respect for Jordan. I really do. She took what she had and made a fucking fortune out of it. She might be tacky and tarty but she’s done fucking well for herself. It’s not her tackiness or her big fucking tits or her blatant raunchiness and exhibitionism that’s bad about our culture. What’s bad about it is our obsession about it. We get what we deserve. I admire anyone for trying to make a success of what they’re doing.
Stardom is now all about ‘it could be you’, isn’t it?
Exactly. Pop Stars, Pop Idol, Big Brother. Good on them. But I draw the line at Abi Titmuss. My brother Paul thinks she’s gorgeous. I’m like, don’t worry, she’ll probably fucking ride you. But do I really need to see another fucking member of Blue in Chinawhite with some fucking tart in pseudo Manolo Blahniks on their arm dancing to fucking Kanye West? No. It’s chip wrapper and they all know it is. I don’t envy that life and I don’t think they come out of it well, but if they’re enjoying themselves, fair play.
Are you sick of talking about your upbringing. The whole ‘gay dad’ scenario?
It’s in every article. The boy made good thing. I had an upbringing. That’s it. It was interesting. I went to school, got kicked out, lived with another family. That’s it. Most people don’t have the fucking gumption to take the person out of the story so I become this thing that did certain things and my person becomes that story, if you like. The story is there, so it’s easy to write without having the delve any further.
What’s interesting to us is that it was a gay man in your paternal role.
Christopher? Gay as a fucking nut, yeah.
What was it that you warmed to in the family there?
It was that my family was so fucking dysfunctional that they seemed completely functional to me. And that they were very, very kind to me in a way that I had never known before. They didn’t want anything back for that and that felt lovely. I accepted Christopher’s homosexuality and didn’t go ‘ugh!’ I’d be in Morocco with him when I was 18 fucking learning how to cruise on the streets.
Did you find it fascinating?
I didn’t ask him questions about sex. But I was always comfortable with it. When I came over to London with him we’d end up for the afternoon having coffee on Old Compton Street, watching the world go by. It was something I never shied away from. If I was sitting around with a group of camp friends then anyone passing by would think I was fucking screaming. I like that. It’s good fun. I really get pissed off with people who aren’t comfortable with it. You get it the other way around, too. People who are in constant gay company can get that heterophobia. Too much of anything is bad for you. I’m very live and let live. I’d be an idiot not to be.
Do you like people, as a rule?
I sometimes find myself not be too interested in them as I should be and shying away from them. I’m not sure. It’s an interesting question. I hope so.
How excited are you about the Woody Allen film?
Not quite as excited as anyone else seems to be. Not to do it down, but I can’t tell you anything about it, really. We’re all sworn to secrecy. I’m sure there’s a few actors my age who think I’m a bit of a cunt for getting it. I’m sure I would be the same if it had been someone else who’d got it. I was very lucky. To work with a man of that calibre is immense. The fucking pressure is huge. It’s been going on for two years, really. I’d just done an audition in LA that I can honestly say was an absolute fucking disaster. I was really feeling sorry for myself. But then I got offered Vanity Fair. We shot that which was gorgeous. Then I did Alexander which was insane. It totally kicked off. Oliver’s a beast. He’s a machine. He’d shoot for 15 hours a day, running on pure adrenaline. And it is ginormous. It was held together by god’s fucking glue. In between filming Vanity Fair and Alexander my ears where perforated, so I had to have an operation and was told not to do Alexander. So of course I did it. Then I took a little time of and I went on tape for Woody. I did the taping and it was sent over to America. I got a phone call from my agent, when I was wrecked, saying I had to meet Woody Allen tomorrow. Woke up the next morning, brass monkeys rattling in my fucking head. Went off to the meeting really shaky. I went in and was told the meeting was very quick. In walks Woody and he says [very convincing Allen accent, here] ‘OK, Jonny, I have a movie and I’m going to present you with a script. I’d like you to read it. If you respect the material, er, I don’t do much rehearsal, so if you like it... let’s work!’ I’m handed this script, he leaves, I leave. I’m outside fucking shaking. I phone my agent and tell her I’ve got it and she says ‘I know’. Basically, I had to go to the meeting to get the role, but I already had it from the tape. I walked across the street to read the script, to know what the part is. I see my character’s name on the first page and I’m in the first scene. I almost fucking collapse. Then I see my name in every fucking scene in the movie. I’m in every one. I have the male lead role in a Woody Allen film. I broke down in tears. Bawled my eyes out. That was it.
Are you aware of yourself as being quite an extreme person?
Of course I am. How could I not be? I’m totally bi-polar.
Has there been therapy?
Fuck, yeah. There’s been tons of it. I’ve been in therapy since I was 11-years-old. I live in therapy. There’s nothing wrong with people trying to get themselves sorted out and having an idea of who they are. When you look in the fucking mirror you don’t see the same person everyone else sees.
Do you see your own superficial beauty?
No, I’d rather not. It’s difficult to explain. I used to be really skinny. I feel a bit more manly now. Nobody sees themselves as other people see them, right? It’s such a hard one to explain. You live with yourself on a day to day basis. You don’t sit there thinking ‘fuck, I’m nice to look at.’


I love this interview. I hadn't read it before, maybe you have, but I think it's great. Honest and all. Only minus is that he is saying fucking a lot of times! Bad boy Jonny.

Thanks Audrey for this work... I read the interview in jrm-pnline ( I misss you sooooooooooo much!!!!!!! ) because they scanned the magazine. I think that is a good interview very fresh, young..... Do you think that perhaps this type of interviews when he was very sincere, wasn´t a good "publicity" to him??????

I don't know if it wasn't good publicity. It might not have been good publicity as it could be seen as him being a bit unstable. But I think the real reason he stopped talking about his youth much is that he was fed up by the stories of his youth that we brought up all the time and the exaggeration that was displayed. More like 'that's old news. been there, done that.' (if you understand what I mean).

I did once read somewhere that he said that he had made a mistake early in his carreer about be too honest, because he was young. So I guess when he discovered that, he just stopped talking about it.

I have taken the liberty to also place Redstar's interview in the interview thread.

http://www.hotpress.ie/archive/4320165.html?new_layout=1&page_no=1&show_comments=1

Just in case the url will stop working in the future, I will place the tekst here as well.

King of America

In a remarkably honest interview, which directly preceded the death of his mother, Jonathan Rhys Meyers reflects on his spells in rehab and discusses life as one of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.

Jason O'Toole, 07 Dec 2007

Let the Spanish Inquisition begin!” jokes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, as we sit down in an alcove of the basement bar in the Merrion Hotel.

As you can tell from his opening quip, the Dublin-born, Cork-raised actor is uneasy around the media. You wouldn’t blame him. He may not be in the Tom Cruise or Colin Farrell league yet, but he’s been through the experience of being hounded and harassed, chased and photographed by newspapers at any and every time of the day or night. But then, he is – unquestionably – the Irish actor of the moment.

He has had some extraordinary successes in his career to date. The stand-out moment must be his Golden Globe winning role as Elvis but the highpoints have been many: winning the prestigious Chopard Trophy award at the Cannes Film Festival for his part in Woody Allen’s Match Point; starring alongside Tom Cruise in the third instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise; and then there is his portrayal of the young Henry VIII in The Tudors – arguably the biggest show on TV this year – for which he is garnering rave reviews.

But all is not sweetness and light for Jonathan Rhys Myers. Less than a day – 18 hours to be precise – after our interview, he was plunged into what must have been the worst week of his young life. Refused permission to board a plane at Dublin Airport, he was arrested and charged with allegedly being drunk and disorderly. It's the type of incident that happens far more frequently than is publicised. Unfortunately, it only makes the headlines when you’re famous. After his release from Whitehall Garda station, Meyers appeared to sum it up best when he told reporters: “I said the wrong thing to the wrong woman at the wrong time.”

I have to admit that my first reaction to the news of his arrest was one of disbelief: when we’d spoken the previous night, Meyers insisted that he was finished with drink – for good. During a two-hour interview, the 30-year-old Golden Globe winner frankly discussed his recent stints in rehab. He appeared very earnest about staying away from booze.
“If you don’t go out and do stupid things then they can’t write about you,” he told me.

Two days after his arrest, Meyers was photographed walking through the streets of London, taking a swig from a can of cider. Newspaper reports said it was at 11am. The image seemed to confirm the worst, that he was hitting the booze with a vengeance. I couldn’t help wondering if he'd been less than completely honest with me about his vow to steer clear of alcohol.

The more I thought about it, however, the more clearly I understood that, no, he hadn’t lied, but that this is an ongoing battle that he – like Amy Winehouse and others – has to fight in the full glare of the spotlight. If it is difficult to handle an addiction to alcohol, then that can only be exacerbated by the fact that there's always a reporter or one of the paparazzi waiting to pounce.

Whatever about that, Meyers’ erratic behaviour was put in context the next day when his publicist announced the tragic news that his mother had died. Only 50-years-old, she had been battling with cancer.

But while Jonathan Rhys Meyers is probably at one of the lowest points in his life, I have no doubt that he'll bounce back. He's a highly intelligent and in many ways brilliant man and a great acting talent. Right now, he just needs time to rediscover his bearings.

JASON O’TOOLE: Career-wise, the last 24 months have been extremely good for you.

JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS: You never realise how great things are going for you because you are there on the ground level – you’ve been there from scratch. It just becomes work. What’s my next job or move going to be? You can’t really sit back and enjoy it. There seems to be a certain element of overnight success about it – but it isn’t, it takes ten years to be successful overnight! We have to lay the groundwork first – and then, suddenly, a couple of things you do get noticed.

Winning the Golden Globe for the Elvis mini-series must have been very satisfying.

It has done lovely things to help me along in my career, but I have never stopped to enjoy it. I was very nervous when I got it. I refuse to look at myself accepting it because apparently I look like a deer in the headlights! I was shockingly, shockingly nervous. I forgot to thank my managers, my agents. It was just terrible – it was a disaster actually. Elvis was a bit of a strange experience for me. I took on the role thinking it would be a bit of a joke at the start, and that probably nobody would see it. And then the further into shooting I got, the more I realised that people would see it.

As your profile grows, the media intrusion must be very difficult. Is it possible for you to have a normal lifestyle?

I’ve got loads of fucking normality in my life, really I do. I don’t live as special as you think. I don’t have the same paparazzi chasing me as somebody like Sienna Miller, God love her, or someone like Colin (Farrell) – every move he makes…

You are getting up to that level now.

I’m more famous in America than I am here. It’s kind of strange. But I’m very happy with that because if I wanted to be famous anywhere in the world, America is where I want to be famous.

But any time I open a paper these days there are paparazzi shots of you.

Well, they do, especially when you're in town doing The Tudors and stuff like that. There's not that many celebrities around and they’ve got to put things into the newspaper. I certainly don’t court it. When you become famous you’ve got to start living your life in a more controlled way. You’ve got to think the situation through more, because you don’t have the same sort of anonymity as other people. What you do can get written about in the newspapers. So, therefore you’ve got to make sure that you don’t do anything that could end up being gossipy. There's a very, very easy way to deal with the media – if you don’t fuck up, they can’t print any fuck-ups! Of course, they can make a couple of things up – and they do make things up – but they’ve got to sell newspapers every day.

Does that not piss you off?

No, because I know, personally, what’s going on in my life. You only realise how much bullshit there is when you work with somebody like Tom Cruise. I was seeing Tom every day for six months, but I was reading things about him that were completely untrue because I was there. Absolutely mad stuff. You can’t even entertain it. It's the nature of the game. But my job is in the public domain, so therefore it's pretty much open season. It’s a catch-22. Listen, I asked for it, so I’m not going to moan about it.

But the media attention must be difficult for the women associated with you?

Yes, it is harder for friends who are girls because they have their own lives and their own friendships as well, with other guys. And sometimes that can be difficult, it’s like: “There’s a picture of you with Johnny Rhys Meyers in the newspaper saying you are going out together.” And it’s like, “Well, we’re not. We were just shopping.” If I say hello to a girl, sometimes it ends up in the newspaper and you just don’t see that her husband is standing there – conveniently out of the shot. In America now I have got my house rented out to a producer and his wife was having a shower one day – I have this really nice glass shower – and she got a very nasty fright when somebody’s telephoto lens came through the bushes to photograph her in the nip, thinking it was probably some liaison of mine.

The rumours on the internet can also be vicious.

The other night I was in New York, after the premier of August Rush, and somebody just turned on the computer and said, “Would you like to see what they're saying about you?” And she put it up on the screen and I was, like, shocked and within about half-a-minute I asked her to turn it off. This is why I don’t go on the internet. There are many weird, weird people out there, expressing their opinions on the computer. Do I give a fuck about some dude sitting in his room commenting about whatever to do with me? It’s got nothing to do with me. It's somebody else’s thing. So, I don’t get involved.

Do you think your new movie, August Rush, has some similarities with your own upbringing?

Not really, apart from my father, who was a musician, who wasn’t there – that’s pretty much where the comparison stops. I’m not a musical genius. I’ve never been to an orphanage…

I read you have been in an orphanage. Is that bullshit?

Yeah.

So is there a lot of untruths out there about you?

There is. It kind of stemmed from this article years and years ago with this horrible, horrible woman. It was really strange. I don’t quite understand this, but I gave my time to do a three-page interview in a magazine and then they're negative about you. It kind of really fucking annoys me. I’m nobody’s fool. So, it has made me very cautious when I’m doing interviews. I just put my guard up because anything I say can be twisted around. I did this Details article and even the editor wrote a note at the start of the magazine saying, “Yeah, the guy who did the article with Johnny Rhys Meyers, his mind wasn’t really on his job because he’d lost everything in a Dublin casino the night before gambling.” And he decided to take it out on me in the article. That’s even written in the magazine. And it’s kind of like, what a fucking cocksucker! And that time I did an article for The Sunday Times, that woman had been ringing up family members, just pretending to be this nice old lady to sort of get behind the scenes information. I think that can be kind of sneaky. So, now I don’t suffer fools easily at all and if anybody asks me a question I don’t want to answer, they get a very quick ‘fuck off’. And if they don’t like it they can leave.

All the background articles out there on you are very Dickensian. They make your childhood sound very bleak; it’s as if you grew up in the ’40s during the war.

Listen, that’s also the fantasy as well. It’s kind of like, “Discovered in a pool hall” for War Of The Buttons. To a certain extent, that’s true, but that's pretty fantastical, you know what I mean? Or it’s like this kind of Oliver Twist fantasy they have about me – to rise from a street urchin to being this movie hero fella. If that’s what feeds their fantasies that’s fair enough. But that’s not the truth.

What is the truth?

The reality is less fantastical and much more dull and boring and drawn out. Normal working class. If we could find work we’d be working class. The criminal class. That’s what we were – the criminal class (laughs).

I don’t want to go down that road. I can just imagine the tabloid headlines.

I can imagine it (putting on a satirical broadcasting accent): “Rhys Meyers is part of the criminal class. Links to West Dublin gangs!” (Laughs) “Where were you on the morning of August – whatever – when your man was shot on the strand?” I mean, for fuck’s sake, don’t be ridiculous. No, regular working class Ireland in the 1980s. But when you say that to somebody in an interview in America – and I describe what Ireland was like in the 1980s – you might as well be talking about the 1940s because to them it is bleak.

But your upbringing wasn’t poverty-stricken?

In a world of poor we were poor. There was certainly no one with any real money; there might have been someone who had an extra 50 to 100 quid in their pocket every week and it would have seemed like they were far richer but they probably weren’t. Things were tight for everybody. But, you know, they kind of make up this fantasy – and let them make it up.

You left school early.

I certainly didn’t like school. Myself and school never got on. I never really thought I'd do well in the academic world. I’m too individual as a person and I can’t work within the factory. So, to spin a term, I couldn’t be the Orwellian worker – it wouldn’t satisfy me enough. I’m not very good at brown-nosing. I’m not a very good toad-eater. I think that when you're living in a business or academic world, there's a certain amount of toadying that you have to be able to do. There's a certain amount of politics to get to where you need to go. It's not all about talent, it's about who you know as well as what you know. I don’t think I would have done well at that. The only thing I was going to do well at, in hindsight, was something that was really sort of an individual talent.

Acting would have been like an escape route for you?

Well, yeah. Acting is that fabulous career for people who really don’t want to work very much. That’s not from me. I can’t claim that quote – that quote has been bandied around as long as actors have been bandied around. It's the ultimate sort of dosser job.

Is it true that you have a drink problem?

I can’t drink at all. I don’t drink. It's not that I drank a huge amount or drank for a very long time, I’m just one of these guys that it doesn’t suit at all. For me, basically, I don’t drink because I can’t; I don’t drink because I shouldn’t – regardless, I can’t, nor should I – but I don’t drink because I don’t want to.

I understand you attended rehab earlier this year?

I’ve been more than once. I think rehab is very, very good if somebody needs it. It's very good grist for the mill, but the reality of the situation is if you don’t want to drink because you think you’ve got a drink problem, stop fucking drinking. It's that simple. You can go into all the programmes and you can read all the books, but the basic gist of it is: don’t drink under any circumstances. I remember seeing a videotape, while I was in a treatment centre, of this priest. He was an alcoholic who helped a lot of guys stop drinking. And that was his basic thing – if you don’t want to drink, don’t drink. From there on it's all fucking gravy. It's very simple to figure out. At this point in my life, I want other things – things that drink gets in the way of.

I’m getting the impression that the underlying fear is that indulging in alcohol could thwart your career ambitions?

I want to focus on building a good career, but I just don’t want to be that fucking arsehole sitting in the pub and someone turns around and says (puts on a perfect Dublin working-class accent), “See him there at the end of the bar? He could have made a fucking fortune. He went over to Hollywood and fucking everything, and he just fucking pissed it up against the wall. Fucking good luck to him!” I just like to be alert to the opportunity. I think that’s really what luck is. Luck is sort of preparation meeting opportunity. When someone can really see a gift horse when it’s up there fucking smacking its mouth.

Not drinking must be very difficult?

Of course it can be a little bit difficult. Life comes with its own sort of chariots of doom and gloom and chariots of happiness and joy. There’s fucking times when you just want to go out with your mates on the lash. Of course you want to do that. But there’s this other thing I want to be more. It’s really that simple. It’s not huge. It’s not complex. I’m not on this incredible spiritual path. I don’t claim to be on a quest or a journey, other than trying to live every moment and get the most out of every moment that I possibly can. This moment in my life does not include going out and getting drunk.

Was it difficult for you to go through the route of rehab?

Going into rehab is probably the easiest thing to do. It's coming out of fucking rehab that is hard. Going in there is difficult as well because – who wants to spend that first night in fucking rehab? Nobody wants to do that. It’s a very lonely place and I’m not going to bullshit you, I’m not going to say it's all joy, sweetness and light – it isn’t. You really feel like you fucked up and you’re useless. In that sort of situation, everybody cares about you; everybody is very in tune with their feelings. Nobody wants to offend anybody. It's very easy to stay sober in rehab, but it's much more difficult when you're out in the real world, with people who really don’t give a fuck. You get out into the real world and it’s, “Fuck you, buddy! And if you have a problem with it – fuck you again.”

Do you think being a famous actor gets you less sympathy and understanding about your problem?

Ahh, no! I mean, they expect it of you more. Yeah. They are kind of like, “Oh, he’s an actor.” It’s like par for the course. “He’s Irish.” There’s actually a term in rehab and AA and stuff like that called ‘CIA’ – Catholic, Irish, Alcoholic. There’s a lot of that.

So the stereotype of us Irish being alcoholics is alive and well in LA?

It's not just alive and well in LA – it's alive and well all over the world because it's fact and the reality of the situation is that we do drink a hell of a lot more than most nations in the world. And you don’t recognise it until you leave. We have that stigma attached to us. They're not shocked to see an Irish actor going into rehab, or Colin going out and getting drunk, or going into rehab himself. It's not unusual. And it's not unusual for actors. Everyone in LA has some sort of programme. Regardless. Candy Anonymous! It’s that bad.

Is fame everything you’d imagined it would be?

No, it's nothing like I’d thought it would be because you don’t really feel it. I just feel like an actor, who is out there trying to do well. Someday, hopefully, I’ll sit back and go, “Wow! I have passed that threshold where my fame is more secure.” I think there’s a couple of actors who are very lucky, they are at that stage where someone like Tom Cruise, Mathew McConaughey and Brad Pitt can sit back and relax. They are what you would call modern classics, at this point. With any luck, hopefully in the next three, four, five years I’ll give a couple of very, very good performances that will allow me that time to sort of settle and re-focus. I think that if the wheels don’t buckle, if I can keep my focus and if I can keep my fucking ears open and my ego to myself, I can learn a lot more and I can possibly do one or two really important things in the next ten years.

I was surprised to learn that you didn’t have any formal training in acting. It doesn’t show in your work.

Thank you. When I get cast for a film now, they are not only taking on somebody who has a percentage of talent, but with me they are now taking on someone with 12 years of experience in front of a camera and on a film set. It can make a huge difference to how a film is paced, and how a film goes, when you’ve an actor who knows why a scene is being shot a certain way, knows how to hit his mark, knows how to work the camera, what the lighting is for and why it’s there. It's totally different than working in theatre. Film is a technique.

Which of yours films are you most proud of?

I’m not sure about that because I can’t really judge it. But I can tell you that there are a few that I’m not very proud of. I’ve just made a bunch of things that I’d rather not see on my CV – things like The Killer Tongue, The Tribe. I didn’t like my performance that much in The Governess because I’d done it so quickly after I’d completed Velvet Goldmine that I hadn’t got out of that campy, glam rock phase.

You obviously still have a hunger to become more successful?

Of course I’m hungry. Nobody gets into anything to go to the middle. Of course I want to go to the top of my game. I would like to start doing bigger roles and becoming more prolific. I would like to enjoy getting better at what I do – I really would. The money and the fame thing is grand. I just want enough money where I’m comfortable and I don’t have to think about it – that’s the plan. If people want to pay me millions of dollars to do a film that’s good.

I understand that you're going into the gym to beef yourself up in order to get away from playing the androgynous type of roles.

Absolutely. It’s everything you think it is. It’s methodical. It’s for a purpose. You physically have to develop yourself. I want to do leading men parts, so if that means I have to do a bit of extra time in the gym, to put a bit of weight on to become more physically imposing, then that’s part of the job too.

You recently made this comment in an interview: “There’s something about the way I look that lends the fact that I could be a little cruel. There’s definitely a darkness in my physicality.”

I said this in an article and the fucking quote has been bandied all over fucking America. I think I got a little bit misunderstood. It was just this fucking asshole in this Details article. He was being snarky and he was like, “Do you think the way you look has had a lot of influence in how you get your films, you know, in being as famous as you are?” And I was like, “Fucking doh!” I said, “It’s very fucking simple. You take someone like Brad Pitt, who is an incredible actor, but he’s as famous as he is because of the way he looks.” It’s a given. Any actor who does not realise that the way they look determines the roles they play is a fucking idiot and shouldn’t be involved in the business anyway. Then I read in an Irish newspaper: “Johnny takes a swipe at Brad Pitt.” I don’t swipe at anyone and I especially don’t fucking take a swipe at Brad Pitt. Am I a mug?

But being a film star is more than just looking great, right?

The thing about film is you don’t have to be the best looking guy in the world and you certainly don’t have to be the best actor in the world, but you do have to be interesting and photogenic. Some people who aren’t the most handsome men are very photogenic and very alive on camera – someone like Robert De Nero. In Taxi Driver, you just can’t take your eyes off him. Or in Godfather 2. It takes a very interesting person like Francis Ford Coppola to get Bobby as a young Marlon Brando. It's fucking genius casting. Looking at Bobby, he’s like, “You can’t be Brando but you can be Vito Corleone.” I would like to work with somebody with that fucking depth. It was the most brilliant casting of fucking all time. I would like to work with someone with that level of insight into how a person should be cast.

His daughter is doing some amazing work these days.

I’d love to work with Sofia Coppola. I loved her film Marie Antoinette. I thought it was one of the most beautiful things I’d seen in a very long time. I was never really into Kirsten Dunst. I always thought she was a very good actress, but physically I never thought she was gorgeous. I never thought she was beautiful. I never fancied her until I saw her as Marie Antoinette. I think I fancied her more because of her role, more than any other actress in any other role that I’ve ever seen. She caught my imagination – totally.

When you immerse yourself in a role do you ever find yourself becoming infatuated in reality with your co-star?

There are little elements of them that you have to fancy, to a certain extent. That's part of the job. The nice thing is you're working with people who are extraordinary or beautiful for one reason or another. It's not hard to fall in love with Scarlet Johansson. She's very beautiful, charming, sexy, intelligent, wealthy, famous. She’s got all of these ‘zzzz’ things going for her. It's very easy to fancy someone like Natalie Dormer, who is playing Anne Boleyn. She is very sexy, very vibrant, very intelligent. Or Radha Mitchell. Or Keri Russell. These are all very beautiful girls. So, it's very easy to pretend to be in love with them. I can pretend to be in love with most people, I think, for a short period of time.

But do you have affairs with your co-stars?

You don’t take it home with you. I don’t have affairs with actresses. It has been eight years since I had a fling with an actress – I was, like, 22. It's not a good idea. When you start having sex with them the chemistry slightly goes because you’ve had what you’re not meant to have yet! Sometimes you can really pick that up, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes the chemistry is just electric because they're having great, extraordinary abandoned sex with each other. But more often than not the chemistry dies as soon as you start having sex with somebody. So, if you're going to have an affair with an actress you're working with it's probably best to do it after the film. Even better to do it on the publicity tour (laughs) because you have to really like each other by the time the film comes to being distributed. You don’t want two boring actors sitting there trying to compliment each other or being snarky to each other – when really all it is, is an affair that went sour. So, you have to stay professional from that point of view.

Now that you're famous you must get women throwing themselves at you?

I don’t get that really. You know what, I’d like it if a woman would throw herself at me. I would love to see somebody literally throw themselves at someone (laughs). I don’t see it as much, but I think people around me see it more than I see it myself. Girls are usually more discreet than throwing themselves at someone. I don’t think they're as blatant as (makes a girlie screaming sound); I think they are much more savvy.

You don’t seem to have a problem doing gay love scenes. A lot of men would be uncomfortable with that.

Fuck ’em! I’ve never really had a problem with it because it's just part of the gig and I can sort of pretend to do it. I can’t bring my own personal morality into what I feel about roles because it just wouldn’t work. Otherwise, if I have a problem with that, then when does it stop? I have had to do things that a lot of fucking men just wouldn’t do. I had to do a scene were I got raped up the arse by Malcom McDowell in I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead. I’ve had to come out of the North Sea balls naked – nobody wants to come out of the sea balls naked, let me just tell you that, on camera. I know a lot of fucking actors who would have turned around and said absolutely no way. Their pride and their ego wouldn’t let them do it. When I was doing The Tribe, Jeremy Norton was really uncomfortable doing our three-way scene. Ewan (McGregor) didn’t really like doing the kissing scene in Velvet Goldmine. In Titus, I play Chiron who, along with his brother Demetrius, rapes Lavinia, chops her hands off and cut her tongue out. Does that make me a rapist in real life? If it's a gay scene and I’ve got to be naked with a man, kissing a man – and if that's what the role needs and requires – then that’s what I’ll do. Moralistically, as an actor, I have to be, to a certain extent, in limbo.

On a personal level do you feel in limbo?

I’m always in limbo. I’m always ready to go off and do a role wherever it is – that’s the nature of my job. Some people may find that kind of shallow – and to an extent there's a shallowness because my depth I very much keep for myself. I wear my heart on my sleeve a lot, because as an actor it's very much what you can bring to the surface. But also, I tend to not get attached to people and places and things because I might not be there all the time. So, there’s a certain amount of limbo that you exist in.

What makes you tick as a person? It can’t all just be about the work.

At the moment it kind of is. But I like the work; I like going to the gym; I like hanging out in London and Camden; I like watching TV. I like very simple things. Somebody asked me recently what was my favourite holiday destination and I said home! Home is my favourite holiday destination. A fucking cup of tea, sitting down in front of me TV, a nice football match, me cigarettes there – that’s a holiday. The thought of flying 11 hours to some fucking beach sort of drives me mad – I can’t even think of it. Some exotic palm tree location? No! I want to go home. Music actually takes up a big part of my life – more than I thought it would. Listening to music, playing music. I’ve got a dog called Bruce. It’s really strange because I always thought these guys who have little dogs – and they love their dogs – were fucking saps. Well, I’m a total sap for this dog. A wasp stung him the other day and I couldn’t be consoled. I was rushing into the hospital and everything – and it was kind of like, this is a fucking dog! The dog is kind of my baby replacement. I’m 30 and I feel like I should be a father in some way, but… let’s have a dog. I don’t want to have a kid, I want to have a dog! Much nicer!

So is parenthood something for the future?

I don’t know. I’m just not quite sure. I love kids, but I’m just not quite sure if being a father is me. I’m just not quite sure that I’m that guy. If I get a phone call at the eleventh hour – to fall into the lead role of some super spectacular film somewhere because someone’s dropped out, then I’m gone. It would be hard if it’s your baby’s birthday –or your kid’s taking his first steps – and you're up the top of a fucking mountain in East Africa making this big epic movie. And it's hard for the mother. Whatever about the fucking father running away, doing his adventuring and being Mister Movie Star and cool and famous, it’s hard for the mother to stay behind and sort of rear the child and have all that responsibility all the time. I’m not sure I can inflict that on someone.

Sure, when you're 50 or 60, as a big Hollywood actor, you can marry a 25-year-old and start a family then.

Now, you behave yourself!

The papers are constantly full of speculation about your love life. Are you in a relationship now?

I am, but that’s all I am saying.

Would you describe yourself as a religious person?

I definitely think there’s a spiritual path. I’m more spiritual than I would admit or realise about myself, but I don’t practise any type of spirituality. I’m certainly not a religious person, but I am respectful of other people’s religions and their rights to have their opinions. I don’t believe they should be fucking shooting each other with AK47s to settle it. I’m more of a realist.

What type of music do you like?

Everything. I’ve got an iPod with a bunch of stuff. At the moment, I find myself actually listening to a bit of ’80s music. Bruce Springsteen. The first album I ever bought was Born In The USA. So, I’m revisiting Bruce. Magic is a very good album. I’m listening to Genesis. I found a really good compilation by them on the internet, so I downloaded it. Some of it's just great catchy tunes, but then some of it is too ’80s, some of it is too much like Huey Lewis and The News – I don’t want to go quite there! I’ve a lot of The Cure.

Do you have The OKs (his three brothers’ band) on your iPod?

I certainly have The OKs on my iPod. I have a really good demo of a song that my brother Alan wrote called ‘Grace’ and it’s such a gorgeous song. My brother is such an amazing songwriter – but he hates every song that he writes 20 minutes after recording it. They're very fucking talented lads. I would like to see them do something. I’m not quite sure if I’d ever work with them. After August Rush, a lot of people in America have been asking me if I’m going to be releasing an album because I sing the songs on the soundtrack.

Did you sing in the Elvis mini-series?

I only sung for a couple of seconds in the studio scene (he then does a brilliant singing impersonation of Elvis). It was all Elvis’ tracks. It was the first time that Elvis’ masters were ever used because when John Carpenter made his film with Kurt Russell they had to get somebody in to sing like Elvis – they didn’t have the rights to his music.

You also sang on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack.

On Velvet Goldmine I was 19-years-old and I hadn’t really sung much, but they were very sort of glam rocky songs, so some music magazines in England were sort of really harsh – but again, fuck ’em. For something like August Rush they were closer to my own voice, but they were also songs that were written for a film – and they were good songs and they suit the film. But I would like to see what my voice would be like if I recorded a song that I found, which I really desperately wanted to record. That would be a little bit more interesting. Maybe with my brothers in a few years time, but not on a professional level.


I do really like this interview. I just love the 'Now. You behave yourself.' He obviously liked the interviewer. They must have had a click. The interviewer also seemed to be very respectful, already in his questions.

Thanks Audrey! I'm so glad you reprinted it here. I love the interview & would love to have it available always. Cathy

Thanks Audrey for this!! Like redstar said now we´ve got it forever...

Taking the liberty myself again...


Jonathan Rhys-Myers


Hailed as one of the UK s hottest young talents, and having appeared in such successes as Michael Collins, The Magnificent Abersons, and Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys-Myers is in fact Dublin-born and raised in Cork. OLAF TYARANSEN met the rising star. Thesp Behaviour: Peter Matthews

Olaf Tyaransen

If fidgeting was an Olympic sport then Jonathan Rhys-Myers could win gold for Ireland. The 23-year-old Dublin-born/Cork bred actor just can t seem to sit still for a moment. Throughout our interview, he changes his position more often than a Flood Tribunal witness constantly moving in his chair, picking at his chicken sandwich, lighting Marlboros, flicking his hair and fiddling with his mobile phone. He doesn t look directly at you either, his eyes seeming to flick every which way but at the person he s talking to. It s somewhat disconcerting for a while but eventually I realise that he s not being rude. It s simply that, like many young actors, he s restlessness personified a strikingly handsome five-foot-something frame of typical thespian insecurity.

But then no wonder he s constantly moving. Although Rhys-Myers has now appeared in nineteen different movies, he s far from being in a position to rest on his laurels and he knows it! His star is definitely on the rise but it is not yet shooting. Until recently, he was best known for his role as the young assassin in Neil Jordan s Michael Collins. It was a small part but his looks made an impact with casting agents and gradually his career began to snowball, with him playing a series of increasingly prominent roles in films like The Loss Of Sexual Innocence, Velvet Goldmine, Titus Andronicus and the forthcoming Prozac Nation. Irish audiences will have seen him most recently as the sly Steerpike in the television series Gormenghast. Not formally trained as an actor, critics generally agree that he s far from flawless but is steadily, steadily getting there. He doesn t particularly disagree with them either but his ambition and passion for his chosen craft are obvious.

Having worked alongside the likes of Ewan McGregor, Anthony Hopkins, Rupert Everett, Minnie Driver and Christina Ricci, Rhys-Myers seems well on the way to making a major impact in the world of movie-making. He s in town today to screentest for Neil Jordan s latest project a role which, if he gets it, may well establish him as a leading actor. For the moment, however, he comes across as someone with a lot to prove

OLAF TYARANSEN: I understand you had a heart condition when you were a child.

JONATHAN RHYS-MYERS: Yes. I had a weak heart and very weak kidneys, so I was kept for seven months in St. James Hospital, Dublin, where I was born. I was in an incubator. Then I was in Dublin for another year and a half and then we went to Cork city. I shouldn t be smoking, really, you know (lights one cigarette from the butt of another).

Is that something that still occurs?

No. It hasn t occurred. At the same time you want to watch it.

What kind of upbringing did you have? Was it middle-class Irish?

No, working-class. Definitely working-class Irish. I went to a state school, the whole ball-game. I knew what not-having was, but everybody didn t have in the situation I was in. What my neighbours didn t have, I didn t have. And so I naturally didn t think of it as too rough a thing. It was only as I got older that I realised how underprivileged it was. When I started to get a little bit more privileged and able to get more things I thought God almighty, how did I live when I was a kid? . Actually I had everything I needed, in truth.

Your father left your mother when you were four?

Yes.

And you ve got three younger brothers?

Yes.

What do they do?

They re rock musicians. They ve got a rock band. They live in Jersey and they tour around the islands. They re incredibly fucking brilliant. And the thing is, it s not even a biased opinion, because I don t like their kind of music. I m not into their music at all, I m into a completely different kind of thing. But I recognise who s brilliant and who s not. And they re good. They re incredibly tight for their age.

Did you always talk like that?

When I was a kid I used to talk with a Cork accent (said in strong Cork accent).

Did you refine the accent to do movies?

I started talking like this from about 17, when I started really getting into acting. I also started hanging around with a different type of person. I hung around with people who talked like this all the time so I faked it.

You were a bit of a trouble-maker as a child?

Well, I was a child. I don t think there s any children that aren t troublemakers. Some kids get away with it and some don t. I was one of those kids that never got away with it. My trouble always shone (laughs). It outshone the others for whatever reason. I got thrown out of school aged fifteen a very bad mistake. It was a monastery school in Cork. I suppose it wasn t their fault. I wasn t a terribly interested student. But it s very difficult to get a 15-year-old to sit down and learn something they don t particularly want to learn about. Why would they? It s like I m learning more from NWA than this geography class!

Was music always a thing for you?

Music was always huge for me. I ve related to music. Of course, everybody does. I probably thought it was a unique thing as a kid. It was like oh my God, I ve got a song for every situation I ve been in . That s the way it is. But it was always instrumental music that kept up memories for me rather than lyrics.

You sang a couple of tracks on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack. Is that something you d do again?

Yeah, of course. Velvet Goldmine was going to be wonderful if I could have had David Bowie s music because everybody would have recognized it. I never really wanted to try and play Bowie. I just tried to play a rock artist who was an icon. It s very difficult to play an icon because they re ethereal and not real. So I had to play the character as if I was not real and try to detract myself from it as if I was a machine; plus I couldn t use Bowie s music. So I was using music written by Grant Lee Buffalo and Michael Stipe, and Tom Yorke got involved with it and it was incredibly brilliant stuff, but at the same time it wasn t the hits of the seventies that I should have been singing. That would have been able to make the character more believable to a lot of the people who went to see it if I was standing up there singing Ziggy Stardust instead of singing Tumbling Down . A couple of in-people would have been into Cockney Rebel but the mass audience wouldn t have.

When you got expelled from school at fifteen, what was the situation then?

I wasn t prepared to do anything. I tried to go to other schools but they weren t prepared to take a kid who couldn t behave in a good school and had been kicked out of a state school. They were rather dubious about that and I suppose I didn t try as hard as I would now. But I m a different age now and I ve copped myself on a bit more. I don t think it was an incredibly good move to get kicked out of school. It sounds cool, but I got very lucky. I went on the hop a lot because I wasn t happy being there. I wasn t happy with my life either in school, at home or with my friends. I was always a loner.

So did you just bum around for a while?

I used to hang around the pool hall with my friend Gordan McGregor. These guys came in and asked if I wanted to an audition for War Of The Buttons. They came up to me and asked me and I said fuck off ! They said go on, please . So they brought me down to Skibbereen to meet John Roberts and I liked him a lot. I spent a weekend there and then I went home and then they brought me back and auditioned me again. I nearly fucked it up for myself because I got a phone call on the Monday night to come down Tuesday morning. I was so excited that I phoned my friend Gerry and asked him to come over and I stayed up till 8 o clock in the morning and slept in till 11 o clock! I fucked up the audition. I was an eejit and I that s why I lost that film. Apparently they thought I should have been in The Outsiders rather than The War Of The Buttons. So I was a little bit too street-wise and mature for them, at that point anyway. I was very disgusted. I felt like a complete failure. I was completely self-pitying.

Is Cork important to you?

Hugely, yes. I don t spend much time there now, but I love it. Wonderful people. When I was growing up I never thought it was a shitty town, shitty people, I need to get away from it. I never thought that. People are shitty wherever you go (laughs). What I wanted was their respect. No matter where they re from, no matter who it is. It could be a beggar in the street or the king of the world. I still want their respect equally. And I want to be able to do the same. I want to be able to give the same warmth and respect to a beggar as I give to a king. And I suppose I wanted to be rich because I wasn t.

Are you rich now?

I haven t got paid that much money for the films I ve done. I m not a millionaire or anything like that. But I bought my mother a house in Glanmyre in Cork last year and I was quite happy about doing that. I got her a little car and stuff and now she s working for the first time in years and she s very, very happy and independent and she s got a new lease of life. Life really does begin at 40.

Is money madly important to you?

As important as it is to someone who is young and who grew up without it. I d want to take care of myself. I d like to be able to buy a house for myself and my girlfriend to live in the countryside. But there s not lots of things I want. I don t want a fast fucking car. I don t want to go to expensive restaurants. I don t want clothes and to date supermodels. I don t have to buy Tiffany diamonds for my girlfriend. Money is important because I d like to get paid for what I do. But also it seems to be a sort of status symbol of how much you re worth. So, yes, I d love someone to pay me #1million for a film joyous! Of course I would, who wouldn t? My agent says they re running out of reasons to not cast me in these big films. I thought for years I don t look the way they want me to look. And I ve got over that. Then I thought I m not acting the way they want me to act. And so I m constantly going to be fighting with that my whole life. So it s basically me getting in there and seducing them into giving me the part. That s quite difficult because I m not American and so before I go in for an audition I have to make myself American.

How s your American accent?

It s alright now (in superb American accent). I just did Magnificent Ambersons. I played someone from Indianapolis. So I m going to go over there with that mid-American accent and ah shucks attitude.

Are you watching the American elections at the moment?

I m not. I have no interest in Al Gore or George Bush Jnr. George Bush is a white supremacist and Al Gore is the best of a bad lot, but still he s not a clever guy.

Do you have an interest in Irish politics?

I have an interest in Irish politics, but more the politics of the early 1920s. Michael Collins era. Me being the man who shot him! You want to know the man you re going to kill. Any good samurai is going to check out his opponent, isn t he?

What do you think of Bertie Ahern?

When I think I him I always think of a Basset s Allsorts packet, and Bertie is the Big Basset. I always thought of him as an oul eejit. But he s not an oul eejit look at the fucking country! His term will be seen as like the 1000-year Reich. It was so lovely. Everybody had lots of money. He had very few problems except for all the other politicians getting done.

Is your Irishness important to you?

It s incredibly important. It s a wonderful country to be from. I say that when I go to Los Angeles and I try to do auditions, that I ve got to become American. I don t mind that. I liked growing up in Ireland. I don t think I would have liked to have grown up in the US. Plus, it s given an antiquity to my soul. I come from a place that s got an awful lot of soul, history, culture and a lot of magic about it. I like being Irish.

Do you find that there s much begrudgery in Ireland?

No. The Magnificent Ambersons was the 19th film I made. And I thought oh God, I ve made 19 films, shouldn t I be getting paid a lot of money? . Then I thought to myself well I ve never made a film that s made an awful lot of money. I ve never been in a successful box-office hit . It would be marvelous. I said to my friend John Paul when I first got into acting do you think I ll make it? . He said No. I think you ll be a good actor, but I don t think you ll make it like Tom Cruise or anything like that . And I was you re meant to be my mate you re meant to say take on the world, man . But that s Ireland! (laughs)

Who s your role model as an actor?

Nijinsky gives me more inspiration as an actor than anyone else. But I do think Peter O Toole is extraordinary.

Will you ever act on stage?

When I m comfortable enough. Nothing to do with performance, just financially. I m going to have to do it at some point and I m sure I will do it. I like to be able to do it on my own terms, rather than looking for work.

Are you quite a distracted person?

Yes, hyperactive I suppose.

You don t make very much eye contact. You look around a lot.

I do (looking away). Sometimes then I ll just be in your face all the time. People do find me a bit too intense. I ve had this problem when I ve gone to auditions in the US. I m far too intense.

Are you quite a dramatic person?

Yes, I m a very dramatic person. I ve got an awful lot of energy. I m very hyperactive. And that comes out as being very dramatic. Even in the roles I play, people think I m a very dramatic actor, almost operatic. Like driving a car is an opera, especially in Dublin. I can be scandalously dramatic.

Do you have many friends?

Not many. I have some and the ones I have are incredibly good friends. I ve got one friend I ve had about 10 years. I ve got another friend, Gordon McGregor, who I haven t seen for ages, but he s one of my closest friends and always will be, regardless. Two of my brothers are very close friends, but I don t see them very often. But it s a blood-love and so they ll always be there. My girlfriend s my friend. Her sister s my friend.

Are you enjoying life at the moment?

Sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I don t. But I m into self-discovery and I don t think anyone who s into self-discovery is happy. It s not going to be what you expect it to be. There s that element of it. But at the same time you get what you can out of it. I m trying to be a great artist and by trying to be a great artist you have to look at all the beautiful things and you have to look at all the horrible things and then find the beauty in them. It s very difficult to do. To become comfortable with horrible things means you re finding the natural beauty in them.

What are you doing at moment?

I ve just finished a film recently but today I ve been screentesting for Neil Jordan s film. It s magnificent. Neil is one of my favourite directors. I haven t got the part yet. I m waiting for him to give me the part. If he does, I ll do it and put everything into it, and if he doesn t I ll still love him as much as I do now.

He gave you your first role, didn t he?

My first role was in The Disappearance Of FInbar. He gave me my second role which was in Michael Collins. That was brilliant. The part was quite small but in the eventual film it showed out a lot more. It was very good for me. There s something about him that is very artistic. He s someone I can look up to. I want his approval. There s a couple of directors whose approval I really want. It s not like I want millions of dollars and everyone screaming my name all the time. What I want is the support of people to help me achieve wonderful things in film.

Would you describe yourself as ambitious?

Very. I was always hungry. I knew I was going to be unique in some way. How unique I don t know. I knew I was never going to have a normal job, never have a normal life. Some people never get roses thrown at them, but they never get sand kicked in their face either. I ve had roses, and I ve had sand kicked in my face.

What was the sand kicked in your face?

Rejection.

What War Of The Buttons?

Everything. Everything I ve been rejected for I ve been really, really hurt by.

How about women?

I ve had a very hard time with women. But I ve made that hard time myself. I m trying to understand women. But I can never truly understand them. The only thing I can do is accept. They re completely different creatures and they ve got a different way of thinking. I think if you accept them rather than try to understand them and you ll have a better time. A lizard can t understand what a bird feels like and bird can t understand what a lizard feels like.

Are you in a serious relationship at the moment?

I m in love with this girl called Chacha. She s the most beautiful woman in Ireland, one of the most beautiful women in the world. I m very much in love with her and very lucky to have her.

Is that a long-term thing?

I hope so. We ve been going out for fifteen months now.

Are you looking for stability?

No, I m looking for a partner. I m looking for a Don Quixote to my, what was his name? I call myself the Don Quixote because I know if I call her the other character she d fucking brain me!

You were with someone else before her what was her name?

Toni Collete. She did Sixth Sense, Muriel s Wedding. I met her on the set of Velvet Goldmine and we were playing man and wife and then became such.

Do you find those situations happen often?

No. You have to pretend that you re in love with the person if you need to be. And so immediately you feel something for them, but it doesn t necessarily mean it s love. You re just much more affectionate to them because in your mind you re more affectionate to them.

Would you sacrifice your relationship for a good role?

I d sacrifice myself for a great role! I d rather have ten minutes of an extraordinary unique life than 100 years of a happy, boring one. For me happiness all the time would be boring. I like a bit of failure. I ve gone for a lot of auditions and been rejected and I ve been really hurt at the time, but then an actor called James Conwell - who was in General s Daughter and LA Confidential - turned to me and said there s only lessons in failure, so the more you fail the more you learn. Failure isn t being knocked down.

Does your job constantly put you in odd situations?

I m constantly in odd situations. One week I was in six different countries in one week! I woke up and had to ask what language do you speak? . That s strange, but at the same time you choose it. I feel as though I ve been in guerrilla warfare for about the last four years. It s very tiring. You re fighting a war, basically. And you re the only army you have that you can control and you can t control what the enemy is going to do. And your enemies constantly change.

What s been your best role to date?

I don t know.

What s been your worst?

They ve all had difficult things and they ve all had great things every part I ve played.

Do you get emotionally involved as an actor?

Of course I do.

So when you did Gormenghast, did you become a sly little fucker?

No, I became more of a little fucker doing The Magnificent Ambersons. Because in Gormenghast he was made rotten by something that was done to him as a child. And so as he grows up he doesn t grow up. Because you can t grow up in a place that never changes. That was the whole point of Gormenghast - to try not to grow up, just to try to become more cynical as the film went on. In The Magnificent Ambersons I played a character who was born with absolutely everything and was a spoilt bastard. I became a little bit of a shit sometimes.

Do you behave yourself generally?

Yes, I do behave. But sometimes I misbehave. I don t go to clubs and insult people. I don t go to press conferences and say blah, blah, blah . I haven t got a big head in that sense. I ve never walked into a place and said do you know who I am? . I ve never actually used my name to get into a club or anything. I d never do that because it would seem to me that I m a little bit more than I am. Well I m not more than I am. That s only other people s perspectives. If I become famous they think I m famous, but for me it s always a struggle.

What s your stance on the drugs issue?

Basically there s no good in them. There can t be. It s like drink is a drug and smoking is a drug. It gives you an immediate hit and it feels fine, but then it starves you. So it only makes you worse. I know some people who take drugs and they re so clever that they ll take it and get what they want out of it and then they ll put it away. But most people can t do that. They ll take it and then life seems dull without it and then they ll take it more and more and then life becomes dull and the drug becomes dull. I ve never been into drugs. I ve never been offered them.

Oh come on never?

Alright, I took a line in Mexico. I thought that s it, I m on holiday backpacking in Mexico and nobody knows. But it wasn t very good. I don t think it totally affected me. I think it was probably 25% sugarcane, 15% soda powder and maybe 3% coca. I ve just never got into drugs in a big way. The temptation is always there. I smoke so many cigarettes, but I don t drink.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

That s a difficult question to answer. I know where I d like to see myself, but where I see myself I m not sure. On top of the world, of course Let s put it this way, I d like to give a great performance at least once for every one of the next five years. I d love to give an outstanding performance in one film every year.

Do you accept that sometimes you don t?

I try my best all the time.

Do you find that acting has encouraged you to explore as an artist?

Every creative thing encourages another creative thing. It s a cog.

Are you as on when you wake up in the morning as you seem to be now?

Yes. I can t take my mind off anything. My mind is always full of ideas. I still want to take on the world, today! And it won t stop. But at the same time I m lazy. I m 23 now so I ve got to start growing up. Mozart was writing symphonies by the time he was 10 years old.

Still, you re pretty young.

I don t know. I worked with a director and I was due to go to this press conference and I woke up at 8 o clock in the morning and had to be there for 20 past 8. So I put on my clothes and I brushed my long hair through my fingers and walked out. And he said to me you ll get away with this for just two more years, you know . And I said what . And he said just coming to a press conference in the clothes you re wearing and not combing your hair. You won t get away with it for ever. From about 24-25, watch yourself, because you ll have to start behaving then, wearing good suits .

What do you want to come across in this interview?

That I m not constantly depressed and negative.

You don t strike me as being either of those things.

I have done in other articles I d say I ve done all this I ve done the troubled youth, the manic depression youth puts you through. There are parts to me that people haven t seen.

Do you feel lucky?

Yes, hugely lucky and in another way hugely unlucky. That s because you want more. I expect so much of myself. People keep saying you re not doing badly . But if you say that to yourself you rest on your laurels. Getting to the top is the sparring round. Once you re at the stop you start fighting like a dog to stay there.

Do you feel you re at the top now?

No.

Are you jealous?

Yes.

Of whom?

Of whoever gets the part. No particular actor. I wanted All The Pretty Horses. I was on the set in Missouri playing a bushwhacker and all these wranglers came up to me and said I heard you were up for All The Pretty Horses. You re

fucking perfect . And I met Billy Bob and he said I was a good actor. Matt Damon got it and I was a bit jealous. I really like Matt Damon, but I don t like him as John Grady Cole, it s too fucking obvious.

Why do you act?

Because I can do nothing else that pays me as much, that makes me feel as important in the world and that I can somehow achieve the greatness in life that I want. It s like sex, it s the closest thing to the divine you can be. You can say why do you act when you never wanted to become an actor anyway? . Well I act because I m told I m good at it. Plus I ve never actually trained so I m sure when I was doing Velvet Goldmine and that sort of stuff, I was probably one of the only Irish actors who was doing that at my age, who had started doing that. And now there s myself, Stuart Townsend, Colin Farrell. There s three of us. But I still haven t given a really great performance yet. I feel it has to come.

Rhys for the prize

After a temporary wobble, Cork actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has put his career back on track. Now all he has to do is win an Oscar.
Tara Brady, 09 Dec 2005

Depressing fact of the day. Despite being around for what seems like several decades – didn’t he shoot Michael Collins, like, ages ago? – Jonathan Rhys Meyers is still only 28 years old.

I know a couple of women who ought to ashamed of themselves when I think what age he was during Gormenghast, and the kind of impure thoughts they were vocalising (and how) at the time. Anyways, watching his complicated, scheming anti-hero manouevre through the ranks of contemporary British gentry in Woody Allen’s Match Point, you suddenly realise that he’s only now really old enough to essay such a darkly romantic lead.

“It’s only now I’m ready either,” says the actor. “When I was younger I just craved success too much. People said that I was going places after Michael Collins, but I think if success had come at that point I would have destroyed myself. As it was, I got frustrated and really almost sabotaged my career and my life. But I’ve stopped worrying about it and settled down a bit. It’s a lot easier.”

Happily, Rhys Meyers seems to have made it through the impetuousness of youth and matured into a fine actor. Not that he was ever rubbish. Even in poorly recieved projects – I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, Velvet Goldmine or indeed, Gormenghast – he has frequently and justifiably earned lofty praise for his performances. Match Point, a Hitchcockian thriller with echoes of Plein Soliel however, provided his most challenging role to date.

“He’s not a typical Hollywood protagonist,” explains Jonathan. “He’s more like something from the film noir that Woody grew up with. As a leading man, he’s sort of like a Delon character. There’s something misogynistic and selfish about him, but at the same time you want him to be redeemed. You keep with him. The audience does have sympathy for him and perversely people will him to get away with terrible behaviour.”

While some actors have found Woody’s laissez-faire direction a little too vague, Jonathan was delighted with the set up.

“I wish I could tell you that I was sitting around writing a history for my character,” he laughs. “But if I tried to do that I’d just end up doodling monkeys. It was a very relaxed shoot. On the first day I went up to Woody and said, ‘I’m really nervous here. You’re Woody Allen.’ And he says, (adopts perfect Allen impersonation) ‘Listen, you’re 80% this character. If 20% of you shows up then we’re doing fine.’ It’s funny because I was doing a press conference for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and this real intellectual journalist started asking me about certain pauses and how brilliant they were. I was like, ‘Uh, if you say so - I don’t remember.’”

Of course, the fact that Match Point offered him an opportunity to romp in silk sheets with Emily Mortimer, then land in a cornfield with Scarlett Johansson in the rain didn’t make the shoot unpleasant either.

“It’s a really interesting thing,”says Jonathan. “There’s a totally different chemistry between myself and Scarlett and myself and Emily, and again, I wish I could tell you I put loads of thought into it, but it was really just the chemistry that was there. Scarlett was a 19-year-old single woman and Emily is married with a child. I couldn’t go chasing her.”

Certainly, Match Point seems to have been a less tumultuous experience than Oliver Stone’s Alexander, where Jonathan frequently clashed with the director. And then there was all that dick-waving wildman onset behaviour.

“I won’t lie to you. It was wild. It was mad. Oliver wanted an animalistic set. He wanted something raw and wild. It just didn’t translate to the screen in the end. I’ve had to stay dry since then in order to recover. I was teetotal until I was 25 so I have the capacity of a 14 year old girl. I’m vomiting in bushes after a drink. It was mad and it was very difficult because I idolised Oliver before and I think I just expected too much from him as a director and felt spurned when I didn’t get it.”

With Alexander well behind him, 2006 looks set to be a breakthrough for Jonathan. He’s already been touted for an Oscar for Match Point and in a few months we can catch him dashing about alongside Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3.

“I’d love to say that an Oscar nomination would be meaningless but it would be fucking great,” he admits. “When I was nominated for the Emmy for playing Elvis, I thought, fantastic. I’m Elvis and I’m from Cork, like. But really what I’d like is for me, Cillian Murphy and Colin Farrell to all get nominated. Those guys are genuises.”

Now there’d be a night of memorable podium speeches.

I found a Spanish interview of Jonny promoting From Paris with Love. I translated it from Spanish, so I might have used words that maybe Jonny didn't naturally use. It is a good reflection though.

http://cine.estamosrodando.com/filmoteca/desde-paris-con-amor/entrevista-a-jonathan-rhys-meyers/

What attracted you in From Paris with Love?
I read the script and I wanted to do this kind of movie. I wanted to work with Pierre Morel, because I had seen Taken. I wanted to work with John and with Luc Besson and Virginie. I played a guy that had something childish, despite being a very mature and very responsible guy, but he has a certain idea of what he thinks means being a spy and above all the typical things taken from comic books and things like that. This element changes him in a certain way into a child, but little by little he begins to notice that not everything is like in James Bond with his cars, elegant suits and secret operations. It’s very dirty, bloody, nontransparent and gruesome: the real world. He is in a way making his fantasy real and this fantasy is becoming a nightmare before his eyes.

What is your view on a character like Reese?
I have an idea in mind of his past, how he could have become this guy, growing up, school, night school and all that. This is not someone who went to Harvard. I believe he definitely studied on a public school and learned Mandarin in night school to try and get a good job. So this is someone who has often walked against walls. But not a character that is full of complexities. Reese has a heart, is an optimist. He wants to think the best of people.

Reese is fascinated by Wax. Did you feel the same as him when you got the opportunity to work with John Travolta?
I wouldn’t say that I was so fascinated, but I did like it. We had a great time together, because he is a very generous guy and also very nice. He is already working in the film industry a long time, so he is full of incredible stories and has a lot of experience. But the truth is that he is a very good guy, a very honest and kind man, and he is an icon of his time.
When Reese met Wax he was fascinated because he is not what he expected. What he expected was more someone perfect and formal, in suite and serious and what he found was someone pulled out of a motor club in Florida that wears jewels of Chrome Hearts, with a very intense personality, very American. So Reese is paralysed by what he encounters to be totally opposite of what he expected, he had a predetermined idea in mind. I didn’t have predetermined ideas in mind about John and we got alone perfectly. We were lucky because the chemistry works or not and you don’t know until the moment you work together. So we were lucky that we got along well and it looks like things went alright.

Would you say they develop a relationship as colleagues?
They develop a certain relationship as colleagues, because it’s a sort of mentor-student relationship. I have loads of moments in which I behave in a very stupid way, I have ethical problems and Reese is a lot more ethical than Wax. So it’s a ‘buddy movie’ with persons with different ideals but it allows you to have different ideals and still have the same objective.

Could we talk a bit about your female companion in the movie, Kasia Smutniak, who plays Caroline?
Kasia is great, a marvelous girl. She is Polish, which I liked because I am Irish and there is a certain foreign similarity there. She is a exceptional actress which is strange because she is a former model and you very rarely see a model that knows to really act. I don’t know why, maybe because they have been focusing on a physical aspect for years, but she has the necessary skill to be an actress. I have a great notion of her. It was very nice working with her. I believe that the viewers will like this movie a lot.

Did you like making your first action movie?
Yes, but it’s difficult. When you are doing an action movie the best results are in the scenes where you don’t have to do much acting. This is because action scenes look great on screen but a very difficult to film. So there is no flow, they are all short pieces, short moments that are later put together to make that they work well. But they are not nice to film, they only take a lot of time.

How would you describe Pierre Morel?
I love Pierre. I think he crazy in the right sense. It’s a great technique, a great operation. He is an easy person, works a lot, has a lot of energy, is a bag of energy. And he is clever. I like him a lot. I feel very comfortable around Pierre. He is a great person and an excellent director.

When you are filming, do you usually check the scenes on the monitor?
Yes, but I usually only look at the monitor to check whether I am not doing anything stupid. When I was younger, as an actor, I used to have stupidities with my hands or tics and things like that. I remember a particular take, a beautiful take when I was sitting at a table in the third season of The Tudors. I was sitting with Jane Seymour, and it is a beautiful composition except that it’s in the shadow and with the high boots my foot was turned and ruined the composition. It’s these kind of things that I focus on.


I liked the last question. Always nice to know a bit how Jonny works. His answer on the first question was nice too.

I found another interview as well, on The Tudors I think, but I haven't finished translating it yet. Anyhow, more to come soon.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/film/jonathan-rhys-meyers

Jonathan Rhys Meyers

The king is reelected for another season.

By Lisa Freedman Thu Apr 2 2009

In real life, King Henry VIII was a fat, gross English king whose subjects were too terrified of his explosive temper to tell him just how fat and gross he really was. But Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the man who plays him on Showtime's hit drama The Tudors, is cut from a handsomer, friendlier cloth. In addition to his obvious screen appeal, the 31-year-old can sing (he performed two songs in Velvet Goldmine), has extremely chiseled cheekbones (he's the face of Versace and Hugo Boss fragrance) and might be seen at your local Wal-Mart.

Time Out New York: You're the prettiest guy to ever grace this back page. Have you always been this freaking pretty?
Jonathan Rhys Meyers: The prettiest? Wow, thank you. No, I was a fairly regular kid. I was scrawny.

Is that code for "I got beaten up a lot"?
That only happens in Hardy Boys books. No one picked on me for my lunch money. Probably because it was the 1980s and no one had lunch money.

These days, is your life like an Axe commercial, in which women just undress and throw themselves at you?
Nothing like that happens. When you're a young actor and you're not yet successful, you'd imagine things like that would happen. Like you're getting into this incredible bubble where everything is fabulous and the world is just rosy. But actually, nothing changes.

Growing up, were you interested in 16th-century history?
It was one of my only good subjects in school. But the show's been modernized for a 21st-century audience. I learned what was necessary to play the role. The difficult part is that I'm playing a man who I look nothing like.

Yeah, Henry VIII wasn't nearly as pretty as you. He also wasn't exactly the best person.
God, of course he's not the best person. So many things he did were ridiculous. Some of them were very terrible. And he made some silly political mistakes: He should have never divorced Catherine of Aragon. He could've saved himself from a lot of problems.

How do you think the king and Barack Obama would have gotten along in present time?
I'm not quite sure Obama would like Henry that much, though I'm not quite sure Henry would like Obama either. They're very different leaders in a very different political age, but if they bumped into each other in, say, Moe's Diner and neither were political leaders, they probably wouldn't like each other in that case, either.

Watching the show, it's easy to get wrapped up in the way they dressed, talked and behaved in those times.
It's all a fantasy. If we did everything Henry did, it couldn't be on TV because it'd be way too boring. Henry went through three or four hours of ceremonies every morning just eating breakfast and going to the bathroom. And remember, Henry VIII was the first king to put a bath in his castle. They were not the cleanest of people. It may look fabulous in super high-def on a 68-inch screen, but in reality, it was a very dirty, stinky, syphilitic age.

Very dirty. You said on Ellen DeGeneres that filming The Tudors' many sex scenes is like doing it in Wal-Mart. Personal experience?
No!

If you were going to, which department would you do it in? It depends on which department the girl works in. It'd have to be with somebody who works in Wal-Mart. Why would I have sex in a Wal-Mart otherwise?

I have this visual of people in corsets and funny pants pulling up to Wal-Mart to pick up groceries. It would make a funny picture. I made a film years ago with Ang Lee [Ride with the Devil]; we were in the Midwest and went to Wal-Mart. There were a lot of Amish dressed in their typical clothes, and it was so extraordinary to see them because they looked so out of place, it was ridiculous. But I was really more fascinated that you could buy a gun and Cheerios at the same time.

Can you not do that in Ireland? Absolutely not. In any circumstance you cannot possess a handgun in Ireland. It's too dangerous—you'll just be shooting everyone. I know they say, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," and there's a lot of truth in that, but people still use bats and knives and stuff. Shooting a gun just means that you don't have to get up too close.

An interview from the German cosmopolitan from a few years back. Enjoy.

http://www.cosmopolitan.de/beauty/pflege-und-make-up/a-22354/auf-einen-spaziergang.html

Taking a stroll!

O these pouting lips! It’s certain: Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a womanizer and likes to play the womanizer in his roles as well, like in the series "The Tudors". In an interview with writer Verena Seibold talks the Irishman about city life, true love and his tidiness tick.

Interview: Verena Seibold

COSMOPOLITAN: In the series "The Tudors” you play Henry VIII, a very particular character. Did you recognise anything from yourself in him?
Jonathan Rhys Meyers: No, for starters, I am no king. And furthermore I don’t think that I am arrogant. He was a bad politician, a bad husband and he also wasn’t a good father.

Do you think it is possible to find true love in showbusiness?
It is already more difficult to find, but above all, more difficult to keep. That is the complicated part. Only few have succeeded. Paul Newman had that luck, but unfortunately he has recently passed away. He met his wife in 1958 and did not cheat on her. He has described it so neatly: ‘Why should I eat a burger if I can get steak.”

And you have not found a good steak yet?
Maybe I rather have a hamburger? No not really, first you want one and then you become sick of it.

For the new Hugo Boss fragrance 'Hugo Element " Jonathan Rhys Meyers walks calmy and of course good looking through Buenos Aires.

What was the most intense moment in your life?
Difficult, there were several that were intense for different reasons. Some very happy, others incredibly sad, frustrating or very satisfactory.

What was it satisfactory?
Currently I'm working in Paris (Editor's note: In order to work with John Travolta, "From Paris with Love"), where I had a break just long enough to enjoy the moment. Even though it was only a second, it was precious, because I do not often get free time.

When we shot the commercial for "Hugo Element," I had such a special moment again. It was just beautiful: We were in Buenos Aires and I am only walking. Sun, no stress, no pressure, just breathe and be in a beautiful place.

You work so much - what do you do to relax?
I train and go to the gym - a little anyway. And I look just a little senseless TV. Especially in France - where I'm working now - I find it very amusing to see programs in a language you do not understand. Sometimes I find myself, like I have a whole hour, "Al Jazeera" to look at (laughs).

Also, I read a lot, at the time "I Claudius" by Robert Green and "My Name is Red" by Orhan Parmuk. The one of Parmuk pleases me a lot, it might be a good artwork, but it is too long. Large novels often become terrible movies.

Would you consider yourself more a city boy or country boy?
I grew up on the land, but since I'm am 17 years old I have been staying in the largest cities in the world.

You are more in your element in the city then?
I make my environment as I need it, whether in town or across the country. The idea behind the commercial (see first page) is to show a man who works hard indeed, but also takes his time off to become aware of who and where he is. Where does he come from and where he go. Someone who sometimes takes a deep breath. He allows himself to live and not just rush through life, but sometimes slow down, watching and listening people. This fragrance has an air of freedom, purity. So there should be a clear and simple message.

You are also a singer and musician, do you have plans for a music career?
No, because then it is no longer primarily about the music, it becomes a job. A lot of actors think, "Oh man, I can’t think of anything better than playing in front of 20,000 people and to really rock them." Sure, that would be great, but only for one night! However, if I toured through 26 states in 26 nights, there is quickly no fun anymore, but work. And to travel in a bus with many other musicians over the place, is not just my wishful thinking ... Nor could I live with a man in an apartment.

Why not?
Men are pigs (laughs) - and messy. I could not - so I can certainly not travel for months on a bus in a small room with a bunch of musicians around the world.

Are you really a very clean human being?
I am actually. This one thing you would not suspect, right? But I could not bear it if my apartment, my home or hotel room is not clean or messy. I can’t live like that. When I get home, let's say I have previously been in a hurry and a bunch of clothes are lying around, then when I come home at night and it is not neat, I put everything together first and clean up. I need a clean environment, otherwise I cannot think clearly and not concentrate.

Do you still like clubbing or is that not possible because of your fame?
It is still possible, but I'm very rarely in clubs. In Europe, people can’t smoke in clubs, so what should I do at a club, if I go out the door in order to smoke all the time?

And the doorman ... this is really a joke, I'm 31 years old and still have sweaty hands, if I want a club clean. They look at you so distrustfully, that I simply leave it.

You travel a lot, what you always have with you?
Without my iPod I'm going nowhere. And of course I have my cell phone and wallet...

And what's on your iPod?
Since I do make music myself, I listen to a lot of different things. I like blues, rock, Zepplin, Kings of Lion, folk and social scene. R & B is not my thing, but I hear a lot of Jamaican rap. Even though I do not know exactly why I like it. Bossa nova, samba or something I listen less, that's not my taste. But instead a lot of traditional Irish music.

Do you have much faith in Barack Obama?
I think this is dangerous. Don’t put the man under so much pressure, he must make his own contribution. Barack Obama will certainly help, I find it incredible that he has become president. It is unusual, because what the world now needs is a really good man to lead the most powerful country. But we also have responsibility to support someone like him. He is not the Messiah, just a very good man, in a very powerful position, and the world could only profit from it.

Two wonderful interviews that I have never seen before. Thanks for posting!

Thanks Audrey for these interviews. It´s great to know that Jonny is a clean boy.. an important thing in my opinion.

Reena a hamburguer???

reena is now dead meat for him shame shame gaja

gaja wrote:

reena is now dead meat for him shame shame gaja

who knows... who knowss......

Very short interview from Hello Magazine from 2006. Nice words from Woody on Jonny as well.


Title: Irish Charmers
Article Type: Blurb
Date: March 25, 2006
Source: Hello Magazine



JONATHAN RHYS-MEYERS


When Woody Allen started looking around for someone to play the lead in his romantic drama Match Point, it didn't take him long to find the perfect man. “The minute I started thinking about him for this role, I couldn’t get him out of my mind,” recalls the renowned director. “Other actors were recommended to me, but I kept coming back to Jonathan. He is a truly great actor – smouldering and intense and full of conflict and passion."

Receiving such praise from one of Hollywood's most respected filmmakers could go to a young performer's head, but there's little chance of the slender Dubliner, who picked up a Golden Globe for the musical biopic Elvis, becoming arrogant. "It's that actor's insecurity," he says. "I don't think anyone really thinks they've arrived as an actor – they always feel they're about to get found out."

Despite his uncertainties, Jonathan is now regarded as one of the industry's hottest properties. He is no overnight sensation, having won notice from critics as far back as 1998, when he performed his own vocals in Velvet Goldmine. He was also widely applauded for his performances in Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil and Anthony Hopkins' Titus, and his role opposite Keira Knightley in the 2002 indie hit Bend It Like Beckham.

The heart-throb's calm demeanour belies the fact that he had a troubled childhood, having been expelled from school and spent time in an orphanage before a talent scout spotted him hanging out with friends in a local pool hall. "I wear my heart on my sleeve, which is why I can portray certain emotions on camera," he explains.


Also swing by main page and vote for Jonny in the online poll!

Credit: MasterSteerpike at Mystic Bliss
And my credit to JRM Update.

Another nice one, that I didn't really know, just have seen parts of it or quotes from it used at other places.

In Out's June Hot Issue, we named Irish dreamboat Jonathan Rhys-Meyers the Hottest Straight Guy We Wish Was Gay. The Mission: Impossible III costar told us about his infamous Velvet Goldmine sex scene with Ewan McGregor and why he thinks playing Elvis (for which he won a Golden Globe) was his gayest role yet. Here are some exclusive outtakes from our chat with the cheeky lad.

So, you are our Hottest Straight Guy.
That's pretty bold. No one's ever accused me of being straight before. Nice one.

I hope that's OK'
I don't mind at all. I'll show it to all me mates!

Do you have a sense of your gay fans? Are they vocal?
Sometimes. They're always fucking vocal. It's a very important market when you're an actor. Essentially you're selling yourself and if you can garner a gay audience, gay men and women who love your films, then straights will follow. I think Samantha said it once on Sex and the City to her young model boyfriend: 'First you get the gays as your fans, then you get the girls, then you get the industry.' It always starts with what is avant garde and ends up being industry commercial over time. What wasn't cool 10 years ago' Clive Owen was back in England making films and no one gave a shit. And now, 10 years later, he's the leading man of the moment. He has a huge audience. It just took a little bit of time.

Do you have gay people in your life?
Oh, God, yes. I have an apartment in Morocco with a load of old gay ex-pats who can't be gay at home so they run around Morocco. Ireland was a very sexually uptight country for many years because it was run by the church. There's a lot of men in the closet for many, many years. I've got quite a few gay friends in Dublin. But still it's not as free as it would be here in New York. In New York, if you're gay, you're gay. But in Ireland there's still a taboo about it. Maybe in Dublin there's a little bit of a scene. But once you go outside of Dublin, forget about it. It's hard to be a gay man or a gay woman in Ireland. There's still a lot of prejudice over there.

The Prime Minister of Ireland recently pledged to legalize civil partnerships for gay couples.
I'm sure he would. I'm sure from a political point of view, he wants to be seen as a very liberal person. But that's not necessarily the way of the people. What's said in the public eye so a politician can be seen as open doesn't necessarily give a perception of how the man on the street is going to take it. I've got lots of really, really ultra-straight friends in Ireland who would still have major problems' not the same as they would have 10 or 20 years ago, but they still hold some element of prejudice. But who gives a fuck anyway. I don't go to bed with any of them. I could care less at the end of the day.

More than most actors, you have really defied typecasting. Is that something you actively pursue or do you just get offered a variety of roles?
It's just the way the cookie crumbles. I've always gone out to try to play different roles to give myself as much range as possible. I did the films that I got. Up until doing Match Point people still had this, 'Well, he's a bit pretty,' and they look back at Velvet Goldmine and The Governess and Vanity Fair, and it's all very lovely. But it wasn't until Match Point came out that people said, 'He can play a straight leading man.' It changed over time. Sometimes you will get a role that will define you for a certain period of time as what you are. And then you get one that changes that and they define you as that for a period of time.

Was Goldmine the only time you have ever played a queer character?
No, God, no. I did The Tribe with [writer/director] Stephen Poliakoff for British TV. I played not gay but bisexual, and I ended up in bed with Jeremy Northam. It was really funny. It was me, Jeremy, and Anna Friel in bed together for a threesome. And Jeremy's reeeeeeally uptight. The more uptight he got, the more outlandish and flamboyant I got. When we were doing the scene, I kept reaching my hand down and squeezing his ass and he was trying to fucking concentrate. Then I did B. Monkey where I was Rupert Everett's boyfriend, and you can imagine, Rupert wasn't uptight at all.

Are you dating anyone?
Yeah. I've got a girlfriend back in London. She's a student. She's a nice girl.

And what's up next? You seem to have a deal to only work with Keri Russell [with whom he costars in MI3 and with whom he's currently filming August Rush]. Are you contractually bound to act together?
I hope so. She's spectacular. We're shooting August Rush in New York. She's a great girl. Great actress. She's a girl who's been around films and making good work for quite a few years now. I think this year she's going to move into leading lady status where Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz are. You've got a lot of actresses out there, but nobody's as quite as'and this might be a horrible way of describing it'handsomely beautiful as Keri Russell is. I can really see her playing very sophisticated roles. The kind Michelle Pfeiffer played. Keri's got maturity without looking any older than 25.

What else do you have coming up?
I'm playing Henry VIII [in Tudors]'a sort of younger, sexier version of Henry VIII. I won't have any red wig, red beards, or 50 pounds of weight. There's a preconception of what he looked like, but it's an artist's interpretation of him 50 years after his death. Henry didn't like having paintings of him in real life. People had to imagine what he'd be like. He was quite a lean guy who was quite into hunting. And anyone who did that much hunting, fucking, and cutting people's heads off really didn't have too much time to sit around on his La-Z-Boy watching Friends.

Scarlett Johansson said working with you was like having a 'girlfriend on the set.' How did you take that quote?
Did she really say that?

Um' yep. Thought you would have heard about that.
Kinky tart. I have a love of women's shoes.

Wearing them or just looking at them?
Looking at them and buying them. I would go out and buy a fantastic pair of shoes for nobody just to own them. If I wasn't an actor, I'd probably design women's shoes. I talked to Scarlett about that for hours. Cheeky tart. Wait until I get me hands on her!

For more Jonathan Rhys-Meyers dish, pick up the June issue of Out.