History-making Welsh actor Matthew Rhys says he relishes the opportunity to play bad guys. The 51-year-old star, who is originally from Cardiff, shares his joy at landing the role of sociopathic real estate mogul Nile Jarvis in the Netflix series The Beast in Me.
He says: “All the clichés are true about playing bad guys. They are like little juicy steaks you can get your teeth into, and as long as you don’t get too moustache-twirly – which is what the director used to say to me. Sometimes he would literally mime twirling a moustache if I was getting a little too ‘mwah-ha-ha-ha’ … they’re just a lot of fun. They tend to be, I think, a little more dramatic, because their role in the piece is to be a little more extreme.”
Playing Nile Jarvis won Matthew lead actor – one of a history-making hat-trick of wins at the Primtetime Emmys. On the same night, he also won lead actor for playing Mayor Tom Loftis in Apple TV+ comedy horror series Widow’s Bay. And this success came eight years after being named outstanding lead actor for his role as Philip Jennings in FX spy series The Americans, appearing alongside his real-life partner Keri Russell.
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Matthew says: “I was even surprised when they came to me with Nile Jarvis in The Beast in Me, because it’s not the kind of role I’m approached with, so I I jumped at the chance, because it was something very new to me,” he tells The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service. “As the children said, I’m glad to see the world is seeing the real me.”
Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest TV shows of the 21st century, the 2018 series The Americans has been rated 96% perfect on some review websites. While Widow’s Bay, which is currently streaming on Apple TV+ is already receiving a 98% rating and has been compared to the cult 1990s TV series Twin peaks.
As beleaguered mayor Tom Loftus in Widow’s Bay, Matthew’s character is fighting a losing battle to turn a small island about 40 nautical miles from New England into a tourist haven – because of a spine-tinglingly creepy series of events. Matthew says: “Tom Loftus, the part I play, is hellbent on turning the island into the next kind of Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket. [both idyllic New England resorts.] However, he is informed by the locals that this may be very difficult, as the island has a very chequered past. He’s strongly of the opinion it’s just been a run of bad luck, but it turns out, the locals’ [tales] may carry more truth than he would wish for.”
One of the spooky island legends is that of the sea hag. Matthew says: “The sea hag is one of the prominent myths on the island, that if you encounter the sea hag and she cuts you, she has blood under her nails, then she can basically track you down.”
He says setting the series in the 1980s adds to the creepy atmosphere. He explains: “One of the great things about setting it in the 80s is you remove all that technology. What Katie Dippold, the writer, did was, by setting it so far off the coast, she removed all modern technology. So it is very analogue. People still use landlines, there’s no internet and I think that just lends itself to the community and their suspicions. It also strips away the convenience. You have people far more willing to kind of get in their car or truck and investigate, rather than just text someone and go, ‘is everything okay?’ which I love.”
While Matthew, who has a son, Sam, 10, with Keri, 50, and is stepdad to her two kids, River, 19, and Willa, 14, from a previous marriage, is enjoying an enviable career high. But, now based in Brooklyn, New York, despite his incredible awards success this year, he refuses to be complacent.
At one point, after starring with Kathleen Turner in The Graduate in 2000 in London’s West End, he even considered giving acting up. He says: “One of the great lessons I think in this work is as soon as … the second you think, ‘oh, this is it, I’ve kind of cracked it, I’m all right, I’m good, I’m good, now I’m set up,’ it’ll take the rug from under your feet. It was one of the great lessons for me, in realising you have to surrender to whatever it’s going to throw at you.
“So, I’d done The Graduate on London’s glittering West End with Kathleen Turner. I went, ‘ha-ha, here I go.’And then I didn’t work for a long time. It was well over a year and a half. I was just out of work. Couldn’t get a cold, let alone an audition.”
Matthew even considered joining the Army. He says: “There was one day, I was walking past the Army Recruiting Office in Charing Cross Road, and I stopped. I was just looking in the window. There was a colour sergeant outside, and he just went, ‘do you want to come in for a chat?’ And I went, ‘yeah, I will, actually.’”
He continues: “And I went in and I had a conversation. Then he said, ‘why don’t you come back next week for a real interview? We’ll see how we go.’ And I said, ‘yeah, all right.’ So the next week I went in. I met with an officer, and we sat down, and he interviewed me, and he asked a number of questions about why I had interest in joining the army.
“He was extraordinarily suspicious of me and he said, ‘so you’ve been working as an actor for four years?’ I was like, ‘yes, I have, yeah.’ And he goes, ‘Is there any part of you that wants to join the army in some kind of research role?’ I said, ‘no, no, not at all.’ Then he said, ‘right, maybe we’ll consider a second interview, possibly, in x amount of time, and we’ll be in touch.’ I went, ‘okay, yeah, great, thanks.’”
“About a week later I got a rejection letter from the British Army saying, ‘thank you for your interest. Good luck in your career. I went, ‘oh my, I can’t even join the army! I set things up really bad.’ That officer was just so wildly suspicious.” Maybe, like the casting director for The Americans, he simply thought Matthew was much better attuned to being a spy.
- This interview can be heard in full on The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service.
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