WHETHER AS A MOODY glam rocker in 1998's Velvet Goldmine , a rugged soccer coach in 2002's Bend It Like Beckham , or as the King himself in 2005's CBS miniseries Elvis , twenty-eight-year-old Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has angled his brooding visage and stormy screen presence into one of the most promising careers of the past decade. Now Woody Allen's London-set Match Point signals potential fulfilled. In it, Rhys Meyers plays an Irish striver who trades a tepid pro-tennis career for the British high life: a posh job in finance, a taste for Puligny-Montrachet, and marriage into the upper crust—as long as his low-class extramarital affair doesn't sabotage everything.

ESQ: You committed to Match Point without even reading the script. Considering Woody Allen's recent track record, that could have been a disaster. JRM: When you're offered a Woody Allen film, there's no leap of faith involved. I think audiences will realize upon seeing Match Point that he's done something extraordinary at an age when most directors couldn't be bothered. ESQ: Can such a die-hard New Yorker really do justice to London? JRM: Woody nailed a certain type of London. It's not that huge a difference from upper-class Manhattan. New York is the last European city before you hit the West. It has all the same cultural flavors: that international feel and, at the same time, that same sense of civic pride and individualism. ESQ: Your character in Match Point is your most mature to date. Have you shaken off the more youthful, laddie roles? JRM: In the last year, I've taken a trampoline bounce into adulthood, and I've enjoyed it. I'm going to revel in getting older. For an actor, the roles that will make a mark happen from age twenty-eight to forty-five. ESQ: How will you maintain that longevity? JRM: My biggest addiction now is the gym. I'm in there two and a half hours a day, seven days a week. If you want to be in for the long haul, you have to be up to it. And you can't go out all night chasing girls and partying. ESQ: You mean the Irish boy from Cork is a teetotaler? JRM: I don't drink anymore under any circumstances. My favorite actors—O'Toole, Richard Harris, Richard Burton—they never fulfilled their potential. You'd see absolute brilliance, but they burned the candle at both ends. When I'm seventy, then I'll fucking James Joyce it and have a bottle of Midleton Rare with you. But not until I've completed what I feel I need to do with my life. ESQ: So no vices? I thought you were a chain-smoker. JRM: Oh, me cigarettes are me cigarettes. The greatest pleasure I have is coming out of the gym and, while I'm waiting for me old protein shake, I've got a fag in me mouth. I do it on purpose, you know? It's the best fag of the day. ESQ: Do you indulge on clothes, too? JRM: I spend money on the extraordinary pieces I find, but I hate spending money on clothes. I'm not a rich actor. ESQ: What designers do you prefer? JRM: Anna Sui is one of my best friends, and she has been very generous in giving me clothes over the years. And John Galliano has dressed me for everything from Cannes to the Emmys. He's just spectacular. His whole sense of personal style is just beautiful. ESQ: What's your opinion of Hollywood style? JRM: Fashion in Los Angeles is appalling. You're limited because of the weather. I could never live there, because my fashionista sense would die. But I think the sexiest and biggest fashion thing that I've heard of recently is all these Chicanos in East L. A. who wear Smiths T-shirts. You see these really fucking handsome Latino guys with really loose pants and bandannas hanging down the back—and they've got a Morrissey infatuation!

Thanks to Alyse for the article, and to Vanessa for letting me use her scanned pics from the mag

As a ruthless, go-getting tennis coach in Woody Allen's off-beat thriller, Match Point, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 28, serves up a powerful ace. By Kate Wharton.

Your co-star Scarlett Johansson, has a reputation for being a bit of a minx, any big nights out?
Absolutely. We went on a couple to Momo in London. We had a laugh, but everything's funny when you're drunk.

Your character is, how shall we put this, quite a player. Ever had a bit on the side?
In my youth, I wasn't the most monogamous guy. I'd go out with one girl while also be seeing a couple of others.

Why are you constantly cast in these dark roles?
I suppose its because I look mysterious and broody. I'm not the guy in the white hat, riding off into the sunset. I'm the guy in the dark hat waiting for his enemy with a shotgun.

Your meant to be quite the bad boy off-screen, the Roy Keane of the film world.
I've never heard such drivel! I love Roy Keane, but I'm not a bad boy. What you read in the press is 99% bullshit.

Police had to break up a fight between you and your girlfriend [Reena Hammer] last year. What happened?
We had a domestic and the neighbours called the police. I threw my mobile against the wall, but she'd kick my head in if I put my hand anywhere near her.

So your still together?
Yes. I'm very much in love.

You were nominated for an Emmy for your role as Elvis in a programme about his life. How's your hip thrusting?
My dance teacher said, 'Obviously, I take it that you've fucked someone before?' I said I certainly had, and he replied, 'Well, it's the same thing.'

And have you kept up the tennis?
I'm a terrible tennis player. I don't like the game. I find Wimbeldon painful. Working-class, Irish kids don't go down the court. Pimm's, strawberries and cream just aren't really our cup of tea.

Match Point opens on 6 January.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers talks to new! about love, lust and being a big drama queen!

Hollywood heart-throb Jonathan Rhys Meyers rose to fame starring with Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham nearly four years ago. Now the 28-year¬old Irish actor is in Woody Allen's Match Point in which he plays a poor tennis pro obsessed with his soon-to-be brother-in-law's other half, played by Scarlett Johansson. Jonathan, who has been with girlfriend Reena Hammer, 18, for over a year, will also star in Mission: Impossible III this summer. The rising star, who grew up in County Cork, Ireland, has recently been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series for his portrayal of the young Elvis Presley in Elvis. He's also had success with films including Alexander, Vanity Fair and Velvet Goldmine. but says he dreams of being an even bigger name. He jokes. "Eventually I'd love the Daniel Day-Lewis scenario. To get to the point where you're getting four or five million a film and then you go away to the Irish countryside and make shoes." Here, gorgeous Jonathan exclusively tells New! about how he copes with being away from his girlfriend, his views on infidelity, and what it was really like working with Tom Cruise...

How did you land a part in a Woody Allen film?
My agent called and said Woody had requested I go on tape for a film. Going on tape rarely results in a project, but a few days later I got a phone call, saying, "Woody would actually like to meet you." So I went and read the script and I got the lead role in it!

Your character, Chris, loves his wife, but lusts after Scarlett Johansson's character, Nola...
Sure, but then you're looking at 99.9 per cent of men!

The film doesn't show men in a very favourable light, does it?
[Laughs] You have to understand that - say you have a new relationship, and you meet a guy or a girl and you fall in love - well, by the time you get married, you're no longer `in love', even though you love them. So all of that romance, that first six months, that first year of passion - it doesn't last.

Is that based on experience?
Yeah, I'm talking from experience. I've been in relationships where I've been madly in love, but then it all piddles out to a plateau! You can't be romantically and passionately in love with somebody for 20 years. You can be in love with them, but no matter how much in love with somebody you are, men and women are always looking at other things. They don't ever stop looking.

Men are more likely to than women, surely?
That's b*****ks! I think more women cheat on their men than men cheat on their women these days.

Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?
Yes. I've only had one girlfriend (my current one), who I didn't cheat on. Men are like that. No matter how many times you eat pasta, some night you're going to want steak. Look at somebody like Brad Pitt. How many hearts did he break by him going off with Angelina Jolie? Suddenly, it's like. `Ah, Brad cheated on Jen!" He left her for another woman because he found someone he liked more at that time. It just happens.

How long have you been going out with your current girlfriend, Reena Hammer?
A year and two months. I live with her.

Is it still exciting?
Yes, it is, but it's difficult to keep it alive.

How do you cope when you're away working?
Phone calls. I've learned how to deal with it over time, because I've been on the road for about nine years now.

Do you ever send her flowers or chocolates?
She comes and visits. I'm not really the sending flowers type. I'm not very romantic. A nice box of chocolates once a month is always good when you can't get there to shag your girlfriend, though!

Does distance ever make you insecure about your relationship?
You have to have trust - and I have to trust her as much as she has to trust me. I go out with a girl who's ten years my junior and very, very beautiful, so why shouldn't I be insecure?

You must be able to sleep with whoever you want to, though?
I prefer to be in a relationship with somebody that I love very much and that's close and sensitive and comforting than to f**k a different supermodel every week. That has no appeal whatsoever.

Does Reena ever get jealous of your love scenes?
Yeah, I remember seeing Match Point at Cannes and I was sitting next to Scarlett while my girlfriend was in the row behind. When it got to that scene (where Jonathan rubs baby oil onto the back of Scarlett), she started kicking the back of my chair and saying, "I'll f***ing kill you!"

What do you love about her?
Lots of things, She's very very smart. She's very, very sensitive. She’s very, very beautiful. She's very tough. I don't fancy weak women, regardless of how really beautiful they are,

What does she do?
She goes to university.

Do you think you would ever an actress?
No - it would be too difficult, too competitive. I'm the only actress in my life!

Do you find that all actors are drama queens?
Yeah - no matter who you interview don't lot them tell any different.

Do you prefer skinny women or women with curves?
I don't fancy very skinny women, But then, I have to say, I don't fancy fat women, either, I like women who work out and who athletic and outdoorsy.

Have you ever had your heart broken?
Yes, it was in a four-year relationship.

Are you friends with other Irish a such as Colin Farrell and Cillian Murphy?
No its not like a little club! [Laughs] I know Colin because I worked with him and I know Cillian as well, because I met him when I was working with Colin. We don't hang out with each other. I've never really made friends with any actors.

Why Not?
Because all actors are bitter, twisted creatures, Including me!

You’re making Mission: Impossible III at the moment. What's it like working with Tom Cruise?
Very, very interesting. He's a big movie star and fascinating to work with.

Have you got to know him well?
Well he's very work driven and after 14 hours of being on set with somebody, you really don’t want to go and swing a golf club with them or anything.

Would you like to get married and have kids at some point?
Yes I’m very broody but I’m not ready to be a father. I was on the set of Mission: Impossible III recently when Will Smith and his wife came down with his son and daughter. They were beautiful and it was lovely to see a family unit. It’s the same with Tom. They are great fathers, the both of them.

Your life's going well… do you ever worry that the rug will be pulled from under you?
I do think everything will change. Sometimes things change for the better; sometimes for the worse. I mean, my life is not a rose garden; there are thorns. I’m just not going to talk about them!

Thank You to Gail for typing up this interview :D

Showtime Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt admitted, "Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is one of the hottest young movie stars working today and his incredible range as an actor, playing everything from historical figures to Elvis Presley, makes him an immensely thrilling choice to play this new, younger incarnation of the most infamous King ever to rule Great Britain. As a producer of 'Elvis,' I had the chance to get to know Jonathan and see him craft a performance of a character that many doubted could be honestly or sensitively portrayed. He is one of the most talented rising film stars working today and his desire to do this series in the midst of his movie career catching fire is indicative of that great U.K. tradition where actors sign on to projects that they fall in love with."

Pictures taken from: Just Jared.com

Whether he’s feuding with his directors or talking dirty to Scarlett Johansson, Match Point’s Jonathan Rhys Meyers is an actor with balls to spare

By Dave Itzkoff

A word of advice to aspiring silver-screen heartthrobs: If your current headshots and audition reels aren’t getting you noticed in Hollywood, try hanging out in dingy, smoke-filled Irish pool halls. Jonathan Rhys Meyers was just 16 years old, still “a little spotty, a little small, a little skinny,” and goofing off in one such establishment in his home county of Cork, Ireland, when he was noticed by a talent scout and invited to his first film audition. The unlikely encounter did not lead to overnight success--or even a job offer--but it did imbue him with a healthy distrust of anyone affiliated with show business. “There was always an element of, These people are full of shit,” says Rhys Meyers, now 28. “But, you know, so was I.”

Five years later Rhys Meyers was preening and strutting his way through his breakthrough performance as Brian Slade, the Bowie-esque glam god of Velvet Goldmine. As his character crooned some classic Roxy Music songs and essentially stole the show from costars Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale, Rhys Meyers was beginning to feel like a bit of a rock star himself, until an unimpressed critic startled him out of his moonage daydream. “One review that I’ve never, ever forgotten said that I had all the charisma of chewed bubble gum,” he says. “I told my friends this, and whenever I’m being an absolute prick, they just go, ‘Oh, f**k off, charisma of chewed bubble gum.’”

These days, however, Rhys Meyers isn’t exactly known throughout the film industry for his humbleness. He admits he’s clashed with previous directors, from Vanity Fair’s Mira Nair (“we both had our little mental excesses; I’m not going to go into mine, and I’m not going to go into hers, either”) to Oliver Stone, who cast Rhys Meyers in a minor role in the epic 2004 bomb Alexander. “I didn’t like working with him,” Rhys Meyers says, “because I felt I didn’t have enough to do. I think I idolized Oliver, and therefore I ended up resenting him for it.”

So when he was called in to meet with Woody Allen about a project the filmmaker was about to shoot in England, Rhys Meyers devised a plan to avoid alienating another of his cinematic heroes. “It was really easy,” he recalls. “I didn’t say anything in the meeting and got out of there as soon as possible.”

The scheme apparently paid off: In Allen’s 36th directorial effort, Match Point, Rhys Meyers plays an ex-tennis star who is torn between his duty to his faithful wife (Emily Mortimer) and her wealthy family and his lust for an enticing American ingénue (Scarlett Johansson), and who makes a truly horrific decision in attempting to choose between the two women. Like much of Allen’s recent work, Match Point is fascinated with the sexual intrigues of hip metropolitan youth, but unlike any other movie he’s made this millennium, it happens to be good. Match Point is also an opportunity for Rhys Meyers to prove his leading-man mettle by appearing in almost every scene, a risk that did not even slightly bother the perpetually agitated director. “He’s like Sean Penn and Michael Caine,” says Allen, “but with the same passion as a young Brando. And he’s more beautiful than me.”

Rhys Meyers evidently realized how much was at stake, because his costars report that he actually behaved himself during filming--for the most part. “We would just get into some of the trashiest off-set conversations,” says Johansson. “We’d be shooting some intense confrontational scene where we were going crazy and screaming at each other, and then the moment Woody would yell, ‘Cut!’ he’d turn to me and ask, ‘So how old were you when you lost your virginity?’”

Beneath all his charm and borderline harassment, Rhys Meyers says he was genuinely intimidated to work with Allen, at least until the director offered him a valuable piece of advice. “He goes, ‘Why are you nervous?’” Rhys Meyers says, perfectly capturing Allen’s adenoidal voice. “’You’re already in character when you wake up in the morning.’ Then I was able to relax. It’s like, well, I’ve earned my fucking place in front of his camera.”

Since wrapping Match Point, it’s hard to say how much of this pep talk Rhys Meyers has retained. He recently finished work on this summer’s Mission: Impossible 3 but declines to reveal what role he plays or even admit to himself that he’ll be appearing in the film. (“We’ll have to see how the editing goes,” he says.) And he may soon be playing Ian Curtis in a Joy Division biography to be directed by Anton Corbijn, a casting opportunity he’s certain will please his mother. “My mom was only 21 when she had me in ‘77,” Rhys Meyers says, “so she was a huge New Romantic the whole I was growing up--I was a bit of a Cure-head myself when I was nine or ten.”

Rhys Meyers claims he won’t do much preparation until he’s officially offered the part, but if he’s looking for a hedonistic young artist to emulate, he can always turn to his longtime friend and countryman, Colin Farrell for inspiration. “I defy any 28- or 29-year old who has that type of success to not run amok a little,” Rhys Meyers says. “It’s fucking healthy. I’m more worried if someone gets that type of success, and then they’re robotic and they don’t make mistakes. Now, that freaks me out.”

Sidebar:

MY MUSIC: Sinead O’Connor, Throw Down Your Arms: She was born to sing reggae.” Wu-Tang Clan, Wu-Tang Forever: “Any music that’s the music of the people, the Irish are going to love it.”

Thanks to Vanessa for the transcript

Hollywood has really begun to wake-up the acting abilities of our Cillian and his pale blue eyes and chiseled features mean he is 100% leading man material head-to-toe!

Both Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Cillian Murphy joined up to launch The 4th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival at John M. Keating's Bar last week...

Pictures and article taken from: Showbiz Ireland

Fans of the talented, pillow-lipped Jonathan Rhys Meyers have been waiting for him to arrive on a grand scale since he had a small but memorable part as the assassin of the hero in Michael Collins (1996).

The Dublin-born Rhys Meyers has hooked up with some big-name directors since then, but not for their most successful efforts. When he worked for Todd Haynes, who would go on to make the sublime Far from Heaven (2002), it was in the underappreciated Velvet Goldmine (1998).

Under the lens of Ang Lee, he made the little-seen Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (1999).

With Oliver Stone, it was Alexander (2004).

Along the way he had better luck, playing a soccer coach in the sleeper hit Bend It Like Beckham (2002), and he certainly turned heads in taking on the titular role of the 2005 CBS mini-series Elvis.

Best and unlikeliest of all, he matched up with Woody Allen for Match Point (2005), the best Woody Allen movie in ages. He slipped effortlessly into a great part, playing a charming but oily tennis pro who insinuates himself into a posh family.

Rhys Meyers has at last found himself in the right place at the right time.

Taken From: Just Jared.com

He’s always had the smoldering good looks and swells of tempestuous talent to make hearts melt. So how come it took the movie’s kibbitzing king of neuroses to unlock it all?

Interview by Graham Fuller
Photographs by Paul Jasmin

Here’s an insolent Renaissance prince for cocktail-hour chitchat in English country-house drawing rooms. In Woody Allen’s Match Point, Jonathan Rhys Meyers gives his most gripping performance yet as Chris Wilton, a failed tennis pro who seizes the opportunity to enter a world of privilege by courting sweet but clueless Chloe (Emily Mortimer), the daughter of a wealthy upper-middle-class businessman. Chris’s undoing is his uncontainable lust for Nola (Scarlett Johannson), the frankly carnal American actress girlfriend of his future wife’s brother. Their trysts have a full-lipped symmetry unlike anything else in Allen’s cinema, which has previously favored the cerebral over the sensual. But as sexy Nola turns shrilly demanding, threatening the lifestyle Chris finds he is unwilling to relinquish, Rhys Meyers nails completely his torturous existential dilemma.

The 28-year old Dubliner has essayed a few decent men in his career, most notably the soccer coach in Bend It Like Beckham (2002), but Rhys Meyers has caught the eye more by playing ambiguous rock legends (Velvet Goldmine, 1998; Elvis, 2005), a snake-eyes Civil War mercenary (Ride with the Devil, 1999), a charmingly bratty George Minafer (The Magnificent Ambersons, 2002), and a Napoleonic-era philanderer (Vanity Fair, 2004). He’s turning into one of the great screen villains--though we should trust him at our peril. On the phone from Los Angeles, the lad is brisk, emphatic, and pleasingly unimpressed with the mystique of acting or the politics of Hollywood moviemaking.

GRAHAM FULLER: Do you think Woody Allen cast you as Chris Wilton in Match Point because he’d seen you as George Osborne in Vanity Fair? They’re cut from the same cloth, aren’t they? Both are social climbers trying to sleep with someone else’s wife.

JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS: I don’t know how Woody came up with me. But I think he looked at quite a bit of my work beforehand, and he kind of wanted in Chris a mixture of the sweetness of the character I played in Bend It Like Beckham and the ability to do the terrible things George Osborne does.

Chris isn’t a bad guy. He’s just someone who makes bad choices. A lot of the film focuses on luck. There are two kinds; good and bad. Good luck is basically an opportunity presenting itself, and Chris, who has an ambitious streak, recognizes when he has it. Tom invites him to the opera. He makes a choice: He goes. He meets Chloe. She wants to date him. He makes a choice: He goes. He pushes the suggestion as far as it will go, but he’s got defects in his character. Then he meets Nola, and it’s another bit of luck, but he makes a bad choice.

GF: You say he’s not a bad guy, but there’s something Machiavellian lurking under his plausibility. We see it when he’s interviewing for the coaching job at the tennis club or meeting Tom’s family. He’s too good to be true.

JRM: If you’re going to be in any industry--especially sports, where you’re pawning your talent--you’ve got to be sycophantic to the certain sports legends, the certain trainer, or the certain company that can give you endorsements. So Chris has learned to be sycophantic in his life. I didn’t realize I’d played him that sickly sweet until I saw the film. He is the dream guy. He’s unassuming, smart but not overpowering, sensitive without being a wuss, athletic without being a brawny bodybuilder guy. He just fits the right mark in all these things, and that’s what originally attracts Chloe and makes her family trust him so quickly.

GF: Do you think he loves her?

JRM: Desperately. You know, when girls are growing up, they all want to go out with the bad boy, the hunky dude. Well, that lasts until they’re about 30, and then they want something completely different. They just want to be taken care of an looked after. Chris also has this need, and Chloe’s a wife and a mother figure, somebody who’ll comfort him.

I don’t think he ever loves Nola. She’s almost like a bit of rough--that wild, fantastically beautiful bombshell who can only be fucking spectacular in the sack. It gets vastly more complicated when Nola wants to have their child. Not only does he not want the responsibility, he questions her motives. She’s not the most maternal creature in the world. I think she wants a kid for several reasons. A big one could be revenge on the Hewett family. Remember--she was treated awfully by Tom and Chloe’s mother and then dumped unceremoniously by Tom.

GF: Do you think Nola loves Chris?

JRM: I don’t think so. She’s looking for stability. She’s failed to find work as an actress. She no longer has a potentially very wealthy fiance. She’s just a blonde girl with a job at a clothes store. She feels she has power over Chris, but it becomes evident to her during their affair that he’s not coming forward with any sense of commitment. So getting pregnant is her opportunity to keep this guy. I can also imagine her putting holes in the condom. Basically, it leaves Chris three choices. One, tell Chloe that he had a silly affair with Nola and got her pregnant, though he knows all about female jealously, so he quickly forgets that. Two, have the kid with Nola and lose his money, his position, and the life he has grown accustomed to. Three, eliminate Nola.

GF: Do you think morality comes into it for him?

JRM: Of course it does. He strikes an almost Faustian bargain. he knows he’s going to give up his soul for financial comforts.

GF: Was it exciting to figure all this out as you played Chris?

JRM: Yes and no. I mean, it’s exciting for me to hear about Sir Edmund Hillary climbing Mount Everest, but it’s not that exciting if you’re Hillary. It’s daunting. I had to go to all these different levels, and I was too focused to be excited. I had to climb that mountain. I never switched off being Chris Wilton at any point during the shoot.

GF: How did that affect you?

JRM: I really don’t know. I think most actors work like that. If they’re doing a film, they’re kind of always in it. Essentially, you can’t take anything from the outside. You have to bring an identification from the inside out. I don’t believe that you go out and you gather information or observations to become a character. I think you see the similarities in yourself. Everything that exist in Chris Wilton exists in Jonny Rhys Meyers to an extent.

GF: So did you draw on emotional experiences of your own?

JRM: I’ve been in relationships where I’ve cheated on my girlfriends. So I knew what that was like. I knew how to lie and feel that guilt and not show it ‘cause I’ve done it in my personal life.

GF: Chris, in fact, is a much better performer than Nola, the aspiring actress, isn’t he?

JRM: Of course he is. You’ll find most people who are in a very bad situation and have to lie become Oscar winners. [laughs]

GF: Do you have a Machiavellian streak in you?

JRM: Certainly. I think if you’re going to spend any time in the movie industry as an actor, producer, agent, director--anything--you have to have that, because there’s so much politics. You have to be sycophantic.

GF: So you use your charm?

JRM: I can turn it on like tap water. Sometimes I find it more difficult when somebody’s frustrating me because I tend to not be able to hide my emotions. I wear my heart on my sleeve, which is why I can portray certain emotions on camera. But, yeah, even if I’m not feeling great, I can pull together some essence of charm. It doesn’t always work, but --

GF: You don’t talk about acting with a sense of vocation. So why do you do it? What do you want?

JRM: Christ, that’s a question now, isn’t it? At any given moment it’s different. I started acting at 18 years old because I got a lead role in a movie. It wasn’t like I was a kid going “When I grow up, I want to be an actor.” So I think what drives me is I found something very young by mistake that I could do. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I love it all the time. Because it’s not lovable. The process of acting itself for me is really simple. It’s not brain surgery. You take the character, and you play it as naturally as you possibly can. That’s it. There’s no greater or higher purpose.

What makes acting difficult is the business end of it. Because no matter how genius an actor is or how many millions of dollars he makes, he can look back in his past and see a sea of rejection--even the people who are at the top of their game. Just because someone is like Leonardo DiCaprio doesn’t mean he gets to do anything he wants. He has to fight for those roles the same as anybody else. Now, he is fighting on a different level, but it’s still a fight. What’s difficult about the prospect is trying to reinvent your self-confidence, even though it’s constantly being torn down. And, of course, for every 10 people who like you in a film, there’s 10 people who won’t. I read one critique of me in Velvet Goldmine that said I had all the charisma of chewed bubblegum. I think I kept that one in my scrapbook.

GF: Are you a harsh judge of your own work?

JRM: Oh, I’m impossible. I verge on the stupid a lot of the time. I can’t watch a performance I’ve done under any circumstances. I got Emmy-nominated for Elvis last year, but I’ve never seen it. You can’t guarantee that anything you do is going to be good or not. All you can do is do it.

What do I get out of it at the end of the day? Money. I get to trael around to different places. I get--for 10 to 12 hours a day--to not really be me. It’s great escapism. It can be very fucking therapeutic. But it’s not something that’s immediately satisfying. Sure, it’s satisfying when a film you’re in breaks $300 million at the box office, and the next thing is you get a $5 million offer, and there are awards flying about the place. But more often it’s not. Every so often someone comes up and says, “Hey, I saw you in that movie. It was great!” And I’m like, “Yeah, thanks very much.” And that’s where the satisfaction comes in.

GF: So being recognized as a good actor is important to you?

JRM: Oh, God, yes! Dreadfully important. You know, I had this chat with Colin Farrell while we were doing Alexander [2004], and we agreed the most you can hope for in your life is to be regarded as a fine actor and a good man. Anything else is a bonus.

GF: Do you think you’re a good man?

JRM: I have my moments.

Thanks to Vanessa for the transcript and pictures
*I especially LOVE the 2nd pics :P*

L'Urmo Vogue Italian magazine February 2006

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, dandily attired in a tight suit coat and an open shirt with little pearls lining the cuffs, had been chatting with a tall man wearing a fedora. They are both working on "August Rush," a movie being shot in the city. "Woody [Allen] told me this about filming in New York," Mr. Rhys Meyers said. "It's almost like guerrilla filmmaking." We remarked on his success in "Match Point" and the Golden Globe for his Elvis miniseries, roles that must have attracted different audiences. "Yes, it was a very nice two-gun operation for me, wasn't it?" he said with a laugh. "I couldn't have played it better. They all believe I have a lot of range now. I need to get up on my actorspeak." We recommended using the phrase "I work from the inside out" a lot so people would think he was a Serious Actor. "But they always eventually find out, right?" he said. "Someone always smells a rat."

Pictures and articles taken from: Just Jared

Citing the legendary Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole as childhood idols, the unquestionably beautiful young Irish movie star Jonathan Rhys Meyers has succeeded in reaching the top of his game without ever having attended acting school. But fame and fortune haven’t come without a price. The recent Golden Globe winner opened his heart to Colette Sheridan on a rare visit home to his native Cork.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is, you could say, a young man at the top of his game:
starring with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3 and due to start shooting August Rush with director Kirsten Sheridan (daughter of acclaimed Irish director, Jim). The 28-year-old flourishing Irish star, who recently picked up a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Elvis Presley on American TV, was back home in Cork at the end of January where he was made Cork Person of the Month and was given a civic reception in his native city. Sporting a pinstripe suit, white shirt and bright blue tie (matching his eyes), he exuded charm and seemed at ease among family members and city dignitaries. His mother, Gerri O’Keeffe (Meyers is her maiden name) was beaming with pride and his three brothers just couldn’t help slagging Jonathan when they heard he had just been voted second sexiest man of 2006 by Social & Personal magazine. “They said ‘Jaysus, they’re hard up.’ Someone else said that at last I beat Marty Whelan (although he wasn’t on the list!). It’s very nice but I don’t feel like a sex symbol as such because I live with myself 24/7. I’ve seen them all, all those movie stars. I know what they look like in real life. The only two male movie stars who are what they’re like on screen are George Clooney -- a fantastic looking man -- and Matthew McConnaughy, and they’re nice people as well. Oh, and Tom Cruise. He’s a very handsome man for his 44 years. He looks about 30. He’s got that energy and charm.” Meyers is generous in his appraisal of fellow stars When Colin Farrell is mentioned, he immediately says: “He’s a very smart man. I know Colin a long time and I spoke to him quite recently. He’s starting a film in New York and he’s in gorgeous form.” But what about recent reports that he’s done a stint in rehab?

“At some point, every talented actor of any worth has to hit that wall because when you’re given everything you ever wanted, what else do you have? Colin’s a very smart man. He’ll take the flop of Alexander and the beautiful work of The New World and he’ll be back ten times stronger because he sounds ten times stronger already. He’s one of the most brilliant actors, so I expect you’ll be seeing Colin with an Oscar in four or five years because he wants it. He’s an ambitious man and he’s a good man.”

Meyers is now up there with the best of them. It’s a dream come true for someone who always harbored ambitions.

“I was always a bit of a dreamer. No nine-year-old kicking a ball against a wall dreams he wants to be Jimmy O’Donoghue of Shamrock Rovers. He’s dreaming of wanting to be Maradona. When I was a kid, yeah, I wanted to be like the stars, maybe someone like Richard Harris or Peter O’Toole,” he says.

Born in Dublin, Meyers and his family moved to Cork when he was very young. He was just three when his father left the family. He had a tumultuous childhood spending time in an orphanage and being expelled from school at the age of 16. Once out of school, he used to spend time in a pool hall in Cork, where he was discovered by Hubbard Casting. They were talent spotting for the David Puttnam film War of the Buttons (1994) and asked Meyers to audition for it. However, after three days of auditions, he didn’t get the role. Soon afterwards, he was called to an audition for Knorr soup and subsequently found himself considered for a major film. Before that, he featured in A Man of No Importance (1994) and his first lead role was in The Disappearance of Finbar (1996). He got a call about the film Michael Collins (1996) and after meeting director Neil Jordan, he won the role of Collin’s assassin. From then on, Meyers has been in constant work. But that doesn’t mean that he’s a spoilt smug Hollywood brat. Meyers admits to living with insecurity all the time.

“I think that all actors live with that reality where their last job is their last job. It’s the one industry where if you get a Golden Globe or an Oscar nomination, it will make a director look twice before they pass you on. Look at the advantages of it. When they’re selling a film, they can sell it by putting Golden Globe nominee (or winner) on it. It means a lot to them in selling their films but it’s like anything, you’re only as good as your last job. What’s really nice about the movie industry is that they’ve got a very short term memory which is bad when you have a hit and great when you have a flop, so it takes and gives with the same hand. I remember talking to Anthony Hopkins years ago and he thinks every job he does is his last job. I think that’s the same with all of us. It makes you terribly ambitious because you watch your step and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to turn that ambition into something that’s actually productive.”

Meyers has never been to acting school and says he has made all his mistakes publicly. “I learnt a lot of harsh lessons from that. The lesson is that if you want to be successful, you’ve really got to give 100% of yourself and have respect for the people you’re working for.” Richard Harris and Peter O’Toole may have been the stars the young Meyers wanted to emulate, but he is under no illusions about the hard-drinking lifestyle those two actors embraced at various times in their lives. “I was a hell-raiser for about a year alright, but only for a year. I think that was enough. I think it’s good to do that in your twenties but I gave up all that. It just didn’t suit me. It’s not the L.A. lifestyle. I think in the modern industry, you couldn’t get away with what O’Toole and Harris got away with. It’s too corporate now. If they’re paying you X amount of money, they expect X amount of professionalism. I find I’m a better actor if I get to sleep at 11 o’clock.”

He’s certainly grounded. And as for winning the Golden Globe: “It’s a moment in time. Am I the Golden Globe? I’m not. I just won one.” So what keeps him so levelheaded? “I realise I’m a very lucky person and I’m very grateful for everything I have in my life. I know as soon as I start becoming ungracious, that will go away. If I stop becoming gracious, then I start forgetting who I am, forgetting myself. It’s who I am that’s my most productive asset. I think I’m a mixture of everyone I’ve ever met in my life. All my collective experiences made me who I am at this moment, both the good and the bad.”

Recalling the not so good times, Meyers says he found school “hard.” “I found growing up very difficult. But I’d defy any young fellow to find growing up not difficult.”

These days, the actor has been the subject of romantic speculation in the tabloids regarding his co-star in Match Point, Scarlett Johansson. “I’m not romantically linked with her. I mean, we had great chemistry and we’re good friends and we worked very well together and I think we’ll work together in the future. I’ve got a very serious girlfriend (Reena Hammer). She’s from London. She studies ancient Latin translations and Persian. Her father owns beauty spas and her mother is a very famous make-up artist who has a cosmetics line.”

Money isn’t something that solely motivates Meyers. “For my age, I’ve done very well and so has the tax man. I own a house in Cork which was a gift for my mother with my first big pay cheque. I have some property in Morocco and I’m buying a place in Dublin. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to get into that element. But really, I’m not into money. It’s no big deal with me. I would have chosen different films if I was into money. I had a job offered to me recently which was great money but a bad quality thing. I’m motivated by good work because good work breeds good work. I do very, very well for myself and I’m always able to hold my own.”

Once again thanks to Vanessa for the transcript and pictures

Nice work If you can get it
Text: Will Doig, Photography: Greg Lotus; Styling: John Moore

"True luck is the ultimate coup d'état," says Jonathan Rhys Meyers, referring to his character in Woody Allen's Match Point, though he could just as easily be describing his own career.
Kicked out of school at the age of 15, he was discovered by a casting agent while loitering in a pool hall in Cork, Ireland.
Five years later, he would don mettalic-blue lycra as the androgynous Bowie-esque glam-rocker Brian Slade in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine.
Since then, he's gone on to develop an extensive repertoire of characters that are equal parts beguiling and deviant- from Keira Knightley's soccer coach in Bend it Like Beckham to the Napoleonic-era male slut in Vanity Fair. In Match Point, he plays a duplicitous philanderer turned second-rate murderer.
When he told Allen he was nervous about the role, the auteur replied, "Hey Jonny, you're like 80 percent the character when you wake up in the moring."
Now 28, Meyers is temporarily residing in a Manhattan two-bedroom that he rents from Christian Slater, just a few blocks downtown from Central Park, where he's filming Kirsten Sheridan's musical fantasy August Rush. Arriving at our interview a little disheveled, a crescent of missed stubble under his chin, he seems quite the opposite of the stony, slant-eyed reprobates he inhabits on film.
When he quotes Woddy Allen, he does so in Woody Allen's voice. He enhances his descriptions of things with sound effects and laughs inappropriately and loudly. "I"m not going to lie about it," he says. "It takes a lot of work to be the me that I feel people want."

BB: In your most recent film, Match Point, you play a rising British aristocrat, which couldn't be further from your working-class roots. Growing up, were you resentful of people with money?

JRM: When I saw wealthy people, I just thought they were born genetically different from me. As I grew older, I saw through it and thought, "They're not particularly brighter or more beautiful. They just have more money to hide their flaws."

BB: Why'd you get kicked out of school?

JRM: I was just an appalling student. School was fucking gladiator academy: 1,500 christian brothers, all boys, state-run. I spent most of my time in pool halls. By the time I was 15 years old, they were like, "Just fuck off." And then I felt into this acting thing. People always think I just fell into film. But what about the 1,500 auditions I did before I got my first job? What about all the times I get told by a great director, "Orlando Bloom is doing it, because teenage girls want to see him more than they want to see you."

BB: But you're not just some anonymous, struggling actor anymore. I always wonder, When two celebrities who have never met pass on the street, do they acknowledge each other? If you see Jude Law in a bodega, do you make eye contact and nod?

JRM: Oh, no. I'd be just like every other fucking person who's in there saying [whispers], "Hey, Jude Law's over there! Did you see Jude Law over there?" I'd run over and get his autograph.

BB: Do you feel famous?

JRM: I suppose I'm famous for doing a job, and that's all I want. I don't want to date an actress or have my life in People magazine. If I'm on a film set, and there's paparazzi there, I don't give a shit. Let them take the photograph. If you can get 250 fucking bucks for taking a photograph of my ass, go for it, man. If you can make a little dough off me, I'm all for that shite.

BB: You've worked in both fairly fringe and highly commercial films. I think some actors say, "I'll only do blockbusters, " while others say, "I'll only do art-house films; I'd never work with Jerry Bruckheimer."

JRM: Bollocks. I love Jerry Bruckheimer. I think he's a genius. My movie taste is trashy as fuck, and there's one or two jobs on my résumé where I just wanted to spend two months in Canada with Rachael Leigh Cook.

BB: Would you like to play the wholesome good guy someday?

JRM: It would be fun, but I don't think anyone would believe me. A lot of it has to do with my physicality. Why does Matthew McConaughey play the roles he plays? Because he's Mr. Fuckable. He's that guy. He's the smart jock. I look like a guy who could be quite cruel. I could be slightly arrogant; I could be nasty. My girlfriend back in London, she said, "You're lucky you weren't born rich- you'd be a prick."

BB: I think some people assume when an actor gets to your level, he has his pick of any role he wants.

JRM: Oh, for fuck's sake. I take out the trumpets every time a good script comes in the door. I roll out the red carpet and get my army of jesters somersaulting and throwing rose petals at it.

BB: If you hadn't been in that pool hall the day you were discovered, what would yu be doing today?

JRM: I'd probably have ended up playing music with my brothers.

BB: Is this one of the brothers you were hanging out with in your appartement?

JRM: Yeah. He's playing the drummer in August Rush. He and my other brothers have a rock band, Skydiver. They're fucking talented. Jesus talented. Stupid talented. I'm going to record some music with them.

BB: What do you play?

JRM: Guitar. I play in August Rush- it's all for real.

BB: And that's going well?

JRM: I'm having a blast. This is the first film where I feel a huge amount of responsibility, becaus the director's the same age as me. It's not like I'm looking up to an elder and going, 'Please pour your wisdom on me." It's my first film shooting in New York, and it's been an education. New York crews are fast, tough, clever.

BB: I saw Breakfast on Pluto recently, made by Neil Jordan, another director you've worked with. Have you seen it?

JRM: No, but I know Cillian [Murphy, star of Breakfast on Pluto], and I know the script because I screen-tested for Neil a few years ago, and I did the worst audition of my life. I wasn't in the right headspace, because I didn't really want to do it after Velvet Goldmine. After you've played that androgynous character and then you play a transsexual, it's very difficult for them to cast you in something like Jarhaed.

BB: Was it hard to advance your career after beginning with the unusual role as Brian Slade in Velvet Goldmine?

JRM: It made it a bit difficult, but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I wish we could have had Bowie's music. I was absolutely woeful on the soundtrack. I think one critic said my voice had all the charisma of chewed bubblegum. I keep that one right on the fridge for every morning when I get my milk for my tea: "You have all the charisma of chewed bubblegum." It's good to remember.

BB: It's funny, but you and Cillian Murphy are the first two actors who spring to mind when I think of famous androgynous Hollywood roles, and neither of you are American.

JRM: Yeah, but I'm fascinated by the United States. I'm fascinated by Montana, Nebraska, the fucking heartland. I lived in Missouri while doing a film with Ang Lee [Ride with the devil, about the Civil War]. People think that war was about the emancipation of slavery. Well, it wasn't. All Lincoln wanted to do was preserve the union. Now, when you look at the cause of the South, what they should have done in hindsight is emancipated the slaves and then opened on Fort Sumter. Then other countries would have gotten involved. You see, the South was hoping the English would get involved, but the English were never going to back a country that had the institution of slavery.

BB: I don't interview a lot of actors who develop retrospective strategies for the Confederate army.

JRM: I know. People are going to read this and think, He's off his fucking head alltogether.

Again thanks to Vanessa for the transcript and pictures

Preparing for a life of espionage -or simply want to undercover who's stealing the tasty snacks from your fridge? M:i:III's Jonathan Rhys Meyers takes a look at the gear that will turn you into an international man of mystery.

Photo's Jullian Broad
Story Evan Shamoon

Jonathan Rhys Meyers has been building his art house cred for more than a decade, in flicks like Velvet Goldmine, Bend It Like Beckham and the Oscar-nominated Match Point -to mention just a few of more than 25 he's made. He even snagged a Golden Globe for his uncanny performance as the King in Elvis, But this month, the 28-year old is going big-budget with the much anticipated sequel Mission Impossible III. He stars alongside Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, and of course, a buttload of stealthy gadgets. So Johnny, as he prefers to be called, agreed to help us get into the swing og things by lending a hand with testing the latest spy-inspired gear. We tracked down everything from the more practial products with surprise sleuthing functions to full-on private-eye paraphernalia, for the wannabe CIA spook in us all. Here are out favourite secret-agent accessories. This story will self-instruct in five seconds.....

Transcript by me (Hannah), Picture scanned by Vanessa

Did you have to audition for you role in Mission Impossible III?
I was asked to come in to meet the director JJ Abrams for Billy Crudup's part, but I looked a little too young next to Tom Cruise for that role. Then JJ said that he really wanted me to do something in the movie anyway

How much does vanity play a part when you choose a role?
I defy any actor not to be vain when you have to get up in front of a camera, pretend to be someone else the whole time and have an idea that people actually want to watch you. Everyone in LA spends 90 per cent of their time wondering how they look to other people. It's all perception -their success is enhanced by the perception of people thinking that they're attractive in some way or other. It's vastly important. If there's a great role and it requires you not to be as attractive as you normally could be, you take the great role. But it's nice to have combination of a good part and one where you look good. You don't want to be ugly in front of your friends.

Did you send Tom Cruise a message of congratulations on the birth of his baby daughter Suri?
No.

Would you say you're friends with Tom now?
No. You never get to know anyone on a film. What you get to know is how the person works in extreme situations. It's one of the most difficult things to establish a rapport with someone practically immediately. On Match Point, the other film I had out this year, I worked with Woody Allen for eight weeks straight, day in, day out, and I didn't have one conversation with that man for 10 minutes. I can't tell you what he's like. I had nothing in common with a 70-year-old man from New York and have very little in common with a 43-year-old movie star from Hollywood.

You've always been a bit of a rebel. Weren't you expelled from school at the age of 15?
Yes, I was a truant.
I didn't concentrate on school and they decided I was more trouble what I was worth.

What were you doing when you weren't at school?
Playing Pool.

Weren't you discovered in a pool hall?
I was in a pool hall and some people came in who were casting a film in Ireland. They asked me if I'd do an audition and my friend coaxed me into doing it. I met the director and that was it. It was that simple.

What do your mates back home in Ireland say about the sex scenes you had with Scarlett Johansson in Match Point?
I go back to Ireland and they're like [in think Irish accent]: 'You f***er, did you ride her? Is she a good ride? I bet you banged the ass off her, didn't you? I'm like: 'Nah,nah,nah.' I go home and my friends are like:'Angelina Jolie, What's she f***ing like? I'm like: 'Well she's alright'. They're like: 'just alright?' It's different. These women are much more beautiful in magazine that they'll ever be in real life. They're all airbrushed. I'm not sure that i fancy movie stars. I'm not sure that turns me on.

So what does turn you on?
I go for tough,smart, women. I'm in physicality -I like beautiful, athletic girls. My Girlfriend [Reena Hammer] is half Indian, half Polish. I'm definitely into dark girls rater that the white girls -thats why I fancied her. I like girls with a certain ethnicity.

What's your secret skill with women?
Not really wanting them. If you're in a bar, and your chatting to a cute girl, but your not really pushed if you go home with her or not, she's going to want you more, You have to get into that mentality to be able to walk away and say:'Good Night'.

Please do not take this article without asking me first as I typed it up and scanned the picture in.

He's always had the leading man looks. Now, with a Golden Globe in the bag and his first starring role in a blockbuster, Jonathan Rhys Meyers' career has caught up. But, insists Sylvia Patterson, it's his huge personality she's fallen for.
Yeah, right!

“Take it from me, if you cheat on your girlfriend,” Jonathan is blaring. Through those intoxicatingly full lips, “as I have in the past, she will turn up in a years time more beautiful, taller, richer and happier than you will ever be. She will! It's the law!”

it's a stirring outburst, which offers no more personal details, except a theory for women as to why so many men cheat. “Because they're eejits!” he roars, cackling away. “Men are... eejits. Or, men in their twenties are eejits. Don't look for any grand, clever, psychological reasons here. Bih -jaaayus... what do women always say? Men in their twenties... useless! They're right. I've been there, I've been an arse and hopefully, at 28, I'm over it. You reap what you sow, reap what you sow, isn't that the truth?”

Jonathan Rhys Meyers (“call me Jonny”) is an unstoppable verbal force who hasn't so much kissed the Blarney Stone as eaten it. And it's testament to his beguiling acting gift that you'd never know that he's so profoundly Irish. We've admired him as an androgynous rock star in Velvet Goldmine, a dreamboat football coach in Bend It Like Beckham, a Napoleonic bounder in Vanity Fair and the role for which he was Emmy nominated (“of course I was disappointed I wasn't Oscar nominated!”), Chris Wilton in last year's Match Point -Woody Allen's thriller. Starring opposite Scarlett Johansson, he played a failed tennis pro calculating his way to marital comfort while having an affair with his fiancée's brother's fiancée. And now, after 25 films, comes his first blockbuster -Mission Impossible III. “working with Tom Cruise is an education for any young actor,” he marvels, padding round his temporary apartment in New York, where he's filming fantasy drama August Rush (with Robin Williams). “No matter what you get in a Tom Cruise movie it will benefit you to work with him and see how he operates. And let me tell you it's exhausting being Tom Cruise, it's a 24-hour job for him, carrying the knowledge of that power. When Tom Cruise walks into a room you know he's there, because the amount of power he carries almost comes in the door before he does. That level of fame is not achieved by many...

A decade ago, Irish director Neil Jordan cast Jonathan as the assassin in Michael Collins and dubbed him as “the new Tom Cruise” though only, insists Jonathan, “because of my alarming confidence”. Early this year, he won his first Golden Globe for the US TV mini-series Elvis, playing the hip-shakin' King.

“But Elvis played by a young guy from Cork?” he splutters, “it seemed very unlikely to me...”

Since the release of Match Point last December, Jonathan is, at last, edging beyond The Guy With The Lips label to become a household name; and is also, to some, the most strikingly beautiful man on earth. “Jonny is fabulous to look at,” notes Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee, who directed him in Ride With The Devil. “Personally, I feel he has a poetic quality”.

And his profile now rocketing Jonathan can feel the plans shifting underfoot towards A-list fame: “I haven't changed and my life hasn't changed,” he muses, “but people's perceptions of me have. You're putting yourself out there in the public eye and selling what's essentially your personality. So if the public eye buys you for 12 bucks in a movie and pays for the popcorn, well, you feel you own a little bit of that person. So when people then become famous and go [wails], 'Oh God, I hate the press; God, I hate the paparazzi,' I'm like, “dude, it's not really like you didn't fockin' beg for it.' Really! I've spent ten years working my arse off so I can't be in my heart of hearts be one of those guys going [Californian stoner dude], “Hey, man, no, fuckin' photographs, man, I'm an artist.' If I'm on set and a paparazzo comes up, I'm like, 'Hey take your shot, if you get 300 bucks, good luck to yer.' I couldn't imagine anyone paying 300 pence for a photo of me, but if they can have a job from doing that, great...”

Born Jonathan Michael Francis O'Keefe in Dublin in 1977, he's the eldest of four boys; his folk musician father moved out when he was three, leaving his mother to struggle with the kids. As the eldest, Jonathan spent time in an orphanage and was a disruptive character who was expelled from school at 15, bedevilled by insecurity despite being continuously told he had “the look of a Hollywood film star”.

“Well, this is what people told me when I was younger,” he scoffs, “and I was very insecure about the way I looked. Y'know... It's just what young men do. I find young guys are worse than young women. They are! They're all fockin' insecure! And all actors are incredibly insecure, of course they are, they spend their whole lives trying to be someone else, someone they're not...”

With no acting training whatsoever, he was spotted by a casting agent in a pool hall in Cork, the place he'd hustle for money. He then got rejected for film roles for the next 18 months until his first paid work -£500 for a Knoor soup TV ad. Tiny parts ensued until 1994 and a substantial role in the film A Man Of No Importance.

“I was out there at 18, 19, 20 years old making films,” he notes, “and I found out that what you look like determines what parts you play. You can be very successful purely on your physicality. Now, what happens when you get yourself in that position, is the really, really good ones learn their craft whiles they're there.”

After acclaim as the captivating visual centrepiece in Velvet Goldmine, the naturally skinny, pretty Jonathan felt typecast as the artistic, fey type and built a path out of that cul-de-sac. He became a seven day obsessive “gym junkie”, putting on 35lb of muscle, which led him to more 'masculine' roles. “now,” he notes, “I'm very comfortable with my physicality” He thinks about the concept of luck, one of the themes in the exceptional Match Point. “Luck is about talking an opportunity,” he decides, “and what I did was I took a suggestion of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and took it as far as I could go”.

Today he owns a home in Cork, another in Morocco, has brought a house in Ireland for his mum and shares a London home with his 19-year-old girlfriend, Reena Hammer (her father owns the Urban Retreat Spa at Harrods; her mother is Ruby of Ruby & Millie make-up), who is studying Latin and English Literature at London's Kings College.

“Why not be the brainiest thing in the universe?” hoots Jonathan. “Instead of going, 'yeah, I wanna be a doctor so I can make loads of money', Reena's just doing it so she be fantastic. And she is fantastic and very beautiful and I love her very much.”

Contemplation of his own beauty, meanwhile, causes an outbreak of cynicism. “I'll walk into a restaurant,” he snorts, “and be standing in the room I was standing in two years ago, next to a girl who was ignoring me and now it's [American shriek] 'OH he's so adorable!' Oh, please...”

Which only makes him, of course, even more adorable. A luck-creating, self-made dynamo of formidable ambition, Jonathan believes in “working as hard as you can”, has no qualms over forthcoming fortune - “If I hadn't seen such riches, I could live with being poor,” he quips, a line from the 1989 James anthem Sit Down -and is already looking forward to life beyond those “useless” twenties.

“Who is the guy that all women love no matter their age?” he booms. “Who... is... the guy?” George Clooney! In his forties. That's a proper man, not the 23-year-old kid who goes, 'yeah I'm fockin' man now.' you need life experience. You can't play those really fascinating, interesting man roles until you've had some fascinating, interesting man experience. So far as I'm concerned, It's all up head”

Please DO NOT take this article without asking me first, it took me 3 days to type up

Pictures coming soon

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers possesses an alien beauty so startling that to see him walk into an almost empty Manhattan coffee shop is like spying a tropical bird in a blizzard. The 28-year-old actor, quietly dressed in dark jeans and an oversize cardigan while on break from filming Kirsten Sheridan's August Rush, still exudes the blue-eyed, pillow-lipped charisma that helped get him discovered in an Irish pool hall at the age of 16. Since then, audiences have been mesmerized by his diverse onscreen personae: the writhing blue-haired rocker-who sang his own songs-in Todd Haynes's 1998 Ode to Clam Rock, Velvet Goldmine; the sexy coach in the sleeper hit Bend it Like Beckham; the wicked George Osborne in Vanity Fair. Last year, he morphed into Elvis for a CBS miniseries (which won him a Golden Globe) and into a chilling and ambitious ex-tennis pro for Woody Allen's Match Point. Now, Rhys Meyers is poised to join the biggest of the big boys; he's costarring alongside Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laurence Fishburne, and a guy by the name of Tom Cruise, in May's Mission: Impossible III.

So, we know you can't divulge any plot points in Mission: Impossible III, but can you at least tell us what it is like to work with Tom Cruise?
What's it like inside the Tom bubble? Number one, he's not just an actor on the set, he's my boss, and you couldn't ask for a nicer boss. You know how you always dream about that boss—the one that really thinks about you every day and wants to know if you are happy? Tom's that guy.

He has a great reputation for his professionalism on set.
That's why he's still the biggest star in the world [after] two decades. It's an education [to work with him]. If you're a young actor in the movies and you are starting to become successful and you really want to know how to handle your fame, work with Tom. He respects people, he knows absolutely everyone's name, he's kind to everyone, and it's a lot of hard work—I'm sure by the end of the day he's exhausted. I think it was Anthony Hopkins that called him a Tom-aton. I swear to God, he has so much energy that there'd be no lighting problems in California ... you just have to plug up to Tom's right hand.

What factors are involved when you pick a project?
Directors, always the directors because I can learn from them. I've worked with some of the best directors in the world—not always on their greatest film, but it doesn't matter. A great director can make an okay script into a good film, but a great script won't go anywhere in the hands of a mediocre director. It can only be mediocre.

What did you know of Mission Impossible: III's director, J.J. Abrams? It must have been quite a challenge for him to take on this franchise with this cast.
He did it so naturally like water off a duck's back. I think J.J. is going to be like the next Spielberg. He's a stadium director. You know how there are stadium rock bands like Aerosmith and Bon Jovi? J.J. is like that. He loves a big show.

You never had any formal training. How difficult was it for you to learn while on the job?
It's hard because I made all my mistakes publicly, and I grew up in front of the camera. I was once on the set of a film called B. Monkey, with Rupert Everett and Jared Harris, and they were looking at me and were like, "You haven't trained, have you?" Critics can be really cruel. I got great reviews for Match Point, but I got four or five in England that really tore me to bits.

Do you read all of your reviews?
Only the bad ones. And you read the bad ones, and you think, "Yup, he's right! He's the only f****** critic that understood it. I was shit. I was f****** wooden and more wooden than wood."

Do you go back and watch your old films?
Oh, God, no. It's f****** horrible like a nightmare. Like watching your baby photos.

Do you have directors you are eager to work with?
On the top of my list is Fernando Meirelles. I think he's fantastic. I'd love to do a film with Steven Spielberg, Milos Forman, Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan, Ridley Scott. There's a young South African director, Sunu Gonera—I might hook up with him next year. I'd love to do something with Ang Lee again. I could sit here all day, there are so many.

It sounds like you watch a lot of films.
I'm more of a DVD guy than a cinema guy. But that's because I'm a smoker and there's no way I can pop into an AMC for three hours. [He leans into the tape recorder.] But that doesn't mean you shouldn't go to the cinema. Go to the cinema! See my movies! I like watching really crappy movies—I mean, I like watching good films too, but like I love watching Pretty Woman, Dirty Dancing, Sixteen Candles. You live in London, where the tabloids are legendary. Do you find it difficult? Yeah, they're f****** pricks. They're pricks to everyone, though. And you're always going to have a hard time being an Irishman in England. But I don't give a bullocks. They don't really even have a movie industry— they just have really talented actors who have to come to America to act. At the end of the day, I don't get paid in sterling, I get paid in dollars.

Would you ever try acting onstage?
I don't know. If I did, it would have to be on some tiny little stage in Oslo or something where no one can see it, because I'd probably be really bad. What I would like to try is directing. I suppose I want to do it because I just want to see someone else suffer. [laughs] I think I'd definitely be a sadomasochist director; I'd have my beautiful actresses crying their hearts out in their trailers, and the actors running to call their agents. Oh, yes, I'd definitely be in the Sam Peckinpah school.

How's that? Cruel.
If they move, kill them! [laughs]

Is there a certain type of film you'd like to take on?
I don't like sci-fi I don't want to do anything with sci-fi. Star Wars? Star Trek? I'd rather eat turpentine and piss on a brush fire.

So it sounds like you're pretty content at the moment.
All you have to do is work on yourself, and be happy and grateful for the good things that you have. And I am. I'm grateful these days for my life and for the things I have. I'm going to take the opportunities I have, and I'm going to ride it into the dust. [laughs] What else can I do?

Pictures and article is from Just Jared

"Miss, I’m calling to let you know that JRM is coming to your room"

The concierge of the Clarence hotel in Dublin has a slightly trembling voice. But not as much as my hand shakes as I put away my ( tenth? ) cigarette and try to get the air of the room clean again from the cigarette smoke. I was useless worried tough. He comes in with a Marlboro light between his lips, although he does not light it up ( and yes his lips are like in the movies, no, better ) and then he says, smelling the air “Fantastic! You smoke too, this is gonna be a fine interview” He lights up the cigarette, I turn on the recorder

You are the new testimonial for the Versace fall winter collection. But I’ve read that you don’t like spending money on your clothes

That’s true. Quality clothes are unfortunately very expensive. Hardly normal working people can afford them

Don’t you catch a contradiction between this and wanting to be a testimonial=

Life is one thing, work another. This is work. Even though I wouldn’t have accepted to shoot these pics if I didn’t adore Donatella and Mario ( Testino, the photographer of the campaign )

In these pictures you’re very elegant, what’s your own idea of style?

Style has little to do with what you wear: clad a sad man in chinchilla and he will remain a sad man wearing chinchilla. I like being comfortable, a pair of jeans…

And sneakers?

Only kids wear sneakers. I hate those 30 something guys in sneakers, shorts and baseball cap. But who are you, my grandkids?

Speaking about family. Your mother some months ago has been assaulted by a fan of yours, mad because she read he left you in an orphanage

She didn’t abandon me: I’ve grown up with my mother and my brothers. But life wasn’t easy . living in Ireland in the 80s, it wasn’t easy on anyone. But I don’t like talking about these things anymore, I’ve done it in the past, then I understood the life of an actor is never as shiny as the image projected on the screen. And instead people, maybe, prefer that shiny image

Nevertheless I have to ask you one more thing about this,. In the past you had harsh words for your mother, but with your first money, you bought her a house. And recently you’ve started visiting your father again, who left the family when you and your brothers were small kids. You’re patching it up with your parents?

Yes. We have an adult relationship now. When you’re very young you’re also very angry and you don’t know why. In the moment you understand it, you can overcome everything : a collateral effect of growing up. Being close to one’s own roots is also important : I have the same friends I had when I was 15. nowadays most of them are construction workers, and I’m not just realizing my dreams, but their dreams as well. Surely there have been moments filled with envy, but we talked it over and then had a laugh about it. When I’m in some ultra chic place I call them, even more so If I know they’re working. So they can send me to hell

Don't you ever think that someone might be your friend just because you're famous?

JRM sure. But it's not something that happens just to actors, if all friendships were disinterested no one would be lonely and unhappy in this world. Sure in our environment, true friendships are a few. Ewan McGregor once told me You find one friend every ten movies you shoot' He's right, it's better to keep yourself away from the rich and famous, obviously there are the extremely: Colin Farrell

Asia Argent..

Me and asia had a small fling, seven years ago. She’s not as crazy as she wants others to believe, she is incredibly intelligent and smart. But I was too young and too weak for her. Who, instead needs a strong man

Who was the actress you enjoyed working with the most?

Maybe Charlotte Rampling. One of my favorite movies is 'The Night Porter'. When we were shooting together 'I’ll sleep when I’m dead' I begged her: "Please, make me happy, wear a German uniform!" but she never satisfied me

And what about Scarlett Johannsson in match point? You said your sex scenes were everything but exciting

Sex scenes are never exciting to shoot our encounter under the rain has been filmed on a Monday morning at 9 am no one is sexy earlier than noon

You woke up late this morning?

No, early because I’m shooting a movie . I’m Henry VIII I adore being a king, even I’ll be king! I like being at the center of attention because one day I’ll be old and no one will want me anymore

Don’t say that, how can you know?

Sure. Maybe I’ll be like Sean Connery, a lot of money, sex appeal and even a couple of movies still ( he says that in Italian )

You could move to Hollywood

I don’t like Hollywood, I thought about living in New York but I changed my mind; too many people, too much concrete

Your friends construction workers could like it

But there isn’t anything anymore to build there. I always tell them, if you want to make money you have to go to Baghdad. Where an army is, there are money as well. Otherwise, why would they fight wars?

Recently you’ve changed your life style, you’ve stopped….

Being a bad boy

Don’t tell me now you’re a saint

I’m still the same manipulating bastard. But I have healthier addictions. Hear, hear: Jonathan Rhys Meyers goes to the gym five times a week! An ordinary man can even train a couple of times a week, but for me it’s part of the job. Normal : if you live in Venice and you’re a gondolier you keep your gondola clean and iron your striped shirt so you can have more customers

Don’t you feel the pressure of the necessity of being in a certain way, well dressed, brawny? Aren’t you tempted to say take me for what I am?

No one would pay me to be who I am. And I prefer being a rich artist than a poor artist

Are you sacrificing something for the sake of your career?

When my friends call me on Friday night and they’re going to a party that’s gonna last till Sunday, and I know they’ll drink like animals and they’ll hit on every single cute girl there is, and I have to say sorry guys I can’t come because I’m working, well in those moments I feel like I want to smash my cell phone against the wall

How do you spend all the money you earn?

Buying gossip magazines: I go completely crazy seeing those pics where the famous singer comes out of the club completely drunk and embraced to the famous soccer player. Anyways I’m not that rich, I don’t even have a car

And how do you go around?

By feet, by bus. The worst that can happen is someone asking for an autograph. The contestants of big borhter have many more problems : people who are famous just for being famous. But it’s a dangeorous fame since it goes away quickly and when it’s over, it’s sad. I follow some good sense rules to manage my notoriety. The first one is : do not date young Hollywood actresses. Our live would became a tv series

Like that of Angelina and Brad

You meant Brangelina. Do you realize that? They don’t even have a fucking name anymore! Americans have this mania: they don’t like using words

When you’ll be king you should take some preventions to preserve your privacy

A king doesn’t need bodyguards. People protect him

In match point, you are Chris Wilton, a man who doesn’t hesitate to kill his lover, who’s pregnant, so to not renounce to a wealthy life style. If you were Chris what would you have done?

I would have talked to my wife and told her the truth

Is it worse betray or being betrayed ?

Betray, because when you do, you always feel guilty. Being betrayed is easy: you act like the victim and everyone consoles you. I talk from personal experience: I experienced both things, even at the same time

There are a lot if rumors on your sexual orientation . if you were gay would you come out?

Luckily I don’t have that problem, but yes, I believe I’d say that. Even though, to be sincere, for an actor is more complicated : who would believe then to your character while he’s fucking Jennifer Lopez in a movie? Then yet a lot of times I’ve though, why don’t I like men? A lot of things would be easier

Ok we’re done

Enough? ( in Italian )

Excuse me, but where did you learn all those words in Italian?

In the only place where you have to learn your language, in a bed

He gets up, hugs me and, giving me a kiss on the neck, he makes me dance with a casqué. Even if he were gay, for me myself I don’t want to know

A big thank you to Silvia, for transcripting the interview and translating into English and for scanning the pictures, sorry for any wording mistakes!

The Irish heartbreaker broke ground in Velvet Goldmine, Bend It Like Beckham, Alexander, and the miniseries Elvis. The blockbuster Mission: Impossible III seals the deal on his bankable fame.

Written by Shari Roman

"If I was a director," bluffs Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "I would torture my actors. Torture them, torture them!" It's a rainy afternoon in Manhattan in April, and up until 7:45 this morning, Rhys Meyers has been shooting the film August Rush with Keri Russell, his costar from Mission: Impossible III. It has etched brooding circles under his already intense eyes.

"When I direct, I will be a fucking nightmare. I wouldn't be happy until at least one actress breaks down wailing every day. Wailing!" He pronounces these last few words with a broad Irish inflection that gets thicker with each word. "In fact, I wouldn't be happy unless I had a painter," he holds up two rigid fingers, "with two tins of paint and a brush come to set every day to repaint the outside of my trailer because so many people had written, 'You fucking horrible fucking cunt!'

"I will be the Sam Peckinpah of directors. I'll direct with a Winchester 42. I will be Werner Herzog on Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Klaus Kinski packed up his stuff, was walking off the set. He said to Herzog, 'I'm leaving you, you fucking sow!' "Herzog runs up to him with a gun and says, 'I've got ten fucking bullets. I'll put nine in you and the last in me!' There was no trouble after that.

"Or maybe, I'll direct with a machine gun. And if I couldn't get one, I would bring a tape recorder onto set. Every time one of my actors tried to speak with me, I would [push a button] and it would 'Brrrrrrattatatttttt.' 'But Johnny, I wanted to'...Brrrrrrattatatttttt...'I really feel'...Brrrrrrattatatttttt." His eyes are nearly tearing with laughter. "I'm going to get into trouble for this, I know. I am a bit too free when I speak, but I just can't edit it down. You know what I mean?"

We are sitting in a darkened club underneath the W Hotel in Union Square. He searches for his cigarettes in his jacket pocket. "Where are me smokes?" he croons, "I love me smokes. Philip Hoffman," who played the villain in M:I:III, "wouldn't give up his smokes either. He is a gorgeous man. He's the actor every actor wants to be. He's won an Oscar and he smokes! Smokes!" He shouts over the room's cheesy disco soundtrack.

"Thank You For Smoking is the greatest film title of the decade. Just saying it fills my lungs with nicotine." Rhys Meyers jackknifes to his feet, Marlboro Lights in hand. "Got to go to the toilet. I'll be right back." He lopes up the stairs, rolling on his heels like Malcolm McDowell as Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

When Rhys Meyers was three, his father left the family and his mother raised him and his three younger brothers in Cork, Ireland, on very little means. Taken in a few years later by "landed gentry" in local Buttevant, he was made to feel one of the family, but even their tenderness couldn't slow down his admittedly "terrible temper." After a series of ongoing rows, at sixteen, he was permanently expelled from school and was discovered soon thereafter, by casting agents who had somehow ended up in his local pool hall. Moving into film via tiny roles in excellent movies such as Michael Collins, wtih Liam Neeson, his break came with the role of a bisexual glam rocker in Todd Haynes's provocative Velvet Goldmine, in which he costarred with Christian Bale and the pre-Obi Wan Ewan McGregor. Tumbling soon afterward came Ride with the Devil, Titus, Bend It Like Beckham, Alexander, the title role in the miniseries Elvis, which earned him a Golden Globe Award, a slot as one of Tom Cruise's indestructible M:I:III team members, and his rise toward bankable fame.

"Some people do it for the clothes, or meeting the girls," he says, sinking back into the couch to explain his state of mind on such things. "For me, it's fear of poverty, it's great discipline, and it's the young actor thing--making hay while the sun shines. It's not going to last forever. I'm twenty-eight. And for the next ten years, it's the time to work." He sips at his soda. After shooting Oliver Stone's Alexander, he stopped drinking. His friend and former cast mate Colin Farrell also followed suit after Miami Vice. Rhys Meyers excuses himself for another cigarette break, and shrugs. "We're hard-fucking, hard-drinking Irish boys. You cannot go out there and party like that and produce your best work. It's not physically possible.

"I saw Colin here recently. We were discussing reviews; him, for The New World, and myself, for Match Point, and we were like, 'Yeah! The ones that give the bad reviews. The ones who have said I have all the fucking charisma of chewed bubblegum. They're the ones who know!"

It's hard to imagine that the greater public has only been recently aware of Rhys Meyers. In the past twelve years, he has appeared in thirty-odd projects, in which he is as comfortable with rage, violence, and psychosis, as he is with tenderness. Yet from the first moment he appears onscreen, Rhys Meyers steals his corner of any movie with a perilously erotic sensuality.

In Titus, he is ultimate evil. Tapping into primal emotions, like a milksop he suggests a feral innocence wronged by life. In Match Point, he is a self-serving sociopath who takes a shotgun to his pregnant mistress (Scarlett Johansson), in order to maintain his marriage to an heiress (Emily Mortimer).

"Why did he cast me?" he asks. Blithely uncaring of anyone (and that means every female present) who is furtively watching him in the increasingly crowded, noisy room, his voice goes all quivery and his shaking hands grab the air as he segues into a rather excellent Woody Allen impression. "I wouldn't have cast Jack Nicholson, no one would've believed it. I cast...yeah...I cast Jonathan because there's something really sympathetic about him," He grimaces.

"Yeah, and sometimes I was truly shite. I mean, first off, I played an 'Irish tennis player,' but Woody hadn't written anything Irish into the character. So when the reviews came out, it was like, 'Where's his fucking Irish accent? Where is it!?" He pokes me cheerfully, repeatedly, just above the heart, for emphasis.

Perhaps, I suggest, he frets too much about his lack of formal training. He leans in, his face this close to mine. All I can see is lips, teeth, and eyes. "You don't see fucking streetwalkers go to school for whoring. I can't talk about artistic expression because I have no method for it. I don't know where it comes from. I don't. It's something I feel." Worry flashes across his face, but he laughs and plays it off. "You know, they give me costumes, the makeup, the lines. It's not like there aren't challenges, but if you can't fucking do it, forget it!"

"I love Kurosawa--Yojimbo, Ran, Seven Samurai. But there's this samurai movie called Lone Wolf and Cub. [A samurai's] wife is killed and all that's left is his son, a baby. In front of him, he puts down a sword and a ball. Now, if the kid picks up the ball, he's going to cut his head off. If he picks up the sword, he's going to take him on as his apprentice. The boy pushes away the ball for a moment then picks up the sword. I have to say, it is one of my favorite movies."

Thank you once again to lovley Vanessa for sending me the pics and transcript!

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Plays soccer at St. Killian's

Movie Star gets kitted out for a good cause

WELL, despite being a relative newcomer to this part of the country, I'm pretty sure that it's not normal to get a celebrity film star slumming it on a Bray soccer pitch without any television crews, paparazzi, or bodyguards.

But, that's exactly what happened last week when Hollywood superstar, Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers came to St. Killian's to play a little soccer in aid of Bray Woman's Refuge.

Jonathan, who just recently starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3, is in town shooting his latest big budget production, 'The Tudors' at Ardmore Studios, and thanks to a connection between one of the staff members at the Woman's Refuge and Ardmore Studios, the cast and crew of the film decided to head on the soccer pitch after filming ended last Wednesday night. And at around 8:30 p.m, the man himself pulled up in a sleek Mercedes. He slipped out of the backseat with little fanfare, ran up to the pitch, past a few dozen people who seem to treat him as a local, exchanged his top for a tshirt (steady on girls), and took to the pitch full of enthusiasm.

But the crew team were just too talented, and Jonathan's squad managed to lose 5-3 on the night, but a fine performance was put in by both teams for what was a very worthy cause.

“Yeah it was a great night. It's just great to get out on the evening with the lads here, especially as it's just for such a good cause. It was great fun”, said Jonathan, speaking after the match.

It's unclear how much they raised for the Bray Women's Refuge as a result of the charity event, although the figure is expected to be over €1000

Typed up by me Hannah, Article was found on Ebay by Alyse

Would you describe yourself as a lover or a fighter?
I love to fight but I suppose i'm a lover, i've been in love three times in my life; I don't fall in love that easily.

What so you find sexy in a woman?
Independence, strength and brains.

After doing you own singing in Velvet Goldmine, were you tempted to form your own band?
No, but I think actors are creative people and if they want to create music they should be able to without getting the stigma of 'Oh, another actor who wants to become a singer'. We have enough singers who want to become actors. I think it's fair play for any artist to do anything.

As a boy from Cork, were you surprised to get the role of Elvis Presley in the 2005 US TV series Elvis?
I was surprised that they asked me to do it, but i'm playing Henry VIII [in the TV series The Tudors] at the moment and thats more of a stretch because I don't look anything like him. But with Elvis, you can see more of a resemblance. I just played him as a country and western singer from Tupelo, Mississippi. I didn't ever think of his as Elvis

You don't drink or go out much, so what's your idea of a perfect night?
At home in front of the gogglebox watching anything trashy, but not as trashy as Big Brother. Maybe Footballers Wives, though i'd never consider a role on it as I think it would be very career-damaging. I think it's fun, but other people would think, 'why the f**k are you doing that? Can't you get a proper job?

Please don't take this article without asking me first as I spent time typing this up -Thanks

“People see me on the red carpet and on the posters,” says the Lab Series Man Of The Year, “and they think it must be a charmed life. And I suppose it is.”

Sitting in a Camden bar on a Sunday morning, drinking coke and chaining Marlboros, Jonathan Rhys Meyers appears - unsurprisingly – a picture of contentment. His is not quite a rags-to-riches story, but it's not far off. There was a childhood spell in an orphanage and an expulsion from school before a casting director spotted him in a pool hall, aged 17 -but his adult years are proving strikingly successful.

The Dublin actor's first significant screen appearance came a decade ago, when he was 19, as a boyish assassin in Michael Collins, opposite Liam Nesson. Two years later he was a Bowie-esque glam idol in Todd Haynes' seventies fantasia, Velvet Goldmine, and by 2002 he was playing Keira Knightley's football coach in Bend It Like Beckham

Then came a part in Alexander, Oliver Stone's sand and sandals epic. He describes the making of the ill-starred film, starring Colin Farrell, as a “very testosterone-y cock show. I drank for about a year, I had great fun, but I've moved on. I'm a better actor without it”

Now teetotal and planning a move to LA, Rhys Meyers surprised many last year by landing the part of Elvis in an American TV movie of the same name. “I'm not a great one for research” he states “I never met any of the Presleys, I just played the part” He played it so well, it turns out, that in January he won the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an actor in a Mini-Series. A leading role in Woody Allen's Match Point followed, opposite Scarlett Johansson.

Then this summer, he was Tom Cruise's chopper-flying crewman in Mission: Impossible III. “Blockbusters are great!” he says, “Nothing would please me more than a meaty role in a Ridley Scott epic”

Currently filming an all-galloping, all-jousting biopic on Henry VIII, Rhys Meyers has one ambition left to fulfill: “I've always wanted to play Flashman, the Victorian soldier from George McDonald Fraser books. But now I've said it in GQ someone else will probably do it!”

Thank You to Mystic Bliss for scanning the pictures/Article.
Article was transcribed by me, please do not take without asking me first